3 Tips When Visiting Silicon Valley in 2020
Silicon Valley – the startup capital of the world. It is a unique culture and ecosystem of experienced people willing to share advice freely, which creates a breeding ground for building great companies.
Great connections, resources, talents, and failures are viewed as a “pit stop” that draws hundreds of founders to the Valley to tap into the network, raise the next round of financing or find that enterprise customer.
How does a startup founder from outside the Valley effectively navigate and create a successful network to help them start and scale? That is the question we answer in this post by sharing three tips to implement when planning a Silicon Valley 2020 strategy:
BUILD A LARGE NETWORK
Building a successful startup in Silicon Valley is highly dependent on creating the right network. The broader your connections, the larger the “network effect”. Here are some ways to expand your network:
Check out foreign meetups and startup groups - every region or country has one (or five!).
Search for events that are relevant to your industry (marketing, finance, cleantech, etc.).
Look for local advisors - people that are experts in the areas you need and have a network they can tap into on your behalf.
Get on the list of co-working spaces and events - there is no shortage and new ones are being created every day. Pro Tip: AWS Loft - it’s free! We’re crowdsourcing this content so stay tuned for future posts!
Many countries have a presence in Silicon Valley to help startups build partnerships or connections in the Valley. There are government programs or agencies helping entrepreneurs to succeed, for example, the Canadian Consulate provides services for startups trying to attract capital or multi-national clients. Google your city, region or country + Silicon Valley and you’ll find some great starting points.
Connect with other expat founders who are settled in the Valley and can help make an introduction to the ecosystem. An awesome Canadian group is the “Eh List” that organizes a meetup each month in various U.S. and Canadian cities for founders.
Eran Bali, Co-Founder of Udemy, said it best:
“U.S. born entrepreneurs may have a lot of connections from their college, where they grew up or their family. Most immigrant entrepreneurs will come to the U.S. without many people that can help them in their journey. Joining an incubator and connecting with their compatriots in the Valley are good ways to kickstart a network here.”
And of course, us. Connection Silicon Valley offers programs throughout the year for various groups and we partner with a lot of organizations and promote their events that founders can tap into.
MAINTAIN A PRESENCE IN SILICON VALLEY
Silicon Valley investors have the pick of the litter and each year and they fund over 2,000 startups in the Bay Area. How can you make your mark and stay top of mind with investors and business leaders important to your industry or category? Hint: it isn’t by coming here once and only staying for a week.
Take 30 minutes and think about how you can plan a Silicon Valley strategy for 2020. We suggest coming down to absorb how it is supposed to work, make initial connections, get product validation and feedback, and then take that learning back home until your next trip (you should have dates in mind before you get on the airplane home). And then, do that again … ideally within the next 4-6 weeks.
For some, if product-market fits feels truly like one of the best globally in a specific category, consider setting up an office in the Valley and increasing your presence and team.
Investors also understand the technological strengths of various ecosystems around the world and visit regions such as Tel Aviv, London, Singapore, Toronto and Dublin to look for companies and invest in local valuations (which can be 5–10X cheaper than Silicon Valley). Being visible in the Valley will help you meet and impress the investors who are hunting on your local turf. Pro Tip: Offer to make introductions for them - you know your local ecosystem the best, and let’s be honest - being helpful will score you some great social capital.
UNDERSTAND SILICON VALLEY VALUATIONS
Valuations in Silicon Valley are usually 5-10x higher than in other regions. There are a few reasons for that, but a key thing to understand is that startups in the Valley are viewed as a binary business. A technology breakthrough gives you a short window of opportunity to disrupt a large existing market or build a new one quickly where one didn’t exist before. This means 10X cost, speed, or convenience advantage over the “old way” of doing something and a product that sells itself.
If you’ve stumbled on this opportunity, rest assured you are not the only one working on bringing the technology to market.
When planning Silicon Valley strategy, think big and research what the current Silicon Valley valuations are - who are your global competitors - and really, really understand where your product is different from the others (not just “a little different” but markedly different).
Those are 3 tips to help you tap into Silicon Valley. We have many more so continue to follow us and read future posts. Please share your tips and good luck with your next visit!
