Moving to Silicon Valley

5 things to consider before flying over

After publishing my first blog post, I got a lot of questions about how the Silicon Valley ecosystem works. I also got a few questions about trends (to be covered in future posts) and a lot of questions about whether they should or should not move here.

I remembered 2 years back when I was organising the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship and Steve Blank was asked the question “ What should European entrepreneurs do to increase their chances of success ?” Without a hint of hesitation, he said: “Get a plane ticket and move here.” It took me a while to understand what he meant, since there’s nothing I’d like to see more than thriving European entrepreneurial ecosystems. There’s nothing more rewarding than growing your own local community and I experienced that firsthand. Now, being in Silicon Valley and looking back, I see how the puzzle comes together and how being a European entrepreneur and coming into Silicon Valley does not necessarily go against you being able to grow your company across European markets and supporting your local community. I’d like to take this opportunity to share the things I learned; hopefully it helps you understand whether you’d like to come over and when to plan for the big move.

Why move to SV?

A lot of entrepreneurs consider Silicon Valley as the Mecca of Entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, some underestimate the difficulty of reaching the right people and raising money. I’ve consistently heard that the next big startups will come from abroad or at least outside the Bay Area so people here are already interested in international markets and are following them closely. Nevertheless, we all know how small the chances are of becoming the next Google or Facebook. Entrepreneurship is tough and very few actually get to large growth stages. The environment has become increasingly tough and even more people join, in love with the idea of being founders and baizing the trails for new futures.

Silicon Valley has done an amazing job at concentrating talent and funding. It definitely helps startups gain traction and creates a mind shift towards development and limitless opportunities. Failure is accepted and hard work is rewarded. People are open, they work hard and get things done. It is truly an inspiring place to be for any entrepreneur and raises the bar for many startups. Nevertheless, breaking the new kid on the block stage and getting into growth takes some time and international entrepreneurs can prepare for this move to make sure they can maximize every minute spent here.

How can you set yourself up for success?

I really like Seneca’s saying on how luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet. This is even more clear in Silicon Valley. Everybody talks business so you should be ready to have the right milestones and numbers checked. The first question I hear every time I meet somebody is “So, what are you working on?” If it’s a startup, they usually ask the stage of development, funding, milestones and additional market-specific things. Their knowledge is mind blowing, across different markets and trends. Imagine their impression if they know more about your business than you do. You will get a polite “That’s interesting” and they will soon after lose focus and move on to something else. I consistently see entrepreneurs who move here too early in their development and struggle a lot more to get the momentum they could have achieved if they moved when they were Silicon Valley ready.

Here are a few things I learned so far:

1. People

The good old American saying is clearly visible and even more prominent in Silicon Valley. Time is money. People love what they do and have very little tolerance for “wantrepreneurs” or for anybody who wastes their time. Sending emails asking for help or advice will have an incrementally larger chance of getting read and answered if you understand what their clear benefit is for getting in touch with you. Do your homework, follow them on social media and really understand what they do even before thinking of writing an email.

2. Competition

Silicon Valley is an amazing example of an Open Capital Market. Funding and talent are available to anybody and everybody. Everything revolves around the speed of getting things done. Nevertheless, competition is getting tougher every day. Entrepreneurs move here from allover the world with big dreams in their hearts just to be disillusioned, live in extremely overpriced shared rooms and work day in and day out to hire expensive technological people and push their ideas forward. You want to be smarter than that. If there is talent available in your community, make these first steps in your home country, launch, raise local capital and come over as a success story ready to launch on a global level.

3. Idea

There are a few “sleep” words that investors have heard over and over again that you do not want to use. By now, we’re already so bored of hearing about another social network or app. Everything seems to have been invented already until somebody comes up with another brilliant idea making you think “How come I’ve never thought of that?” You want to be part of the this group and create something useful. If you like social networks, try to see whether a niche market isn’t served well. If it’s an app, it better already be used and loved by at least a few good thousands of people who prove there’s a need. Nowadays, all startups related to AI, Biotech, next generation life sciences, Internet of Things or generally engineering & hardware seem to be very trendy. That doesn’t mean that you need to fit the mold. Your more ambitious and complex challenge is to see which way the world is going and understand what part you want to play. Being able to meet tomorrow’s needs has been proved over and over again as a revolutionary and disruptive way of entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, you have to be able to time it right, as one of my favorite quotes says “Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.” (Victor Hugo)

4. The hustle

So you’ve launched in your own market, have gained traction and are ready to move. Don’t underestimate the funding process. People don’t know you here and they take some time to understand what you’re about. Read books like “The hard thing about hard things” and understand that if Reid Hoffman had to approach a hundred investors before getting his investment round, you most likely will have to as well. Every investor will do her due diligence, they will ask a lot of questions and most likely will hold back until you have a first investor on board. Once you have a prominent investor, a lot more people will be interested, but getting the first yes is increasingly difficult. Accelerators do a great job at helping you increase your network and chances of funding but if you go on your own, get ready to knock on many doors.

5. The big picture

Last but definitely not least, I love the idea of launching lean and iterating but what I think is missing from this testing and growing approach is culture and mindset. If you’ve chosen entrepreneurship, it’s for life. If you’re set on starting a business, the goal is to grow it to a global organisation. It’s not a game or a temporary testing round. Your time is more precious than that. Understand this before you approach anybody to join your team and make very little compromises. You don’t want somebody who is partly interested in it. You don’t want to leave contracts for later or split the company equally between the 3–4 cofounders. Your goal is to create a successful company, even if you have to change your approach a thousand times. This is incredibly important since your team will essentially make or break you. If it’s a part time project, chances are that it will stay like that. If you think of it as a global company from day 1, any obstacle can be overcome and the structures you put in place will help you grow a lot faster.

All in all, these are only a few observations to consider (from my humble opinion). The path to success is difficult but there is a reason why some are extremely more successful than others. You want that mindset from day 1.

This story is part of the “DeMinds | Startup Tales” publication on Medium. DeMinds | Startup Tales is a destination for everybody who is interested in reading from people in startup ecosystems around the world. If you wanna read more Startup Tales, subscribe to the DeMinds publication here: https://medium.com/deminds-startup-tales