What you hold in your hands today is the result of 25 years of dedication, hard work, passion, and love. Siliconeer has been at the forefront of the South Asian community in North America. For the first time since our inception in February 2000, we reflect on the journey and share our road for the next 25. A journey made possible by our readers and supporters.

There lay a gap between the media space and the Silicon Valley Indian engineer. A strong need for a bridge between the two was evident in the beginning of the 21st century. Enter, a magazine for Silicon Valley Engineers, known as “Siliconeer,” targeted towards the highly educated professionals. It all started with a PowerMac G4 with less than a GB of ram.

The community embraced us with the first release in February of 2000, fueling our charging brigade towards the next frontier in the ethnic media space.

Spectacular articles, amazing initiatives, and achievements of the South Asian community brewed up each print issue to a perfect cup. Pair that with our long-supporting advertisers and partners, and Siliconeer truly became a magazine of choice for the South Asian community.

Me? I was just a backseat rider in the car while my family spent countless hours on the road, building what you hold in your hands today. Business owners, brand marketers, startups, community organizations – the list of meetings and engagements were innumerable. Everyone in the Valley had a hand and Siliconeer disrupted the ethnic media industry. This was the start of a new wave of magazines for the South Asians in Silicon Valley.

From my eyes, the community’s love is what drove this magazine’s growth.

There is a lot of pride in being the last one standing in what once was a crowded segment. Siliconeer is now the only South Asian print magazine.

For the first time, we reflect on our long, arduous journey. We are grateful to have witnessed and documented the transformation of South Asians since the dawn of the Y2K era.

Humble Beginnings

The start of a new millennium for South Asians. H1 hires were at an all-time high, and Silicon Valley was flooded with South Asian engineers. Why? Y2K. This was the biggest challenge to mankind in the year 2000. This was the first article of Siliconeer’s first print issue, and it was the start of the Silicon Valley South Asian boom.

The success found from the Y2K clock cover set the path forward. Tuning into the community’s beat, talking computers, scientists, biotech, ocean waves for energy, biodiesel, semiconductors, nanotechnology, and all things science and tech were the main features of the Siliconeer-verse in the early 2000s.

But tech and science only covered the Silicon Valley. The dotcom boom and the dotcom bust took place in front of our eyes. The cyclical U.S. economy drove mass hiring and mass layoffs, impacting South Asian immigrants.

The community has been through many definitions of what it means to be a South Asian in America. Whether it was the shift in perspective after the 9/11 attacks or major issues back in the subcontinent, our readers and writers kept the Silicon Valley and South Asian connection alive. We are thankful to experience it all.

Championing the General Interest

In times of major recession and global hardship, a new administration with a new agenda for America emerged. Barack Obama became the first Black President of the United States. He was the first president to overshadow Siliconeer’s identity on the cover. The community loved our efforts. It was a new dawn for South Asian immigrants and for Siliconeer. The community shifted from just science and tech towards impactful actions and meaningful dialogue.

We were fortunate to feature the likes of Nelson Mandela, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Obama, Trump, Modi, and many other leaders as relevant events unfolded.

Conferences, students, young aspiring entrepreneurs, and youth leaders became the main focus of Siliconeer. Blockchain, AI, Bitcoin, and sustainability were headlined before they became mainstream.

Continuously following the community and their changing preferences for consuming content, we adapted to reach them where they preferred.

From being the first ethnic media outlet to have a website back in 2000, we expanded our horizons to a native mobile app in 2013. We embraced social media and became the only South Asian outlet on Apple News in 2015. Now, we are on a mission to integrate the real and the virtual world, marrying our flagship print with the endless digital.

Staying Contrary to the Mainstream

Who can forget the COVID-19 pandemic? A very trying time for our community and for us. Only a few chosen professions could brave the pandemic. Forced to go paperless, we strengthened our online presence. With the help of our loyal readers, Siliconeer became the world’s first South Asian digital daily. We partnered with the likes of AFP and AP to get news straight to palms.

As time passed and the Biden Administration rolled out vaccines, it was business as usual, but it wasn’t. We doubled down on the idea that print was a thing of the past.

Not having that thrill of producing this magazine, the Siliconeer team was having a bad case of separation anxiety.

The idea struck in 2022 when Amazon Prime released a new show, “Farzi” (Fakes), starring Shahid Kapoor. My older brother and I decided to use our time wisely and binge the show within two nights. Inspirational. No, we didn’t start printing money, but maybe it was a sign for us to bring back the magazine… and so we did.

Officially back on the racks in November 2023, we were overjoyed to, once again, be the conduit connecting India and Silicon Valley. Having been out of the magazine game, we were stunned by how our readers welcomed us back with open arms.

Siliconeer is dedicated to giving the up-and-coming generation of South Asians the missing voice in the community. Today, the magazine largely consists of Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha writers.

With the reboot of Siliconeer, we are back with our serving of science and tech. AI, deepfakes, longevity tech, and even the Indian American Dream. With a controversial election ahead of us, we pivoted to relay the resounding sentiments of the younger generation. Speaking of which, WHY DOES A TECH BILLIONAIRE HAVE OUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMB– sorry, wrong article.

We promise to stay contrary to the mainstream and share the sentiments of our fellow dreamers, doers, and the ones crazy enough to believe in our mission.

We thank all of you, who pick up this magazine and read the many untold stories of the Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha son or daughter.

The community has aged well, and the new generation of young aspiring leaders are taking the bastion forward. We are proud to give voice to the minds of tomorrow and let the new generation sing their song. We are delighted to have served the community for 25 years and we can’t wait to keep this playlist on repeat.

 

Co-Author

Janam Gupta

 

Janam Gupta is a business undergrad student, based in Fremont, Calif. He is Gen-Z editor and social media pundit at Siliconeer.