2 EARLY EFFORTS TO PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: 1970S TO MID-1990S

Factors outside the MIT campus were exerting an influence on the evolution of entrepreneurship in Massachusetts. By 1970, Route 128 was considered, along with Silicon Valley, the leading center of innovation in electronics in the US. However, the combination of a recession and the reduction of military expenditures due to the end of the Vietnam War, as well as the slowing of the space race, translated into the loss of 30,000 defense-related jobs in Massachusetts between 1970 and 1972. Life was tough for entrepreneurs because the venture capital market was frozen and Route 128 was at a low ebb. These developments forced the local electronics companies to search for opportunities in the commercial sphere. The new minicomputer industry, with firms such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, Prime, Wang, and Computervision, pulled the region out of the crisis. By 1975, the local high-tech sector employed 100,000 and spearheaded a decade of explosive economic growth that would become known as the "Massachusetts Miracle."
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