How to survive in Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley, the place where the money is smart.

Silicon Valley is the name of the bay area of San Francisco, north from California. It’s the world most famous place of innovation where companies like Apple, Google, Facebook are located. It’s a place and a model resisting to the crisis and that keep attracting the best start-ups and talents worldwide.

Why there? It all started with the University of Stanford and its close collaboration with US ministry of defense. To work with the department of defense allowed companies to benefit from a generous founding and a secure market.

Today the Silicon Valley is the perfect mix of three main factors: Knowledge (The University of Stanford and Berkeley are ranked in the 3 best ones worldwide), Money (one third of the world risk capital is located in Silicon Valley) and the proximity to the biggest ICT and biotech companies.

Why is the money smarter there than anywhere else? Today start-ups need to think global and to execute fast. It means that using own capital and loans from bank is not enough to keep growing and being competitive. That’s why they need money from Business Angels (0 till 300.000USD) and then from Venture Capitals (300.000 till 10.000.000USD) in exchange for equities.

Now, here comes the key point. It’s not only money that those companies needs but also advises. Most of the entrepreneurs have started from scratch and have no experience in managing a steadily growing number of employees, in internationalization, in strategic negotiation and are lacking of contacts.

That’s the reason why the relation with Business Angels (BA) and Venture Capitals (VC) is so important. Entrepreneurs should not only look for the money but also for the smartest available BA and VC. The ones that will bring the strategic advises and the contacts that will allow them to grow global rapidly.

The challenge for a start-up is on the one hand  to keep freedom for a fast growth and on the other hand to have strong management tools to control the growth.

Where will start-ups find the smarter BA and VC’s? In Silicon Valley, most of them are old entrepreneurs from the valley and stay on the place where they succeed and where there is the highest number of interesting venues on the tech world.

How to go to Silicon Valley?

Do I need a visa?

Yes and it should be the first thing you should check. It happened several time to have some successful entrepreneurs obliged to go out from the country. The US government is now studying how to facilitate the matter as more than 50% of the Valley’s entrepreneurs are foreigners and creating jobs and value. The situation is so critical that some incubators are studying to place themselves on a huge boat on the bay area to avoid the problem.

So if you want to go there as an entrepreneur start to check this issue straight from the start. There are many different kind of visa but no one is perfect.

If you want to work in the valley, you can try to apply for the H1B visa for skill workers.

Where to live in Silicon Valley? First of all, you will see that it’s expensive to leave there.  A flat will cost you minimum 3.000USD. If you have children and don’t want to pay for a private school, you should consider the public school corresponding to your district. Then, San Francisco is considered as the perfect city for entrepreneurs and workers without family. Also you will have more venues and events there than anywhere else in the valley. SF is appreciated for the B2C when the rest is better for B2B.

What about the landing scenarios?

You can go to an incubator like Plug&Play, Rocketspace or 500 start-ups. Or you can go to a place sponsored by your country in the area. You can also contact directly the office of economic development of San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara and ask for their help. Anyway a previous travel to the Bay area with a agenda of visit is highly recommendable.

How much does it cost?

It will monthly cost you 5.000-10.000USD to live there. To rent an office can be between 2.000 and 8.000USD. A software engineer will ask you between 60.000 and 140.000 USD gross wage. It’s a fight to keep them. Try games, massage, stock options, holidays,… A medical insurance is 600USD, a lawyer 400-800USD per hour.

Cultural difference?

San Francisco is one of the American city where can feel yourself like home. It’s full of culture and art. It’s a great mix between Asians, Europeans, African and Latin people. You feel yourself at the centre of the earth. In very few cases, people will wear a tie. People look relax but always carefully prepare their meetings. People will always be open to speak with you but you will have only 1 minute to make your elevator speech. Say who you are, what you do and what you are looking for. You will just have one or two chances but not more. Always show them where is the money. People work a lot and go to many networking events after work.

Last and not least your attitude is key point. In silicon Valley, you don’t have only to be good in what your do but you need to be willing to be the best in what you do. If you are an ambitious dreamer and you want to conquer the world just go for it and enjoy this fantastic place!