You've gotta watch Steve Blank's "The Secret History of Silicon Valley". Goes back to its post-war roots in 40's and 50's. A real gem and quite surprising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo

Silicon Valley as a startup hub is much older than PayPal. Indeed, Silicon Valley was a major startup hub (in hardware) before most of the PayPal founders were born.

Not to pile on, but it's called Silicon Valley, not If-Statement Valley. :)

Is this a serious question?

Technology companies in that part of California date back as far as the 1930s.

HINT: Look up Fairchild Semiconductor