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Introduction
The first time I heard about the Silicon Valley Study Trip was when a few students
who went on the trip last year came into our Scholars colloquium to tell us a little bit about
it. At first, I was a bit unsure as to what exactly the trip entailed; however as the presenters
got into the specifics regarding the types of companies they got to see and the unique
opportunities they experienced, I realized that this was a trip I needed to look into. Going
in, I really just wanted to learn more about Silicon Valley and what makes it the hotbed for
innovation that it has become, and also expose myself to the various types of companies
based in the region and what differentiates them from each other and from companies
located elsewhere. Having never visited California before, I was completely unsure of what
Silicon Valley would be like. I suppose I expected the area to be mostly business-driven
with many office-style buildings at the forefront. I also expected for most of the people
there to be older, more established entrepreneurs and businesspeople who had already
achieved success. Finally, I expected work on a daily basis to be much more strict and
regimented; for example, I expected all of the employees to be wearing shirts and ties or
suits. I was surprised to see employees wearing jeans at the majority of companies we
visited.
Reflection Journal
Saturday, May 19 & Sunday, May 20:
This morning, my roommate Matt and I flew out to San Francisco. Considering that
neither of us had ever been to California, we decided to take full advantage of the trip and
give ourselves two full days to explore the city of San Francisco. Knowing that we really
had no idea what to see or where to go, we purchased a two-day bus tour that would take
us around to the best of what San Francisco has to offer. After quickly eating our first In-NOut burgers, we began our trek. I was surprised to see how friendly people were in the
area and we really enjoyed seeing the most important attractions: the Golden Gate Bridge,
Lombard Street, Union Square, Asbury Heights, and more. It was a great experience.
Monday, May 21:
After two exciting days on our own, I was
ready to get the important part of the trip underway.
We started off at Cisco, where we were treated to an
awesome book, notepad, and breakfast. After a brief
introduction, we were taken on a tour of the facility.
I was particularly interested to see how Cisco makes
use of digital signage. Specifically, it was intriguing
to see how Cisco technology is used in many new
stadiums such as New Yankee Stadium, and
Cowboys Stadium. The company can use real time
data regarding concession purchases and change
prices remotely across the stadium using its new
technology. We then listened to Vinod Peris, Vice President of Engineering in the Wireless
Networking Business Unit, who gave us more insight into the company and his path to
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Cisco. One interesting topic that Mr. Peris covered was ‘BYOD’, or “bring your own device”
and how it is taking off in enterprises. This strategy makes employees happy and reduces
their learning curves, but also introduces additional challenges related to connectivity and
security. The other main topic that was covered was the organization of the company. I
was surprised to learn that Cisco is divided into separate business units, meaning that it is
almost run like smaller companies. This allows the units to roll out new features quickly
while also maintaining the quality needed in the industry. Though it was just our first
company visit, I was quickly learning how a large company like this operates. It was clear
that everyone has a specific role within the Business Unit, and immersion outside of that
unit is rare—this probably means that innovation from an individual standpoint is not as
prevalent in a company like Cisco as it is in a smaller company. Mr. Peris also left us with a
few key lessons to keep in mind for the future including: always pay attention to quality,
keep designs & plans as simple as possible, and change brings out the best in people.
After leaving Cisco we made our way over to
Electronic Arts, which turned out to be maybe my favorite
visit of the entire trip. Brad Margolis was extremely
generous in spending the entire afternoon with us and
giving us a lot of good insight and advice. As Development
Director, Brad needs to ask a lot of questions and ensure
that people are in the right place. Not only did Brad take us
through a very engaging “electric maze” demonstration, but
he also explained what the activity represented in a broader
sense. He explained that in life, our interpretations of
events are what drive our responses to those events, which
leads to a certain result. It is important to be open to
various interpretations of the events we experience. I was
struck by the culture at EA; at Cisco, the employees wore
suits and seemed very professional whereas at EA, all the
employees were very relaxed and wore jeans and tee shirts.
On the tour, I was amazed at how many activities there are
to do during a given workday. Employees can play arcade
games, exercise, and play sports while working! The culture really fosters the creativity and
fun that comes through in their games. One thing I really took away from Brad was that
innovation is not synonymous with creativity. In order to innovate, one must observe and
understand what is going on in the surrounding world, then analyze it and generate ideas.
Prioritizing is extremely important from an innovator’s point of view. In Silicon Valley
creativity is certainly very important, but just being creative is not enough to make a
person innovative.
Our final stop of the day was dinner with Motista’s Co-Founder and CEO Scott
Magids. Scott was a very engaging speaker and aside from joking how the only thing that
separates Silicon Valley from anywhere else is the weather, he did make some very good
points. The main idea I took out of Scott’s brief speech was the importance of networking.
Scott talked about how when he was first starting his business, he tried to go to three
networking events every week just to get to know as many people in the industry as he
could. Networking has been a common theme through my freshman year of college so it
was interesting to hear someone as successful as Scott elaborate on it as well.
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Tuesday, May 22:
Our first stop today was at a biotech firm called
Genentech. Gary Lifchus, a UMD grad, was our host.
Gary ran us through a brief PowerPoint about the
history of Genentech, and its evolution to being a part of
the Roche group. Genentech discovers, develops,
manufactures, and commercializes medicines to treat
patients with series medical conditions. I was
interested to hear Gary say that Genentech is such a
great place to work because all of the employees share
the same passion for their patients and have a
commitment to science and innovation. Passion was another one of the common themes I
ended up seeing throughout the trip. Mr. Lifchus believes that the future of medicine
includes a personalized approach, which should allow for the passion of the employees to
be displayed even more. One major takeaway from this visit for me was the phrase “first in
class or best in class”. Though it specifically related to medicines, I think it transcends into
many aspects of business in general. In order to be successful, at least at first, you must
have either the best product available, or be the first to enter a certain market.
Our next visit was to a KIPP school and the Khan Academy. KIPP, or the “Knowledge
is Power Program” allows low-income students to attend college-preparatory schools for
free, and challenges them to be the best that they possibly can be. With longer school days
and calculated disciplinary measures, KIPP gets the best out of its students with a goal of
getting every single student to go to college. The Khan Academy also provides a free world
class education, but does so for anyone, anywhere. With an all computer-based program,
Khan has the students do what is typically considered homework in class while the actual
learning is done at home. Real-time data allows instructors to see how each student is
progressing and what needs more work. My favorite part of visiting KIPP/Khan was
meeting the students. The discipline and poise they showed while speaking to us was
absolutely incredible given their age. They were respectful, energetic, and courteous. Each
student knew exactly what was expected of him or her, which is probably what makes the
program so successful. This can also relate to the business world. When employees know
what they need to do, and are given positive reinforcement along with a sense of belief,
they will probably succeed.
Next, we made our way over to Amazon Lab 126. Though it was interesting to see
the facility and meet a couple very knowledgeable employees, this visit was a bit
disappointing to me because they were not allowed to tell us much about their jobs and the
products. That in itself though, was another lesson. This demonstrates Amazon’s very
secretive culture and illustrates the competition in Silicon Valley. Despite the lack of
information we received, there was one thing that Saminda said that stuck with me and
was mentioned later in the week: “coopetition”. He talked about how there is a balance
between confidentiality and competition among companies in Silicon Valley, and even
within the different teams at Amazon itself. It was fascinating to me that even the different
teams within Amazon do not interact very much and keep their work secrets from each
other. The other thing that both speakers repeated numerous times was how instrumental
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Jeff Bezos is within the company. It shows that sometimes a leader who knows what he is
doing can be enough to make an innovative company successful.
Wednesday, May 23:
We started Wednesday with a visit that was surprisingly
interesting for me in Zoosk. I had low expectations for this visit
because I figured that a dating service could not possibly be all that
complicated or worthwhile, but I was happy to be wrong. Our
speaker, Alex, was very informative and kept absolutely no secrets,
which was a breath of fresh air after seeing Amazon the day before.
Alex talked about California being much more entrepreneurship
friendly than somewhere like Washington DC, which I was beginning
to see with all of the company visits. After running us through a very
detailed summary of the timeline of the company, Alex said
something that I found very startling and a bit contradictory to what
I had been hearing. He said that he found networking to be
overvalued by people trying to start a business. He said that it is
much more effective to spend time on the product itself rather than
trying to build a network. This was an interesting point of view; especially after hearing
Scott Magids talk about how critical networking is just two days before. This shows that
there are different philosophies for everything and no one method is perfect. Different
situations call for different strategies.
Our second visit of the day was Facebook. Everyone was very excited about this one
and Pedro was definitely a good speaker, but unfortunately we were not able to see the
entire facility and most of the information about the new IPO was off-limits. However, we
still got some very useful information. One thing that was striking about Facebook HQ was
the culture. There was interesting abstract art on every wall, fostering a culture of
creativity. One main thing that Pedro kept talking about was that failure is encouraged.
Whereas at other companies workers are fired for messing up, Facebook employees are
encouraged to do so. I was surprised to hear him say that the company typically rolls out
new products early on purpose and releases them in Beta form so that they can get
feedback and make the product better without using much time or resources. There were
many core beliefs that we learned; first and foremost, it is good to “move fast and break
things”. Pedro said that frustration is usually what leads to innovation. When people know
something is not working right, it makes them want to fix it and develop something better.
He also talked about “hackers” without the negative connotation. Facebook has
“hackathons” in which engineers and developers just talk
about what features they think would be useful for the
company and what they want to work on in the future.
This is where many of Facebook’s features, like Groups,
came from.
Next, we went to visit a VC firm called Mayfield
Ventures. Mayfield prides itself on being a people
oriented firm that invests in attractive markets, but bets
on the entrepreneurs more. Mr. Batra, our speaker, said,
“People can make products, but products don’t make
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people”. I think this is a very relevant statement. While it is great to have a solid idea for a
product, it is important that an entrepreneur is reliable and makes a good impression on
people. Mayfield tries to find people who have a vision with big, bold ideas. They want
people to think and be like entrepreneurs, even if it means being a little bit irrational at
times. One good piece of advice I wrote down is that it is important to go against the status
quo. In order to succeed, it is impossible to be pessimistic. From a VC perspective, you
must be able to relate to the entrepreneur; while you may not necessarily understand
everything they say, you must be able to relate to the context of their ideas and aspirations.
Finally, it is good to pursue a company that makes you think independently. Going into this
visit I did not know very much about Venture Capital firms in general, so it was interesting
to learn about what they do and how they make decisions.
Our final visit of the day was to a startup firm called Cube. This was a very
interesting contrast compared to all the other companies we had visited. Run out of a
relatively small office building, Cube has only 6
employees. It was really, really cool to see the
dynamic between all of them. Instead of being like
coworkers, they seemed more like best friends or
even brothers. It was interesting to hear how all of
them do have specific roles, but in reality they are
forced to go outside of their comfort zones to help
get everything done. For example, Charlie, a
Maryland grad, had to teach himself how to do some
basic coding in order to succeed even though he was
a business major. In fact, learning how to code was
one thing that all of them talked about repeatedly.
One lesson I took out of this visit was that in a
startup, there is no room for laziness. To succeed,
you must be 110% dedicated and willing to put in
whatever work is necessary. There is no way to hide
errors or laziness in a startup. Though there is
increased responsibility, there is also increased
reward. It sounded as though you learn a lot more
about yourself and about the world around you by working in a startup because you are
exposed to all aspects of the business world, and in Cube’s case the tech world as well. We
did not hear things like this from the larger companies.
Thursday, May 24:
We started off our day at AccelOps, where Mr. Bhattacharya told us all about his
company. AccelOps offers the industry's first software to monitor both performance and
security of IT infrastructure and applications from a common cloud-generation platform.
More so than the details about his company that I was not particularly interested in, I
focused on what the speaker had to say about his career path. Having started out at a large
company in Cisco, Mr. Bhattacharya found that he started to feel as though what he was
working on had no impact on the world around him, which made him get bored with it.
Though he did learn some valuable things from working with a big company for four years,
he said that people who are motivated by being able to make a difference and seeing their
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ideas come to fruition might be better suited working in smaller companies or starting
their own company altogether. I think this was the most important topic he addressed
while speaking to us because he was not the first person to say something like this. The
newest member of Cube had also said that he was unhappy at Microsoft because he was
able to put forth the minimum amount of effort possible, and he was never able to make a
difference within the company.
Next, we went to Google. I was in awe
of the campus; it actually felt like more of a
city than a working campus. The culture
definitely showed through the campus,
where it seemed like almost everyone was
happy and enjoying the beautiful day. Aside
from the increased security measures, it
seemed as though people were quite relaxed.
In the meeting itself, our four speakers had
many interesting things to say. I was
surprised to hear Jimmy talk about how
Google employees can speak openly with
their managers and how the managers are
open to hearing about what you want to do
with your career after Google. This surprised
me because being that Google is such a large
company, I would not have expected such
personal relationships. From a general
business sense, there was one other piece of
advice that stuck with me: make a good
product then monetize it. This is somewhat
similar to what Alex from Zoosk told us.
Having a good product is the most important
thing- more important than getting funding
or marketing initially. Having a great idea
will not help you all that much if you are unable to actually make
it.
Another one of my favorite visits was WePay. Having
already heard a little bit about WePay during colloquium, I was
admittedly not that excited to go see it again; however, Rich was
an awesome speaker and was extremely honest with us. I took
several great tidbits of advice from what he was saying. One in
particular that came up multiple times was that what helped the
founders succeed was their arrogance. Rich said they pretended
to be entrepreneurs by networking and trying to raise money
while they should have been building a good product (common
theme once again) but they were just not willing to admit failure.
Though they may have been under qualified and unprepared for
the challenges they faced, they ultimately succeeded by learning more about the challenges
they would have to overcome and by finding strategies to help overcome them.
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Our final stop on this long day was yet another favorite of mine, Pixar. Mr.
Greenberg went above and beyond what he
needed to do, which made it a very
entertaining visit. Besides taking the tour, I
think my favorite part of the visit was
eating dinner while sitting next to Mr.
Greenberg himself. It was eye opening to
see how humble he was despite his success,
and how willing he was to pass along
information to all of us. Even after the long
day he had had, he remained calm and
engaging. I think everyone can learn a
lesson from this. In the business world,
there are going to be long and stressful days
but it is critical to stay calm and not let the
stress get the better of you. One unique
thing I learned about Pixar as a company is
that employees must show off their work
on a daily basis, and everyone else on the
team critiques it. I am sure that other
companies do something similar, so it is
important to note how everyone is held
accountable for doing a good job with their
projects, and everyone must learn how to
pass along constructive criticism.
Friday, May 25:
Our final day began with Greylock Partners, a Venture Capital firm. More so than
the company itself, I was interested in what our three speakers had to say about students
coming out of college and getting jobs, and what these students have to offer. One key
point I got Tom is that students coming out of school know things about the evolving world
that older executives do not. College students are typically “in the know” from a social
standpoint, so they can offer insights that older executives do not know about. This makes
students particularly attractive to companies. Next, all three of them talked about the
importance of networking. They were more on board with Scott from Motista rather than
Alex from Zoosk in that networking is very important. They said that at least at first, there
will be an imbalance in networking. You will be asking for more than you are able to give
back. It is always good to network early on, and most importantly, to know what you are
looking for from networking. They advised that we set expectations so that we know what
we are attempting to accomplish rather than blindly talking to someone just for the sake of
doing so. Finally, they talked about the culture of Silicon Valley in terms of there being an
expectation of failure. In other places, like New York, failure is a bad thing whereas in
Silicon Valley the negative connotation usually attached to failure is erased. They also
reused the “coopetition” term that Saminda from Amazon had used to describe the day-today atmosphere.
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We then went to Yammer, an enterprise social media tool that works to connect
professionals at the same company to enable better collaboration, decision making, and
teamwork. Since its founding in 2008, Yammer has
consistently grown and is rapidly approaching 600
employees. Our two speakers once again touched on
networking; they said that it is important to build a network
early on and determine what you want to do. At Yammer,
workers seemed very motivated. The speakers said there
are a few key reasons for that. First of all, the employees
are there because they think they can change the world.
This is very in line with the startup feel of a WePay or a Cube rather than somewhere like
Cisco. Next, the company constantly recognizes good performers. This reminded me of
somewhere like Facebook, where developers from the Hackathons receive recognition for
the ideas that end up working out. Basically, I felt as though Yammer offered some of the
benefits of a larger company but still maintained the feel and culture of a startup, which
made it very interesting to see after having seen both large and small companies before it.
Our final visit on the trip was LaunchSquad, a PR firm that specializes in helping
innovative companies make a name for themselves, grow their businesses and become
market leaders through strategic communications programs. Before he gave his
suggestions for us, there was one thing Jason talked about that really intrigued me. He
talked about how the company will soon begin utilizing “hotel seating”, where there are no
assigned desks; instead, employees will just come into work and sit in a different seat next
to someone new every day. I thought this was a very innovative strategy and was different
than anything else we had seen on the trip. The idea is great for encouraging collaboration.
Jason then gave us six suggestions to keep in mind:
1) Be interested – must listen, share, and talk about ideas
2) Be visible – take pictures, start a blog, red something new weekly, interview people,
etc…
3) Be bold – get in the habit of asking for the things you want or need
4) Be entrepreneurial – or pursue your other interests
5) Be an expert – learn how to do something and master it
6) Have fun
Like the speakers at Greylock, Jason talked about youth being an advantage in the
workplace. He believes that people our age are great at anticipating trends and seeing
what people will be into in the near future.
Conclusion:
The Silicon Valley Study Trip far exceeded my expectations. Considering that I am a
freshman who had never been on a study trip such as this one, I had no idea of the level of
access we would be able to receive from such a wide variety of companies. Aside from
having a lot of fun and meeting many new people from various backgrounds, I learned a lot
about Silicon Valley, and the business world in general.
Going into the trip, I never understood the differences in culture between different
companies. I always assumed that all companies operated under similar conditions with
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similar values. This trip definitely changed my viewpoint on that. It was interesting to see
how the level of professionalism and meticulousness at a company like Cisco contrasted
with the relaxed, casual style of an Electronic Arts. It was also very valuable to see the
differences between these large corporations, and small startups just trying to become
successful. Seeing Cube was a huge eye opener as to how many of these successful startups
are able to get their feet off the ground and establish a name for themselves.
Aside from the companies themselves, I also learned a lot about the types of people
that thrive in Silicon Valley. If I were to share something about the trip with a recruiter, I
would probably talk about how self-motivated the people in SV were. When you look at
people like Rich from WePay, it is incredible to see the determination and focus they had.
The people we met with were obviously intellectually smart, but there was something that
separated them from other people I have met before. All of them were dedicated to
actually making a difference in the world, rather than just making a living for themselves.
The one specific example I look at was the newest employee at Cube. He had an
opportunity at Microsoft to make a lot of money, work short hours, and not work all that
hard. Most people would jump at such a situation because it requires minimal effort; on
the contrary, it drove him away because he felt as though he was not being challenged and
he was not making an impact. It was really incredible to see how motivated all of these
people were.
I thought the best part of the trip was being able to go to all of these companies back
to back in such a short period of time. This allowed me to really get a feel for the
differences among the companies, so I was able to compare and contrast them quite easily.
It was great that there was such a variety in terms of the types of companies we visited. No
two firms felt exactly the same, which showed how diverse an area Silicon Valley is.
Overall, going on this trip was a once in a lifetime experience. It was really inspiring
to hear what all of these successful people had to say. In one specific example, I was so
inspired by what Charlie from Cube had to say about learning how to code that even though
I really do not have much of a serious interest in tech startups (besides just enjoying
learning about computers on my own time), I came home and signed up for CodeCademy so
that I can learn some basic programming. I am actually enjoying it more than I had
expected. The trip just opened my eyes to so many opportunities that I never even knew
existed. It really was an awesome experience.
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