How we got to Silicon Valley

It all started in mid-September. At that time, our startup had been working for half a month and all that we were going to do in a public plan was to participate in the upcoming Startup Weekend, which was scheduled for November 11-13, in Chisinau. Looking through the organizers of this event, I had only one thought in my head - to find someone who would help us get to Silicon Valley. Then this was just a thought about how and how soon it would be realized, I could not even imagine.

Then, in September, one of our team members shared with me a very interesting link that contained information about a business conference called Silicon Valley Open Doors'11. After a quick scan of the text on the site, I realized that they also attracted start-ups to participate, not only from the United States, but from all over the world. Without thinking, I filled out a form on the site and sent an application for participation. I sent and forgot, because I didn’t particularly hope that we would be able to immediately get to such a large-scale event. But fate had completely different plans and on October 30 I received an email that the Organizing Committee of the event approved our application, and as a reward they were ready to make our participation in the conference free of charge (it is worth noting that the ticket price at that time was $ 400 per person).
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We were given 7 days to draw up a summary and presentation of the project in English. Fortunately, we had time and soon received the answer that our project was in the final and will definitely participate in the conference. Then there were long correspondence, even calls to California, getting invitations for visas, getting visas directly, booking and buying air tickets, etc.

It was an unreal crazy pace. In order for you to better understand the situation, I’ll give a chronology of events (maybe it will be useful to someone, since we thought that it’s impossible to meet this deadline): October 30 - receiving the first letter from the conference organizers, November 7 - sending November 10 - submitting an application for a visa, November 15 - passing an interview at the US embassy, ​​November 16 - getting passports with visas, November 17 - buying air tickets and booking a hotel, November 24 - leaving Chisinau in Kiev aero ie, November 25 - fly to San Francisco via Zurich. All this was accompanied by my studies, writing tests and completing third-party freelancing orders. Frankly, I did not even have time to realize how quickly the month of November passed.

Being in the USA

November 25. After a very long journey (in total, it took about 30 hours), we finally left the airport, where my friend met us, put us in her car and drove to our place of residence in San Francisco (we stayed at another of my friends) .


Photo 1. On the right is the entrance to the building where we lived in San Francisco.

November 26th Day we spent on a walk through San Francisco and getting the first portion of the strongest impressions. In the evening, I was contacted by one of the organizers of the conference and said that he and my several other presentations could not be opened (it should be noted that all presentations were launched from their laptop). Since I left my laptop at home, the solution to the problem was slightly delayed, but in the end, the presentation started.


Photo 2. Dolores Park in San Francisco, with a gorgeous view of the city

November 27th. We again walked a lot and I quietly prepared to present our project.

November 28. North on the train, we headed to Palo Alto, where at 5 pm a meeting was arranged for those who want to practice their presentations in front of two mentors from Silicon Valley. The event took place in the Aol building. and I, frankly, could not believe that this was happening to me. After the "test" performance and receiving feedback from the mentors, I realized that we need to redo the whole presentation. At 9 pm the event ended, we boarded the train and headed to Mountain View (conference venue). We arrived at the hotel only by 12 o'clock at night (we walked for a very long time) and fell to sleep.


Photo 3. We leave from San Francisco


Photo 4. Building Aol.

29th of November. After only 5 hours of sleep and after getting up at 5 in the morning, we made a new presentation of the available tools (didn’t catch wi-fi in the room) and sent it to the organizers by e-mail at 7 in the morning so that they could check and replace it. Then we had to walk to the Computer History Museum (it was a very long time to go, but we wanted to see the Silicon Valley with our own eyes). By 9 o'clock in the morning we got to the designated place, received our badges and took a seat in the conference room.


Photo 5. Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Venue of the conference SVOD'11.

The conference was organized by AmBAR , which managed to gather in one place startups, investors and experts from various fields related in one way or another to IT. The organization of the event pleased me in all respects: the food was delicious, coffee was available at any time, headphones with simultaneous translation went to everyone, the panels and the topics covered were very useful.

The program of the event can be found here .

At 4 pm the presentation of the projects began. We were third on the list, I learned my new presentation and speech in priests. I had to take an iPhone with the text of the speech to the stage to insure myself, for the excitement was really serious. Honestly, in my 22 years standing on the stage in front of investors from IBM, Garage Ventures, etc., I just lost my brains and I gave everything to the semi-automatic. The performance as a whole went well, and after that people approached, spoke positively about the project and gave development advice.


Photo 6. My performance

November 30th. It was the second and last day of the conference, where I just enjoyed its progress, listened to panelists, communicated with investors, businessmen, startups, exchanged contacts and asked for tips on the development of our instudies.com .


Photo 7. I am at one of Google’s offices in Mountain View, before the start of the second day of the conference


Photo 8. My business cards prepared specially for the conference

The results of the conference for us were as follows:

1. We were told to look for money for development in Russia and the CIS, since we work in this particular market. The bottom line is that Americans don’t want to invest in a market they don’t know. It was also said that since we are requesting only $ 150,000 for development, we’d better go to business angels than venture funds (usually funds are interested in investing a lot more money).

2. We are convinced that the project is useful and necessary. I managed to talk with Igor Scheufot (an investor and teacher at Berkeley University), who said that as a teacher he was very sympathetic to the project and that we were doing a really cool thing.

3. In the process of talking with the former director of Google Russia, Max Skibinski and many others, I managed to get a lot of tips on the development of the project.

4. I finally realized that the United States is really a place where opportunities are at your fingertips. Just make an effort and the doors can open faster than you expect.

5. I was very struck by Silicon Valley. This is an ideal place for developers, startups and people with ideas. There is an indescribable atmosphere and one gets the feeling that there is absolutely no way to spoil the life of bytovuhi.

After the conference, we boarded a train and drove back to San Francisco. There we spent another 4 days after which it was time to return home. But now I plan to visit Silicon Valley this summer and not for 3 days, but most likely for a couple of months. There are incredible opportunities!


Photo 9. The coast at the Pacific Ocean.

I hope my story was a little inspirational. I will be glad to answer any questions!