165 University Avenue or Lucky Building or Karma Building is a small rented office building on University Avenue, the main commercial street in downtown

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, that gave rise to Plug and Play Tech Center and to the Amidi Group. It is run by Rahim & Saeed Amidi, whose family fled from the Iranian revolution in the 1970s. Located near Stanford University, the building has served as an

incubator An incubator is anything that performs or facilitates various forms of incubation, and may refer to: Biology and medicine * Incubator (culture), a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures * Incubator (egg), a de ...

for several noted

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

companies, including

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe, ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

, Danger, Inc (bought by Microsoft), BetterWorks, Milo.com (bought by eBay),

WePay WePay is an online payment service provider based in the United States. It provides an integrated and customizable payment solution, through its APIs, to platform businesses such as crowdfunding sites, marketplaces and small business software co ...

(acquired by J.P. Morgan) and Yummly (bought by Whirlpool). YouTube also provides this location as the example address when setting the location of an uploaded video. Until 2000, the ground floor was home to a Palo Alto institution, Chimaera Books & Music. Like many independent bookstores, its closure was due, in part, to competition from the dot com economy.

References

External links

News.com: "A building blessed with tech success"

''San Jose Mercury News'': "Rugs to Riches"

* ttp://www.levchin.com/paypal-slideshow/4.html Max Levchin's Paypal Slideshow: Brings Sleeping Bag to Sleep in Office
Logitech History at 165 University with Historic Photos

Milo.com, the newest startup to occupy the legendary 165 University office space

''Marketplace'', May 18, 2010: "The place for good business karma"
Buildings and structures in Palo Alto, California Palo Alto, California {{SantaClaraCountyCA-struct-stub