Days 20-21: The Last Weekend!

01/28/2018

The past two days held beautiful weather, life-defining views, and some of the coolest experiences of the whole trip!

Saturday was our 4 hour bike ride along Fisherman's Wharf, then through some biking paths until we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge! It was one of the most amazing experiences for me personally because I was so awestruck. I've seen thousands of pictures of the bridge, but riding a bike across this 1.7 mile-long bridge is truly inspiring. Looking up to see the arches 750 feet up is something words simply cannot describe. The bike ride from the Ferry Building in San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point is about 16 miles round trip, with several steep inclines and declines. But if you are able, I highly recommend taking a day to explore this wonderful bridge and coastline.

That held most of the adventures Saturday, finishing the day with a home-cooked meal with beef kebabs and Fettuccine Alfredo, which was incredibly delicious. I was just so glad and thankful to have a safe bike ride among the chaos of the bridge and that area, and to have the strength to do so as well. If you are blessed with perfect weather like I was, you will have the best day of your life.

Sunday, I must admit I was quite soar from such a demanding ride, but my body felt good from such a workout! I woke up and had some cereal before embarking for a 4 mile round-trip walk to the Painted Ladies (some famous houses next to a park in San Fran), which was cool to see! Tyler and I then continued on to the "Full House" house, which although an unusual and not necessarily exciting spot to visit, it was very cool to say that I have seen the building that held the characters of "Full House", which was one of my favorite TV shows growing up. We then walked back to the house for some video games and lunch before hiking again. This time, Devin, Tyler and I hiked up the road just 15 minutes to Corona Heights Park to get some amazing sunset views of San Fran, our last views of the whole city before embarking for home tomorrow! Although it wasn't as high or as full as views from the famous Twin Peaks, it was still a rocky, thrilling exploration filled with some last views of most of the city.

Flying to Minneapolis tomorrow! Sad to leave such a beautiful place with such a great climate for January! Nevertheless, I am excited to see family and friends again. I will leave one last post after safe arrival back home with my lasting thoughts on the trip.

Erik Nelson

Day 19: Hummer Winblad, Alcatraz, and the Castro Theatre!

01/27/2018

Today concluded our meetings with companies, and may be considered one of my favorite and most packed days of the entire trip!

We started this Friday with clear skies and a visit to see Managing Director Steve Kishi at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Steve was so incredibly knowledgeable and was a perfect end to our visits this trip.

First, Steve gave us a sort of pitch that he would normally give to a potential lender. He showed us and told us about the seven funds that HWVP has had since its start back in the 90s. We learned about the funds and about the return rate (which averaged to about 48%, which meant that over the first 7 funds, they were averaging about that much more than the amount that was invested out to companies). We saw some of their key investments that have given them very large returns, such as Net Perceptions and Extensity, which are considered dragon companies. Steve told us he tends to not like the term "unicorn" because he thinks it is inaccurate to the companies true value, and therefore HWVP looks for companies that are software based only, and are at the EARLY stages of development, being less than 10 employees at that point in time.

It is important to recognize that the only way HWVP makes money at all is if a company gets bought out or they IPO (initial public offering). Because of this HWVP fund terms are somewhat loosely defined, for a company can span over a long or very short period of time before one of those things happen, key events can effect each fund.

I thought it was interesting how they had one very bad fund that saw a lost of money, and he explained the lessons that were learned from that experience (back in the 2000s) and why that means we are NOT in a bubble 2.0 (as Onset Ventures indicated to us). Steve showed us that we have learned from our mistakes, and there is no longer such a large gap between a companies actual worth and the amount that is actually invested in it. I found this point interesting and factually very sound. I wondered what it would be like to have Shomit and Steve in the same room debating this topic!

Steve also touched on data being the only real market today: he found that to not be true at all, although all successful companies today must instead leverage data wisely, but it does not need to be there actual product base.

The last few pieces of information came from advice about pitching to a VC and his main tips as to how to be better than 80% of the companies he interviews (he mentioned they hear hundreds of pitches a year, but only bring on a handful). These tips include: focus on your business model, not your product (by only dedicating one slide to the product, you have much more room to get the functionality of your business explained). You should have a bottom-up perspective on your impact on the market, instead of a top-down focus (avoiding phrases like "we only need 1% of the market"). He said that they hear people who are not necessarily brought in through connections, but it does help. You should understand who your interviewing with, what stage they focus in, and what their focus is.

Once he was done, we heard our last book report from Ryan, who told us the long tail, meaning the niche market, and how someone can be quite successful focusing on the niche market.

After that, we went to Alcatraz! For about $37 dollars, you get the ferry ride there and back, and can explore anything on the island. It was truly an experience to remember for me. We took a walk around the island before making our way up the hill to the prison and taking the audio tour. I felt so much history and learned so much about a place that means so much to American history to me. The walk through the prison was so powerful, and I found so much to be fascinating aspects of the prison that I never knew before. Plus an ex-prisoner was actually there signing books! It felt so surreal to shake hands with an ex-criminal of that prison.

We then walked around and saw remaining pieces of the civil war fort that was also on the island. I also learned a bit about how crucial that island was to Native American rights as they fought for their own freedom. I highly recommend the audio tour and any aspects about the Native American history there.

We then ferried back to the mainland, where we wandered to In-and-Out Burger for dinner before going to the Castro Theatre for the first night of their Noir City Film Festival, where they show Noir films made between 1940 and 1953. It was an atmosphere so unique to that theatre, as it is the birthplace of the genre of film, and definitely has its place as some of the most influential films in history. We saw I Wake Up Screaming and Among the Living, the former being a "Classy A" film and the latter being a "Trashy B" film. But they both had interesting aspects that made it a real treat to watch.

Golden Gate Bridge bike ride Saturday! Expect one or two more entries before departing for Minneapolis.

Day 18: Book Report, Golden Gate Park, and Safe Graph!

01/25/2018

Today was a day with beautiful, slightly unexpected sunshine and some pretty interesting experiences with a startup!

The day started with Jacob's book report, covering The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. I found the information from this report very interesting, and almost the easiest to connect to. Guy was an engineer during the early creation of the Macintosh with Apple and worked during the Steve Jobs era. He covered multiple topics in his book in a very condensed way. Some of the highlights from the report are: it is crucial to secure a vision with goals that increase the quality of life, right a wrong, and/or prevent the end of something good. Guy is a big fan of mantra's as opposed to mission statements because they are short and sweet and say exactly what the company does (i.e. Nike's mantra can be deduced to 3 or 4 words, being "authentic athletic performance"). Then the most important part is to actually get going by thinking differently or outside the box as others, polarizing people to either LOVE or HATE your product, and find a few soul mates to truly rely on. He also commented strongly on hiring others that are better than yourself, and gave advice on pitching an idea to a VC by following the 10/20/30 rule.

After this presentation, a few of us walked a fair distance to Golden Gate Park, which I would recommend to anyone visiting San Francisco! There is just so much to do, and with limited time, I definitely wish that I had more time to explore this huge park. Instead we picked the best we could with a limited time frame and went to the Japanese Tea Gardens, and for $9 you can explore this beautiful park, which instills some peaceful, relaxing feels to you as you walk through a unique landscape.

After that, we changed and went to our meeting with Jack and one of the founders of Safe Graph, a startup that focuses on making information and data universally available to all people, and currently provides data in academia and government circles. However, I felt that this company, while having a unique atmosphere in location and office to say the least, being very loud and open to the street, was somewhat lacking some vision and did not really fulfill a market space that was not already occupied by Wikipedia or others. But I did feel like I did gain some knowledge through hearing about their failures and learning from them: being resilient is very important. The most important piece advice that I gained from the founder was surrounding your self by a good, talented team. That can often be the biggest key to being successful. From Jack, I learned how \going out on a whim and having doubts is okay: he told a story of when he applied for a job with Facebook, and how the interviews, technical and otherwise, went well. However, he interviewed with one person who clearly clashed in personalities, and he was declined very quickly. To me, this meant that failures happen, for sometimes the worst reasons, and recovering from them is more important than anything.

One last stop tomorrow, then Alcatraz!

Erik Nelson

Day 17: W2O, Kiva, and some great Italian!

01/24/2018

Nearing the end of our trip of a lifetime, and we had two distinct, interesting meetings with two companies based in San Francisco!

Our first company today was W2O, and we met with Aaron Strout, the Chief Marketing Officer for the company, and his confidence combined with his interactive setup for the meeting made this meeting particularly exciting for me. He asked us about what our first concert was, and he and I happened to have the same one, which really said something for me about my maturity level when I was much younger.

Anyways, some of the main takeaways that I got from him were his remarkable stories and living proof as to how effective networking truly is. He gave us some great examples from his own life as to how networking has paid off for him, and how helping others (i.e talking to us) can also be a learning experience for him. He said that if he weren't learning every day in his job, he would not still be at W2O. He talked about how one's work, energy, and dedication can noticeably decrease if one is not doing something they are passionate about. Aaron used several effective metaphors, including "scratching an itch", meaning doing something that really makes you feel good, or fills a void in your life, even for a short while. He mentioned changing jobs as soon as you feel the need to satisfy another itch (as long as you are making a difference). Another good metaphor that he mentioned a couple of times was dating. You don't just jump into a marriage, a long-term commitment, without going on a date and getting to know who you are with first. Therefore, connecting with others and learning as much as you can about your work is always a good idea. Making career decisions in key parts of life, before having kids, during the early years of marriage, is also key. Lastly, we talked about work-life balance, and how for him, the two are very connected, and his work definitely drives him forward.

We then walked to Little Italy, where, after a while of wandering, found a little restaurant that has great Italian food, where I had yummy meat/cheese tortellini with white sauce! Definitely one of my favorite dishes in San Francisco.

After lunch, we met at Kiva with Jules, where we learned about Kiva as a nonprofit organization that does micro-financing for people that need funding that they cannot get from banks because of a lack of credit history, too small of a loan amount, or lack of access to a bank. They definitely sold their mission to me, and I felt very connected to their mission (although Luther College already is), and anyone can loan money with a 97% return rate, meaning that money will eventually be paid back to me with no interest. The borrowers take this money and use it to fund schooling, agricultural work, or something else that can help them make a living (often in third-world countries). 2.7 million people receive funding from 1.7 million people, and over 1 billion dollars have been loaned.

I think what impressed me most about their company was their workplace! It was so open with lots of chatter, filled with fun desktops and work spaces. They had a dog that casually cruises the workplace, offering a smile to people as this puppy walks by. I felt very welcomed there, and I felt the people there were passionate about their work and were happy to be there! Probably some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Going to eat tacos for dinner now! Looks like we have two destinations for tomorrow, one being Apptelligence!

Day 16: More Book Reports, Exploratorium, and a Cable Car Ride!

01/23/2018

Today was another day featuring book reports and more amazing (and slightly unplanned) adventures!

We started the day with book reports from Claire and Matt. In Claire's book report, we talked heavily on consumerism, and how much affect a consumer really has on the planning, designing, and execution on a company's products. We talked about how that affect can change depending on what kind of customer (whether it's a single person or a whole business) is buying or using a product. We talked about some examples of some company products that make it big (or eventually make it big, after "crossing the chasm") or fail miserably because the public isn't ready, the cost is too high, or some other reason.

In Matt's book report, we talked about the lean startup, and the main takeaways I took from his presentation are the cycle that a company must repeatedly go through in order to succeed: vision, steer, and accelerate. A company must have a clear vision with clear goals. A company must, somewhere in that vision, devise an exit strategy, whether that is getting bought out or something else. In steering, a company must pivot or find a way or means in which to tailor to a customer or do something big in order to stay competitive. Finally, a company must accelerate, not stopping at any particular point and making decisions only for the betterment of the company. Sometimes that can mean that a founder needs to step down in order to protect the values put in place by that company. Lastly, we talked about having a minimal viable product (MVP) for customers when you are starting out.

Next, as an entire group, we went to the Exploratorium on one of the piers of San Francisco, right next to Fisherman's Wharf! This place was so cool, and had countless contraptions, experiments, and devices that taught lessons about some of the most fundamental parts of our society: Light and Color, Physics, Biology, and much more. One of my favorites was a room where all color seemingly disappear: the Monochromatic Room. Inside, you see so yellow, and shades of yellow, until you shine a flashlight around the room, and you see the color of these objects revealed in true form! I was blown away at how the pigments seemed to disappear and reappear so easily.

After that, a group of us went to a Gelateria for gelato, and it was so amazing! I had bourbon butter pecan mixed with roasted nut fudge. I love gelato to begin with, but this was so good and definitely hit the spot on a warm, sunny day.

Then we took a cable car, famous in SF, to get some groceries. I must say this was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I say this because our driver was so nice, funny, and careful! Through the tremendously steep hills, as I hung off the side, he told the whole car my name and that I was from Wisconsin! He even joked about him losing 4 people named Erik to sharp turns! By the end, people passing by were laughing at the sight of us chanting my name, and other strange things, and ringing the bell continuously! I was blushing and laughing so hard at some of the conversations he had with others and myself, telling new passengers my name, while also introducing me to some strangers.

After this amazing experience, we took the transit to get burgers and queso, which we ate as a group tonight. All in all, a long but wonderful day.

Early start tomorrow! Two visits and a book report planned!

Erik Nelson

Day 15: Book Reports and Twin Peaks!

01/22/2018

Today was a day of knowledgeable feedback about my classmate's book reports, and some wonderful physical activity to my new favorite place in San Francisco!

First, We had book reports from Katie and Joey, who informed us about letters from company founders and the art of the 4 hour work week, respectively. Katie showed us that successful founders know when to step away, because their passion can sometimes be too much for where the company is heading. She also showed us that founders have a very wide range of advice that they would give to people starting out, from growing your network to follow what your passionate about and do not give up, even if you fail 5 or 6 times. Joey taught us about a method one can develop through delegation and proper time management to only work 4 hours a week. While I appealed to this idea, I was not at all convinced that the 4 hour work week was all it was said to be, let alone achievable. We discussed how some of the most successful career paths come from setting very clear, understandable, and measurable goals (and even setting some goals that are very far from your reach).

Then, as shown in the picture below, I hiked with some friends to Twin Peaks, which I heard so much about through other people, and was popularized by the TV series with the same name. This place is quite the hike, being over 900 feet in elevation, and is about a 1 mile-long hike straight up the hill from our house, but it is certainly worth the hard work! It had sweeping, glorious views of the entire bay, including downtown, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and places we would never be able to explore in a week! It was certainly one of the highlights from the trip.

After that, we walked to a nearby Safeway and purchased food for brats and hot dogs on the grill. A perfect way to end the day!

More book reports tomorrow! Followed by a trip to the Exploratorium!

Erik Nelson

Days 13-14: Redwood Forest and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco!

01/22/2018

This was truly a weekend to remember, and it started with a hike in the Redwood Forest before moving to our big house in the Castro in San Francisco. This was such a beautiful, needed hike after meetings that mainly involved sitting. The trees in this forest were the biggest I have ever seen, and the trails could be adventured for a whole day.

From there, we exchanged our vehicles and used public transit to move to the Castro, in the heart of San Francisco. The Castro is home to the PRIDE community majority, interestingly, and has many PRIDE flags around this part of the city. It definitely has a positive impact on the hustle and bustle of this beautiful city.

We then explored our new house, which is gorgeous in every regard! With everything to 3 floors, beautiful bathrooms and a ping pong table, this place will be a great place to relax.

Sunday, I went with some friends to Fisherman's Wharf, a wonderful tourist spot in SF, and I highly recommend walking around, exploring the shops, and tasting some of the wonderful food that is around the pier areas. We went to In-and-Out Burger and had some delicious fast food before getting some famous Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We also saw the bakery that houses the home of sourdough bread!

We then walked down to Pier 39, which is home to countless Sea Lions, relaxing, swimming, and fishing in the pier. It was so cool to see so many of them lounging around with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the background.

We concluded the weekend with some viewing of the Vikings game, which I was thankful to watch the 38-7 victory for the Eagles (but the rest of the housemates weren't as happy). We then had a group meal making pizza and watching movies!

Book reports and more exploring tomorrow!

Erik Nelson

Day 12: Benetech, Tibco, and a short visit at Stanford University!

01/19/2018

It's the end of another work week, and our last full day in Menlo Park! Today we had some very bizarre weather: one minute it would be sunny and 55 then quickly turn to 50 and down-pouring. However, we were able to keep from getting too wet!

Today started off by visiting the non-profit company Benetech, which has multiple projects and missions they are currently working on: Booksource, which involves designing technology so that people can have access to and read several books if they are unable to do so because of blindness or other disabilities. Another project involves work in human rights, working through several media to find human rights violators and bring justice through that regard. The last that we heard about is their Benetech Lab, which our host, Ann, was primarily involved with. Their lab works with customers to design pieces of equipment to best serve people with technology such as eSight to provide the equipment necessary for them to overcome obstacles they face.

Ann had gotten her PhD in English and was excited and passionate about non-profit work because she feels that that has a much better impact on the community, even if it means having a lower salary for yourself.

Ann discussed B-corporations, which have two bottom lines instead of one: the normal revenue line, that is most often used to measure success, and the other is the social impact line, which allows them to know whether their work is doing the most justice to the community for the amount of work put in.

Ann also discussed several other topics, including Web 2.0, and how a second bubble burst could have both positive and negative impact on Benetech specifically. The positive impact being that it may drive them specifically to have a better place in the market and/or move them towards their primary goal: going out of business (meaning their services aren't needed any more). Also that they are fairly unaffected from drastic market change. The negative impact would be that they would be out of jobs too soon.

Finally, we talked about how Benetech goes where the market has failed. By doing so, they can run a non-profit and still be able to have a positive impact on the community. She also talked about how, out is Silicon Valley, there is no "balance" between work and life. Instead there is work-life, where your work is the passion that drives you and it consumes your life instead.

After our meeting with Ann, Anna gave her book report on Sound Recording before we went for a short visit to the Stanford University campus and bookstore, although we couldn't stay long due to the lack of parking spaces.

We then met Scott at Tibco, where he dove into the importance of unit testing, and how getting a PhD can be a very complex thing that doesn't always pay off in the way you expect. He also seemed to advocate planning and thinking very seriously about what you love to do, and then deciding how to pursue that! For example, he dislikes being a manager, even though he easily could be one by now. He just needed to be honest about what he likes to do and decide to stay at a lower level position if that means doing something you like doing more.

Lots of information that I found valuable today! Time for the weekend, which means possibly being unresponsive for a couple days. Redwood Forest hike tomorrow, and then we move to San Francisco!

Erik Nelson

Day 11: LinkedIn and the Computer History Museum!

01/18/2018

Today, I was thoroughly surprised, impressed, and welcomed by LinkedIn and their buildings in Silicon Valley!

First, we were welcomed to their impressive facilities with a sign welcoming us to their facilities, which is the first one we've received! Their hospitality was refreshing and very much appreciated.

We met with several people while we were there, but the primary people I talked to during my experience was Della and Greg McMillan (Della is an alumnus from Luther College), who shared their main pieces of advice: if you never try, you will never know whether you succeed! And they are also very aware that working for big companies isn't for everyone, and with hard work, you can find what you are passionate about and pursue that path.

I asked Greg about one piece of advice he would give for a senior graduating this spring (besides building connections on LinkedIn), is to find your niche, and make yourself as unique as you can. When an employer reads a resume, they only see things that you have done, but that doesn't give an idea as to what kind of person you are. Therefore, giving them any indication as to who you are and what kind of person you are is extremely helpful!

There was definitely a keyword that was emphasized during this visit: passion. Finding what your'e passionate about, and changing your entire occupation to follow that passion is huge, and that often means following a roller coaster of a path in jobs. But finding what you love, learning from it, and letting that drive you forward, is one of the key things they emphasized.

After our visit to LinkedIn, we visited the Computer History Museum, which was so cool in every regard, there were so many artifacts in this museum that revolutionized how the entire world computed, and it was cool to see the different ways that computers were developed and invented.

We have our visit with Benetech tomorrow, a nonprofit organization, which is very different from anything thus far!

Day 10: Full day at Google!

01/17/2018

Day 10 lived up to all the hype for me! Today was our full day at Google and Googleplex, their headquarters in Silicon Valley!

We started the day meeting our two hosts, Ellen and Craig, who led us across their campus throughout the entire day. We started by taking a walk to our conference room, discussing some of the logistics behind their campus, their history, and how the do their part to leave very little footprint on the environment in this sunny, warm area. It was very interesting to hear about the very different ways that people commute to Google, whether by bus, car, electric car, or bike.

I found that the atmosphere on this campus was very refreshing! While the business and work behind their doors is serious and innovative in every aspect, it is also fascinating to see all of the components of their campus dedicated to their employees and their mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Next, we went to our conference room to meet with a programmer over conference call, who's main advice was to say 'yes' as much as you can! If you don't, you could easily miss out on an opportunity to change your life. He told us about the plentiful projects he has been a part of, whether they succeeded or not, and how he got involved with Google. We heard from Anurag Batra, a product manager at Google, who told us about the importance of team chemistry, and how working in various team sizes can actually be much better, even if the number of members is much larger.

We met with two members of their University Education program, one of which got her Ph.D in English and taught while holding administrative roles for several years, and is very fresh to the program. These people taught me how much Google can reach out towards other industries and influence many people without having a technical inclination to change their products.

We then went to lunch on campus, where they had wonderful Indian food which was exactly what I was craving at the time!

Next, Craig opened up about the challenges, difficulties, and tough conversations that go into a couple's decision to move long distances for a job for one of them. This resonated with me and I learned that following the two questions "What's the worst that can happen?" and "Is that 'worst' worth it?". Craig also taught me that large companies, even though they can seem the most enticing, they simply aren't for everyone, and that's okay! Even though he was enthusiastic about Google, he definitely understands that following one's own path is the most important thing.

Below is a picture of me in front of one of the four main buildings that make up Googleplex and their campus.

This was a very eye-opening, fun day full of touring, discussion, and enjoyable conversation with a great host!

LinkedIn tomorrow!

Day 9: Venture Capitalist, Alpine Burger, and last thoughts on Seattle!

01/16/18

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!

Days 6-8: Weekend at Bainbridge Island and Underground Tour, Plus Menlo Park!!

01/15/18

What a wonderful, action-packed final couple days in Seattle!

Saturday, I we finally had a partly cloudy sky and even saw some sun for the first time! We took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, which is a small island off of the city, full of beautiful silence, natural smells, and views! We adventured the island Saturday afternoon before traveling back for a pancake dinner as an entire group.

Sunday, I walked with some members of the group to the space needle to see the popular landmark up close. Although I didn't travel up the needle, it was cool to be in the base of it, and to see the under-construction needle up close, plus explore the surrounding region! We then walked to Lake Union Park where we saw countless sailboats enjoying the day as well. We even took a tour of the Virginia V, one of the oldest vessels to date. After the long walk back, we rested before taking the Underground Tour of Seattle for $20! Very reasonable given how wonderful, funny, and educational this tour is! I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Seattle, as it is possibly my favorite part of my experience.

As it is late here and we will be having our first tours in Menlo Park tomorrow, I have decided to share my defining picture of Seattle tomorrow. The flight here was rather turbulent, but with a smooth landing this time! and the weather is actually very wonderful, with about 55 degrees and mostly cloudy.

Much more tomorrow! Pictures to follow!

Erik Nelson

Day 5: Tignis with John Hurlocker, Tat's, and my book report!

01/12/2018
7
Today concludes the end to the first week of our trip! Although we still have two days in Seattle, time is already beginning to fly by!

Today, we started the morning with our first actual startup of the trip, Tignis, which is looking to reduce the amount of coal burned by nearly 10%! We met with John Hurlocker, who is one of the founders of this company of about 7 people, and he told us his backstory, including being a VP at VMWare, and how he decided to turn to this project with some of his closest friends. He has just hired some new employees with backgrounds varying between astrophysics degrees, and one person who never got a 4 year degree. It was interesting to hear various aspects about business models, seed investments, venture capitalism, and angels (which give their own money to support companies they believe in). I learned about the lean startup, which involves pitching the idea of a product to a prospective customer or investor, before that product is actually made.

I feel I learned an even greater amount from the three (fresh) employees, who just joined this company in the recent past. They discussed the openness and relaxation of being part of a much smaller company, not feeling the pressure of meeting a quota, and getting to experience the growth and management of every part of the company (not just one piece of the puzzle, within the confides of a small team, segregated from the operations of the rest of the company). They talked about interview questions (how many trees are there in the state of Oregon?), and the real test behind those kinds of questions. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing what they liked and didn't like about their past jobs or interests that led them here, and about the steep learning curve they've had to experience.

Once we finished meeting with them, I went with some others from my group to a place called Tat's delicatessen for lunch! This was another remarkable sandwich shop, inspired by east coast foods such as hoagies. I ordered a 12-inch  chicken Parmesan sub that was out of this world! it was huge, and layered with melted cheese! It was almost too much food, but it definitely hit the spot.

From there, we walked back to our condos, where I gave my book report to the rest of the group! I talked about the "One-Minute Insights" found within my book and what I found to like or dislike about the book. I then led 6 discussion questions related to the book or to concepts covered in the book. It seemed to get us engaged about some in-depth perspectives on entrepreneurship.

Well that's it for today! There may be a break in my posting over the weekend, but I look to come back with a few more pictures that define my stay in Seattle before our Monday departure for the San Francisco bay area!

Erik Nelson

Day 4: Microsoft and lots of rain!

01/11/2018

Day 4, and the Seattle weather only gets wetter! We had a much earlier start today, leaving our stay at 7:30 for a very rainy walk to our bus stop. However, we missed our first bus ride by only a minute, and stood in the medium rain for another 10 minutes, watching the Seattle traffic, as we waited for the next bus!

Once the bus arrived, we had a 30 minute ride to our stop, which we forgot to get off at! We then got off at the next stop and walked for another 30 minutes to our destination. As unfortunate as this may seem, we got the opportunity to walk through a large portion of the Microsoft campus, which is both beautiful and jaw-dropping. It can be safely said that this was the most impressive set of building belonging to one company that we have seen thus far.

Only a few minutes late, we arrived at the Envisioning Center, where we got to explore a room with futuristic technical design. This area had new equipment and technology that could possibly be incorporated into the daily lives of many within the next 3-7 years. As amazing as some of this equipment was, it was also very out-of-the-ordinary, and definitely seems like an innovative challenge for the future.

We then took a much shorter walk to the next building, where we stayed the rest of the day. This building was the first of the 4 main buildings built first on the Microsoft campus. This led to a day of insightful meetings with employees with various experiences, backgrounds, and areas of expertise. For example, our first guest was a code developer who innovates the code that programmers use today. Another guest was a leading developer with artificial intelligence, and another was a marketing specialist who had been with Microsoft for over 15 years!

Some of the major takeaways from these meetings had to do with the setup of a workplace: understanding, communicating, and unifying within the teams and within the company can make the workplace far more efficient. We learned about code design, and why C# is such a loved and used programming language today. Some basic thoughts behind marketing decisions were also considered. I also learned about what it is like to stay with a company for a very long time, and to see projects come and go, and how much luck and faith have to do with how every person ends up on their career path.

That's about it today! Visiting a small startup tomorrow, before giving my own book report to the group!

Erik Nelson

Day 3: Amazon, Doner Kebab, and Brad Miller's story!

01/10/2018

Day 3 of my trip is in the books! Weather was more or less the same for Seattle: 40 degrees with some drizzling rain. The day began with a casual breakfast of Cap'n Crunch I purchased from a local Target last night, and some applesauce.

We then rendezvoused with the group at 10 AM to walk a couple blocks to one of a few Amazon buildings (we also got to see an Amazon Go grocery store, featuring no checkout and no cashiers!). We met with Luther Alumni who sat us down for the rest of the morning and early afternoon to discuss their experiences of working at Amazon, which seemed to differ greatly between them!

They expanded on how their team system is set up, which consisted of groups usually no larger than 7-9, all working on projects that could be scrapped or useless eventually, to projects that could be the next big thing for the company! They discussed their group sizes, what their projects consist of, and how they have enjoyed their varying time spent at the company (ranging from six months to 3.5 years). They went through the process of how to get hired at Amazon full time or as an intern over the summer. They gave us some advice about moving to the west coast for your career and about integrating company values into your life.

Then I traveled with some others in my group to a place called The Berliner Doner Kebab to get a lamb & beef kebab on house-made bread. Definitely the most yummy food I've had so far in Seattle! I think it had some sort of Turkish background? But it was amazing in every regards, and pretty affordable! A picture can be found below.

We concluded the day with a sit-down with our fearless leader, Dr. Brad Miller, who told us the detailed story of how he ended up at Luther, and the struggles, mistakes, and successes he made along the way. Definitely learned about perseverance, listening to that little voice in your head to follow the path you really are called to, and about making conscious decisions about the future.

That's it for today! Full day at Microsoft tomorrow!

Erik Nelson

Day 2: Snapchat, Grilled Cheese, and DomainTools!

01/09/2018

Hey all!

What a terrific first full day of the trip, filled with knowledgeable advice from some very interesting individuals!

The day began by visiting Macrina Bakery just a few doors down for a Roly-Poly for breakfast.
Then, we rendezvoused with the group and walked a few blocks to a Snapchat location, where we met John Rauser, who sat with us to share his experiences, opinions, and advice regarding finding a career path after graduation. He shared some logistics and systems that he enjoyed about his past experiences with a hedge fund, Amazon, Pinterest, and now with Snapchat. He was very gave some interesting advice related to mistakes, decision making, and finding what you love to do.

I then went to Dahlia Bakery for the most amazing grilled cheese of my life!

Next, we walked to DomainTools, a much smaller company of about 70 people, where many people (including Tim, the CEO!) visited with us and told stories about their journey to DomainTools. We also got a full tour of their secure, yet very fun and interesting workplace! I loved their ping pong competition, full kitchen, and writing on the wall!

What a full day! About to go to dinner then taking a swim before bed. Will share more tomorrow!

Erik Nelson

Day 1: Flight into Seattle and Pizza!

01/08/2018
Hello World!

Welcome to the blog of Erik Nelson, covering my trip to Seattle, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco in January of 2018! I am very excited for this trip and cannot wait for sightseeing and knowledgeable adventures across the west coast!

Today, I traveled with my mom from Janesville, WI to Minneapolis/Saint Paul Airport for my 4:26 PM flight on Alaska Airlines to Seattle. Despite some turbulence and a bumpy landing, we made it to Seattle at about 6:15 local time (PT). We then took the metro from the airport stop to Westlake/Seattle (I think) and walked to our condo complex. We got situated in our rooms before finishing the day with some pizza, including a pepperoni/sausage, BBQ Chicken, and pesto pizza that were very delicious!

Going to bed now before our first adventure tomorrow: Snapchat!

Erik Nelson