In 1969, four former IBM employees started Storage Technology Corporation – Jesse Aweida, Juan Rodriguez, Zoltan Herger, and Tom Kavanagh. While startups are a common thing today, they were somewhat revolutionary in 1969. The four felt that IBM was missing a large market opportunity in tape and, based on the early success of the company, later renamed StorageTek, they were right. That revolutionary spirit and approach led to the development of some outstanding technology and established Boulder County as the “Silicon Valley” of tape storage.