Silicon Alley and the idea of New York City as a dot-com center. In 1997, over 200 members and leaders of Silicon Alley joined NYC entrepreneurs, Andrew Rasiej and Cecilia Pagkalinawan to help wire Washington Irving High School to the Internet. This response and the Department of Education's growing need for technology integration marked the birth of Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education (MOUSE), an organization that today serves tens of thousands of underserved youth in schools in five states and over 20 countries. The rapid growth of internet companies during the 1990s, known as the Dot-com bubble, came to a
Silicon Hills in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin. Austin was one of the top areas for venture capital with investors investing $621 million in 2013 (43% of that went to software and semiconductor firms). Some venture capital investors include Austin Ventures, Central Texas Angels Network, and Tritium Partners. There are at least 15 startup incubators as well, including: Capital Factory, Austin Technology Incubator, and the IC Institute (the incubator for the University of Texas at Austin). Silicon Hills Silicon Hills is a nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies in the Austin metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas. The