Week 6: Silicon Valley California

From the snow of Kansas city at 6 in the morning to warm bright sunshine in Silicon valley 5 hours later: America has a diverse set of climates. This week the pace and number of activities hasn't slowed down at all. We were hosted by Stanford University who helped set up a number of great experiences. Highlights for me include going to "Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati" the law firm which looks after clients such as Google and Youtube, visiting 3 biotech start ups, hearing their stories and Visiting Burril and Co. Venture Capital firm.

Whats really hit home for me this week is that Silicon Valley really is a different kind of environment to anywhere else I've ever been. From Stanford university and their unparalleled innovation, Sandhill Road with a huge density of Venture Capital Firms (of all the VC firms in America 40% are in California) to the incredible community of Entrepreneurs, both aspiring and those who have made many millions. Its truly a unique environment for high tech start up business.
To put in perspective the wealth of the state of California, they have the same GDP as France, but half the population! In my opinion this is down to the entrepreneurial economy (and possibly the complete anomaly which is Google).

So far we have made a lot of contacts with local entrepreneurs, investors and VC's. There is a huge amount of experience in the valley waiting to be tapped who in the general case are more than happy to help and answer questions.

A model which all countries should follow to develop their entrepreneurial economies, and ultimately grow the GDP.

Week 5: Last week in Kansas City

This being the final week at the Kauffman Foundation, before we travel to California, we've been asked to prepare presentations on our business ideas; as a 15 minute pitch. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the rest of the Global Scholars and their business ideas.

Scholar	Business Idea
Aaron Mannis	A product to dramatically improve firearm safety.
Ade Bamidele	Web based platforms for Image Retrieval
Chris Mitchell	Automated sound genre classification system
Craig Hellen	Video design production company specialising on a new UK sport mountain boarding see www.fnkydesign.com
Daniel Currin	Patented and is now hoping to license/create company around an innovative balloon product
Devin Cheevers	Create mobile phone features to aid developing countries such as his home town in South Africa.
Georgios Diamantopoulos	An automated quality checker for Video Codec which creates a metric of image quality.
Gerhard Symons	Co-founder of CamStent: a bioscience company aimed at revolutionizing a particular surgical treatment for coronary artery disease.
Joshual Seal	Patented a energy saving product which reduces power consumption of devices in stand by.
Luke Jefferson	Assistive technologies for colour blind computer users.
Manu Bhardwaj	Funky wheelchair that has a novel folding mechanism
Scot Devlin	A non-destructive subsurface mapping provider that uses a unique 3D Ground-Penetrating-Radar system in the European construction industry
Simon Phelps	Started company ‘Fluvial innovations ‘ which is based on IP developed at university: a unique demountable flood barrier which can be constructed by one person. see more at www.fluvial-innovations.co.uk
Wasim Bhatti	Has a number of inventions which he wishes to develop under his own brand starting with an Unmanned Aviation Vehicle for the civilian market.
Will Griffiths	Has business Interests in social innovations focused on energy saving and green devices

So there was a brief introduction to all the other scholars. Next week I'll be in California and the heart of Silicon Valley: San Antonia.

Week 4: KC

Like the constant snow (I don't think I have seen the grass yet in Kansas City!) the quality of speakers has stayed at its incredibly high level with talks from David Aldridge, Bob Litan of Kauffman and Catherine Mann. As well as this we went on a visit to an established local entrepreneur: Danny O'Neil the Founder of the Roasterie a Kansas coffee supplier.

Bob Litan is one of the smartest people I have ever met (and this is after meeting the MIT and HBS lecturers) his background in Economics. Here is a quote from his biography on the Kauffman website:

"Litan has had a distinguished career in public service. He served on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers (1977-79), as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department (1993-95), and Associate Director of the Office and Management and Budget (1995-96). He also has been a consultant to the Treasury Department on financial policy issues."

And what he had to say to us in the 1 hour informal chat he had with our group was fascinating. Bob wrote an essay on what was required of the US to sustain and develop its Entrepreneurial economy in the future: effectively what were the primary concerns of an entrepreneur.

After a first draft of this essay he gave a talk on his findings to a audience of entrepreneurs and found that their thoughts on the issue compared to his and the governments were different.

"What would you expect an entrepreneurs primary concern is?.. Tax right?.. well it isn't, its the workforce"

After discussing this with these entrepreneurs and other he rewrote the essay and came to the following 4 concerns for a future entrepreneurial economy to be sustained and show growth:

1. Ensuring a skilled workforce
2. Reforming health care
   
3. Promoting Innovation
4. Limiting overly burdensome regulation and liability litigation

Interestingly 2 of these concerns, health care and litigation, aren't so important in the UK as health care is paid for by the state and litigation isn't so rife.

So why isnt the UK more entrepreneurial?

Week 3 in KC

This week has been very busy and exciting.
Highlights for me include lectures by Eugene Fitzgerald from MIT and Noam Wasserman from Harvard Business School.

Listening to a lecture from an MIT proffessor has been aptly discribed as 'drinking from a fire hose' and I really couldnt say it any better than that. The lecture by Eugene was titled: "What is the Connection between Fundamental Science and Market Growth". However the lecture fast and furious with many very interesting asides from the main theme. It was difficult to keep up but incredibly useful to me as next year I have to choose a final year project for my masters. The ultimate takeaway of the lecture was this: 'Go about choosing the right problem in the right way'. For more about how read my post on Eugene's lecture.

The second memorable lecture was by Noam Wasserman who gave us a case from Harvard Business School (HBS). HBS is renowned as one of the best business schools in the world, and they do things a little differently there: all their lectures are case studies of real businesses. I found this a fantastic way to learn and one day I would love to go to HBS to achieve an MBA.
Heres a few interesting facts about Harvard Business School:

• 30% of all Venture Capitalist in America went to Harvard Business School
• George W. Bush studied at HBS
• Jeffrey Skiing now jailed former CEO of Enron studied there!

The final really memorable event of the week was visiting the Kansas State Capital (which surprisingly isn't Kansas City) Topeka. In Topeka we went to the Capitol building and met the Governor of Kansas State: Kathleen Sebelius. Who it is rumored could be a future president of the USA (first woman president).

What a week!