by Patrick Cohen  on Mon 4 Apr - 0 Comments
Categories: Career Trek Blogs

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My personal goals for the trip were twofold. First, to get a better understanding of the ecosystem that is Silicon Valley – to understand how founders of startups get access to the capital that is needed to aggressively scale a promising business and how they attract and retain talent. Second, to get an idea of what life in the Bay Area could be like. On both accounts I was not disappointed!

In the face of all the great company visits and social elements it is hard to pick highlights. But I believe that the best insights came from Randy Komisar, one of the partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. He dedicated 90 minutes of his time to answer our questions and to share his views on topics like why the Silicon Valley is still unmatched by other areas, the state of the VC industry and what traits entrepreneurs have to possess in order to attract funding.

Another event that allowed me to put a lot of pieces into the puzzle of the Silicon Valley ecosystem was the meeting with Naeem Zafar, a Professor at UC Berkeley and serial entrepreneur. In his nonchalant style, he added a second perspective to topics that were already touched on by Randy Komisar.

All in all, it was an AMAZING trip with an unbelievable lineup of companies and quite simply a great time. The 2012 version of this trek is a must-attend for everyone who seriously considers launching a startup at some point in their career.