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International Business Exchange students Sillicon Valley 2017
working space has been phenomenal and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, his advice was
to aspire to goals no one believes you can achieve and then do more. So far, this approach seems
to be working.
Not only are incumbents facing challenges from geography but they also continue to face constant
disruption by startups. The startup community is well and truly alive. Our visit to 500 StartUps
opened our eyes to the well-oiled accelerator experience. 500 StartUps focuses solely on hyper
growth technology companies and has a laser focus on execution of these ideas. The stint in the
accelerator will set you back $37.5k of the $150k invested and 6% equity but gives you access to the
best mentors, founders and staff in the area. Countless other accelerators and incubators are also
gaining momentum around the world. The Australian government even jumping in with the ‘Landing
Pad’ initiative launched late last year. Administered by Austrade, Landing Pads are innovation hubs
in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Berlin and Singapore. At our visit to the San Fran Landing Pad,
we met a motley crew of Aussie entrepreneurs all striving for US expansion, with businesses ranging
from arthritis medication, ‘4jointz’, to casual event staff, ‘Event Workforce’.
The startup community may be alive and well but what is happening when they get past seed funding
and into venture capital territory? This issue was, as expected, a hot topic. Chris Haroun, from
Haroun Education Ventures, gave us some more insider tips of what VC funds are looking for – they
are betting on the founder first, then the growth of the business - even better if a founder has a hard
luck story, and is ready to prove something to the world.
Even if you make it past the startup phase it’s not all smooth sailing. Young Aussie founder and CEO
of Nitro, Sam Chandler, talked with us about the increasing cost of the talent pool in the Bay area.
Would he start in San Fran now? Perhaps not, given the scarcity and cost of talent. Furthermore,
as a founder you must learn to adapt and grow your management skills – looking after 30 people is
vastly different to 100 and if you can’t manage there is the threat of being replaced by a ‘professional
CEO’ at your own company.
So how are the big players faring? The story at Google, Intel, Salesforce and eBay was much the
same - they must stay agile and continue to foster an innovative culture. Intel is grappling with how
to deliver on tailored individual solutions, eBay is facing the challenges presented by the prolific
expansion of Amazon and Salesforce is attempting to harness customer ideas to power their own
in-house innovation programs. We wait to see if they succeed.
Regardless of the challenges, one thing was clear. The aspirations were big: “Get humanity ready
to go to Mars” big. And from the post tour discussions, it is certain that everyone had lots to ponder
on the plane ride home.
STAR
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