How our project was accelerated at the Plug and Play TechCenter in Silicon Valley
Today I returned to Moscow after passing an acceleration program in one of the most famous business incubators. I decided to share experiences and impressions with Habr's readers. Under the cut article on the topic - "how I spent this summer in Silicon Valley."
In this article I will try to tell you what the main obstacles and opportunities we personally encountered. I will not deliberately disclose the name of my own and other projects, so that readers do not consider this an advertisement.
Our team is developing a mobile application - a platform for ethnic and cultural groups. In June 2014, we learned that the team of our project for a month is sent for acceleration to the Plug and Play business incubator in California. This was made possible thanks to our participation in the Plug and Play Dagestan acceleration program. Two more projects went with us, although it was planned to go nine. Most simply did not receive a visa in the United States. The main reason is that applicants are young, they have recently graduated from the institute, they have an insignificant property status. Where does the average techie student have an apartment, a car and a dacha?
')
I will write in detail about how we prepared for departure, because it took away the team the most nerves and resources. So, preparation for departure was in turmoil: the trip was a bit unexpected. We were informed about its capabilities in a month, but that we’ll go for sure, it became known only in a couple of weeks.
Our project - a mobile application - was at the pre-seed (“pre-seed”) stage, but was actively developing. By the time of arrival in the US, we managed to prepare a prototype (all transition scenarios), design basic screens, print business cards, prepare souvenirs with a logo and a slogan.
From our project was going to go 3 people. One of the employees had an expired passport, the second one had not extended the visa. These problems had to be solved on the go. Extending a visa to the United States turned out to be a simple matter. Just need to fill out a couple of forms on the site, pay the fee (consular fee) and then send the passport to the embassy through Pony Express, three days later I received it back in the same way (the visa preparation itself took 36 hours, according to my calculations). It was harder to have an employee without a passport. We had to leave in 18 days, and a passport in the district office of the FMS can only be received in a month. As a result, we had to use the official “accelerator company” located in the building of the central FMS office, where we agreed to prepare it for 28 thousand rubles in 10 days (there are many similar announcements on the Web). After receiving a passport, you had to sign up for an interview. There were 10 days left. We tried to sign up online on Saturday. The queue for recording was on the third day, but for some reason the payment of the consular fee did not go through (5900 rubles - is carried out electronically, using the card. Confirmation within 3 working hours, but at the weekend longer). As a result, it passed only on Monday, and during this time the queue for recording increased to 7 days. As a result, managed to get a visa two days before departure. But at the same time, the employee asked about the same thing 5 times, did not believe the papers, but still gave a visa. Hooray!
Advice: keep a valid passport and, at the same time, a visa to the USA. Cases are different. Especially in our country and in our time. Also have on hand adapters for American sockets. They unexpectedly turn out to be a deficit worth its weight in gold.
So, we flew to New York. Passing passport control is a separate task. You see a crowd of 200-400 people in a separate room, who are checking documents. You arrive with any flights from Somalia, Pakistan and China at the same time. There is a hum, a huge turn "snake", which can be completed in an hour and a half. The Commissioner can easily deploy you. In our case, letters from the Plug and Play, booking and tickets back did not cause a question. We were given 120 days of stay (the commissioner puts the maximum stay in the United States right in the passport). Tip: if you ever decide to fly to the USA, then take tickets with a transfer in Europe. In this case, you will pass the passport control in the city of stay. For example, in San Francisco you don’t have to explain to the Commissioner what startups, venture capital backgrounds and accelerators are. He himself will satisfy you if he finds out that you are an investor. Here through one all decent people at night are sawing something.
Place of residence is of great importance in acceleration, oddly enough. Ideally, rent a big house for several teams and invite guests from the local start-up community every evening. Over a bottle of beer, you can learn a lot of interesting news and rare opportunities. This is much better than walking through all sorts of mitaps. There are very few real investors on these get-togethers and a lot of those who exploit the image of business angels and venture capitalists.
We need to rent a house closer to the accelerator office. In our case, we had to rent a hotel a kilometer away from the head office of the Plug and Play in Sunnyvale . It turned out to be cheaper than renting a big house (no season for a hotel). Rent a car as a whole is not needed. Yes, and expensive is fun for a foreigner. The rent itself is inexpensive. But insurance delivers ...
Tip: Enough to use Uber. He comes here quickly and prices are comparable with Moscow taxis, if not lower.
The training program consisted of lectures by specialists in various fields: presentation, investment, emigration lawyers, corporate lawyer, UX, technical specialists, vendor representatives, etc.
The presentation specialist told almost everything that is in the books of Guy Kawasaki, but he diluted it with stories about real cases and displayed on the screen materials from real presentations of successful projects.
Representatives of the venture fund told how they choose projects and what you should pay attention to when submitting an application. The main idea was that they needed traction and that they have a large flow of incoming requests, but in practice they pay the most attention to projects that get to them through their community. These are partners or employees of those companies in which they have already invested.
An immigration lawyer told me what to do to get visas, what types of visas are, when and how to properly apply for a visa in the United States. For some reason, all accelerators are sure that all startups are asleep and see how they will get a visa in the USA. Emigration lawyers are present in the programs of many accelerators among the first.
Corporate lawyers talk about how to register a company in the United States, how to get employees, about the tax system, about the rights and obligations of entrepreneurs, etc.
In a series of lecturers, representatives of corporations aroused the greatest interest. In our case, these were people from Panasonic. They told what projects they are interested in, about the fact that the sales of video cameras fell from 200 million to 40 million a year in five years. Phones displace small photos and video cameras. It is noteworthy that with the accelerator there are about 20 representatives of different companies: Ford, Crysler, Hershey's, Bosch etc. They are directly looking for any breakthrough ideas about their industry, but they need to be addressed through the correct channel.
For me, this was the second experience of acceleration and there is an opportunity to compare. The players around Plug and Play are really big.
Accelerators offer projects to select mentors from their pool. Most often these are some former colleagues or friends of the accelerator managers. Sometimes these are successful startup executives who were related to these accelerators. It is best to find a person who knows about the specifics of your industry or a person who has extensive connections at all (if you need investments). The best thing a mentor can give is a few tips looking at your project through the lens of your experience, and even better if you invite other experts to give an assessment to your project. In our case, it was just a contact person who wrote several letters about us to various funds. In the Valley, such performances work well. Without them, it is difficult to reach the right people. We were also lucky to meet people from the “council of elders” or “grand jury” of the accelerator. They are under 50-60 years old, they remember young Jobs and Gates.
Often, they turned out to be related to many young startups. They turned out to be really effective people, heavyweights who, with several calls and letters, arranged for us a tight schedule of meetings with various industry experts and foundations. Most often they helped just for the idea, without asking for anything in return.
On one thread with us there were about 20 projects. They all got here after some sort of selection in their own country. At the same time, there are projects outside the educational program. At the same time, there are more than 300 projects in Plug and Play. Plug and Play provide co-working jobs in several places. For $ 600 per month, you can rent one workplace. It's comfortable. Here you can use the infrastructure, go to almost all events. For example, on Wednesdays, here are going to those who are engaged in Bitcoin and other electronic money. Cocktail parties are often held on the roof of the building, start-ups and experts on various topics gather there.
Traction, what is your traction? All investors first ask this question. To come to them in the valley without first users does not make sense. Even if there is no profit, then it is necessary to show how you grow.
The second question is: where are the teams incorporated and where is the team? They need incorporation in the USA, usually in Delaware (registration takes a couple of weeks and costs $ 2500). The team is acceptable to keep in Russia, but if you say that you are considering moving, this is a good signal for them. Many business angels invest in projects that can be reached by car in 1 day. They like to come to meetings, brain storms, etc.
A bad signal now (after the fall of Boeing) is the availability of Russian money to the company's capital. Especially state. Now with this strictly. Many are afraid of sanctions (especially on technology transfer), the Yukos case, the claims of manufacturers under the ban on the importation of goods imposed in violation of WTO rules, other property claims against Russia, etc.
Of course, if you show a growth of 1000% per quarter, they will take on your problems. But other things being equal, it is now becoming the stop factor, alas.
We had a lot of free time after the first weeks of intensive seminars and meetings. This time is very important not to spend just on trips to clubs. Many events take place in the valley, but it is difficult to choose the right one, especially in summer. Most programs in the fall and spring. Startups are trying to independently find investors and partners or those who can introduce them. In the intervals between networking, we studied the history of the industry, the infrastructure of the region. Across the valley runs a comfortable Caltrain train, which stops in all locations. It is interesting to get to the Computer History Museum:
Or take a walk in Palo Alto, where almost every cafe on University avenue has some kind of history. You can walk in Stanford University or in San Francisco, along the famous Golden Gate, which was built in the 30s.
This makes an enormous impression, as people, not possessing modern computers, could calculate and build such a machine with manual calculations that is still standing.
Separate interest - it is a walk in Cupertino and the surrounding area. Need to know the addresses. For example, you can easily walk to the garage where the first HP was created, or by the Jobs office, or a cafe where he could sometimes buy breakfast. All this is very inspiring. Before the trip, it is better to make a list of places that interest you. There will be no time to invent on the spot.
A real startuper needs to try to go to the valley whenever possible. It's like a mecca for all startups. Everything is different there. This will give you some upgrade thinking. You will begin to understand "how it happens in the big leagues." But it’s worth going there if you already have some kind of working project that has some kind of life. Just with the idea to go there does not make sense (only if you have not previously proved that you can effectively implement such ideas).
A trip to the valley is a rather expensive and complicated pleasure. One flight (50,000 rubles to and from) takes almost a day (from Moscow to New York - 9 hours, from there to San Francisco another 6 hours + transfer, get to / from the airport). If there is a choice between finishing the product or spending it on a trip to the Valley, then it is better to finish the product. There are shareware programs for which you can go to the valley. Find such opportunities and take advantage. But if you already have any users, traction and want to reach a new level, then the trip is highly recommended for you. Be sure to maintain a good level of English! Many come and can not really explain what they want.
I would like to warn young entrepreneurs against some mistakes. There are a lot of people in the Valley with at first sight an incomprehensible kind of activity. You meet them at almost all events. They start telling us that we have organized an institute / school / foundation / partnership / incubator / accelerator and we now have such a program. What we teach founders and startups. Often they are intrusive and sometimes even a little aggressive. According to the stories of colleagues, at best, you can get jobs and several excursions, as well as the boring theorists' stories about how to build a business using the Silicon Valley method. It must be admitted that really effective people do not often flaunt that they are in the Valley. For them, the valley is a way of thinking, not a location.
By and large, the programs of the latter-day accelerators are a retelling of the content of these books with some practical insights from the mouth of little-known entrepreneurs (and sometimes theorists). But often among such people there were simply image exploiters who take $ 6-10 thousand from the project for 2 months. If you choose an accelerator, look carefully at the program and list of mentors. Otherwise, it will just tour in the Valley. It will certainly be useful, but among them there are those that are more useful than others.
Experienced startups who already have a product and have users need other programs with “combat generals”. They should immediately go to the leaders of the type 500startup, TechStars and YCombinator. The average Moscow starter is basically well-versed enough, read a dozen books by Guy Kawasaki, Steve Blanc, Ben Horowitz, John Gertner, Eric Rice's “Lean startup” , regularly read TechhCrunch, articles by Paul Gram, Dave Maclura, are subscribed to Wired, etc. .
I wish good luck to all who try to tempt fate in Silicon Valley. Willing to share experiences. Write in lichku.
In this article I will try to tell you what the main obstacles and opportunities we personally encountered. I will not deliberately disclose the name of my own and other projects, so that readers do not consider this an advertisement.
Our team is developing a mobile application - a platform for ethnic and cultural groups. In June 2014, we learned that the team of our project for a month is sent for acceleration to the Plug and Play business incubator in California. This was made possible thanks to our participation in the Plug and Play Dagestan acceleration program. Two more projects went with us, although it was planned to go nine. Most simply did not receive a visa in the United States. The main reason is that applicants are young, they have recently graduated from the institute, they have an insignificant property status. Where does the average techie student have an apartment, a car and a dacha?
')
Preparing for the trip
I will write in detail about how we prepared for departure, because it took away the team the most nerves and resources. So, preparation for departure was in turmoil: the trip was a bit unexpected. We were informed about its capabilities in a month, but that we’ll go for sure, it became known only in a couple of weeks.
Our project - a mobile application - was at the pre-seed (“pre-seed”) stage, but was actively developing. By the time of arrival in the US, we managed to prepare a prototype (all transition scenarios), design basic screens, print business cards, prepare souvenirs with a logo and a slogan.
From our project was going to go 3 people. One of the employees had an expired passport, the second one had not extended the visa. These problems had to be solved on the go. Extending a visa to the United States turned out to be a simple matter. Just need to fill out a couple of forms on the site, pay the fee (consular fee) and then send the passport to the embassy through Pony Express, three days later I received it back in the same way (the visa preparation itself took 36 hours, according to my calculations). It was harder to have an employee without a passport. We had to leave in 18 days, and a passport in the district office of the FMS can only be received in a month. As a result, we had to use the official “accelerator company” located in the building of the central FMS office, where we agreed to prepare it for 28 thousand rubles in 10 days (there are many similar announcements on the Web). After receiving a passport, you had to sign up for an interview. There were 10 days left. We tried to sign up online on Saturday. The queue for recording was on the third day, but for some reason the payment of the consular fee did not go through (5900 rubles - is carried out electronically, using the card. Confirmation within 3 working hours, but at the weekend longer). As a result, it passed only on Monday, and during this time the queue for recording increased to 7 days. As a result, managed to get a visa two days before departure. But at the same time, the employee asked about the same thing 5 times, did not believe the papers, but still gave a visa. Hooray!
Advice: keep a valid passport and, at the same time, a visa to the USA. Cases are different. Especially in our country and in our time. Also have on hand adapters for American sockets. They unexpectedly turn out to be a deficit worth its weight in gold.
Flew
So, we flew to New York. Passing passport control is a separate task. You see a crowd of 200-400 people in a separate room, who are checking documents. You arrive with any flights from Somalia, Pakistan and China at the same time. There is a hum, a huge turn "snake", which can be completed in an hour and a half. The Commissioner can easily deploy you. In our case, letters from the Plug and Play, booking and tickets back did not cause a question. We were given 120 days of stay (the commissioner puts the maximum stay in the United States right in the passport). Tip: if you ever decide to fly to the USA, then take tickets with a transfer in Europe. In this case, you will pass the passport control in the city of stay. For example, in San Francisco you don’t have to explain to the Commissioner what startups, venture capital backgrounds and accelerators are. He himself will satisfy you if he finds out that you are an investor. Here through one all decent people at night are sawing something.
Accommodation
Place of residence is of great importance in acceleration, oddly enough. Ideally, rent a big house for several teams and invite guests from the local start-up community every evening. Over a bottle of beer, you can learn a lot of interesting news and rare opportunities. This is much better than walking through all sorts of mitaps. There are very few real investors on these get-togethers and a lot of those who exploit the image of business angels and venture capitalists.
We need to rent a house closer to the accelerator office. In our case, we had to rent a hotel a kilometer away from the head office of the Plug and Play in Sunnyvale . It turned out to be cheaper than renting a big house (no season for a hotel). Rent a car as a whole is not needed. Yes, and expensive is fun for a foreigner. The rent itself is inexpensive. But insurance delivers ...
Tip: Enough to use Uber. He comes here quickly and prices are comparable with Moscow taxis, if not lower.
Training program
The training program consisted of lectures by specialists in various fields: presentation, investment, emigration lawyers, corporate lawyer, UX, technical specialists, vendor representatives, etc.
The presentation specialist told almost everything that is in the books of Guy Kawasaki, but he diluted it with stories about real cases and displayed on the screen materials from real presentations of successful projects.
Representatives of the venture fund told how they choose projects and what you should pay attention to when submitting an application. The main idea was that they needed traction and that they have a large flow of incoming requests, but in practice they pay the most attention to projects that get to them through their community. These are partners or employees of those companies in which they have already invested.
An immigration lawyer told me what to do to get visas, what types of visas are, when and how to properly apply for a visa in the United States. For some reason, all accelerators are sure that all startups are asleep and see how they will get a visa in the USA. Emigration lawyers are present in the programs of many accelerators among the first.
Corporate lawyers talk about how to register a company in the United States, how to get employees, about the tax system, about the rights and obligations of entrepreneurs, etc.
In a series of lecturers, representatives of corporations aroused the greatest interest. In our case, these were people from Panasonic. They told what projects they are interested in, about the fact that the sales of video cameras fell from 200 million to 40 million a year in five years. Phones displace small photos and video cameras. It is noteworthy that with the accelerator there are about 20 representatives of different companies: Ford, Crysler, Hershey's, Bosch etc. They are directly looking for any breakthrough ideas about their industry, but they need to be addressed through the correct channel.
For me, this was the second experience of acceleration and there is an opportunity to compare. The players around Plug and Play are really big.
Mentors
Accelerators offer projects to select mentors from their pool. Most often these are some former colleagues or friends of the accelerator managers. Sometimes these are successful startup executives who were related to these accelerators. It is best to find a person who knows about the specifics of your industry or a person who has extensive connections at all (if you need investments). The best thing a mentor can give is a few tips looking at your project through the lens of your experience, and even better if you invite other experts to give an assessment to your project. In our case, it was just a contact person who wrote several letters about us to various funds. In the Valley, such performances work well. Without them, it is difficult to reach the right people. We were also lucky to meet people from the “council of elders” or “grand jury” of the accelerator. They are under 50-60 years old, they remember young Jobs and Gates.
Often, they turned out to be related to many young startups. They turned out to be really effective people, heavyweights who, with several calls and letters, arranged for us a tight schedule of meetings with various industry experts and foundations. Most often they helped just for the idea, without asking for anything in return.
Fellow students
On one thread with us there were about 20 projects. They all got here after some sort of selection in their own country. At the same time, there are projects outside the educational program. At the same time, there are more than 300 projects in Plug and Play. Plug and Play provide co-working jobs in several places. For $ 600 per month, you can rent one workplace. It's comfortable. Here you can use the infrastructure, go to almost all events. For example, on Wednesdays, here are going to those who are engaged in Bitcoin and other electronic money. Cocktail parties are often held on the roof of the building, start-ups and experts on various topics gather there.
Investors
Traction, what is your traction? All investors first ask this question. To come to them in the valley without first users does not make sense. Even if there is no profit, then it is necessary to show how you grow.
The second question is: where are the teams incorporated and where is the team? They need incorporation in the USA, usually in Delaware (registration takes a couple of weeks and costs $ 2500). The team is acceptable to keep in Russia, but if you say that you are considering moving, this is a good signal for them. Many business angels invest in projects that can be reached by car in 1 day. They like to come to meetings, brain storms, etc.
A bad signal now (after the fall of Boeing) is the availability of Russian money to the company's capital. Especially state. Now with this strictly. Many are afraid of sanctions (especially on technology transfer), the Yukos case, the claims of manufacturers under the ban on the importation of goods imposed in violation of WTO rules, other property claims against Russia, etc.
Of course, if you show a growth of 1000% per quarter, they will take on your problems. But other things being equal, it is now becoming the stop factor, alas.
Overtime
We had a lot of free time after the first weeks of intensive seminars and meetings. This time is very important not to spend just on trips to clubs. Many events take place in the valley, but it is difficult to choose the right one, especially in summer. Most programs in the fall and spring. Startups are trying to independently find investors and partners or those who can introduce them. In the intervals between networking, we studied the history of the industry, the infrastructure of the region. Across the valley runs a comfortable Caltrain train, which stops in all locations. It is interesting to get to the Computer History Museum:
Or take a walk in Palo Alto, where almost every cafe on University avenue has some kind of history. You can walk in Stanford University or in San Francisco, along the famous Golden Gate, which was built in the 30s.
This makes an enormous impression, as people, not possessing modern computers, could calculate and build such a machine with manual calculations that is still standing.
Separate interest - it is a walk in Cupertino and the surrounding area. Need to know the addresses. For example, you can easily walk to the garage where the first HP was created, or by the Jobs office, or a cafe where he could sometimes buy breakfast. All this is very inspiring. Before the trip, it is better to make a list of places that interest you. There will be no time to invent on the spot.
General conclusions
A real startuper needs to try to go to the valley whenever possible. It's like a mecca for all startups. Everything is different there. This will give you some upgrade thinking. You will begin to understand "how it happens in the big leagues." But it’s worth going there if you already have some kind of working project that has some kind of life. Just with the idea to go there does not make sense (only if you have not previously proved that you can effectively implement such ideas).
A trip to the valley is a rather expensive and complicated pleasure. One flight (50,000 rubles to and from) takes almost a day (from Moscow to New York - 9 hours, from there to San Francisco another 6 hours + transfer, get to / from the airport). If there is a choice between finishing the product or spending it on a trip to the Valley, then it is better to finish the product. There are shareware programs for which you can go to the valley. Find such opportunities and take advantage. But if you already have any users, traction and want to reach a new level, then the trip is highly recommended for you. Be sure to maintain a good level of English! Many come and can not really explain what they want.
I would like to warn young entrepreneurs against some mistakes. There are a lot of people in the Valley with at first sight an incomprehensible kind of activity. You meet them at almost all events. They start telling us that we have organized an institute / school / foundation / partnership / incubator / accelerator and we now have such a program. What we teach founders and startups. Often they are intrusive and sometimes even a little aggressive. According to the stories of colleagues, at best, you can get jobs and several excursions, as well as the boring theorists' stories about how to build a business using the Silicon Valley method. It must be admitted that really effective people do not often flaunt that they are in the Valley. For them, the valley is a way of thinking, not a location.
By and large, the programs of the latter-day accelerators are a retelling of the content of these books with some practical insights from the mouth of little-known entrepreneurs (and sometimes theorists). But often among such people there were simply image exploiters who take $ 6-10 thousand from the project for 2 months. If you choose an accelerator, look carefully at the program and list of mentors. Otherwise, it will just tour in the Valley. It will certainly be useful, but among them there are those that are more useful than others.
Experienced startups who already have a product and have users need other programs with “combat generals”. They should immediately go to the leaders of the type 500startup, TechStars and YCombinator. The average Moscow starter is basically well-versed enough, read a dozen books by Guy Kawasaki, Steve Blanc, Ben Horowitz, John Gertner, Eric Rice's “Lean startup” , regularly read TechhCrunch, articles by Paul Gram, Dave Maclura, are subscribed to Wired, etc. .
I wish good luck to all who try to tempt fate in Silicon Valley. Willing to share experiences. Write in lichku.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/285652/
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