37°26′40″N 122°09′47″W / 37.4444°N 122.1631°W165 University Avenue or Lucky Building or Karma Building is a small rented office building on University Avenue, the main commercial street in downtown Palo Alto, California, that gave rise to Plug and Play Tech Center and to the Amidi Group. It is run by Rahim & Saeed Amidi, whose family fled from the Iranian revolution in the 1970s.[1] Located near Stanford University, the building has served as an incubator for several noted Silicon Valley companies, including Logitech, Google, PayPal, Danger, Inc (bought by Microsoft), BridgeBio Pharma, BetterWorks, Milo.com (bought by eBay), WePay[2] (acquired by J.P. Morgan) and Yummly (bought by Whirlpool).[3][4] YouTube also provides this location as the example address when setting the location of an uploaded video. Until 2000, the ground floor was home to a Palo Alto institution, Chimaera Books & Music. Like many independent bookstores, its closure was due, in part, to competition from the dot com economy.[5]
References
edit- ^ "165 University Ave: Silicon Valley's 'lucky building'". Archived from the original on 2018-05-29. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ^ "Where to See Silicon Valley". www.paulgraham.com. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
- ^ "The "Luckiest" Building in Silicon Valley". Archived from the original on 2014-09-13. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
- ^ "BBC News - PayPal creator recalls early days". Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- ^ "Chimera takes flight from Palo Alto". Archived from the original on 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
External links
edit- News.com: "A building blessed with tech success"
- San Jose Mercury News: "Rugs to Riches"[permanent dead link]
- New York Times: "Rental Building’s Good Karma Nurtures Success"
- Max Levchin's Paypal Slideshow: Brings Sleeping Bag to Sleep in Office
- Logitech History at 165 University with Historic Photos Archived 2010-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Milo.com, the newest startup to occupy the legendary 165 University office space
- Marketplace, May 18, 2010: "The place for good business karma"[permanent dead link]