The return of Silicon Valley in the 2nd quarter: Entrepreneurs, you are really changing the world

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Wen/Wang Lijie

It has been more than a year since the return of Silicon Valley was written on UA889 last year, and this time the Silicon Valley visit was very different from the last, so there is a lot of new perception and sentiment.

Now it's time to start the text, but I'd like to remind you reader that it's best to read the "Return of Silicon Valley 1" written last year, although the two articles have no logical context, but contribute to a more systematic and in-depth understanding of the "sequel" Sentiment.

1. The movement of globalization

Before coming to Silicon Valley, we all saw a shocking news, set up 4 years of Uber financing 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, valued 18.7 billion U.S. dollars. The small partners were stunned, so the first thing we got off the plane was to come to Uber to enjoy a free lunch, to observe and feel the company's "glamour", what was the reason for the "smartest" investors to trade 1.2 billion dollars for less than 10% of their shares?

After visiting the exchange, I have a particularly profound feeling, peer-to-peer is really an earthshaking revolution on the Internet, so that the world's vast number of drivers and temporary passengers through the Uber, anytime and anywhere connected, so that both the immediate interaction between supply and demand, security transactions, the more drivers more users, more users, drivers will also be more, This is a virtuous circle. When the number of drivers and users reaches a threshold, the Internet's "quantitative change" of the charm will be generated, the past simple drivers to pick up the passenger model may produce various changes, drivers can move any "atomic world" material, such as ice cream, flowers, pets, suits, coffee, fruit ...

In fact, the most challenging is not the idea itself, Silicon Valley is the most important idea. The most challenging is how to bring together a group of geniuses to work for the same dream. The Bay Area brings together the world's best engineers (product managers), but at the same time there are countless companies vying for these talents. When you walk in the head office of Uber, looking at the "Xie-ears" general geeks (geek) of all skin races, you will find that you do not know what the past Uber did right, in short, they won the talent war, and this round of huge financing for its talent scramble to add countless ammunition, These geeks are launching a global revolution in transportation and logistics, and it is important to note that it is global. Uber has been serving 125 cities in 37 countries and will be more in the future, as it can be seen from their large screens that cars that are densely on maps are important "assets" that they distribute around the world, and this is unthinkable in the industrial society of the past.

So, in Silicon Valley, one of your little ideas is not just the Bay Area or San Francisco, or even the United States. Here, you are launching the "Global movement", you are really changing the world!

2. Let Freedom blow

"Let the wind of freedom blow", this sentence makes me feel want to cry is the motto of Stanford University! If I can see this sentence 20 years ago, I do not know whether I will pass to Stanford as my ideal for college entrance examination, perhaps not, because at that time I, completely uncivilized, to own ability also have no confidence, the bosom has full of ambition , but no action is necessary!

Donnald Kennedy, the eighth president of Stanford University, once said, "the university will allow people with extraordinary creativity to enjoy an extraordinary and creative life". This sentence, I was also moved to tears. With at least 5,000 companies in Silicon Valley, the founders are inextricably linked to Stanford. All of these benefits from Stanford's pragmatic spiritual influence on the cultivation of students ' creative thinking and the "unity of knowledge and practice".

In 1884, the 16-year-old son of a U.S. Senator and railroad Henryland Stanford, who had died, vowed to donate to a college where all the children of California were children. For the next 10 years, Leland and the family, until the death of 1893, a small Lan Stanforming university appeared on its own 35 square kilometers of the farm. In 1935, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, two graduates of the Stanford Department of Electrical Engineering, planned to go to the east for a job search, and their common mentor, "father of Silicon Valley", Professor Terman, said: "Why should we turn our wisdom to the East? Why not start your own business on the spot?" Under the teacher's encouragement, the two brothers together 538 dollars, in San Francisco not far Palo Alto (now VC gathering place) Anderson Avenue No. 367 rented a garage, began to start a business, HP was so born; the garage entrepreneurial culture has started!

Over the next Half-century, countless it and internet giants have moved from here to the world: Intel, AMD, Apple, Cisco, Oracle, SUN, Yahoo, Google, EBay, Facebook, Uber ...

Stanford University has more than 20 separate entrepreneurial-related courses, covering all aspects of starting a business, with more than 95% students opting for at least one entrepreneurial-related course, the hottest of which is Ideo's founder David Kelly's Lauchpad at Stanford Design College. Each student enrolled in the course was asked to conceive an idea within a few 10 weeks and turn the idea into a product to market. Pulse news, which has raised more than 10 million dollars, was born in the course.

We also visited Stanford's public-interest incubator StartX, which has so far more than 1000 companies, over 2,400 Stanford students have received funding through STARTX, an average of 1.5 million dollars, and a small partner we talked to just got a Google Ventures investment, And we later visited the boosted Board (electric skateboard) company is also graduated from STARTX, this electric skateboard let me have a home to learn the desire of ordinary skateboarding, the next year to return to buy an electric play.

Running in Stanford University every morning, feel the quiet and vast atmosphere of the birthplace of Silicon Valley culture, watching people on the road skateboard, someone riding a bike, someone and I like running or walking, someone riding the latest "elliptical instrument" straight driving, all kinds of people and scenery, It's a very beautiful enjoyment. At this moment, the ear repeats again and again "let freedom blow" this sentence hundred years motto, I sincerely feel the social development, science and technology development and education philosophy, education system deep relationship.

Good systems and ideas have attracted the smartest people in the world who have learned to give back to schools generously. Stanford only 10,000 new students a year, but more than 70 million dollars in financial aid, the family income of 100,000 U.S. dollars below the tuition fees, 77% of the students have scholarships.

Heaven-like institutions, this life is not, the afterlife must make up!

3. The system wins

Whether it is a school, a company or a city, a society, what is the fundamental reliance of its healthy development? I deeply believe that, relying on "excellent system", the system is not immutable, the system should also keep pace with the times, backward system will lead to the stagnation of the company and social development and even backward Too-advanced systems may also lead to social instability and corporate chaos; a good and proper "system" should be the most needed for education, business and social development.

Some people will say that talent is fundamental, but continue to explore, the cultivation of talent requires schools to provide excellent education system, the attraction of talent requires enterprises to provide excellent enterprise system (incentives, development, growth, health, etc.), so, no excellent system, how to excellent talent.

In addition to the excellent educational ideas and systems that Stanford has shown to the world, every Silicon Valley excellent company we've been to has demonstrated a good corporate system and an excellent system with the times.

We all know that to come to Silicon Valley to find friends to Google, Facebook, Uber and other companies to enjoy a free lunch. Even a local entrepreneur told me that the team was eating and drinking at Google for the first 3 months of their team's business, because one of the founders had not yet left the company, so he brought them to the office every noon. But this meal is really nothing to Google. Free lunches and a more liberal culture are a big difference between an internet company and a traditional IT company, at least I haven't heard of everyone going to a group of companies like Cisco, ORACLE and HP. In the Huawei that I once worked for, the staff is not so easy to bring people to visit the company, the process and management restrictions are quite a lot, although not expensive to eat, but certainly not free.

Into these enterprises, you will find that their office environment is particularly comfortable and healthy, many engineers and I like standing office, so take off the shoes, feet have a special foot mat; Of course, some people like to lie on the sofa, so Google and Facebook can be seen everywhere comfortable sofas. Everyone here has several computer screens, and they are huge, everyone is geek, cool. Their work is relatively "loose", the company is very flat, the assessment is results-oriented rather than "clerical" system, Google employees officially allow 20% of the time to do their own business.

Considerable remuneration and options, participate in changing the world, the result-oriented flexible assessment system, according to the interests of the choice of work content, comfortable and interesting office space, free food and drink entertainment facilities, health and environment of the office environment, can even take a pet to work, such companies, how many people will refuse?

By the way, when we visited Facebook, we saw Mark Zuckerberg and a colleague taking a walk after dinner at the corporate park, talking about the problem, coming and going back and forth, Zuckerberg holding a bottle of mineral water, It seems to be a common form of his work, as he walks along, a form of discussion that Steve Jobs liked. For Facebook employees, there is no hierarchy or high zero boss, everything is flat and free, and the creativity of these talented employee genes is so subtly sprouting.

4. Move fast

While visiting Facebook, there was a freewifi called Facebook Guest, the password was "M0vefast", and our little friend told us that move fast was a working culture within Facebook, and that Facebook was visible everywhere. Hacker "cultural signage is a kind of working status for Facebook Hacker.

In fact, the rhythm of the whole Silicon Valley is still very tense, here people know how to enjoy life, but also know how to work efficiently. They spend the weekend with their families, surrounded by mountains and water, everywhere is the scenery, cycling and running people everywhere, high-speed road, the size of the car roof often see will "top" bike, as far as I understand that the bicycles here are not cheap, are more than 1000 U.S. dollars, riding is a sport culture. While working, the Silicon Valley people show is a kind of time is the "fast rhythm" of life, at F50 's Roadshow conference, think local investors answer entrepreneur Questions said she is very concerned about time management, time is money, she will not be free to do not prepare to interview an entrepreneur, Be sure to read it first. BP thinks it is necessary to arrange the time, and it is arranged very tightly every day.

Meeting with local investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley also requires advance. I have a few times because the traffic is not familiar with the reasons, put a few will be arranged very unreasonable, a moment east, a while west, and then back to the east; so I temporarily to adjust, the result all people have time conflict, can't adjust, a little "far-reaching" feeling.

The cars on the Bay Road were very fast, although I first came to the United States because I could not understand the rules and drove to 90 miles an hour to be chased down by the police to make a ticket. After that, I never dared to speed, but basically you can't drive too slow, the 70-mile limit on the road, everyone at 80 miles per hour, if you drive to 70 miles of standard speed limit, You'll find the car next to you, one after the other, it's really fun, fast and not too fast, slow and slow, and you have to stay 75 miles to 80 miles an hour to get used to the pace.

Move fast also has another layer of invisible meaning. Internet companies here pursue a "light" culture, Lean Startup, so the company's introduction of every talent is very careful, everyone is independently heroes, Silicon Valley companies believe that the best talent to a hundred, so they do their best to attract the best talent, which is the most famous is Google, The huge billboard that used to be on the freeway is a math puzzle that attracts geniuses who are curious and able to figure out the answers and put their resumes on the table. These gifted engineers are born to solve problems, move fast is also a part of their genetic characteristics, thinking fast, speak fast, write code quickly, release products naturally also fast!

So move fast is not just Facebook, it's the spirit of Silicon Valley!

5, the great cause, can also be completed by ordinary people

Near the entrance to the Stanford Garden, a group of statues, without any protection, is Rodin's true work. Stanford is the world's largest collection of Rodin sculptures except France. The statue's description reads: "In 1984, in honor of the 6 national heroes who died in the Anglo-French War, the city of Calais asked Rodin to carve a set of statues ... Rodin did not reproduce the Facebook hero in the traditional way, but with a group of different personalities of the civilian model, carved 6 handsome "rough"-because he firmly believe that: the great cause, can also be done by ordinary people. ”

This is the best inspiration for a man who is born ordinary to you and me. I believe that today has created a miracle of the great man, traced to the past is a trivial ordinary people, we are born equal, it is the hard work and perseverance that we have a different life experience and value realization.

Many of the founders of Silicon Valley did not start their own company for the sake of material enjoyment and money, they are more for a simple dream, some dreams may not have a profound social value in the beginning, but in the mature venture capital industry support and promotion, Simple dream slowly evolved into a change in the world's business mission, like black holes attract the outstanding talent together for the effort, everyone has their own small dream, add together is a great ideal. In Silicon Valley, there seems to be a magic that brings the elites together in one garage or incubator and uses the keyboard to compose the music of life. They are ordinary programmers at the moment, but persistent pursuit and perseverance, the near future, these ordinary people may in countless scientific fields, create new wonders, in the history of business change, leaving their own no longer ordinary name.

This time we discussed a lot of scientific topics in Silicon Valley, especially robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, stem cell technology, and so on, and the key is that these are the science around, not the impossible sci-fi stories. The head of our mission, the president of the Young Angel, and Ning, the founder of the Air network, said in each speech that he would devote himself to investing in two areas of robotics and stem cells.

Yesterday seems to be a distant future, may be in front of you, the side of the seemingly ordinary "Xie ear", may be tomorrow to create the history of the leader. In fact, the world is never missing a miracle, the lack of just "believe that miracles will happen heart" just!