My Trip To The Silicon Valley: Very Constructive And Interactive
Recently I have spent all day in the Silicon Valley meeting investors. Taking pictures of the barracks and innovational cottages of the Valley made me feel striking difference between real life and what they usually see on TV about the Valley, and now I have some time to write about this gap.
Beyond different appearance (neither barracks nor cottages usually get into the pictures folks see), real life is full of social events and much more interactive. Yesterday Aleksandra Markova organized my informal meeting with Russian innovators of the Silicon Valley at a caf?. Max Skibinski showed the cult shop of geeks and the barracks where startuppers start working here. In the evening, I attended reception at a cottage of investment banker. The cottage was on a mountain with a view to the Valley. People at the reception actively mingled with each other and got introduced to each other. Personally, I met positive person whose name is Natasha Krol, she has constructive and material view of Russian innovations.
Meeting Gurus Gets Easier
Real life of the Valley is much more populated than on the pictures, and not only with gurus and cybernetic organisms, but also with aspiring entrepreneurs who can speak with gurus directly. This became a popular topic to speak about the Valley I there are constantly a lot of delegations from Russia, but as for real Valley, people don’t know it. Yesterday our startuppers from Izhevsk, Tomsk, Moscow were introduced to young entrepreneurs of the Valley. And they simply sat at the caf? and communicated which was more fruitful for them than simply attending a conference.
The major difference between innovators and other human beings is that innovators bring out, up and about very constructive ideas. Alex Ermolin brought several startups from Russia into the Valley. These startups won at a contest of modernization. Alex, very constructive ideas, well-organized program (try-out plus pitches), all well done: extending interactive culture of innovational community to Russian startuppers will be benefitial!
I am also attending presentations of projects in front of investors of the Valley and Plug & Play, the famous innovational incubator of the Valley. With Aleksandra Markova and Yekaterina Grechanyuk, we were at woman2.0, and it was fun. We spoke with creator of SlideShare, large venture fund, Russian girl Olga who has profitable startup in the Valley and who brought Starbucks in Russia. Once again tons of video about those who, what and how does in the Valley. I am asking them: «Would you go back to Russia to make innovational business?» Majority of them reply constructively: «We are ready to visit.» This is already good.