Silicon Valley(ish) Founders Quiz

I've heard a lot of rumblings out there lately. "Oh, I know every Silicon Valley entrepreneur who's ever lived," says one (almost certainly) overconfident technocrat. Another egomaniac claims, "At home they call me Peter Thiel because I'm at the center of the Palo Alto rumor mill." Well, here's your shot to show what you're made of.

Jobs and Wozniak immortalized

Below I've listed 15 rock star tech entrepreneurs of the last decade or so. I've also listed the companies that they founded. Match the entrepreneur with their company and you score a point. Read on after the quiz to see what your score means.

1. Biz Stone
2. Larry Ellison
3. Bill Gates
4. Steve Wozniak
5. Mark Pincus
6. Larry Page
7. Jack Dorsey
8. Elon Musk
9. David Karp
10. Pierre Omidyar
11. Mark Zuckerberg
12. Steve Jobs
13. Sergey Brin
14. Eli Harari
15. Max Levchin


A. SanDisk
B. Twitter
C. Tumblr
D. Square
E. PayPal
F. Microsoft
G. Apple
H. Facebook
I. Oracle
J. Google
K. Zynga
L. eBay

Ok, now that you've written your responses down, I've got to kill some screen space before I give you the answers. Here are the scoring ranges and their respective merit levels.

0-3: You've had your head in the sand... or worse. I can't decide whether this is tragic, inexcusable, or both.
4-6: Not exactly up on your tech news, but at least you know that Bill Gates founded Microsoft. More Carpe Daemon definitely needs to be on your agenda.
7-10: You're getting there. Maybe you get your news from the technology section of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. If you get brave, try to widen your purview to some well regarded blogs like TechCrunch and Engadget.
11-14: You're up to date on Silicon Valley happenings. Perhaps you're an aspiring founder trying to learn from the pros?
15-16: Yes, 16. Attuned readers noticed that Jack Dorsey indeed founded not one, but two companies on the list. I'm impressed... and honored to have you among the Carpe Daemon readership.

Whether you scored a 2 or a 16, the only way to get better (assuming you even care about these things I spend my life obsessing over) is to practice. I already mentioned a couple blogs that will keep you up to speed. You could also follow some of the founders I mentioned on Twitter. Whatever your course of action, I hope you enjoyed the quiz.


Answers:
1. B
2. I
3. F
4. G
5. K
6. J
7. B, D
8. E
9. C
10. L
11. H
12. G
13. J
14. A
15. E