Silicon Valley is the Mecca for any technology entrepreneur. To get to travel with 9 other women entrepreneurs is like the ultimate fun trip. So when AnitaB.org presented me with the opportunity to visit the Valley, I immediately jumped at it. Abhi S Rao from AnitaB.org India asked us to think of what we wanted to learn from the experience. Honestly, I was too excited on my first ever visit to USA to think of outcomes. It only hit me when I landed at SFO airport — I had always modeled CloudKrate so that Indian scientists could have the same standard of support services as scientists in US or UK. But here I was in the country which was setting those standards — so how do the startups here figure out what is their gold? In 24 hours I had the one takeaway I wanted from my trip — how does CloudKrate determine what Indian scientists need and what would be our gold standard. Here is a brief diary of the 5 days I spent at Silicon Valley and key learnings for my growth as an entrepreneur.

7th May:

Meeting with Ambassador Venkatesan Ashok:

Our week started with meeting the Consul General of India — San Francisco at the Indian Consulate. I did not know what to expect from this meeting with a bureaucrat. But the Ambassador warmly welcomed us and enquired about each venture individually. He then spoke about his own efforts with UC Berkeley to execute the SmartVillages programme in India. He was keen to adapt our ventures to solve the issues he saw at the villages. This was the key learning: Be prepared to understand everyone’s ideas and to be open to change yours. Also, keep on evolving and exploring new options to include in your solution.

Visit to Google:

First reaction: I visited Google! They have heated toilet seats! I visited Google! Okay, second reaction: There is a strong emphasis on company culture and data being sacrosanct. Two ideals I want CloudKrate to embody. At Google, we had some technical discussions and got a sneak peek in to the capabilities of Google Assistant. I was struck at how much data had been generated and curated for building Google’s tools and how much they were attuned with the issues their customers face. A particular conversation captured my attention — Google works with a lot of startups and through this interaction they understand how their customers perceive the tools they create. Someone asked one of their startups about data security on the Cloud; a question I have been asked repeatedly in the context of CloudKrate. It felt strangely reassuring that Google was working on building confidence in their data security measures through their startups.

Key learning: How much ever big you get — always find a way to talk to your customer. And be ready for critical feedback. And then work on that feedback.

8th May

Visit to Charles River Ventures:

At CRV, all 10 ventures presented to Devdutt Yellurkar for his comments on our startup ideas. My key takeaway from this interaction was the importance of having a functional and effective team. Scaling up is a challenge and a structured team expansion is key to overcoming it.

There was also an interesting internal conversation which started: when does a startup believe it “has arrived”? On getting the first 100 clients? On the 100th client obtained organically? On first investment?

Visit to Microsoft:

Interaction with Brenda:

We met Brenda Wilkerson, the President and CEO of AnitaB.org at Microsoft office. She spoke about her journey and everyone in the audience could find pieces of their life journey resonate with hers. The interaction with her taught me one thing — to always demand the standard you deserve and to not be okay with the situation otherwise. This attitude kind of underpins what CloudKrate does — scientists in India struggle with getting their lab requirements on time and I am not okay with this. As a scientist I demanded a better solution and CloudKrate is my experiment to provide it.

Tour of The Garage by Microsoft:

First Reaction: Have you ever tried HoloLens? I have (gloat)! There are few innovations which you try and cannot put down again. The Garage has a bunch of these innovations. The Garage is a resource to Microsoft employees that supports and encourages problem solving in new and innovative ways. It is humbling to see what researchers are creating and the potential impact they can have. The Hololens has many applications in surgery, search and rescue operations and education. It inspires you to think beyond your own little problem set, to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I came out of Microsoft with that one lesson; to whatever scale CloudKrate grows, we never lose focus of the bigger picture. In our case it is the thousands of students in government schools and colleges in India who have not ever tried a science experiment. Because they cannot afford to buy the equipment or the consumables. Or because they don’t have a supplier who can deliver. I will say CloudKrate has arrived the day we make consumables available in remote parts of India and every aspiring scientist has access to a functioning laboratory.

Visit to Khosla Labs:

A 45 min Q and A session with Vinod Khosla can give you a lot of perspective. How VCs look at Indian versus US startups, when is a good time to get funding and what are the common challenges for a startup. Two things I learnt from this interaction:

1. Tying up with big companies who are in similar space can actually stifle your growth

2. Don’t adapt US solutions to Indian problems, evolve your own solutions (It took me a trip to SFO to figure this out, but I think it was worth it)

Mr Khosla also said that he spends most of his time reading scientific articles and has a lot of interest in CRISPR. This is something I would like to inculcate; to stay on top of emerging technologies and identify those which I can leverage at CloudKrate.

9th May:

Visit to Zum:

At Zum, we chatted with its founder Ritu Narayan. Ritu is a fantastic inspiration for someone starting from scratch and working towards building their own business. It takes immense courage, a lot more patience and significantly more perseverance to achieve this. Ritu is a great role model and the learnings she shared made my journey that much easier. Key learning: Stick to your idea and figure out ways to make it work. The solution has to come from the customer’s pain point not from your imagination.

Visit to Stanford:

First reaction: My dad had an offer in the 1980s to do a PhD in the US. If only he had chosen that path, I would be guiding this tour instead of taking it!

Stanford is an amazing place and like most other places we had been to, has a strong emphasis on innovation. We met a couple of inspiring ladies that evening who are entrepreneurs and investors, Radhika Shah and Asha Motwani. That evening reinforced the idea in my head; that we need to demand the best of everyone around us, including ourselves. If we don’t, we are compromising on our integrity and allowing substandard activities.

10th May

Visit to SkyDeck:

This was a short visit to UC Berkeley’s accelerator to understand their operations. There is something just inspiring about meeting startups. It makes you question your own ways and forces you to think of how you can improve what you are doing. It also humbles you and helps you assess your areas of weakness.

Tour of San Francisco:

All entrepreneurs need a break and there is no better bonding activity than sightseeing. I will let the pictures do the talking here.

11th May

Spinta Global Accelerator Programme:

Spinta had organized a whole day’s programme centered around emerging technologies and their potential use for startups. There were sessions on diverse things including machine learning, bitcoins and space exploration. This gave us an opportunity to explore other technologies and talk to experts to figure a way of using them in our startups.

So what did I learn in these 5 days?

I believe technical knowledge is easy to access, but a change in attitude is difficult to make. This intensive week gave me the confidence to question my own beliefs around my startup and the assurance to be comfortable with my limitations. It allowed me to reassess the goals of my startup and probe the direction it was taking. In this week, I found myself revisiting the drawing board and rehashing CloudKrate with a clarity that I lacked before.

I also made friends with some pretty awesome folks who are sketching their own paths and are happy to share their learning materials. I did not go on this trip with any expectations but came back with confidence, clarity and a few amazing friends.

I would like to thank AnitaB.org India, Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) for giving me the opportunity to make this visit. A big shout out particularly to Shruti Satsangi and Abhi S Rao from AnitaB.org India for being the best organizers around.