Silicon Valley 101
[..] My purpose to bring you here is not necessarily to just bring back the startup culture in Middle East. My purpose regarding this trip, my expectation is to complete your academic education by inspiring you and providing you with opportunities to complement what you have learned in class - Prof. Maher Hakim on answering my question at the Arab Panel
WARNING : LONG AND IMPULSIVE POST
In most of the companies we visited, we had a QnA session at the end, and one of the recurring questions was “How can we bring the culture of Silicon Valley to Qatar/Middle East” or “How can we get back our Arab Entrepreneurs in the valley?” to which Zafer Younis from 500 startups very well said that “It does not matter as the goal of helping entrepreneurs and these students is to help them succeed. It does not matter if they come back or not” Ultimately, they are inspiring the little wantrepreneurs by representing that region. It does not matter whether they do a startup in Middle East or U.S. Later in the Arab Panel when our Professor asked us for reflections, I asked him a question that what are his expectations from us after the trip or in other words, what was the purpose of this trip, and he gave me the answer I expected him to give that how he values individual learning more than anything. He further elaborated that “It is also not necessary that all the people here go for a startup after graduation as this is not the purpose of the trip. In fact, I would be glad if you can get inspired, work for and learn from one of these big companies.”
And with that I would put out a do and don’t list which I think is important for wantrepreneurs (aspiring entrepreneurs) out there i.e.
Startup is not something that is forced. Do not try too hard for a startup if you are not interested to do that. Do not do a startup just because it is cool. Yes, do a startup if you have a problem that will burst your head if not solved. Do a startup if you want to be independent. Do a startup if you think you can contribute and be recognized on a bigger scale for your work and that it would be impossible to do that if you work for bigger crowded companies.
With that being said, I don’t disagree that there is a need for the Arab region to grow in terms of product development and entrepreneurs. I also don’t have any objection at the question about how the culture of the valley can be brought back. What I just want to say out loud to the next year’s batch is that when you describe your reason to visit the valley, it is nice but not necessary to say “I want to bring the culture of silicon valley back to Qatar.” And as Professor Maher Hakim said and as we saw in the Valley that even if we work in U.S, we are representing and helping this region one way or the other.
With that being said, here are some interesting and favorite things I observed in the valley :
1) Good Questions all around : Unlike most of the conferences/seminars I attend, all the questions that our group asked in the qna sessions were relevant and important. Before we went to a company, we used to do a 20 minute research at the breakfast table about the company and what’s going on with it. Later in the van we used to tell each other about the company and our findings to give context before meeting. Now the purpose of the research was not to “think” of a very critical/controversial question that we could ask the reps (representatives) and score. Yes, many people do that in the seminars but it’s just unhealthy way to think about it. The purpose of the research was to see if there was any question that was bugging us or that got ‘triggered’ from that research. So if you have to “think” of a question, you really don’t have a question.
2) Similar cultures in companies : Interestingly, most of the companies had wide open spaces, no executive offices to tone down hierarchy and encourage collaboration. Interestingly, almost all the companies (Uber,500 Startups, AirBnB,etc) we visited had their rooms named after cities (Paris,Dubai,Dublin,etc). So if you are in a room and someone calls you to ask where are you, you can sound cool and say, “I am in Paris.”
Picture Source : Link
3) Post-Conversations : After each visit, we used to argue in the van about the company. Some topics we discussed were : So would you like to work for the company if offered (many of us said No for Zynga), This guy (Louay Eldada from Quanergy) is the boss, Anki could have done a better start than starting with a toy, AirBnB offices were amazing, why Zynga is not stable company to work, how inspiring Marwa Mabrouk from Google was, whether Kashmir belongs to India or Pakistan, Egyptians are smart or not, most of the startups at launch festival were useless, difference between cmu and stanford, how we could have worked hard to get into stanford, etcetra. HAVE THESE CONVERSATIONS. These are amazing ways to learn, especially learn at times why your thinking is wrong. These conversations are best to observe things. Trust me.
4) Do not underestimate : When we went for Quanergy, we all literally thought that it is some small company with an Arab CEO trying to copy google’s self-driving car and that it would not be worth our time. Let me tell you, this became everyone’s most favorite company. This was as big as any other company. The guy (CEO) had an amazing personality and man he was the smartest man many of us had met.
5) Google and Stanford : Visit to Google was my favorite part of the trip. Not because of obvious reasons of it being amazing. But because of the inspiring talk we had. Host Marwa Mabrouk told her inspiring story which we all could relate to. She told us her struggles of the conservative society, and how she had to call “Mufti” to talk to her mom in Egypt to let her go to US for work as her mom was not ready. Also, we cycled around the beautiful Google campus on GBikes. Amazing right?
The second most favorite part of the trip was Stanford, and for obvious reasons. CMU Alum, Dilsher and Fahim received us. Dilsher told us about the ecosystem at Stanford and differences in CMUQ and Stanford. How Stanford does not have any invigilators in exams as it trusts its students. How it does not use plagiarism detectors, etc. The campus was just beautiful, and the weather was amazing as it was pouring. Silicon Valley has a great advantage of Stanford as it is primary source of smart founders and engineers here or in other words as my brother writes, the source of mana of Silicon Valley. Warning when you visit : You will get depressed thinking why you are not part of it. But yet it is an inspiring place to visit and eat amazing Waffle fries.
Picture Source : Link
Places we visited : Zynga, 500 startups, Indiegogo, Ideo, AirBnB, Anki, Uber, Google, everyone’s favorite Quanergy, Facebook (from outside),Launch Festival 2016, Plug and Play, and Stanford.
And I say this with zero exaggeration that this trip was and will be the best and the most inspiring trip of my life. Finally, I would like to end this blog post with something I feel is important :
Never think less of yourself. It is highly likely that when you visit Google, AirBnB, Quanergy or Stanford, you would feel depressed to see how smart people are, how people younger than you are part of it and that you aren’t. How you could have done better in classes/SATs to get into Stanford. Not that this is a wrong way, but this is just an unhealthy way to think about things you “could” have done. Think about things you “can” do. There’s no way you cannot work in Google. There is no way you cannot be successful. All you need to do is work hard and not procrastinate and above all enjoy what you do.
- Shahan Ali Memon
