The last two days have been an experience of constant learning – a real life school into networking, interviewing, shooting (video & photos) and pitching. The pace has been super fast and to add to the challenge we still haven’t recovered from the jetlag. However any difficulties have been rewarded tenfold with the experience, knowledge and skills learned.

Wednesday we headed down to Palo Alto and Stanford. The drive was filled with talk of Silicon Valley wonders and who is who in this place. The HQ of Oracle and the offices of IDEO were pointed out with keen recognition. Of course, the Stanford campus was a welcome sight again – we doubt these people never get tired of going to school.

At Stanford we met up with Forrest Glick at the STVP (Stanford Technology Ventures Program) office. He and the team are responsible  for the eCorner portal which we are interested in. Really hospitable and helpful people – Forrest took time out of their busy day to talk to us and offered us a box of cinnamon buns. Those sweet pastries weren’t the only thing we got to enjoy here, oh no, definitely not.

Forrest gave a comprehensive explanation of the process and structure they have developed and which is making eCorner a success. For example their podcast is appreciated by a wide audience in part because they are made available nearly instantly after each talk ends. Forrest also gave numerous specific tips which will be very valuable when it comes to organizing and developing our own archive service at Aaltoes. We feel like we were given great support in the form of the various insights from eCorner.

We also attended the ETL (Entrepreneur Thought Leader) talk and saw Forrest and his team in action. The talk was an interesting one given by two generations of entrepreneurs, a mother and a son, Sandra Kurtzig (ASK Group inc. & Kenandy) and Andy Kurtzig (justanswer.com). And of course, you will be able to catch their talk on eCorner.

After the talk we had a quick look and talk around at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Week ending party – a themed week full of talks, seminars and mini events.

We then headed out to meet some of the Startup Life interns working in the area. We had a date set up at a restaurant in Palo Alto and enjoyed a casual talk and shot some interviews with Anne Liiri and Raimo Tuisku. Anne is interning as a part of the marketing team at Apptivo. Raimo is a developer and interning at UserVoice.

Both seemed very happy with their roles and companies and it was a pleasure to hear about their experiences so far. The interviews went well and the footage can be seen in future Startup Life promotions. Considerably

In the evening and back in San Francisco, half of our team + Raimo went to the Nordic Game event to learn some valuable lessons. ALWAYS carry a dozen business cards with you! In tech capitals of this scale, events and invitations emerge so fast, you basically never know where you’re going to end up next. Though we’re all flooded with these pieces of paper, the social aspect of receiving and being able to give something back, leaves you in a much better position than mumbling something under your breath about the hotel locker. Thank god most of the embarrassment was saved by swift Linkedin communication and contacting (mostly accepting).

The Nordic Game event was overall a chance for networking, preparing our pitches for SXSW and getting an idea of the Nordic game scene. We were surprised how many people had not yet heard of Aaltoes and it’s message. Every time the notion of “Europe’s Silicon Valley” was mentioned, it began to get more resonance. Lots of interesting conversation took place, ranging from ‘mind-controlled gaming’ to the future of Finnish gaming scene in general. One of the most prominent topics was the difficulty in penetrating the Asian market, China in particular.  For Aaltoes and Startup Life there were also interesting news. Jouni Keränen the COO of Apple Toons, a company which has been notably successful in China, showed interest in hosting a few internships at their HQ in Shanghai! The future lies within the East!

Thursday was an administrative day. We promoted the Startup Life throughout the Stanford campus, took care of the general organizational things and prepared for the upcoming SXSW days. We also had a meeting with Jussi Valtonen another startup life intern in the area.
Jussi was able to give us some valuable insights on working around the valley.
On his mind the whole working mentality and the level of involvement are on a different level in the Valley. Every team member truly gives a full hundred percents, and there really isn’ a possibility to just tag along! Work is project based and really fast paced. As a part of a team you have a full responsibility, but also the possibilities are endless. For Jussi the internship has been a great window  for gaining hardcore international experience. On his mind Startup Life internship is actually best described as Space Travel! You can never know what it’s like before you’ve really done it! But afterwards the feeling and experience gained are awesome!

The application period is still open until next wednesday! Sign up and see for yourself!!!

After meeting with Forrest we headed to Plug and Play Tech Center where we met up with Dom who was actually the first guy we met on Monday at TCDisrupt. Plug&Play wasn’t that nice of a space but their depiction as “Silicon Valley in a box” was very interesting. Basically the same building housed over 200 startups, tens of Angels and VCs, coaches and mentors. Finnpro and Finnode had booths there but they were empty. Collaboration here could be useful for some of our startups.

Highlight of the day

At Disrupt we met Hermione Way, a cool British girl, who does video coverage for The Next Web. We wanted to do a piece on Startup Sauna with her so she told us we need to have an interesting setting for the interview, sort of like you would on a date. Consequently, we agreed to do the interview in a sauna. This was certainly the most bizarre interview any of us had done, but we felt it was a great idea and it was very interesting. We discussed important points and hopefully it will turn out great. So stay tuned. In addition we were able to provide the sauna experience to the next web crew and we’re certain it left a lasting mark. (Thanks to everyone who helped us make this happen and thanks Hermione!)

In the evening we headed out to Santa Cruz where the videographer we worked with today lived and had a nice seafood dinner. Also saw some seals at the wharf!

Lessons of the day

Being different is really important in what we do. It’s a core reason behind the success of Aaltoes and Startup Sauna and should be so in the future as well. It is why we got the interview and it’s why our Startup Sauna t-shirts attracted so much attention at the Disrupt conference.

Being open-minded and receptive to ideas and people leads to serendipitous connections and opportunities – another key lesson that today’s events epitomise.

Doing is learning. Even though we weren’t on sure footing today in the sauna, taking charge and going for it taught us way more than not doing it.

Tomorrow is our last day here and the schedule will be tight. Now a couple of beers and then bed.

Looking forward to another Super8 brekkie,

J, N, R & J

We met up with Rebecca from the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). She was hired recently to take care of STVP’s external partnerships and told us of the future ambitions of the program, Stanford and Aalto cooperation. An interesting point she made is that Stanford is very intent on learning from everything that’s going on with Aalto, as they would like to see students engage in the same way. Stanford wants to cultivate its partnerships to be more than just business relationships and Rebecca is truly great with people.

One of the STVP’s programs is called “Mayfield Fellows”. It starts with classes in the spring, continues with internships in startups over the summer and concludes in the fall when students teach case studies to each other based on what they’ve learned during the summer. This idea made us instantly think that Startup Life could have an important role in the new Aalto entrepreneurship curriculum.

One of today’s highlights was definitely the d.school, Institute of Design at Stanford. The variety of spaces, people from multiple disciplines, the cross-pollination of ideas, a true sense of openness and ambitious projects create a unique vibe with a “change-the-world” mentality. The enthusiasm and joy that exuded from open-minded people creating with an aim to have an impact was purely inspiring.

In the evening we met up with Nruthya from Bases (Business Association for Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Students). She was awesome. They have a great energy going and collaboration with them looks promising. She also provided us with some insight into the student world at Stanford.

Today’s valuable insights

Today was truly an enriching experience for many reasons. Firstly, it was amazing to see what one of the world’s top universities looks and feels like. Secondly, it really broadened visions of what education can be. Particularly the integration of design thinking into education across disciplines, left a lasting mark. The ME310 course is taking a breather at Aalto this year, which feels incomprehensible based on what we saw today. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, today’s visit gave us invaluable insight into what Aalto is striving for, what Aalto can become and, to some extent, what we need to do in order to get there. It made us think, more than ever, about what we really want to get out of our education and what we can do to make great things happen for ourselves and our community.

Big day tomorrow, spirits high, feeling motivated,

J, N, R & J

Another great entrepreneurial resource from the grand universities of US comes from MIT. The MIT $100 challenge is the premier university-run entrepreneurship competition in the world. The year-long competition provides a lot of material for entrepreneurs in Finland: be sure to check out the MIT 2009 pitches