The Silicon Valley category covers all posts that look specifically at different features and values of Silicon Valley and its eco-system
NZTE Better By Design US Study Tour 2013 – Google, Cars & Dogs
Tomorrow night, the NZTE Better By Design US Tour 2013 team are having a reunion in Auckland. Time then to get on with my reviews of the Tour and how it is impacting on my work today. The Study Tour’s scheduled visit to the Google campus in Mountain View meant visiting a place I had been to many times before. [...]
Supporting Kiwi Women Founders Make it in Silicon Valley
When I first arrived in Silicon Valley, I had this pre-conception that meritocracy ruled. Everyone was born equal and class, sex and race played no role. The words of Thomas Jefferson in 1776 came to mind. Today, I am not convinced. We have a plan. It's cunning Women founders / entrepreneurs raise just 4.2% of overall venture funding [...]
Introducing the Kiwi Landing Pad
The Kiwi Landing Pad (KLP) is based in SoMa, San Francisco’s South of Market district. I visited the offices a couple of weeks ago to catch up with John Bryan, the NZTE Business Development Manager for the San Francisco Bay area. The offices are located on the first floor of 185 Clara Street. You can view some photos of the [...]
NZTE Better By Design US Study Tour 2013 – Culture Change at Intuit
Intuit’s HQ is based in Mountain View. The NZTE Better By Design Study Tour spent two hours on the second full-day of the Tour last July on the Intuit campus. Best known for its QuickBooks accounting app, it is probably better known in New Zealand as the most significant competitor to Xero in the US. Because Chatham House rules applied [...]
Introducing SVForum
I am often asked which networks I belong to in Silicon Valley. I think it is fair to say that most are best described as private. What that means is that they have been developed over the years from meeting fellow entrepreneurs, investors and business partners. I know different people in different places doing different things. One very public network [...]
Review: NZTE Better By Design US Study Tour 2013 – Part 1
In July 2013, I was fortunate to be invited to join the NZTE Better by Design US Study Tour. Given that the Tour was focused on Silicon Valley and the culture that many of the larger companies in the Valley have developed, I was in the right place at the right time. First, a little background. Better by Design is [...]
Introducing the Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale
The Plug and Play Tech Center (PnP) has been my home in Silicon Valley for the past three years. It refers to itself as ‘Silicon Valley in a Box’ and this is a very good description of the community. Note the word ‘community’. The leadership team at PnP has worked very hard to build up the concept of a community [...]
Connecting with NZTE in Silicon Valley
I have a confession to make. In the six years or so that I have had relationships with different teams inside New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), I have rarely had anything but praise for the work they do. This is not a universal comment and it is fair to say that working with any Government agency has its moments. [...]
Getting to Know the SF Bay Area
When I first visited Silicon Valley, I had little more than a map of San Francisco Bay, a Caltrain timetable and a return ticket to Auckland. Looking back, my preparation for that first visit was at best scrappy. Three years on and the Valley has become my second home. Leaving San Francisco airport and catching Route 101 to San Jose [...]