[1] Teknekron was founded in Berkeley, California, in 1968 by Harvey Wagner and several UC Berkeley professors, including George Turin, D.Sc., a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences who served as vice president of technology.

Although Wagner had a small office there near his Lake Tahoe house,[2] most of the company's operations are in Berkeley, the San Francisco Peninsula, and the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Teknekron was awarded numerous research contracts by the U.S. government, including the transfer of technology from NASA's space program to civilian uses, [3] the dispersal modeling and generation forecasts of noxious gases from power generation,[4][5] urban effects of drought in San Francisco,[6] mental health services in California,[7] durability of manufactured goods,[8] and public perceptions of highway safety.

[11] The stated goal of the company is: "New Teknekron ventures do not take the traditional course of developing, from the outset, a standard product for the end-user market.

It is only after years of working with client companies on specific projects that a Teknekron enterprise might condense its market-honed technologies into generic "core products."