So, halfway through the 2011 Startup School activities we can definitely say we are pretty much proud of how things are going. We've hosted 12 students with different ages, from different background and coming with different goals, but every student leaves the school as they've experienced a "life changing" period. Students visited some of the most prestigious incubators and accelerator, 500 Startups, Plug and Play, Rocket Space, prestigious universities as Stanford and Berkley and the Singularity University; they participated to a few incredible events in the area, as Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, giving his speech at the Singularity University and Steve Blank talking about Entrepreneurial Education at Parisoma. Moreover a few terrific new speakers, Burton Lee, Hartmut Essingler, and Gigi Wang.
These were the regular activities MtB Startup School offers, but along these activities the students had the possibility to breath the Silicon Valley incredible vibe of energy, good ideas and technology and people.
The energy and the dynamism of the Silicon Valley are two things that surprise students every time here. "In three weeks I've learnt so many things and talked with so many interesting people; I've also talked with another startup for a possible agreement on the product development. I've experienced so many things in three weeks that have never happened in Italy in a long time." Or "Here nobody wants to read a 80 pages business plan, things are so dynamic that you need to pivot your business idea so many times according to the reaction and feedback you get from your users. A 10 pages deck is what you only need and then just talk and get feedback."
The easiness to get useful feedback is also another things that thrills students. "Here you don't need to talk with three assistants to get in touch with the CEO of a company. You just go to one of the pool party in the Valley and you can meet him there, drinking a beer with his/her t-shirt and his/her flip flop talking with other startups.". Or "The density of talented people here is incredible, you can go everywhere, just get a coffee and you can find a person ready to give you feedback on your startup and to pitch his/her startup. There are no issues here in sharing ideas, while in Italy it seems more difficult either because people are afraid that someone can steal their idea or because the person listening can simply destroy the idea but without constructive feedback. Here in Silicon Valley, people always give reasons either for a positive and for a negative feedback".
Our intent is to improve and enrich even more the activities of the school! So, if anyone is ready to experience all this and much more, the applications for the October edition are now open! Availability is limited so hurry up!
For more information contact summerschool@mindthebridge.org.
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