Richard Verding

2IBM

How San Francisco its city and Silicon Valley

entrepreneurship influenced my thoughts on my future
career.
Keywords: Passion, talents, opportunities, customer-oriented, feedback

Description
In this paper I will explain how I experienced the study trip to San
Francisco and how it influenced my thoughts on my future career. During
the 9-day study trip we had many interesting activities as well as plenty of
free time. This vibrant city broadened my perspective in many ways. We
visited interesting companies, met new people and experienced a
different culture. Therefore, I will select the highlights of each day and
share my experiences on these activities.

Preface
Before sharing my experiences, I would like to express my gratitude to the
persons who organized and managed this city trip. Without their efforts
and preparations, it would not have been as flawless and interesting as it
was. Therefore, many thanks towards Mrs. Christel De Maeyer for
organizing this study trip, Mrs. Karijn Bonne and Mrs. Marjan Coene for
assisting, and Mr. Dave for guiding us through the city.

Introduction
Going on a study trip is a part of the program of IBM (International
Business Management). That was one of the main reasons I choose for
IBM. The possibility to go international, to study and do an internship
abroad in the third year. Thus I really looked forward to go on this study
trip. Students could go to Germany, China or the US. Once I find out we
would stay in San Francisco and visit Silicon Valley, I made up my mind. I
decided to subscribe for the US. As an Innovation freak I have always been
interested in the latest developments and technologies. (Dewulf, 2012)
Moreover, Silicon Valley well-known for its innovative culture has been on
my bucket list for a very long time. The fact that we also would visit
several start-up companies was very interesting to me, since I would like
to start up my own company in the future. Baring this in mind, I had really
high expectations regarding this study trip.

Day 1 | Sunday
After we landed at San Francisco airport we went to our hostel to check-in.
We had a really great hostel. Good service, all the necessary
accommodation, sober but decent breakfast and a central location.
Despite the central location of our hostel it also had a downside. Our
hostel was located in the Tenderloin, a neighbourhood known for the many
homeless people and drug addicts living on the streets. Walking through

the streets gave me an unsafe feeling. Luckily I did not encounter any
problems. Seeing this was really confronting for me. Especially the amount
of homeless people and drug addicts concentrated in a city where there is
so much money, surprised me the most. In my opinion it shows that the
US or at least San Francisco is a place of extremes. On one side there are
the extremely wealthy people but on the other side there are the very
poor people. This contrast is far more clear compared with Belgium. That
the Belgium social system is more advanced than the American became
clear to me. It is still hard to grasp that there are Americans that have to
work for many years only to pay back their student loans.
The highlight of the day was of course the bike tour in the city. This was
also the first time we met Dave, our guide. He lives in San Francisco and
knows the city as no other. Together with him we explored the city. Dave
gave a lot of interesting facts and told about the history of the city. We
passed by some really nice places and of course we visited the citys most
famous landmark, the Golden gate bridge. We biked all the way to
Sausalito and came back by Ferry. I was positively surprised by the
amount of green and parks there are in the city. I expected to see a
densely populated city with a lot of skyscrapers. Although it was a cloudy
and rainy day it was the perfect activity to discover the city. Positive about
the study trip was that besides the compulsory activities, students had
enough free time to discover the city by themselves.

Day 2 | Monday
On the program for the second day was a visit to Yelp, a company that
helps people find local businesses. By visiting the website or by using the
app of Yelp, people can search for businesses and even write an own
review. Other users can afterwards rate these reviews.
The reviews with the best ratings are ranked on top of the website or app.
Yelp on the other hand makes money by selling ads to local businesses.
(Yelp) The welcome at Yelps office was great. We were invited to the top
floor. The view was impressive. There is an open kitchen with even a
coffee bar. Just as employees, we could order free coffees and take as
many snacks as we wanted. It is a great space to take a break. After the
welcome, one of the managers gave an introduction to the company. It
was interesting to hear their business model. Although Yelp is active in
many countries, they cannot simply copy their US model to other
countries. In order to offer reliable reviews, it is very important for Yelp to
connect with the local people. This was explained very well with some
examples. One of the examples was Japan. For instance, In Japan they
mention multiple names on their profiles such as a Japanese name,
English name, business name, etc. thus it is important that people can
insert more than one name on their profile. On the other hand, addresses
dont make sense to Japanese. So simply mentioning an address is not
regard that important. For me this example showed that you really have to
collaborate closely with locals and do enough research to be successful.
The key is to think global but act local.

In the evening we went to Runway. Runway is a space designed where

start-ups can work, collaborate and relax. (Runway) To me this ecosystem
was interesting and innovative. At Runway I also heard for the first time
about the concept of incubators and accelerators. Basically incubators
support start-ups at a very early stage, while accelerators support startups in a later stage to help the business grow even further and faster.
Runway is an incubator and accelerator that supports start-ups. Runway
provides office space, consultancy and networking events. Basically the
perfect environment for start-ups to grow significantly. I liked the fact that
its an open-office, meaning that all these different start-ups sit together in
one big space, there are no walls in between them. For start-ups its
important that they can share knowledge, ideas and receive feedback.
This is certainly the atmosphere at Runway.
Next to an introduction to Runway there was a mixer event. Several startups that make use of Runway, presented their company. We were
introduced to Weedclub, Village defence and BEAST inc. For us as students
it was interesting to hear how they started. I learned a lot from their
experiences. What I have learned from them is that it is very important to
surround you with the right people. People with expertise, specialist in
their domain. Do not try to do everything by yourself. Ask for feedback,
share your idea, do not keep it for yourself. In order to improve your
service or product, feedback is from outmost importance. Not only from
experts but also from customers. A good example of this is Village
Defence. An app to outsmart crime by providing real-time alerts.
(VillageDefence) Founder Sharath Mekala told us that he really went to the
community and asked for their feedback to improve his app. So customer
orientation is key.
Afterwards we had time to network. When I talked with Vivian Tan, founder
of BEAST inc. I asked for her opinion on business models and how
important it is for start-ups. Her answer surprised me a bit. She said that
in San Francisco having a business model is less important because by the
time its finished and ready to execute, the business model is most likely to
be outdated. Far more important is to have a prototype, a beta version
you can show to potential investors. Also having a good pitch is far more
important in San Francisco than having a well prepared business model.
All the time you spend on editing your business model you lose for your
product or service itself. That is why she is at Runway. For relatively a little
amount of money, she is surrounded with a lot of talented people.
Personally Runway was one of the most interesting activities we did. It
was a great experience to get testimonials from real start-ups and to have
a conversation with the founders. They gave some helpful tips for
students that consider to start up an own business.

Day 3 | Tuesday
In the morning we had a cultural activity. We went to Alcatraz, the famous
prison island where some of the most notorious prisoners such as Al

Capone had to sit their sentence. It was impressive to see. In the

afternoon we had free time to discover the city by ourselves.
In the evening we met at Viva La Tarte, where we had a mixer event with
3 Belgian companies. Of course Viva La Tarte, but also SparkCentral and
ShowPad. Viva La Tarte is an artisanal bakery located in San Francisco that
offer handcrafted baked goods. (Viva La Tarte) SparkCentral is customer
engagement platform. (Sparkcentral) ShowPad helps sales and marketing
teams to become successful. (Showpad) This mixer event was similar as
the one at Runway. The difference was that these are Belgian companies.
Therefore, as most of the students are Belgians or living living in Belgium,
it is interesting to hear how these companies started, how they expanded
their business and raised fund.
From all companies we received great advice. For example, passion was
the drive for Viva La Tarte to move to San Francisco. The background of
the founders was totally different however they were passionate about
making tarts, loved the city, thus decided to start their own business.
Their advice was to find out what your talent and passion is. Other advice
from these companies were to surround you with the best people and let
go people that dont fit as soon as possible. Just as Runway they marked
the importance of a prototype. It is also helpful to do a case study of your
service or product. Towards potential clients you can prove the amount of
success one of your clients had with your product. What came clear to me
is that it is very useful to have references. Ones you have acquired some
great references it will help your business grow enormously. References
can help you to raise fund, to find new investors. A letter of
recommendation can help you with this process. Furthermore, they also
told about their experiences of living in San Francisco, how expensive it is
to buy an apartment, how to get an investors visa and more stories. All
these tips will definitely help me ones I decide to start my own business.

Day 4 | Wednesday
On the program for day four was a workshop on Peace Innovation at
Stanford University. Stanford University, located between San Francisco
and San Jose in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, is one of the world's
leading teaching and research universities. (Stanford) To be honest I was
slightly disappointed by the visit to Stanford. I believe it was way too
short. The workshop given by Mr. Mark Nelson was interesting but too
short to be able to understand everything. We really had to rush through
the content of the workshop to get it done. I think the idea of peace
innovation is interesting. Hence, for me the concept to establish peace by
innovation was still not completely clear. I thought it was a rather vague
concept but it was probably due the lack of time. He told us that this
workshop normally takes two or three days, while we only had a couple of
hours. Therefore, at the end of the workshop, it was very difficult to make
the exercise by ourselves. For us this was more an introduction instead of
an actual workshop. Furthermore, because I choose to follow the
workshop, I couldnt take the tour of the university itself, which is a pity.

Actually I wanted to see the University as well. At least I had a glimpse of

the famous university. Nevertheless, the workshop was short but
interesting. The workshop gave me a new perspective to approach a
certain situation. I believe it is good to learn new methods and look from
different angles to solve problems. However, I dont think I will be using
the rapid prototyping loop as we have learned during the workshop, very
soon in my future career.
After the visit to Stanford University we went to the Computer History
Museum. Here we could see the evolution of computers. For me the
highlight was the Google car. We could take place in the car.
Unfortunately, we were not able to drive or better said to be driven by the
car. Another cool feature at the museum was that we could print out our
name by inserting numbers between 1 and 9 into this old machine. It is
now a nice souvenir. The visit at the museum made me realize at what an
amazingly fast pace technology evolves.
Next on the program was a quick visit to the Google campus. The
atmosphere at the campus was nice. Employees have company bikes at
their disposal, a beach volleyball court and there is an outside terrace. Im
not surprised that it is one of the best places to work. Unfortunately, we
were not able to have a look inside the offices. Nevertheless, I understand
that it is immensely difficult to arrange a visit to Google.
Last visit of the day was the Apple Store Cupertino. In my opinion it was
not that special in the sense that it is not different to other Apples stores.
The only difference is that they sell few Apple merchandise products such
as t-shirts and cups. Same as for Google, it would have been more
interesting if we good visit the company of Apply itself. Therefore, I was
slightly disappointed of our visit to Silicon Valley as we could not take a
look inside these companies.

Day 5 | Thursday
Our first visit was Belcham (Belguim-American Chamber of Commerce)
with our host Mr. Ludwig Dumont. Belcham helps like-minded
professionals and promising Belgian start-ups scale up faster and more
successfully in the USA. (Belcham) Here we mainly received a lot of
practical information on how Belcham can support you, what they have to
offer. For us as students it is not yet applicable hence it is interesting to
know that Belcham exist. Maybe in the future it can be useful to me and
other students. Belcham can help you for instance with arranging the
necessary documents or connecting you with the right people. Besides
that, they have much more tools to offer for Belgian companies that
decide to operate in USA.
In the afternoon we met at Boodstraplabs. It is a venture building platform
that was founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. They invest early in
potentially disruptive technology start-ups with global potential.
(Bootstraplabs)

Besides the introduction of the company, it was a rather technical

presentation about why they invest in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the
investment strategy. At the moment this is not yet applicable because I do
not have a business and Im not searching for capital. However, as
potential founders of a start-up company it is good to know that there are
several options to raise funds. As our teacher of Finance explained, there
are 3Fs to raise money: Family, Friends and Fools. Boodstraplabs can help
companies to find VCs (Venture Capital) which belongs under the
category of Fools. What I have learned is that raising money happens in
several stages and depends on the growth phase of the company. Venture
capital will help your company grow faster. I definitely think it is useful
that we know how fundraising is done, it certainly expanded my
knowledge and might be helpful in the future.

Day 6 | Friday
Friday we only had cultural activities on the program. First we went to Muir
woods together with our guide Dave. It is impressive to see these Giant
Redwood trees. In the forest there was also a really pleasant fragrance
because of the leafs of certain trees. In a nutshell a was nice to have a
walk through the forest.
On the bus Dave told us a lot of facts and stories of San Francisco. For
instance, why there are so many Chinese in San Francisco. The reason for
that is that they came here to build the railways and to work in the
goldmines. That is also why San Francisco has one of the largest
Chinatown of the world.
Our lunch was served at station house caf. The sandwich was tasty but a
little bit too small. There was also not much time to eat because we had to
leave to drive all the way to Point Reyes. At the light house I was lucky to
see some whales or at least a small part of the whale. The circumstances
were not optimal to spot whales. Nevertheless, I was fortunate to see a
few whales pass by. After visiting many companies, I thought it was nice to
discover the other side of San Francisco.

Day 7 | Saturday
Saturday, our last day, I used for sightseeing. It was a free day and we
could plan it the way we wanted. In the morning we went to check a work
of Banksy, a famous graffiti artist. As an admirer of Banksy I really wanted
to see his work. It is on the opposite of the Citylight bookstore. Afterwards
we went to Chinatown. As mentioned before, one of the largest there is
and to me the most beautiful I have visited. From Chinatown we walked to
the Ferry building. Our next stop was at Alamo square to see the Painted
Ladies. A touristic attraction but not that special to me. So we quickly
proceed or trip. From there we walked all the way to the Golden Gate park.
This park is huge but very pretty. Inside the park is also De Young
museum. Because it was one hour before closing we could go in for free. It
is an impressive museum with a beautiful collection of Art. When the

museum closed we took an Uber taxi to drop us of at the top of Twin

Peaks. The view over there was astonishing. Eventually, after a long day,
we went back to our hostel.

Conclusion
To come to a conclusion, I can say that I had a good time in San Francisco.
It was organised very well. I didnt encounter any problems. The balance
between compulsory activities and free time was perfect. Furthermore,
the compulsory activities were mainly interesting. Besides business
related activities such as mixer events we also did some cultural activities.
That we had that variation was positive.
Next to the fun part of this study trip, I also learned a lot. I learned a lot of
new things such as how to raise fund, what it takes to start up a business
and so on. At the same time, I learned new concepts like incubator and
accelerator. Most interesting to me was the networking part. I could ask
specific questions to the founders of these start-ups and they could
answer out of experience. Knowing what was important for them to startup a business will definitely be useful for my future career. Of some of the
people I met in San Francisco I have their number which might be helpful
as well.
All the advice we received from the different persons I will surely keep in
mind for my future career. What I wont forget is the importance of
customer orientation and feedback. Also that you have to figure out your
passion, talent and how you can use your talent optimal to be better than
others. Moreover, when I decide to start my own business I will make sure
to have a prototype and to get good references. Before the city trip I
thought it is not good to share your ideas. However, I changed my mind
after the testimonials from the start-ups. It is important to surround you
with experienced people and get their opinion of your idea. It is only by
getting their feedback you are able to improve your product or service.
San Francisco made me realize that it also has great opportunities to startup a company. Viva La Tarte is a good example that you dont necessarily
have to start your business in Belgium. If you have a great idea and you
can convince the right people, then San Francisco has a lot to offer. All the
activities expanded my knowledge and made the program of IBM so much
more specific. In a nutshell, this was the perfect study trip for business
students like me.

SAN FRANSISCO Study Trip 2016

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