The D School (Stanford), IDEO & Palo Alto

The combination of the Design School (D School) at Stanford and IDEO, headquartered in Palo Alto, has earned for Palo Alto the reputation of being a center for design innovation, as David Kelley, founder of both the D School and IDEO, explains.

Palo Alto has 831 start-ups such as Cloudera, a leader in Apache Hadoop. Doostang, and the rapidly growing Palantir. At Stanford the successful VLAB and Business School seed new start-up initiatives. Many VC funders are located in Palo Alto.

Start-up Incubators in Palo Alto range from PARC to the Founder Institute, Innovation Endeavors, Samsung Accelerator and Upwest Labs, an incubator focusing on startups that connect Palo Alto and Tel-Aviv.

Palo Alto is also home to impressive foundations, such as the Carnegie Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, LeanIn, Noyce Foundation, Peery Foundation, Schmidt Family Foundation: 11th Hour Project, Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the Skoll Foundation.