Stalking (1/12)

Hey people,

So our first full day in San Francisco was slammed packed with different sights and sounds. We managed to utilized all four forms of public transportation in this single day. We end up meeting with three different start up companies in the San Francisco area. We spent time with callspark.com, vark.com and digg.com before going to a bar named "Mighty" for a tech networking social where 7 entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to the whole bar.

At callspark.com, we met with the CEO, Steve Larson. He was a very friendly guy who was obviously a man that knew how to get things going and completed. As an experienced CEO and a person who has been with several companies from their start up stage to their IPO stage, he gave us a good taste of what it took to make things happen as an entrepreneur. Steve explained his company's product to us, which was an app acting like a "smart directory" for smart phones using social networks to increase the ease of connectivity. Steve chuckled about having multiple lifestyles with us during the morning, but I am beginning to wonder if possessing multiple personalities is and essential characteristic of business oriented start up entrepreneurs. It seems that in order to thrive in this environment one has to be able to constantly change their colors. The art of being able to appeal to anyone is undoubtedly useful in business, it certainly makes relationships seem less genuine. However, I very much enjoyed our trip to callspark.com and learning about upcoming products and their related technological developments.

After leaving callspark our group walked through the city to a delicious Thai restaurant to meet with Alison Johnston from Aardvark (vark.com). Alison is a community manager for Aardvark, which is another social networking software tool that leverages the knowledge of its users to answer each other's questions in real time. Like callspark, this company is planning on combining social networks with it's own product to increase connectivity across various platforms. Alison was an extremely outgoing type-A personality Standford grad. I imagine her working about as fast as she spoke to us, leaving no doubt in my mind that she gets things done well and efficiently. This type of high-energy attitude, the same type of attitude that Steve possessed, seems to be the key to entrepreneurial success. Leaving the restaurant stuffed with my Pad Prik King (a steamed green bean and grilled chicken combo smothered in a sweet and spicy red chili sauce) our group toured some downtown shops for a while. One of the more memorable stops was the Ferrari apparel store. Here the price of selling our whole class into slavery would not match the value of their displayed floor merchandise. After a brief bout of window shopping (the only kind of shopping I'll be doing here), the class made good use of the Muni and made our way to the next meeting.

We showed up at Digg.com around 3pm. Here we met with Matt Van Horn a business development manager; a sleek geek if there ever was one. Dressed in hip sneakers and expensive jeans that showed his sense of style, a three wolf shirt that displayed his sophisticated dry humor and a casual blazer that boasted his business boldness. Matt told us about digg.com and how it was a website that ranked top news stories from many different sources in order to present the best information on their home page for their users. In addition, Matt gave us a crash course in networking. I think the most precise word that sums up Matt's lessons about networking would have to be STALKING - stalk everyone any way that you can. Matt insists that adding value to relationships is the key to networking well. While this is unequivocally cynical, there is also some truth to it. Everyone bases their relationships on the value derived from them. We have best friends because we gain the most value (e.x. similar interests, simulating conversation, empathy, etc.) from those relationships, why should it be any different in business?

Our next stop was a couple of blocks away from digg.com where we were able to put our new networking lessons into practice. At SFNewTech we grabbed some grub from a taco truck out back before aimlessly falling into various conversations with random software entrepreneurs around the establishment. Believe it or not, there were not many techies and code monkeys throwing themselves at a senior accounting student in hopes to fall into deep conversation. With that said, I did have a wonderful experience talking to numerous entrepreneurs and listening to their sales pitches.

I am learning so many things here in CA. The culture in Silicon Valley is fascinating; risk-aversion is pagan worship and fearlessness the only survival tactic. Just take a moment and imagine what was going through the minds of 9 Midwestern college students from 9am to 9pm today. Brilliant!

Sincerely your stalker,

Adam