Editing Sand Hill Road

{{short description|Road in Silicon Valley, California; home to venture capital firms}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox street
| name                      = Sand Hill Road
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| image                     = [[File:Sand Hill Road Eastbound View.jpg|250px]]
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| caption                   = View of Sand Hill Road, with the [[Hoover Tower]] at [[Stanford University]]  visible in the distance
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| location                  = [[Menlo Park, California]]<br />[[Palo Alto, California]]<br />[[Woodside, California]]
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| coordinates               = {{Coord|37.42082|-122.20808|display=inline}}
| direction_a               = West
| terminus_a                = Portola Road in Woodside
| direction_b               = East
| terminus_b                = {{jct|state=CA|SR|82|name1=[[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]]}} in Palo Alto
| junction                  = {{jct|state=CA|I|280}} 
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| known_for                 = [[Silicon Valley]]<br />[[Venture capital]]ism
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'''Sand Hill Road''' ('''SHR''') or '''Sand Hill'''<ref name=ft>{{cite news |last1=Murphy|first1=Paul|title=Sand Hill is the New Wall Street |url=http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/03/10/2121090/sand-hill-is-the-new-wall-street/ |access-date=April 19, 2015 |work=[[Financial Times]] |date=March 10, 2015}}</ref> is an [[arterial road]] in western [[Silicon Valley]], [[California]], running through [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]], [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], and [[Woodside, California|Woodside]], notable for its concentration of [[venture capital]] firms.<ref>Holson, Laura M. "Still Feeding An Internet Frenzy". ''The New York Times'', June 6, 1999, sec. BU, p. 1.</ref> The road has become a [[metonym]] for that industry; nearly every top Silicon Valley company has been the beneficiary of early funding from firms on Sand Hill Road.<ref name="bloomberg12042014">{{cite news |title=Venture Capital: Sand Hill Road Rules the Valley |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-04/venture-capital-sand-hill-road-rules-silicon-valley |access-date=April 19, 2015 |work=Bloomberg News |date=December 4, 2014}}</ref>

Its significance as a symbol of [[private equity]] and [[venture capitalism]] in the United States has been compared to that of [[Wall Street]] and the [[stock market]].<ref name="Britannia">{{cite book |first2=Kwasi |last2=Kwarteng|authorlink2=Kwasi Kwarteng|first1=Priti |last1=Patel|authorlink1=Priti Patel| first3=Dominic |last3=Raab |authorlink3=Dominic Raab |first4=Chris | last4=Skidmore | authorlink4=Chris Skidmore |first5=Elizabeth |last5=Truss |authorlink5=Liz Truss |title=Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke |pages=93–94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nv1JkO0FKxQC&pg=PA93 |isbn=978-1-137-27411-3|access-date=April 19, 2015}}</ref>

==Location==
Connecting [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] and [[Interstate 280 (California)|Interstate 280]], the road provides easy access to [[Stanford University]] and the northwestern area of [[Silicon Valley]]. The road also runs southwest of Interstate 280 into a residential neighborhood of [[Woodside, California]], but the private equity companies are concentrated to the east of the freeway on the main stretch of the road in Menlo Park. On its northeast end, it crosses into and runs briefly through [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]] before ending at El Camino Real.

Sand Hill Road is also home to the [[SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory]].

==History==
[[File:Willow Expressway- Looking towards Bay from Sand Hill Rd (1971).jpg|thumb|Photograph of Sand Hill Road in December 1969, in the non-approved "Willow Expressway" proposal, which would have extended Sand Hill to connect Interstate 280 to the [[Dumbarton Bridge (California)|Dumbarton Bridge]]]]
For many years, Sand Hill Road's northern end terminated in the middle of [[Stanford Shopping Center]]'s [[parking lot]], and the only four-lane segment was the section from [[Interstate 280 (California)|Interstate 280]] to Santa Cruz Avenue (the section where all the venture capitalists are housed). This situation resulted in two severe bottlenecks which made it difficult to travel to and from [[Stanford Shopping Center]], [[Stanford University]], and Menlo Park. {{citation needed|date=July 2011}}

Extension and widening of the road were fiercely opposed by environmentalists, who were concerned about the road's proximity to San Francisquito Creek, and by residents of Menlo Park, who feared that completion of the road would increase traffic congestion in their area due to the mid-Peninsula region's lack of a direct north–south arterial. After three decades of lobbying, negotiation, and litigation, the road was finally completed to [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] in 2001. Only the existing portion from just ''north'' of Alameda de las Pulgas to just ''south'' of Stanford Shopping Center was widened to four lanes; the new extension past the shopping center was built only as two lanes.  {{citation needed|date=July 2011}}

The bottleneck near Santa Cruz Avenue was widened in 2006 and features a {{convert|16|ft|m|adj=on}} high faux rock wall at the junction of Sand Hill Road and Santa Cruz Avenue. The project was delayed because the stretch of land at issue runs through Menlo Park, not Palo Alto; the city reversed its opposition to widening only after seeing the results of the widening of the northern Palo Alto segment.<ref>Neidorf, Shawn. "Menlo Park OKs Widening Sand Hill Road." ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'', November 13, 2002, sec. B, p. 1.</ref>

==Venture capital==
[[File:Sand Hill Road Freeway Exit.jpg|thumb|Sand Hill Road exit signage as seen by northbound traffic on [[Interstate 280 (California)|Interstate 280]]]]
In 1972, the firm now known as [[Kleiner Perkins]] was the first venture capital firm to open an office on Sand Hill Road. The stellar performance of Kleiner Perkins's first $8 million fund quickly attracted other similar firms to the Menlo Park area, resulting in "the most important cluster of venture capital firms in the world", an author later wrote. Despite this, in the mid-1970s, Kleiner Perkins began to shift operations to [[Downtown San Francisco]], but years later moved back most of its operations to rejoin the many other venture capital firms that had put down roots around its original office location.<ref name="Nicholas_Page_212">{{cite book |last1=Nicholas |first1=Tom |title=VC: An American History |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780674240117 |page=212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vymWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA212}}</ref> Since then, beneficiaries of funding from Sand Hill Road have included [[Microsoft]], [[Amazon.com]], [[Facebook]], [[Twitter]], [[Instagram]] and [[Skype]].<ref name="bloomberg12042014"/>

When Microsoft's Silicon Valley office moved to Sand Hill Road in 1988 it paid US$2.02 per square foot, less than the US$3 average for Palo Alto and Menlo Park. [[Robert Gaskins]] wrote, "There could not be a better location for accessibility coupled with privacy and natural beauty", and "appropriate for a top-tier company like Microsoft".<ref name="GBU-first-year-1988">{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |title=Results of Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit after Our First Year |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 8, 1988 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |type=Microsoft Memo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153728/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 23, 2017}}</ref> For several years during the [[Dot-com bubble|dot-com boom]] of the late 1990s, commercial [[real estate]] on Sand Hill Road was more expensive than almost anywhere else in the world. The annual [[Economic rent|rent]] in the area around Sand Hill Road peaked at around US$144 per square foot ($1550 per m<sup>2</sup>) in mid-2000; at the time, this was higher than rates in [[Manhattan]] and [[London]]'s [[West End of London|West End]].<ref>Ulfelder, Steve. "Welcome to the Hotel California No Vacancy: It's goodbye Santa Clara and hello Cincinnati for an increasing number of Internet start-ups that would rather not deal with the Valley's insane real estate costs and fickle workforce."  ''Network World'', September 25, 2000, p. 100. {{cite web |url=http://www.networkworld.com/research/2000/0925feat.html |title=Feature: Welcome to the Hotel California No Vacancy, 09/25/00 |access-date=2006-04-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825093804/http://www.networkworld.com/research/2000/0925feat.html |archive-date=2006-08-25 }}</ref>

In 1997, the [[Harvard Business School]] opened the California Research Center at 3000 Sand Hill Road, whose aim is to enable HBS faculty to write [[business case]]s about Silicon Valley.<ref name="hbscalresearchcenter">{{cite web|title=California Research Center|url=https://entrepreneurship.hbs.edu/about/california-research-center/Pages/default.aspx|website=Harvard Business School|access-date=March 21, 2017}}</ref>

As of December 2014, Sand Hill Road still had the most expensive office space in the United States with annual rent reported at $111 per square foot, which was higher than Manhattan's [[Fifth Avenue]] at $102 per square foot.<ref name="bloomberg12042014"/>

As of June 2022, Sand Hill Road was still home to the most expensive office space in the United States, with [[Newmark Group]] reporting monthly rent at $10.66 per square foot (equivalent to annual rent of $127.92 per square foot), which was reportedly higher than other top-tier markets like Manhattan's [[Park Avenue]] and [[Greenwich, Connecticut]].<ref name="Niksa">{{cite news |last1=Niksa |first1=Matthew |title=Sand Hill Road reckons with its future: Landlords of the iconic Silicon Valley office strip rethink strategies in remote-work era |url=https://therealdeal.com/magazine/national-august-2022/sand-hill-road-reckons-with-its-future/ |access-date=December 10, 2023 |work=[[The Real Deal (magazine)|The Real Deal]] |date=August 2, 2022}}</ref>  However, prices were under pressure from the shift to [[remote work]] during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], which had reduced the necessity of maintaining a physical [[headquarters]] on Sand Hill Road.<ref name="Niksa" />  Other issues included the dated appearance of Sand Hill Road's {{convert|1.2|e6ft2|m2}} of "low-rise woody walk-ups, most of them built in the 1970s and ’80s", and their distance from the restaurants and stores of downtown Menlo Park and its [[Caltrain]] station.<ref name="Niksa" /> After vacancies on Sand Hill Road peaked at around 15 percent at the end of 2020, landlords responded to these issues by renovating buildings and adding amenities like [[farm-to-table]] restaurants to justify their demands for high rent.<ref name="Niksa" />

=== Venture capital firms ===
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2015}}
Venture capital and private equity firms located on Sand Hill Road include:
{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Khosla Ventures]], 2128 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.khoslaventures.com/contact.html|title=Contact Us|work=khoslaventures.com}}</ref> 
* [[GI Partners]], 2180 Sand Hill Road<ref>[http://www.gipartners.com/contacts GI Partners]</ref>
* [[Merus Capital]], 2180 Sand Hill Road
* Accel-KKR, 2180 Sand Hill Road
* 5AM Ventures, 2200 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.5amventures.com|title=5AM Ventures – Actively Building Life Science Companies|work=5amventures.com}}</ref> 
* [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]], 2200 Sand Hill Road<ref>[http://www.lightspeedvp.com/ContactUs.aspx LightSpeed Venture partners – Contact us] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110311115550/http://www.lightspeedvp.com/contactus.aspx |date=2011-03-11 }}</ref>
* The Westly Group, 2200 Sand Hill Road<ref>[http://westlygroup.com/contact-us/ Westly Group – Contact Us] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125165859/http://westlygroup.com/contact-us/ |date=2012-01-25 }}</ref>
* Nexus Venture Partners, 2200 Sand Hill Road<ref>[http://www.nexusvp.com/contact.asp Contact Us – Nexus Venture Partners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801151349/http://nexusvp.com/contact.asp |date=2013-08-01 }}</ref>
* [[Greylock Partners]], 2250 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greylock.com/offices|title=About Us|work=Greylock Partners|access-date=2012-08-17|archive-date=2012-09-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912083315/http://www.greylock.com/offices|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Onset Ventures, 2400 Sand Hill Road <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onset.com/contact/|title=Contact Us to learn more about ONSET Ventures – ONSET Ventures|work=onset.com}}</ref> 
* [[Altimeter Capital]], 2420 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.altimetercapital.com/contact.html|title=Altimeter Capital|work=altimetercapital.com}}</ref>
* [[Highland Capital Partners]], 2420 Sand Hill Road, Suite 300<ref name="shastaventures.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.shastaventures.com/contact|title=Shasta Ventures|work=shastaventures.com}}</ref>
* [[DCM Ventures]], 2420 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dcm.com/en/contact/silicon-valley|title=Silicon Valley – Contact – DCM|work=dcm.com}}</ref>
* [[Shasta Ventures]], 2440 Sand Hill Road<ref name="shastaventures.com"/>
* Storm Ventures, 2440 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stormventures.com/contact|title=Storm Ventures|work=stormventures.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202948/http://www.stormventures.com/contact|archive-date=2013-10-29}}</ref>
* [[Mayfield Fund]], 2484 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mayfield.com/about/contact-us|title=Contact Us|work=mayfield.com|access-date=2013-07-27|archive-date=2014-01-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110175545/http://www.mayfield.com/about/contact-us|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[GGV Capital]], 2494 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ggvc.com/contact|title=Contact Us|work=ggvc.com}}</ref>
* [[Blackstone Inc|Blackstone]], 2494 Sand Hill Road<ref>[https://www.blackstone.com/the-firm/overview/our-offices Our Offices]</ref>
* Morgenthaler, 2710 Sand Hill Road
* InterWest Partners, 2710 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=https://interwest.com/contact/|title=Contact Us|work=interwest.com}}</ref>
* [[U.S. Venture Partners]], 2735 Sand Hill Road
* [[Kleiner Perkins]], 2750 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kpcb.com/contact|title=Dream Bigger|work=kpcb.com}}</ref>
* TriplePoint Capital, 2755 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.triplepointcapital.com/about-us/contact-us|title=TriplePoint Capital – Contact Us|author=Robert Noakes|work=triplepointcapital.com}}</ref>
* Makena Capital Management, 2755 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.makenacap.com/contact-us|title=Contact Us – Makena Capital Management|work=Makena Capital Management}}</ref>
* [[Silver Lake Partners]], 2775 Sand Hill Road
* [[Oak Hill Capital]], 2775 Sand Hill Road, Suite 220<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://oakhillcapital.com/contact/|title = Oak Hill Capital Partners &#124; Contact}}</ref>
* [[Canaan Partners]], 2765 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canaan.com/|title=Home – Canaan|work=canaan.com}}</ref>
* [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts|KKR]], 2800 Sand Hill Road
* [[New Enterprise Associates]], 2855 Sand Hill Road
* [[Northern Light Venture Capital]], 2855 Sand Hill Road
* [[Andreessen Horowitz]], 2865 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://a16z.com/contact|title=Contact – Andreessen Horowitz|work=a16z.com|date=2013-12-19}}</ref>
* Astellas Venture Management, 2882 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.astellasventure.com/ContactUs.aspx|title=Astellas Venture Management – Contact Us|work=astellasventure.com}}</ref> 
* Altos Ventures, 2882 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=https://altos.vc/|title=Altos Ventures|work=altos.vc}}</ref> 
* [[Charles River Ventures]], 2882 Sand Hill Road
* [[Draper Fisher Jurvetson]], 2882 Sand Hill Road
* [[Battery Ventures]], 2884 Sand Hill Road
* [[Sierra Ventures]], 2884 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sierraventures.com/|title=Sierra Ventures – Venture Capital}}</ref>
* [[Menlo Ventures]], 2884 Sand Hill Road
* [[Sofinnova#Sofinnova Ventures (USA)|Sofinnova Ventures]], 3000 Sand Hill Road
* [[Institutional Venture Partners]], 3000 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ivp.com/contact|title=Contact|work=ivp.com}}</ref>
* Mohr Davidow Ventures, 3000 Sand Hill Road
* Storm Ventures- 3000 Sand Hill Road, Building 4, Suite 210
* [[Redpoint Ventures]], 3000 Sand Hill Road
* Relay Ventures, 3000 Sand Hill Road<ref>{{cite web|url=http://relayventures.com/contacts/|title=Contact Us – Relay Ventures|work=relayventures.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406110632/http://relayventures.com/contacts/|archive-date=2013-04-06}}</ref>
* [[Sequoia Capital]], 3000 Sand Hill Road
* Trinity Ventures, 3000 Sand Hill Road, Building 4, Suite 160
* [[Columbus Nova]], 3000 Sand Hill Road, Building 3, Suite 190
* Bright Capital, 3000 Sand Hill Road, Building 2<ref>Chernova, Yulia. "Redpoint Clean-Tech Partner Departs, Likely to Join Bright Capital." ''[[Dow Jones Venturewire]]'', October 4, 2012.</ref>
}}

==In popular culture==
The season two premiere episode of the [[HBO]] television series ''[[Silicon Valley (TV series)|Silicon Valley]]'', in which the show's protagonists try to secure venture capital for their startup, was titled "Sand Hill Shuffle".

In the second episode of HBO miniseries ''[[The Dropout]]'', [[Elizabeth Holmes]] visits several venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road in the hopes of securing investment for [[Theranos]].

In the 2010 film ''[[Birdemic: Shock and Terror]]'', protagonist Rod visits a VC firm on Sand Hill Road to get financing for his solar energy startup.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Attached KML |display=title,inline}}
* {{commons category-inline|Sand Hill Road}}

{{Menlo Park, California}}

[[Category:Streets in Santa Clara County, California]]
[[Category:Menlo Park, California]]
[[Category:Silicon Valley]]
[[Category:Streets in San Mateo County, California]]