For our story, Terman’s role was vital. He laid the groundwork for a new relationship between a university and business, which proved particularly relevant when computer science was later shown to have the potential to extract fortunes from the American economy. Because of Terman’s ideas, improved techniques for indexing the Web (Yahoo), or searching the Web (Google), or sharing photos online (Instagram)—three among thousands of business-ready ideas developed on the Stanford campus—didn’t remain there as part of some free, public trust. (Google, in particular, seemed well on its way to a noncommercial future if not for the pull of Stanford’s entrepreneurism.) Instead, all of these start-ups were aggressively brought to market, where they have become central to our lives and hugely valuable assets.