I Drove 11,000 Miles to Participate in a Silicon Valley Accelerator. Was it worth it?
The Departure
I left Norfolk, Virginia on March 31, 2018 with our Prius packed to the brim. The rest of our team at Ario would remain in Norfolk and I would be working remotely once I made it to Silicon Valley.
With my wife’s “I’ll go, but remember the dogs and the birds are going too” echoing in my mind and an anxious Pomeranian barking in my ear, we headed to the Washington D.C. metro area, where we said our goodbyes to my in-laws.
We then made our way through southwestern Virginia to see my folks and on to Nashville, Memphis, Ft. Smith (Arkansas), Oklahoma City, Amarillo (Texas), Flagstaff (Arizona) and Los Angeles (visiting family) and finally arriving in Los Gatos, California where we would stay for the duration of the the program at Plug and Play Tech Center where Ario was selected for Internet of Things Batch #8.
A few snaps from the road:
The Arrival
After arriving in Los Gatos, California on April 7, 2018 it was time to get settled and be ready for our first week at Plug and Play Tech Center. Plug and Play describes itself as
…the ultimate innovation platform, bringing together the best startups and the world’s largest corporations. — Plug and Play Tech Center
Wait..let’s back up a bit.
The Backstory
So how’d I end up here representing our team at Ario?
It was quite a process. Flashback to January, 2018: we exhibited at CES 2018 in Las Vegas earlier in the year and a representative of the Plug and Play venture team opened discussions with us. They encouraged us to apply as a startup, we had a few screening calls and ended up being down-selected from their list of 500–1000 startups that might be a good fit. Then we received the news that we were invited to “Selection Day” in March. As a team we agreed it would be best that we all flew to Plug and Play’s Selection Day to get a good feeling for whether or not we wanted to commit fully to the process. This also meant that I would have to pitch for over 500 attendees made up of corporate partners of Plug and Play, VCs and other attendees; they’d be voting on whether or not we’d be admitted (no pressure, right?).
Plug and Play Tech Center’s reputation is well known and as a quick recap here are some top level stats:
- 2,000+ startups accelerated
- 426 startups accelerated in 2017
- 217 investments made by Plug and Play Tech Center in 2017
- $7bn raised by Plug and Play Tech Center portfolio companies
- 750+ portfolio companies
- 220 corporate partners
- 300+ VC partners
So, it was clear, we couldn’t be half-measure with our time at Plug and Play. Not only did we pitch on selection day, but we also were given the opportunity to meet with a few their corporate partners. Our team all agreed, if we were admitted we’d go all-in.
We made it. From the 25(ish) that presented at selection day to the 15 they took into the batch. I was moving to California two weeks later (this got very real, very quickly).
Plug and Play doesn’t take equity from startups that participate and promises to provide office space, funding opportunities, corporate introductions and mentorship.
The Process
Within the first week of arriving at Plug and Play I attended 8 “deal flows,” 2 investment meetings and 1 mentor session. A deal flow is a meeting that is curated by Plug and Play to align corporate partners’ interests with startups’ offerings. The format is simple; you are given 30 minutes to present your startup’s technology to a corporate partner and discuss the ways that you could work together. From this, you hopefully walk away with business cards, high interest in what you’re doing and a pathway to initiate a Proof of Concept, often referred to as a POC. It is from these POCs that your startup can derive carry-on business, identify important key metrics, learn more about your product-market fit, and further refine personas for your marketing efforts. In a perfect world you walk in and nail every single one of these deal flows and each company you talk to will leave salivating for your product. In reality, each company has different problems that your product might solve. This can be very tricky when your product has vast horizontal value. More on this a bit later.
Throughout the course of my stay at Plug and Play I attended a total of 44 deal flow sessions, 5 mentor sessions, 5 VC meetings, 8 events and numerous moments of “managed serendipity.” What I mean by managed serendipity is that because of the density of startups, corporate partners, events, workshops and mentor sessions you are bound to have conversations with individuals that have overlapping needs/interests similar to your own; and from that opportunity arises to collaborate, learn from one another or to help each other out by making introductions.
About a month into my stay I was invited to present in front of VCs at a private event Plug & Play hosted. This was a wonderful opportunity to not only test our pitch, but also receive direct feedback that would help us dial in our focus and check the pulse of a combination of institutional investors and corporate investment groups to see what they thought of our approach.
It’s important to note that while startups aren’t required to relocate to Plug and Play to participate, we decided someone from our team should. After all, we’re based in Virginia where the density of opportunity is a bit different than what exists in Silicon Valley.
The Outcome
So how does this story end?
Well, at the conclusion of the 3 months there was the Summer Summit. It’s a demo day where each startup has 3 minutes to pitch. This was our opportunity to lay out our case for the problems we solve and how we do it.
So what’s our pitch? In short, we’re on a mission to replace instruction manuals and documentation as you and I have come to know it. Traditionally, instruction manuals are 2D and paper-based, but we live in a spatial world. When I approach an object I want have contextual information on how to interact with it. Moreover, enterprise has an interest in understanding how you work with objects in your workplace (think manufacturing equipment maintenance, repair, facilities & maintenance teams, vehicle repair, interacting with large industrial equipment, and so on…). The value implications are vast.
To set the stage, here are a few photos from the Summer Summit 2018.
Here’s my pitch from the Summer Summit.
So what was the outcome?
We won the People’s Choice Award for Internet of Things Batch #8.
Wow. Didn’t expect that.
So what does this mean? Well, it helped us garner more attention from the investors and corporate partners in attendance and we have a solid list of companies that we’re discussing POCs with (mission accomplished for goal number #1). Additionally, we’re raising a seed round and are in discussions with groups to do that (goal #2.. in progress).
I learned a very important lesson from improv classes I’ve taken over the years. That is to say “Yes and…” to opportunities. What does this mean? In short, it means that if an opportunity exists that could be beneficial you should consider being open to it by saying “Yes” and also contributing value to the equation by saying “and…” and helping add value for others. This principle manifested itself by saying yes to every deal flow opportunity I was presented with and attending as many events as possible; and from these meetings not only was I able to further focus our approach, but also to help organizations learn how they might benefit from introducing a new technology.
So how does this story end? I imagine there’s going to be a part II to this post!
One thing is for certain. The 11,000 miles was well worth it, and so was the investment our company made to be sure we had someone on the ground and present for the duration of the trip. After all, the program is located in the most tech-centric landscape in the world. And while I was our remote worker in California our team was busy continuing to iterate on our product, working to on-board pilots (test-runs with companies), and taking home a victory for NATO’s 2018 Innovation Challenge.
Bonus Snaps
Here are some bonus shots from my visits to Facebook and Airbnb & the Computer History Museum.
So, this story’s ending is actually just the beginning of the rest of our journey.
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