The first full day in Silicon Valley is in the books!
But before diving into the details of my day, I would like to share the picture below that, to me, captures a great deal of our experience in Seattle. I say this because this picture demonstrates the very rainy weather we experienced most of the time we were there! It shows the Space Needle under construction, which signifies a city in constant growth, development, and booming technological industry. The Ferris Wheel in the foreground also symbolizes the exciting, fun environment that Seatlle contains, with great attractions such as the Pike Place Market. In these ways, the picture below seems to perfectly capture the atmosphere of Seattle in January 2018.
Anyways, today held some very fun, informative meeting with Shomit Ghose, who is a venture capitalist at Onset Ventures, and Joel Mjolsness, a Luther College alumnus who is very experienced in startups, entrepreneurship, and other business insights. This allowed me to hear a much more detailed explanation of what goes in to starting a company, but from a very unique perspective. Some of the main takeaways include NETWORKING! It is very important to build your network, for it is what you know and who you know that gets you jobs in today's business world.
There were also discussions over what might make one startup successful and worthy of investments while others may not be worth that time or money. We talked data-driven companies, where they are relying less on the manufacturing of a product and more on the data as a source for its success (i.e. Google, Amazon, and Facebook). I inquired Joel about his experience leaving Luther and looking for a position right after graduation and what went into that process. Other topics included the "Bubble 2.0"involving the large amount of investing in "Unicorn" startups that could lead to a pop in this bubble of growth we seem to be finding ourselves in, cost of living in the San Francisco bay area, and what makes it so high.
After our meeting, we drove to a nearby shack for burgers in a quiet part of the area, where we enjoyed delicious burgers outdoors in the partly cloudy 55 degree weather!
That's all for today! Google tomorrow, which I'm very excited for!
No comments:
Post a Comment