Why all entrepreneurs must visit Silicon Valley at least once
Life is challenging and uncertain for an entrepreneur but at times, punctuated with amazing opportunities. One such opportunity for me was to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016 held in June this year. The Summit, organized by the U.S. Department of State, brought together 700 entrepreneurs, 300 investors, U.S. Government officials including President Barack Obama to Stanford University. After the Summit, I stayed back in the Valley to meet other stakeholders in the region. Now that I am back to the routine in Mumbai, I reflect upon my time there and here’s why I think if you are an entrepreneur you need to visit Silicon Valley at least once:
Silicon Valley is not a place, it’s not a state of mind — it’s an ecosystem
Ecosystems are created when many stakeholders namely, Government, Investors, Educational Institutes and Entrepreneurs come together to create an environment that allows you to believe — If you think you can change the world, it’s perfectly ok. Adequate policy support, investor capital and talent pool will be at your disposal to help you plug away at your idea.
Ecosystems are hard to replicate because of the inherent quality of the people within it. A quality to look at ideas for what they are worth and not judge the people providing those ideas. It is a place where ideas and capability trump CVs and pedigrees. You can copy the whole ecosystem but you cannot copy the earnestness with which people want to help you and really want to see you succeed.
It will be naive to think that Silicon Valley is all that cute. There is a precondition — and it is the number of people impacted by your product or service — If it’s not reaching a billion people, it’s not big enough. Possibly the only way to reach that scale is to use technology and the internet — for it is a true leveler.
At Sunvest, we are using technology to monitor home solar systems, which helps in proactive asset management. Managing solar assets are as important as deploying them. It is a testament to our long term commitment to the customer.
I met entrepreneurs from Thailand helping farmers increase rice yields, from Pakistan addressing the menace of counterfeit medicines, from India fighting for equal rights for women and from Jamaica helping kids learn using NLP techniques. They are all solving a fundamental local problem but with an element of technology — to address reach — for that is the price you have to pay to bring your dream to the Valley.
As I look back, Silicon Valley = Vibrant Ecosystem + Use of Technology. I realise that my only job at Sunvest is to create the right culture, where the team members feel an inspired enthusiasm to come into work every day. A culture that judges them a little less and believes in them a little more.
Ask yourself — what kind of culture are you creating around yourself?
