by Andreu Tobella  on Mon 4 Apr - 0 Comments
Categories: Career Trek Blogs

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During our trek in Silicon Valley we got the chance to meet with some of the most prestigious VC’s in the world such as KPCB and August Capital, investors in companies such as Google, Facebook or Twitter. Thanks to the efforts made by the trek organisers we were lucky enough to meet two partners for a bit more than an hour each which was extremely useful to start to understand how and why Silicon Valley (SV) has such an influence in the technology world. In summary I would say that two factors make things happen in SV:

-        Mentality: in the valley, failing in business is seen as an advantage. In comparison in Europe failing starting a business means that you will have major barriers if you want to try a second time and you are considered as a failure. In SV they value more the fact that you actually tried and fail than that you never tried. This mentality is shared by everyone in the west coast and embodies the entrepreneurial ecosystem in SV.

-        Density: the number of start-ups created in the west coast and the amount of money and investors that are active in the area gives much higher chances to succeed when starting a business. For instance, when networking in San Francisco it is not rare to end up having a drink with a major VC. By no means have I implied that the only place where one can succeed building a business is there but the chances seem higher there mainly due to the access to network.