A month In the Valley

Aurélien Vasinis
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

Lessons learned from my first trip to San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge — San Francisco | July 2017

Since I was a young boy, I’ve been dreaming of going on a Silicon Valley pilgrimage, the Mecca of all that is tech, the place where humanity’s future is being shaped. A month ago, my company, talkpush, decided to relocate its headquarter to San Francisco, so I finally got a chance to fulfil this dream. This post is an account of my experience, as a Fresh-Off-the-Boat, wide-eyed French entrepreneur… taking it all in for the first time.

A state of mind

Before I even step foot in America, I changed the location on my LinkedIn profile to San Francisco, thinking it would help me establish new connections and speed up my apartment search. To my surprise, it was my CEO who noticed the change first… sending me this tongue-in-cheek remark:

Our CEO Max: I see that you’ve relocated to SF already. Fancy!

Me: SF is not a location, it’s a state of mind. 😊

“San Francisco is a state of mind”. I was trying to be witty when I wrote that line… A month later, I can honestly say those words materialized into reality.

It took me just two Uber rides and an Airbnb booking to realize that San Francisco is a true cultural melting pot. My first driver was an Electronics Engineering student that immigrated from Myanmar, the second one was a US Army translator in Afghanistan. My roommates were Japanese, Russian, Chinese and Brazilian. In my first few hours in SF, I had already been exposed to more nationalities than throughout my teenage years in my hometown in France.

My first day in SF also happened to coincide with the annual Gay Pride, a city-wide celebration of tolerance, freedom, with tons of public nudity. Not exactly what I had in mind coming into the tech capital, but hey, it’s all part of building a pluralistic society.

Where are all the fatties?

I was told that everything is BIG in the US. Portion sizes, cars and infamously its people. While I can’t speak for the whole country, I can certainly deny those reports as far as SF is concerned. I went for a jog near the Golden Gate Bridge on Day 2. It was packed with people doing sports. No signs of obesity. Instead, San Francisco citizens turned out to be dynamic, athletic and with a high propensity for vegan diets and Soylent/protein shakes.

A symphony of weirdos

While tech has attracted a dynamic international crowd, this only tells half the story. Beyond the Silicon Valley rosy dreams lies a dark San Francisco, home to a huge number of homeless people. While the wealth gap is massive all over the world, I have never seen it more on display than in San Francisco. (To put this into context: I came from Hong Kong where the GINI indicator is very high. Perhaps the poor in Hong Kong are kept hidden from the public eye, I do not know…). When I first went out for lunch, the symphony of weirdos began. People yelling everywhere, using drugs on the streets, pissing, defecating, sometimes all of the above and all at once in broad daylight. I have never witnessed anything like it. While inside the co-working space, everyone is highly productive, amicable, working on their next multi-million dollar exits, as soon as you step outside, everyone is a whack-job. Used needles on the street, strange voices coming out of alleyways, those will be the image of SF that will stay ingrained in my memory, much more so than the Golden Gate bridge.

Unicorns are bred in self-confidence

But let’s put aside the social commentary for now.

I came to SF to work and to find out why this city breeds so many tech giants (aka Unicorns). My impression of what makes the community different here compared to what I had seen in Asia and in France comes from one key factor: confidence.

Other places call themselves the Silicon Valley of Africa, the Silicon Valley of France, etc. Governments try to copy the Silicon Valley model, generally with little or no success. You can’t replicate an ecosystem because its main foundation is a state of mind, not an infrastructure. It all boils down to confidence. In this sense, I think our new French President has totally nailed it. His message to the tech community is all about confidence. He does not plan to create a French Silicon Valley with billions of investments (no chance of that happening: the country is broke anyway), he works instead on injecting hope and confidence. It doesn’t cost much and it can drive real behavioral change.

Over the past 6 months, I have spent time in Europe, Asia, USA. I have met many smart people, with high levels of energy and motivation. One of my SF roommates is a mathematician who reminds me very much of my roommate in China. Both are very disciplined and passionate about pure science, knowledge. Both book lovers. Both could benefit from having a slightly higher degree of self-confidence. They actually understood this. One of my roommate just dropped out college to work full time for Ripple as researcher. The other one is about to fly to the UK to pursue a Master’s degree in linguistics. I truly feel that internationally the people from my generation are closing that confidence gap. We share similar values and determination. I personally have a lot more in common with people my age in China or in the US, than I do with older generations from my home country. What our generation needs are more success stories to build our self-confidence.

So, should you relocate to SF too?

Thanks for reading my post. For those of you who are thinking about relocating to SF to seek fortune: take a look at yourself first. You won’t find any more geniuses in SF than you will in your home country. You will only find people brimming with confidence. The people who immigrated to the US are not smarter, they are simply a little more courageous and are a lot more confident.

What gives the people here so much confidence? Perhaps, it’s simply the fact that this economy has been #1 for so long. Or perhaps, it’s the way people are brought up here, with kids learning how to “sell themselves” from a young age.

Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure you don’t have to be American or to be based in the Valley to get that SF state of mind. I’ll certainly be taking mine with me whenever I head off for my next adventure.

AV.

Max, CEO & I, Finance Manager @ Las Vegas

)

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade