Presentation given to the visitors of the EduVenture program on 25 April in Burlingame, CA. Focus on Valley mindsets and the issues global entrepreneurs face.
CNIC Information System with Pakdata Cf In Pakistan
EduVenture presentation 25 april 2012
1. Living on the Fault Line: Business on the
Edge between Cultures in Silicon Valley
presentation to Silicon Valley EduVenture
25 April 2012
IdaRose Sylvester & Jan Grotenbreg,
founders, Silicon Valley Link
2. Agenda
• Some questions for you
• A little information about us
• Silicon Valley 101
• History
• Mindset
• Global expansion mindsets of startups
• Q&A
3. Some questions to get us started
• What is the capitol of Silicon Valley?
• When did Silicon Valley get named?
• What percentage of Silicon Valley households
primarily speak a language other than
English?
• How much venture capital did Silicon Valley
VCs invest in 2011?
• What are some words you use to describe
Silicon Valley?
6. About Silicon Valley Link
• Hands on marketing, business development
and sales services
• Market entry and expansion
• Small businesses
• Overseas into US
• Less risk, better reward
8. About us
IdaRose Sylvester. 15+ years experience in marketing, strategy and
business development. Technology focused. Globally focused.
Telecom, SaaS, BPO, hardware, web 2.0. Lecturer on best practices,
Silicon Valley, marketing. Executive background. Bachelor’s degree
from UC Berkeley and MBA from FW Olin School. California native.
Jan Grotenbreg. 25+ years experience in marketing, sales and
business development. Technology focused. Globally focused.
Telecom, clean tech, semiconductors, hardware. Executive
background with experience on 3 continents with Philips. MSEE
from Technical University of Eindhoven. Lived in California 15+ years.
9. We’ve seen it all
http://www.netvalley.com/silicon_valley_history.html
11. Silicon Valley 1849 to 2012
Startups from 1849 to 2012: the Gold Rush mindset continues…
1849 2012
12. The impact on forming Silicon Valley
• Gold Rush mentality, innovation, self reliance,
speed, risk
• Attracted adventurers and pioneers
• The real winners were…….
13. Evolution of Silicon Valley Facebook
Social Web
Google
Web 2.0
Netscape
Web 1.0
Salesforce
Cisco Cloud
Apple
Networking
PCs
SUN
Intel ICs workstations
Hewlett Packard
Components
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
15. Exercise: What do you think are the
components of the Silicon Valley
mindset?
16. Silicon Valley mindset
• Be agile
• Embrace risk
• Accept failure
• Fail fast
• Be lean
• Evolve your ideas
• Support others
• Self starting
• Self reliant
• Have a healthy ego
19. NO!
I don’t need to
• You might be right
– Some markets are so easily globalized you can stay in
one place
– Maybe your home market is large enough
• You might be wrong
– Do you really know your customer from thousands of
miles away?
– Are your assumptions about your home market true?
– What are your true aspirations?
22. Not now!
• I’ll wait until I prove myself locally
– Do you know the market is big enough to give you
enough money?
– How do you know your home market will teach
you what to create for the rest of the world?
• I’ll grow when I get traction in the US
– How will that happen without effort?
24. Yes, but…
– I will now, but I won’t invest
• In learning about business practices & culture
• I’ll put in more effort when the market is ready
• I’ll just show up!
– I will now, but I won’t do anything differently
• Are you sure your product will sell the same way it is in
other markets?
• Are your customers the same?
• Is your messaging appropriate?
25. Case studies:
doing it slowly!
Various other clients/contacts of ours
26. Case study:
doing it wrong!
Various clients of ours
28. Yes!
Exercise: The mindset of
abundance:
what do you think it is about?
29. Yes!
The mindset of abundance
• Embrace the risk of expanding
• Make smart examinations of product,
customers and messaging
• Make changes as needed, different market,
different approaches
• Apply the right resources without hesitation
California needed to be self sufficientEstablished centers of finance and trade in Boston, NY other East Coast cities did not want to risk supplying and trading with CAReal winners were industries that supported the gold miners NOT the miners themselves
Nobody eats at the restaurant where only one customer is!
You don’t have to move there, or even visit, although you shouldBut as the song goes, if you can make it there you can make it anywhere. Silicon valley is a place of much opportunity, innovation, money, great weather, great people. But it is also extremely challenging. It’s like going to the best university. You work with and compete against the best and smartest people, many of them with more money than you. But this makes you smarter, and faster, and more motivated. And from this frenzy, you also learn best practices, and these best practices will make you succeed anywhere in the world, even if your local market is what you aspire toLitmus test
These factors that create a foundation in silicon valley are the forces global entrepreneurs face
People do evolve in and out of these
Unique: consumer focused. Web focused (channel). Brand that happens to have global love.
We like solutions
Financial industry/online payment spaceIn his very small local market, his product served compliance regulations which don’t exist in the same way, his value proposition was wrong, turns out his proposition in the US was more about data entry savings. He also had many more markets open to him in the US, what he considered small opportunities there (which they were) were large hereAlso nedapetc with products not solutions and US regulations and standards.
Test and measurement just like engineeringCustomer Discovery is replaced by “market research,” which serves to support your assumptions rather than validate them. The process resembles the scientific method:Observing and describing a phenomenonFormulating a causal hypothesis to explain the phenomenonUsing a hypothesis to predict the results of new observationsMeasuring prediction performance based on experimental testsWhen building a business, the process is used to discover, test and validate the following your business assumptions:A specific product solves a known problem for an identifiable group of users (Customer Discovery)The market is saleable and large enough that a viable business might be built (Customer Validation)The business is scalable through a repeatable sales and marketing roadmap (Company Creation)Company departments and operational processes are created to support scale (Company Building)