My thoughts after 2 months in San Francisco / Silicon Valley
Steep learning curve, honest feedback, amazing network, many things to learn from
It’s end of September and I am in San Francisco and the Valley for about two and a half months now. I want to take the chance and share some of my thoughts and experiences from my time here. The mission of our trip was roughly split in four different dimensions on which I want to comment a bit.
1. Building up a network
This is the first thing you come up with. As we were new to this place it is really important to get to know who to talk to. We have been here very often in the past already and through our network we knew a lot of people so it was a slightly easier start as when you would come over for the first time. We also have a lot of clients here which are some natural points to start with. Thanks to Startup Basecamp it was also easy for us to get in touch with other founders in the same situation and we met a lot of great people. Building up your network is also the starting point to get high quality introductions which you need especially for the following points.
2. Talking to US clients in-person
One of the most important points for us as we wanted to get direct feedback from the US market. We have about 5-10 paying clients in San Francisco alone which was great to get to know how they use our product and what they were missing. As we are currently working on optimizing our whole value proposition it is awesome to sit in a cafe with people using our product every day.
3. Talking to investors
Of course when you are here you are trying to speak with potential investors for the future and that’s what we did as well. Not because we need/want to raise another round tomorrow, but it was great to get a perspective on what investors are looking for and which metrics we need to improve to get in a position to be ready. We got lots of No’s but also a lot of positive feedback and we feel very positive about the things to come. From a first impression the competition of startups for funds is very high here and you have to really understand your numbers and get them right. Prepare yourself for tough questions ;-)
4. Get feedback from other more experienced founders and find advisors
This was actually the best part of the whole trip and I didn’t expect it to be so fruitful. Especially the feedback you get is very honest and after the first discussions we were really questioning ourselves if our value proposition is still the right one or if we should twist it towards a different direction. We are sitting on a great opportunity and just need to package it in the right way so that clients can understand it more easily (which is not an easy challenge). At the moment we are thinking about setting up an advisory board which would allow us to get more structured feedback in the future. But this would also mean that we need to position us more towards the US and need to spend more time here.
So where are we and where do we want to go?
The situation for us at quintly is a lot different from most of the cases you find here. We are already around on the market for around 2 years, have raised our first round of investment (but are 100% self-owned again now) and have grown in a more bootstrapped and generic way. For a German startup we are positioned pretty international with paying clients coming from 42 countries (with about 30% German speaking, 30% US), so it makes sense for us to be here. One of our biggest challenges in Germany is that we cannot find a lot of good advisors, as there haven’t been a lot of successes with social media startups in the past with a similar business model. Here in SF/SV you find lots of great founders and professionals that have gone through the same challenges over and over and can really bring value to the table. For sure it will be exciting times ahead.
What are the main takeaways?
Let’s summarize all of this and more in some main takeaways.
- We should be more open in helping out other people and being open for discussions with anyone. Back in Germany we are on a very good way, but I think we can still do better. In general we should think more longterm and not look for the immediate benefit. Good things will come :-)
- Introductions are everything. I have been to so many events here and usually not much came out of them. If you get high quality introductions from people you know, chances are much higher to create a good outcome as you already got a recommendation.
- There are not too many Germans here. I think it’s great what the German Silicon Valley Accelerator is doing and more startups should come over here to explore the scene and learn from one of the most innovative places in the world. So don’t think too long and just come over, it’s absolutely worth it.
- Not everything is gold here in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Having a great startup ecosystem doesn’t mean that you are also well positioned in other areas. If you look for public transport or cost of living for example you begin to love our system back home. There is also no money on the street here, as you could easily get the impression from some stories you hear.
- You have to spend a long time here to get into the scene and take value from it. It doesn’t help to come over for 2 weeks, as you might have a great sightseeing trip but you will be forgotten on the day you leave. Even 3 months are not enough for that. If you really want to play international and the US is part of your business, you should think about setting something up permanently, if you can.
- I think one lesson to learn is also that the source of the success in a startup ecosystem is purely having great startups. The rest will follow …
Was it worth it? Totally, and I can recommend it to everyone, really broadens your mind.
Special thanks to everyone we met here so far and will meet in the remaining time. Really appreciate the welcoming atmosphere.
(Photo credit: Anirudh Rao, Flickr)
