Visit of Google

Google and the Googleplex were our last visit into the Silicon Valley. Two women from the Human Resources welcomed us: Vicky Wang and Michelle Nguyen who are in charge of the MBA program.

They organized a meeting with six speakers: The creator of Google Earth, a project manager, two other people from the Human Resources. The first “Googler” explained the innovation and entrepreneurship process within Google (to launch new applications and even new products). It was very interesting to see how easily an idea can grow up in such an environment where creativity is enhanced.

At Google, every single employee has 20% of his time devoted to work on an innovative project that is out of his scope of competences. As a result, every single one kind of works for the R&D department.

We also talked about competitors; the speakers answered explaining that Google pay a very close attention to the customers’ reaction. They permanently adapt their offer, following the expectations of the market and advice from their clients.

They also gave us an explanation about their HR process and policy.

Then, they gave us a tour of the place. Every one has been impressed by the open spaces and how easily every one has access to everyone. Everything is done to encourage interaction between people, and to enhance the pleasure of working. From food to massage and Jacuzzi, everything is free! The food court is just an impressive melting pot of chefs!

Google sounds like employees’ paradise!

Meeting with Nova Spivack from Twine

Nous
avons été très bien reçus dans cette startup basée non pas dans le sud de la baie mais à San Francisco même. Twine a bien d'autres points dedifférenciation par rapport aux autres start-up web que l'on peut
trouver à l'heure actuelle dans la baie.

Tout d'abord son CEO, Nova Spivack n'est pas un jeune aux dents longues tout fraichement sorti de Stanford, mais un pionnier du web, qui en 1994 fonda la première agence web au monde: EarthWeb. Son introduction en
bourse en 1998 fut la première IPO dans l'histoire d'Internet pour une entreprise B-to-B. Lors de la première cotation elle fut aussi la 6ème plus grosse croissance de l'histoire du NASDAQ (+247%). Ce bouddhiste
trentenaire est définitivement un CEO atypique dans la Silicon Valley. Ingénieur spécialisé dans l'intelligence artificielle, diplômé de philosophie, chercheur autour des technologies du web sémantique, diplômé de l'International Space University, école appartenant a la NASA, il a déjà voyagé dans l'espace. Depuis Nova Spivack est redescendu
sur terre pour créer Twine et blogger à ses heures perdues.

Le CEO est un élément très important dans le succès d'une startup mais son équipe et son business aussi. Mais alors qu'est ce que fait Twine de si génial? Et bien c'est très simple, Twine centralise des informations, les lie entre elles, les catégorise, trouve des concepts communs, bref enrichie l'information, la rend plus intelligente. Sans
rentrer dans toutes les fonctionnalités que Nova nous a présenté, ce qu'on peut dire de ce produit c'est que ses possibilités d'évolution sont très très ouvertes. Une information plus intelligente signifie aussi des
publicitées plus ciblées et on le voit aujourd'hui avec Google, le contrôle de la pub sur internet est un métier qui paye très bien. Nous avons eu le droit à une démo en live de Twine avec la création du
premier Twine en langue française, le logiciel a très bien répondu même si le "module FR" n'a pas encore été activé et ne devrait l'être que dans 1 an.

En plus de la démo live de Twine, Nova Spivack nous a aussi offert une visite des locaux de Radar Networks. Ils comportent tous les éléments indispensables à toute start-up de la Silicon Valley qui se respecte :bonbons dans la salle de réunion, tableaux Velleda remplis de toutes sortes de pensées d'employés, salle de jeux garnie et Wii et autres Playstations, et bien sur employés souriants et motivés, apparemment enthousiasmés de travailler sur un projet si attrayant. Il faut dire que le charisme de Nova Spivack n'y est pas étranger : le temps de notre visite, il a su nous communiquer sa passion et sa vision, et même les moins informaticiens des étudiants ont su apprécier et comprendre les enjeux qui se cachent derrière ce que le futur du Web nous réserve.

Visit of The Plug and Play Tech Center

 

Plug and Play Tech Center is an incubator based in Sunnyvale, in the Silicon Valley. It hosts more than 90 start-ups and offers them a full range of services: from full service space to strategic advice or financing (via Amidad Ventures). Since it opened its doors in January 2006 it has assisted its resident companies in securing more than USD$ 55 million.

Famous companies like Google, Paypal or Skype have grown between their walls. It is committed to cultivating the next generation of revolutionary start-ups in Silicon Valley that will impact people globally.

 

While we were there, we had the opportunity to visit the facilities. Our guide explained us the companies in the centre can arrange the spaces according to their needs. It is like if they had their own office somewhere else.

The visit also permitted us to understand and to feel the real importance of the environment you can find there. Everything is done to help you in the development of your company and you can share with many other persons in the same situation. Therefore, it will allow you to get from the experiences of the companies installed in the incubator.

In addition, we met with a director of a company of the PlugandPlayTechCenter. This person insisted on the importance of the place where you are developing your company. Thus, he told us that, while talking with other people, he met another company with which he could do some business.

Furthermore, he gave us some advices in order to create a business:

1.      First, your company must solve a problem or be useful: you must look widely before to start.

2.      You will have to choose what you will sell: a feature, a product, a company…

3.      Then, you must determine if there is a market for your product or service.

4.      After, it is necessary to evaluate how to get into that market.

5.      Next, it will allow you to evaluate the profit you can make.

He concluded saying “you must stay FOCUS on your real value proposition”.

Cynthia Wagner Weick

Professor, Management and Neven C. Hulsey Chair in Business Excellence

1990, Professor of Management Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1986; M.S., Ohio State University, 1980; B.S., Ohio State University, 1979.

Expertise: Management of Technology; Strategic Planning; Product Innovation; International Market Entry Strategies; Commercial Development of Biotechnology.

Cynthia Wagner Weick's expertise is in strategic planning for technology-based business and products, and in international as well as domestic market analysis and development. She currently teaches courses in Strategic Management and Policy, Management of Technology, Product Innovation and Global Business. Her research focuses on international strategies in commercial biotechnology. She also serves as Director of Pacific's Invention Evaluation Service.

Dr. Wagner Weick has professional experience and academic training in both business administration and biology. Her work has required travel to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the former USSR. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration in 1986 from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and her B.S. and M.S. from the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of the Pacific, she was in strategic planning and new business development at Pioneer Hi-Bred International. She has also been a technology consultant to the United Nations Development Program, and a Research Scientist at Battelle Columbus Laboratories, where she evaluated new technologies for industrial and government clients.

Source: http://web.pacific.edu 

Plug and Play Tech Center

Plug and Play Tech Center is a strategic partner to technology start-up companies in Silicon Valley.

Based in Sunnyvale, they are home to a vibrant community of more than 90 start-ups offering a full range of services from full service office space to strategic advice to direct investments (via our investment arm Amidzad Ventures).

Since they opened their doors in January of 2006 they have assisted their resident companies in securing more than USD$ 55 million via Amizad Partners and their venture capital partners. They are committed to cultivating the next generation of revolutionary start-ups in Silicon Valley that will impact people globally.

Plug and Play Tech Center’s mission is to accelerate the entrepreneurs path to success by leveraging a vast network of high-tech professionals who are serial entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors and high tech executives in established Silicon Valley companies.

Source:www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

At this link, you will find informations about start-up working at the Plug and Play Tech Center. 

The Plug and Play Tech Center is a project lead by Amidzad:

Amidzad is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging growth companies on the West Coast. We have over 50 years of combined entrepreneurial experience in building profitable, global enterprises from the ground up and over 25 years of combined investing experience in successful information technology and life science companies.

We are seed and early-stage investors with access to an extensive network of resources. Over the years, we have assembled a world-class network of serial entrepreneurs, strategic investors, and industry leaders who actively assist our portfolio as Entrepreneur Partners and Advisors. We partner with entrepreneurs and leverage the resources of our strong network to build successful companies.

source: www.amidzad.com 

eBay

The online auction web site was founded in San Jose, California on September 3, 1995 by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb,^[1] part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.^[2]

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder and asked if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."^[3] The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book^[2] and confirmed by eBay.

Chris Agarpao was hired as eBay's first employee and Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com(the domain has recently been put up for sale) but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.^[4]

eBay went public in 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires.^[3] The company purchased PayPal on October 14, 2002.

 For fun: unusual sale items

• In June 2005, the wife of Tim Shaw, a British radio DJ on Kerrang! 105.2, sold Tim's Lotus Esprit sports car with a Buy It Now price of 50 pence after she heard him flirting with model Jodie Marsh on air. The car was sold within 5 minutes, and it was requested that the buyer pick it up the same day.^[84]
• In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who had been elected Pope Benedict XVI) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88 ($277,171.12 USD). The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.^[85]
• A seaworthy 16,000 ton aircraft carrier, formerly the British HMS Vengeance, was listed early in 2004. The auction was removed when eBay determined that the vessel qualified as ordnance, even though all weapons systems had been removed.^[86]
• In September 2004, the owner of MagicGoat.com sold the contents of his trash can to a middle school language arts teacher, who intended to have her students write essays about the trash before it was cleared away by a well-meaning janitor.^[87]
• Water that was said to have been left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from was sold for $455. The few tablespoons came from a plastic cup Presley sipped at a concert in North Carolina in 1977.^[88]
• A Coventry University student got £1.20 for a single cornflake.^[89]
• A man from Brisbane, Australia attempted to sell New Zealand at a starting price of $.01AUD. The price had risen to $3,000 before eBay closed the auction.^[90]
• One of the tunnel boring machines involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel was auctioned on eBay in 2004.^[91]
• A group of four men from Australia auctioned themselves to spend the weekend with the promise of "beers, snags, good conversation and a hell of a lot of laughs" for AU$1,300^[92]
• Disney sold a retired Monorail Red (Mark IV Monorail) for $20,000^[93]
• The German Language Association sold the German language to call attention for the growing influence of Pidgin-English in modern German.^[94]
• In late November 2005, the original Hollywood Sign was sold on eBay for $450,400.^[95][96]
• In February 2007, after Britney Spears shaved all of her hair off in a Los Angeles salon, it was listed on eBay for $1million USD before it was taken down after some considerable controversy.^[97]
• Bridgeville, California was the first city to be sold on eBay in 2002, and has been up for sale 3 times since.^[98]
• Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramírez attempted to sell his neighbor's JENN-AIR Gas Grill on eBay. The auction started at $3,000 and the price escalated to an astounding $99,999,999, the maximum amount allowed by eBay. The auction was later closed by eBay because of the promise of an autographed baseball going to the winner as well as the grill; it is a violation of eBay policy to include items other than those advertised.^[99]
• In April 2004, American entrepreneur Matt Rouse sold the right to choose a new middle name for him. After receiving an $8,000 "Buy It Now" bid, the Utah courts refused to allow the name change. He currently still has his original middle name "Jean".^[100]
• In 2004, a partially eaten, 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold on eBay for $28,000.^[101]

 Source: Wikipedia

Guy Kawasaki : His Real Story

I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was, at various times, a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official.

I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. After Iolani, I matriculated to Stanford University where I graduated in 1976. My major was psychology-which was the easiest major I could find.

After Stanford, I attended the law school at UC Davis because, like all Asian American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.

The following year I entered the MBA program at UCLA. I liked this curriculum much better. While there, I worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings; my first real job was literally counting diamonds. From Nova, its CEO Marty Gruber, and my Jewish colleagues in the jewelry business, I learned how to sell. The jewelry business is the toughest business I’ve encountered.

I remained at Nova for a few years until the computer bug bit me. The Apple II removed the scales from my eyes, so I went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted me to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so.” I can’t live in a city where people call sushi “bait.”

Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM. I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe-Apple has been very good to me.

Around 1987, my job with Apple was done. Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS. It published a product called 4th Dimension. I did this for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting.

Later, I started another software company called Fog City Software with three of the best people in the world: Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, and Jud Spencer. We created an email product called Emailer that we sold to Claris and then a list server product called LetterRip.

In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die again. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.

A couple years later, I left Apple to start Garage with Craig Johnson of Venture Law Group and Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Version 1.0 of Garage was to provide matchmaking services for angel investors and entrepreneurs. We upgraded to version 2.0 which was an investment bank for helping entrepreneurs raise money from venture capitalists. Today, version 3.0 is focused on being a venture capital firm and making direct investments in early-stage technology companies.

This brings me up to date. Currently, I’m a managing director at Garage as well as an author and speaker. I’ve written eight books and have four children. My latest book is The Art of the Start-the Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything. It reflects my experience as an evangelist, entrepreneur, investment banker, and venture capitalist.

Guy Kawasaki - Official Bio

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc.

Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.

He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Extract from: http://www.guykawasaki.com/about/index.shtml 

Denis Coleman

Denis Coleman Denis Coleman, Entrepreneur, Angel investor and Mentor to early stage companies Denis Coleman is founder, investor, and Mentor of numerous technology and software start-ups in Silicon Valley. In the Biotech sector Coleman is currently the Chairman and President of Solus Biosystems, a startup with a hardware/software platform to accelerate drug discovery by measuring the interactions of proteins and drugs. In the mobile and handheld marketplace, Coleman is Director of Moonstorm (www.moonstorm.com).

Moonstorm is at the nexus of consumer marketing to-the-hand. In Internet marketing, Coleman Founded Claria Corporation (www.claria.com) in 1998, and served as it’s Chairman until 2004. Claria is the leader in online behavioral marketing, serving over 42 million consumers and 900 Advertisers. Coleman Co-Founded Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) in 1983, and served there through 1988 as VP of R&D. Coleman’s other companies include DCL, Wealthcycle (acquired by Loan City), C Level Design Corporation (a EDA company), Financial Engines, Neoforma (NASDAQ: NEOF), Visioneer Communications (merged to form SSFT), and Cognitive Technology Corporation. Coleman has served these companies in many roles including Director, Founder, and Investor.

Denis Coleman holds a BS and an MS in Mechanical Engineering and a MS in Management, all from M.I.T., and a Ph.D. in Management from Stanford University. Coleman has taught on the faculty of Stanford University, and is credited with 14 academic publications and one book.