
Going to Silicon Valley? Plan carefully - louisdorard
http://www.louisdorard.com/blog/silicon-valley
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jameshart
If you're pushing a real-estate tool, why on earth would you go to Silicon
Valley looking for customers (as opposed to investors)? It's got one of the
most dysfunctional, abnormal housing markets in the US, so any success you
have in working with realtors there is unlikely to translate to broader market
success. I'd have thought you'd have learned more by rolling up at realty
industry conferences, working with professional bodies, etc...

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louisdorard
Hey James, thanks for your feedback. Which part of the US do you think we
should have gone to instead? Are there any conferences and professional bodies
you could recommend us to check out?

~~~
jameshart
Unfortunately I don't have any deep insight into the US realty industry,
beyond having interacted with it as a customer recently. As a Brit who
relatively recently came over to the US though I can tell you that from a
European perspective there are probably a lot of things about the US realty
business that might surprise you and affect how and to whom you might need to
market the product. The seller's agent/buyer's agent split; realtor licensing
and the consequent franchise and network-marketing business models, the web of
different state regulations, the MLS system, "open houses", the role of online
listing sites in real estate sales, and some rental markets; the dominance of
craigslist in other rental markets...

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leknarf
Having visited the bay area from NYC, the point about travel time (1 hr on
average) is useful. Before visiting the area, I had heard that things were
more stretched out than on the east coast, but I still underestimated how much
time we'd spend in transit.

In NYC, I take a lot of meetings (more than 5 a week on average), but rarely
need to spend more than 30 minutes in transit. I'd guess the average is closer
to 15.

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bane
Down in the Metro DC area it's not uncommon to spend 30 minutes to an hour
travelling between meetings. In that way Southern Maryland and Northern
Virginia are very similar to SV.

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sn0v
The title confused me a bit there - I thought the author was recommending
against going to SV

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louisdorard
I have to admit that the title is provocative. I do think that going to SV can
be a waste of time/money in certain situations, but hopefully those tips can
help :)

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sn0v
Oh yeah, these are definitely a great bunch of tips :)

~~~
louisdorard
Thanks sn0v!

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avifreedman
Also, if you're into the nerdly arts I recommend as part of "sightseeing" (all
clustered pretty nearby):

Digital Guru Bookstore (and Madhuban has a great Indian buffet almost next
door); Weird Stuff Warehouse (be sure to go in the back room); and there's a
Fry's is close to those 2

Then slightly distant from those:

Unix Surplus (tell them Hacker News sent you and you might get a used hard
disk or GBIC as a door prize, or ping me and I'll organize a time for a geek
tour)

~~~
jlgaddis
I live in the midwest and have been to SV many times but never heard of any of
these places. I'll definitely check them out the next time I'm out there --
especially Unix Surplus which looks like it's just a few miles up the 101 from
where I usually stay. Very cool, thanks!

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allochthon
_Another thing that surprised me was how people made themselves available to
talk to us. We got quite a few meetings on relatively short notice, and it
made it possible to learn a lot in a short amount of time. ... It may also be
that they 're investing some of their time to discover, before every one else,
new stuff that may be useful to them. Or it may be that they're just happy to
help out!_

No doubt a little of all of these things. But Americans in general try to be
helpful. If anything, people in the Bay area are a little more stand-offish,
although this is not taken to an extreme. The helpfulness only extends so far
for strangers (and even close friends) -- there often comes a point where
people start to get a little impatient. This helpfulness is to be contrasted
with the superb hospitality shown in some parts of the world. Americans are
helpful but not very hospitable. Be prepared to fend for yourself here for
anything beyond the basics.

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dotBen
_" As I said in the beginning, we were surprised that in our industry people
weren't as tech savvy or tech-minded as we thought they would be. ... Another
thing that surprised me was how people made themselves available to talk to
us. We got quite a few meetings on relatively short notice"_

Could be that you were meeting with the wrong people - those with the time on
their hands to meet over what is frankly a very unlikely opportunity for them
(if you're based in France, and they do Realty in SF/SV etc) or are having to
be so opportunistic are probably not the people who are going to be the best
placed to help you. Those that can make that golden connection, have they key
knowledge or can make something happen may be simply too busy to meet someone
without a strong endorsement within their network.

I wouldn't tarnish all of SV as being "not tech savvy" simply from the bench
of folks who would take a meeting like this.

~~~
louisdorard
I want to stress that I am only talking about my own experience and this isn't
a study on SV. The comparisons I make are also based on the various tech
meetups and events I have been to (unrelated to VA-Live).

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cognivore
No knowing how Hacker News is moderated, it'd be great, though, if someone
would change the title to "Going To Silicon Valley? Suggestions on
Preparation."

Then I wouldn't get cheesed off when I clicked on it, because I wouldn't click
on it.

(Oh look, it happened while I was posting! Thank you Intarweb Gods).

~~~
louisdorard
Just changed the title based on everyone's feedback. Thanks for reading
anyways!

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toomuchtodo
"Going to Silicon Valley? How to maximize the time you have."

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louisdorard
My intention was to have people really question whether it is the right time
for them to go. Anyone else think I should change that title? If so, I'm happy
to experiment...

Is it ok to change a title after the link has been posted?

~~~
pitt1980
I think your connitation might be getting lost in translation

not sure if "don't waste your time" is an american idiom or not

it comes off as "don't bother" which I don't think is what you're trying to
convey

~~~
mattmanser
It's a UK idiom too, I also misread the title & quite a bit of the article to
mean 'Don't bother going to SV'. I thought it was a bit odd he gave a bunch of
tips after saying don't go.

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7Figures2Commas
> They are developing a click-to-chat solution for the Real Estate sector that
> offers 360° virtual tours of properties, guided in real time. It's a B2B
> technology product in an industry that's not particularly tech-savvy.

I guess it's somewhat fashionable to suggest that the industry you're
targeting isn't tech-savvy, but I don't see how anyone with knowledge of the
market can credibly suggest that this is the case with real estate.

~~~
Kluny
My company does websites for real estate agents. I'll verify that in BC at
least, realtors are not tech savvy. They'll ask for a wordpress site because
someone told them that wordpress is easy, but it's still not easy enough, so
they'll call us to make changes like uploading a photo or a blog post.

Many of them still write property descriptions as if they're paying by the
letter in a dead tree publication - "2bdrms, 3bthrooms&snny blcny", randomly
interspersed with lines like "this exciting property features exciting
features like a sunny sunroof and utilities are included." Some of them are
not just un-techsavvy, they're nearly illiterate.

~~~
7Figures2Commas
This is an example of another fashionable exercise: assuming your
customer/client base is representative of an entire market. The National
Association of Realtors has over a million members. Some are obviously going
to be savvier and more successful than others, but on the whole, real estate
is an industry that has embraced technology and realtors use technology in a
variety of ways to market listings, service their clients and complete
transactions more efficiently.

You should consider that "knows how to use WordPress" is _not_ the litmus test
of tech savvy. There are a good number of folks out there who have made
millions online who probably don't have any experience with a CMS.

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rdl
Also, if you're going to be taking 2-3 meetings/day in the Peninsula or South
Bay, rent a car. Public transit is ok in some cases for a routine daily
commute, but it's a huge pain for going from one office to another mid-day. In
SF itself it's different, since ~everyone is in SOMA, which is all walking
distance.

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jackgavigan
In a similar vein, here's some travel tips I put together for people planning
a trip to SV: [http://www.ldn2sfo.com/travel-
tips.html](http://www.ldn2sfo.com/travel-tips.html)

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lwan
Good general advice about doing business and meeting contacts in the US.

Bad link baiting title.

~~~
louisdorard
Thanks Iwan. Do you think I should change that title after the link has been
posted?

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hablahaha
Oh man, good blog post, but I opened VA-Live's website in a new tab and it
scared the living daylights out of me with that awful music. I thought we
weren't supposed to do things like that anymore...

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louisdorard
Just updated the title based on everyone's feedback — thanks for your
suggestions. Will update the blog itself soon!

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qwerta
Nice check list. Thansks

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louisdorard
You're welcome qwerta!

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michaelochurch
Misleading, link-baiting, title.

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bennyg
Maybe. He's foreign, remember, so "don't waste your time" isn't the same
familiar euphemism it is here.

~~~
louisdorard
Thanks for backing me up bennyg :)

