- Google, Apple, HP, Microsoft, and Amazon all say that they started in garages.
- Now, they make up some of the most valuable companies in the world and are worth billions.
- The idea of starting in a garage has taken on a mythic status, to the point where some founders intentionally want to be able to say that they did it, too.
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Some of the most legendary companies in Silicon Valley famously started in garages. A few scrappy guys with a genius idea working out of a garage has become essential to the stories fans tell about these companies, and even the stories the companies tell about themselves.
The Garage Beginning has become an essential, almost cliché, part of a tech company's story. Fast Company called the startup garage "more than just a part of Silicon Valley's folklore; it has transformed into an image, an exportable idea ... the architectural symbol that would attract the right venture capital,"
Many of these structures don't exist as they did when companies were formed in them, but their renovated models are still historical sites in the eyes of fans, and even of some municipalities.
Here are the garages where some of the biggest tech companies started.