PayOnline in Silicon Valley - or how we studied at Founders Bootcamp Silicon Valley
January is over, and we finally got around to tell how the PayOnline technical director for 2 weeks studied in Silicon Valley as part of the Founders Bootcamp Silicon Valley educational program. The organizer of the program is Global Innovation Labs. About what was taught that the new was told, what “califonication” in San Francisco was at the technological start-up party and photos from the trip - under the cut.
For several years now, the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the city of Moscow has sent representatives of Moscow high-tech companies to internships in Silicon Valley. This time, the technical director of PayOnline, Vladimir K., who shared his impressions with us, was also among the participants of the two-week internship.
The Fund for the Development of Venture Investments in Small Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere of Moscow, OJSC RVC, the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific Technological Sphere and the Skolkovo Foundation actively participated in organizing the event.
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From Moscow we flew away on December 5th, returned on the 19th. They lived in Palo Alto, a city in the south of the San Francisco Peninsula, in Santa Clara County, California (35 miles south of San Francisco). Very cozy and unique city: a beautiful mixture of architecture of the end of the XIX century, Professorville - “Professor's Village”, in which many of the first Stanford teachers lived, and an indelible imprint of the ultra-modern high-tech Silicon Valley. From Palo Alto, they chose to travel around the area, to study in Silicon Valley, San Francisco. About travels and get-togethers we will tell you more on.
During their studies and on-site events, many immigrants from Russia who were successfully working in the Valley met, they saw several branches of Russian companies feeling perfectly well under the warm Californian sun.
We lived in the wonderful hotel Crowne Plaza Cabana, where they studied and met the guests. Below - a couple of photos from the hotel site;) - and go to the educational internship program.
The program that we received before going on a trip contained only brief introductory notes: there will be many workshops and communication with experts; classes on presentation skills, legal and financial aspects of doing IT business in Silicon Valley; we are waiting for workshops on IT topics; trips to a Silicon Valley incubator startup and even two days of free time.
The program turned out to be much richer than one could imagine, looking at a short program on a single A4 sheet. First of all, it is worth noting the selection of teachers - real representatives of successful (or vice versa - 100% failure) startups. I was very pleased with the selection of cases for specific topics - for example, not only successful entrepreneurs, but also the startup owner who lost everything at this stage — money, project, team — told about the features of attracting seed investments.
For two weeks, a lot of topics were raised, some were especially interested in us - perhaps because they are “close to the body”, or maybe simply because the technologies are interesting and promising: “private clouds” and big data.
There were no dry and boring lectures - everything took place in an interactive format, a lot of things were left at the mercy of ourselves: if you want - ask questions, want - learn, want - look for new contacts. In search of new contacts, as practice has shown, this is the sacramental meaning of our internship. We communicated with representatives of venture funds, with business angels and successful startups, representatives of data-centers (including big-data). In general, for internship participants, and our company in particular, the main purpose of the trip was to search for exits to the international market through increasing the number of useful contacts.
We were told how the startup actually works - beyond the Russian realities, where the startup culture was implanted from above with the slogans “Everything is behind nanotechnologies”, and in Silicon Valley, where insanity of venture capitalism originated. How to assemble a team, present your project, attract venture capital investments, bypass legal obstacles. How not to lose the project, who is a business adviser, what main mistakes you can not make, and what not to get out of.
We considered three possible areas of activity for Russian startups:
The third direction, by the way, according to the sad experience of our interlocutors, is often implemented without the desire of the startupers themselves - the project receives investments in the “A” round, loses control of the team and the project, flies out of its own startup, which is closed, and the development team is transferred to another larger project.
We also discussed options for attracting investments, their advantages and disadvantages, tried to classify:
You can talk about each of the options for a long time, touch on the pitfalls, the pros and cons - but this post is about an internship. Once again, we restrain the desire to start retelling the most interesting cases and expert speeches :)
Briefly about how the presentation speech should look to the investor: briefly.
No need to highlight the features of technological processes, detailed marketing plans, analytical summaries - all this is useless. As we were told by specialists from Stanford (a wonderful university, whose training focuses on practical business problems and preparing students for their solution), a good presentation speech should answer 7 simple questions:
Especially such a “sister of talent” is characteristic of Silicon Valley - after all, an investor can be found at any party, in a pizzeria, and anywhere - thanks to the developed culture of business parties, and the combination of “fan” and business that is familiar to Silicon Valley. I was very pleased with the tradition at parties to glue onto myself the presentation stickers that characterize you to those around you: “investor”, “angel” - and at least “sun”. This tradition perfectly characterizes the communication climate, the pace and format of communication in the Valley: in 5 minutes you can get acquainted with the right person, present your project and attract investments. By the way, the average size of seed investments attracted in the first stage is 300 thousand dollars.
Two weeks flew like a day: regular practical exercises; interesting communication with internship participants, teachers and experts; trips to San Francisco, San José; visits to the largest incubators, offices of friendly companies, Berkeley and Stanford; a lot of new acquaintances, potential customers and partners, great parties. I’ll finish the post with one of the most impressive moments of the trip: on a rental cabriolet, along America’s most beautiful road, No. 1, along the ocean coast.
Everything that happened in 2 weeks and you will not tell, but if something is interesting - write in the comments, we will tell you with pleasure.
About internship in general
For several years now, the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the city of Moscow has sent representatives of Moscow high-tech companies to internships in Silicon Valley. This time, the technical director of PayOnline, Vladimir K., who shared his impressions with us, was also among the participants of the two-week internship.
The Fund for the Development of Venture Investments in Small Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere of Moscow, OJSC RVC, the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific Technological Sphere and the Skolkovo Foundation actively participated in organizing the event.
')
From Moscow we flew away on December 5th, returned on the 19th. They lived in Palo Alto, a city in the south of the San Francisco Peninsula, in Santa Clara County, California (35 miles south of San Francisco). Very cozy and unique city: a beautiful mixture of architecture of the end of the XIX century, Professorville - “Professor's Village”, in which many of the first Stanford teachers lived, and an indelible imprint of the ultra-modern high-tech Silicon Valley. From Palo Alto, they chose to travel around the area, to study in Silicon Valley, San Francisco. About travels and get-togethers we will tell you more on.
During their studies and on-site events, many immigrants from Russia who were successfully working in the Valley met, they saw several branches of Russian companies feeling perfectly well under the warm Californian sun.
We lived in the wonderful hotel Crowne Plaza Cabana, where they studied and met the guests. Below - a couple of photos from the hotel site;) - and go to the educational internship program.
How and what we were taught
The program that we received before going on a trip contained only brief introductory notes: there will be many workshops and communication with experts; classes on presentation skills, legal and financial aspects of doing IT business in Silicon Valley; we are waiting for workshops on IT topics; trips to a Silicon Valley incubator startup and even two days of free time.
The program turned out to be much richer than one could imagine, looking at a short program on a single A4 sheet. First of all, it is worth noting the selection of teachers - real representatives of successful (or vice versa - 100% failure) startups. I was very pleased with the selection of cases for specific topics - for example, not only successful entrepreneurs, but also the startup owner who lost everything at this stage — money, project, team — told about the features of attracting seed investments.
For two weeks, a lot of topics were raised, some were especially interested in us - perhaps because they are “close to the body”, or maybe simply because the technologies are interesting and promising: “private clouds” and big data.
There were no dry and boring lectures - everything took place in an interactive format, a lot of things were left at the mercy of ourselves: if you want - ask questions, want - learn, want - look for new contacts. In search of new contacts, as practice has shown, this is the sacramental meaning of our internship. We communicated with representatives of venture funds, with business angels and successful startups, representatives of data-centers (including big-data). In general, for internship participants, and our company in particular, the main purpose of the trip was to search for exits to the international market through increasing the number of useful contacts.
We were told how the startup actually works - beyond the Russian realities, where the startup culture was implanted from above with the slogans “Everything is behind nanotechnologies”, and in Silicon Valley, where insanity of venture capitalism originated. How to assemble a team, present your project, attract venture capital investments, bypass legal obstacles. How not to lose the project, who is a business adviser, what main mistakes you can not make, and what not to get out of.
We considered three possible areas of activity for Russian startups:
- Clones of foreign services (preparing the ground for the arrival of "parents" in Russia).
- Innovative projects (global services, focused on the whole world, the most complex and promising direction).
- The project as a pre-sale presentation of the team (high-tech and perhaps completely meaningless project, revealing all the skills of team members).
The third direction, by the way, according to the sad experience of our interlocutors, is often implemented without the desire of the startupers themselves - the project receives investments in the “A” round, loses control of the team and the project, flies out of its own startup, which is closed, and the development team is transferred to another larger project.
We also discussed options for attracting investments, their advantages and disadvantages, tried to classify:
- Venture investments.
- Investments from business angels.
- Friends and Family investment.
- Bootstrapping (completely independent investment in the project).
You can talk about each of the options for a long time, touch on the pitfalls, the pros and cons - but this post is about an internship. Once again, we restrain the desire to start retelling the most interesting cases and expert speeches :)
Presentation - how to sell to an investor
Briefly about how the presentation speech should look to the investor: briefly.
No need to highlight the features of technological processes, detailed marketing plans, analytical summaries - all this is useless. As we were told by specialists from Stanford (a wonderful university, whose training focuses on practical business problems and preparing students for their solution), a good presentation speech should answer 7 simple questions:
- What problem is solved?
- How many people have this problem (market size)?
- How is she solved?
- Is this the team that can solve it?
- Who else and how to solve this problem now?
- The scheme of "making" money (from where, how, how fast).
- What has already been done in this direction and how it is perceived by the market (prototype and traction).
Especially such a “sister of talent” is characteristic of Silicon Valley - after all, an investor can be found at any party, in a pizzeria, and anywhere - thanks to the developed culture of business parties, and the combination of “fan” and business that is familiar to Silicon Valley. I was very pleased with the tradition at parties to glue onto myself the presentation stickers that characterize you to those around you: “investor”, “angel” - and at least “sun”. This tradition perfectly characterizes the communication climate, the pace and format of communication in the Valley: in 5 minutes you can get acquainted with the right person, present your project and attract investments. By the way, the average size of seed investments attracted in the first stage is 300 thousand dollars.
apart from styding
Two weeks flew like a day: regular practical exercises; interesting communication with internship participants, teachers and experts; trips to San Francisco, San José; visits to the largest incubators, offices of friendly companies, Berkeley and Stanford; a lot of new acquaintances, potential customers and partners, great parties. I’ll finish the post with one of the most impressive moments of the trip: on a rental cabriolet, along America’s most beautiful road, No. 1, along the ocean coast.
Everything that happened in 2 weeks and you will not tell, but if something is interesting - write in the comments, we will tell you with pleasure.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/169773/
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