If there was one picture that sums it up for me, it would be the Cal Hacks [0] one, broken down into either four or six pictures (depending on how many employees you have). The actual "hustle" is quite boring--put a bunch of people around a table with computers and there ya go. All the weird places such as beds, backyards, roofs, boats, stadiums, the street--that's not where the hustle happens. That's just an effect of being young and mobile.
Random: How many non-macs can you spot in that picture?
I noticed that too, almost all are Macbooks and the remaining few Dell. Well it's not the case when all the people used a PDP-7. I've hated that thing called Hackathon anyway, it gives a false sense of victory or achievement. It's no wonder we're having terrifying news from the tech startups.
Honestly I wish there was a "SV Vacation Party package" kinda of like what they have for college Springbreakers to Montreal, NYC or Cancun.
Stripping away from all of the BS and being honest, I don't want to do any coding at all on vacation, just want to have the experience and have fun!
(1) Day 1, book me on a "startup trip" to Google campus and eat at the campus cafeteria, maybe get a massage or even a spa treatment from the salon trailers; listen to some cool TED talks; opportunities to stop by the Google Store to buy me some souvenir Android plush dolls.
(2) Day 2, immersion "hackathon" day at a trendy startup co-working space where there's lots of snacks and good espresso coffee, a mini-kege with craft beer and faux impromptu nerf-gun fight, retro-aracade tournament; and more TED talks and also lots of "breakout" socializing sessions where everyone gets to talk about their visions and business ideas; the point is I don't want to code at all, I want to "feel the energy" of a hackathon without doing any coding at all.
(3) Day 3, Fantasy "VC camp" where I get to play the VC and have tons of actor/actresses come and pitch me; and I get to offer them advices at the boardroom table and have them nod back at me; the point is I want to role-play the power reversal(!)
(4) "Lifestyle and Networking Workshops," the "early morning non-substance dance parties," the noon power-lunches or yoga, the after-work kickball league, the evening EDM bangers. I want to experience the life of a highly mobile young SV techie everywhere in the Bay Area (night clubs in SOMA, hipster bars in Oakland, makerspace in Palo Alto, hookah joints in Berkeley).
You may think my descriptions is meant to be satire. But to be honest, I feel like a trip like this would be more memorable and more cost-effective for those who wants to experience the startup lifestyle than moving out to the Bay Area and actually working and paying exorbitant rent for 2+ years before giving the startup shutdown notice.
Who is doing the study on the impact of the 3800 open office corral of FB by Gehry where they only have ~(5) exec core non-open-space offices??
Surely FB is doing this - but will this data ever be avail to anyone?
Doubtful - and this is what sucks about the FB ethos "open and connect" people - bullshit - they have 3,800 engineers OPENLY connected in a SINGLE room - none of that human "connection" data will ever see the light of day - their morals are fucked.
Reminds me of that commercial from a few years ago where they show all the young awsome tech workers in some startup-y environ - and they are praising how awesome they are as they do anything but work, then the black guy is riding a scooter down the hall and they say, at the time he gets hit in the face by an opening conf room door "and you never answer the damn phone"
The article is interesting. As an entrepreneur myself, I see a lot of companies that don't a) have an original idea b) are not trying to really disrupt any current technology or industry and c) Are spending a lot of money on what I deem "worthless" expenditures.
What IS interesting are these:
mingled at an industry networking event at the W Hotel in San Francisco in August 2014. The event — the Start-Up and Tech Mixer — is held every few months and typically draws hundreds of attendees.
- Who's the company putting these on? Pretty sure they're not free and are addressing the new for SV types to gather under some notion of "networking".
Participants in Cal Hacks 2.0, a 36-hour hackathon in October 2015, building projects inside the football stadium at the University of California, Berkeley.
According to the event organizers, 2,071 participants attended from 143 schools and 10 countries.
- One of my business friends always said to "go big". You want to have a hackathon for a few dozen teams? What about 1,000 teams? This is what these organizers did. Charge a small fee to the organizers, get companies to chip in free stuff and you're off and running.
Around 45 people, many of them technology entrepreneurs, live in 20 Mission. The space is a former single-room-occupancy hotel that had been vacant for several years before being turned into the co-living community.
- Man, talk about real estate opportunities! Take a beat up forgotten building and turn it into a co-living community. Buy the building outright and let the residents pay your mortgage and then make a little on top of that. If you want to, drop some money into it and refurb it. Then in 5-10 years, flip it for big bucks.
What's interesting is the companies they didn't highlight are probably making good money on the goldrush as opposed to the majority of the companies and individuals presented.
I'm a little confused about the guy who has a startup selling glow-in-the-dark decorations and party accessories.
Is he living in the Bay Area because of his startup? Or was it job first, glow-in-the-dark startup later?
Pretty sure moving to the Bay Area for the sake of a startup that sells party accessories is overkill. Unless, God forbid, they connect to the internet.
Please don't tell me someone is making glow-in-the-dark party accessories combined with some IoT kool-aid.
I was taken by the photos, but the start-ups all seem shallow and not very high tech. Where are the start-ups based upon cutting edge science and engineering? Where are the start-ups that will change the world?
Random: How many non-macs can you spot in that picture?
[0] http://i1.nyt.com/images/2016/02/28/technology/silicon-valle...