To those who believed that it is markets that spur technological discovery best, and – because of the cost of R&D – do so in big firms, Silicon Valley proved to be an exception. There big firms, especially before 1970, did drive IT, but outside the parameters of market criteria. Afterwards, increasingly, consumer demand spurred IT development, but entrepreneurial start-ups rather than the traditional, well-known big firms satisfied much of the market. Not many Americans in 1960 anticipated such a turn of events. Hence the learning curve about Silicon Valley has been a steep one. This book is itself an expression of that steep learning curve. Hegel said that the Owl of Minerva takes flight at dusk, meaning that understanding only comes from looking back at events. This study could not have been conceived until Silicon Valley's history had reached a point where it became clear that it could be understood in terms of a two-phase development. This twofold division provides a focus. Part one of this first chapter elaborates on the two phases. Part two concentrates on the character of the entrepreneurship generated during the second phase, which will be the period and subject of principal concern. Part three, the greater part, looks at European reactions to Silicon Valley during both phases, but especially the second, since the core of the work is about the Americanization of entrepreneurship education in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which happens in the second phase.