Good is not enough in San Francisco
The San Francisco learning journey is over, I’m back home but I’m still on fire after such an inspiring and intense experience. 22 incredible days in which I visited impressive companies as IDEO, Adaptive Path, BitTorrent, Disney Mobile, Innovalley, HermanMiller… lived ecosystems like the Berkeley University, Standford University, The HUB SoMa,.. and met great individuals as Scott Underwood, Dominic Campbell, Xavier Verdaguer, Aitzol García, Jamin Hegeman, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, Timothy Kline… and many many more.
Working hard at the Social Innovation Networking event organized by @FutureGov and @codeforamerica
Picture by: Ryan Resella
My head is now struggling designing a center for social innovation in the Basque Country so it was just great visiting the HUB SoMa, Pier38, Opinno’s open office space and some other incubators. Incredible spaces to empower technological and innovative entrepreneurs and start ups. Was great to see how important these places are and how they create the proper environment and connections and check live bunch of support and professional guidance they provide to the people working with them.
The influence of the Universities in the business ecosystem is just amazing I wont imagine something similar happening in Spain. There is a constant feedback of employees, projects, money, talent… between Universities and companies. Of course I’m aware about how elite-based, the difficulty to enlist to the important universities and the difficulty to pay the bill and the end of the year…
Another interesting point is all the venture capital movement in the area, it’s incredible to feel that new inversion opportunities are waiting around the corner if you have a great idea. Anyway I learnt that even thought I’m always quite fluent in my speeches I need to improve a lot my pitching skills. I need to practice more, be more concise, just touch the key and main points (not getting too theoretical) and create a great 1 minute storytelling and let your mother and grandmother understand the whole thing.
The networking events are very popular in the Bay Area and you can almost find everyday an interesting one. They are, no doubts, the best way to expand your network and share ideas in the city. For me was just great going to those places and talking freely and high level about Design Thinking, user-centered design, social innovation and other fields I love. Great conversations, straight to the point, interesting feedback to your projects and ideas… and of course lots and lots of shared contacts. It was amazing how quick and kindly shared valuable contacts with you or even inviting their companies in the following days. Nothing to do with my previous experience in Basque Country and Spain in similar events. Even magic happens in strange situations: I met a Berkeley University’s teacher crossing the street (who invited me to the MOMA and to the Herman Miller Showroom), a Youtube programmer having a beer and an internet company user experience responsible dancing in a night club.
One thing we need to take into account while talking about Silicon Valley is that the most of the companies are into the technological and web-based field and that the innovation culture has been there for decades. So… this place, people and its history are uniques and not replicable, so please governors out there: do not try to create your Silicon Valley. This things aren’t created from scratch.
Of course all this journey would had not been the same without the my mates of the International Master on Intrapeneurship, Team Leadership and Open Innovation (#MINNteam) and the whole Mondragon Team Academy community, which is an endless source of energy and new challenges. It was a huge honour and challenge to be the Team Leader of this amazing group of people during this once in a lifetime adventure.
San Francisco is undoubtedly one the most challenging and vivid learning and working environments I’ve ever been which transforms the Silicon Valley into one of the best places in the world to leverage yourself, your team and your ideas. But of course just the best ones survive to this competing jungle… good is not enought in San Francisco.
Concluding: more work, more networking, more focusing, more “me conversations”, humbleness but competition too, friends and a great team close to you, go for relevance and impact, trust in the creative talent and of course take risks.
Time now to work hard. San Francisco, see you soon. Looking forward to see what emerges out of this learning journey.
This was my first post about the San Francisco experience more to come in the following days. Stay tuned.
Hi Iñigo,
What a great learning journey you lived in SF! it´s beautiful to read about such a happyness experience!,…….but what I miss of your story is,……in general, people you get in touch with and work in all those places, Do you feel they were happy?
Have fun, and rest.
Welcome to BC.
Thanks Larraitz for your comments and questions. WhiteKaos appreciates it a lot :-) Lets see:
@Larraitz: Yes, great and happy experience the one I lived in SF. Regarding your questions about the happiness of the people I met: Yes, I think the people we met they really enjoyed their job and apparently had a happy (but challenging and hard working) life. From my perspective they were living their dreamed-job experience. People in the Silicon Valley area are not just there because of their high skills and profiles, but also because this is where they really want to be. On the other hand, I must admit that I just met the `good cases´, the people that failed or did surrender… I don’t know where they are.
I think is worthy to mention now Xavier Verdaguer, a Catalonian serial entrepreneur, who after even going bankrupt in Spain he stood up, continued working hard and created new companies and incredible projects in San Francisco (and Spain also). He looked really happy. Check: http://www.xavierverdaguer.com/ and http://innovalley.us/
Hola Iñigo
Buena vuelta, es bueno eso que dices de que Silicon Valley y San Francisco no es replicable. Una de las cosas que siempre se han dicho es que parte del boom de Silicon Valley , las start ups y el emprendziaje parte de una sociedad extremadamente abierta, cosmopolita, culta, juvenil y tolerante. Un lugar donde siempre se ha sido pionero en movimientos como los hippies, el pacifismo, el movimiento beat , la tolerancia con los homosexuales y similares contextos sociológicos que van más allá de lo puramente económico.
Soy de Asturias y tengo que decir que en el entorno cercano que trabajo alrededor del País Vasco los factores suelen ser contrarios a los que comentas: una sociedad muchas veces conservadora y reacia al cambio, personas-ambientes-lugares con actitudes-pensamientos y sloganes nacionalista en muchos casos y en general una sociedad-empresas-universidades muy poco mixtas-heterogéneas y mezclada. Algo que tengo que serte sincero me chirría muchas veces
Es decir influyen muchos factores como dices, las Universidades son otro factor clave, y con una mentalidad y actitud diferente a la de nuestras latitudes. Incluido el profesorado y la actitud del mismo , no ya con la docencia y sus alumnos sino con sus carreras profesionales. Muchos profesores ven en la Universidad el refugio perfecto para una carrera estable y sin sobresaltos. Cosa que obviamente no pasa en USA
Quiero hacerte una pregunta ¿ pros y contras de hacer un learning journey solo o en grupo?
Un abrazo y hasta pronro
Gracias Ivan por mantener WhiteKaos vivo :-)jijji
– El ecosistema de Silicon Valley me parece a todas luces único y consecuencia de X factores más o menos espontáneos. Nadie decidió crear un Silicon Valley allí. Sin duda los factores claves son la actitud (y aptitudes) de las personas que habitan el lugar y el gran impacto de las Universidades. Por otro lado esta entender que no todo es un camino de rosas por allí, la competencia es feroz y la mayoría de empresas desaparecen en medio año, y para entrar a las universidad necesitas un expediente tan impresionante como tu cuenta corriente (o la de tu familia).
– Sobre las learning journeys: Sin duda vivir este tipo de experiencias en grupo ayudan y mucho. Cuantos más puntos de vista y observadores diferentes mejor. Si no cada una se queda con su cantinela de aventuras de estas y con más gente eres capaz de llegar a un mayor entendimiento de la situación, conocer a más gente… Por otro lado hacer expediciones a solas o tener tiempo para poder preparar planes o conversaciones propias también es interesante, no todo el mundo está interesado en los mismo temas o quiere profundizar en los mismos campos.
Un saludo, seguimos enREDados
Gracias Íñigo por este viento FRESCO que soplas desde San Francisco.
Gracias, gracias, gracias!
Gracias a ti Luis Miguel. Como ves la aventura del MINN team continúa, seguimos explorando nuevos escenarios de innovación y colaboración por el mundo. Ojalá podamos juntarnos en Madrid pronto. Un saludo y sigo conectado a http://inteligenciaetica.com/
Nice post Iñigo. Your insight is well on the mark, and I am very glad that you garnered great perspectives and experiences that are proving helpful to your project. I will continue to follow your posts as they come and hope to comment more in depth here and on the subsequent posts sooner than later.
un abrazo fuerte,
ayana
Hi Ayana, It’s great you visited WhiteKaos :-)
I’m still trying to digest better the SF experience, I’m planning to write a post about Design Thinking in SF. Don’t you thing I forgot about super history and how you became a precious arty-design-thinker. Great meeting with you and Peter. Keep in touch! Abrazo!
Pingback: First steps of the HUB Gipuzkoa | White Kaos