Successful Trip!

Hanging out at Apple, left to right,Greg, Jake, Deanna, Stephen, John, Kaitlyn, Matt

So time got away from me! Since Thursday we have been on a whirlwind schedule.  Deanna and I have been busy orchestrating our schedule and attending to the student's needs - a seemingly never ending task, but we did it!

With an early start to our day, Thursday's schedule took us to Apple where we were greeted by one of our student's (Tom Rapini) dad, Dominic Rapini, who is an account representative at Apple. We met Mr. Rapini at one of the office large office buildings down the road from 1 Infinity Loop (Apple Headquarters) where he arranged an amazing day for us, starting with a 2 hour boardroom gathering with presentations from 3 of his Cupertino colleagues, Jim, Tomas and Ann. The presentations included their life stories and journey to Apple, the culture of Apple, and coaching advise for those looking to pursue a career, not only with Apple, but in the valley as a whole. The Q & A was a very active session as students raced to ask questions.

Following our meeting, we were taken to the "Mac Cafe" where we were treated to lunch and round table discussions with four other colleagues from Apple.  I was amazed, the whole time, how open and willing these folks were to share their stories and advise. They made us feel very welcomed and special.

The group was then taken to the 6th floor for a view of the construction going on down the road on their new headquarters. They explained how the building is a "green" structure. All the building materials are from recycled materials, and they are all recycled right there on the constructions grounds! Apple's new headquarters will be mammoth!


Of course, what's a visit to Apple with out seeing 1 Infinity Loop...so off we went in the van to visit their current headquarters.  Since Apple is a "closed campus", we were only able walk through the main lobby and take a quick view of the outdoor courtyard, before we headed to our final Apple stop, the Apple Store. Only having 15 minutes and a discount waiting for us at checkout, the students spread like ants through the store looking for the perfect souvenir or the Apple products they just couldn't do without.

All back in the van at 2:05, we were off to Facebook for our 2:45 meeting. Traffic wasn't too back yet so we got there a few minutes early, only to discover that no one had told us about the horrific parking situation at the Facebook campus!  We were instructed to meet in the building 14 lobby, but went from building to building looking for an open spot.  Noticing the free valet parking, we thought we'd be saved, but were quickly turned down as it was for employees only. Anyway, seeing it was already 3:00 and our contact was not responding to our attempts to connect with her so we dropped Deanna and a couple others off at building 14 to explain or predicament. They texted us back with instructions to head to building 17 where we would find a spot for the van. Whewwww....a little stressful.

Once in the building and all checked in with badges, we were met by Victoria (our original contact had left the campus, I guess that's why she wasn't responding) for a tour of the 9 building campus.  As we walked through the enclosed courtyard it reminded me of being at MGM studios in Hollywood, only the buildings were not facades, they were truly what they said they were....Arbey's, Philz Coffee, Cafe Sol, Sweet Shop, The Theater, The Arcade,etc.. It was built to represent their original location in downtown Palo Alto, making it a combination of downtown street meets college campus.

The campus is loaded with quirky things, lke a little yellow brick road to save the grass, and a little house with ruby slippered feet sticking out; a bricked park here the large bricks spell "hacker" when read from above; free coolers of beverages; a "Gravity Photo Booth" in the Instagram building; a wood shop where you could go to think and work on a project; a bike repair shop; a hair cuttery, and much more.  Everything a 20-something (average employee age is 25) might need to keep them happy during their long work day.

The Gravity Booth at Facebook - Mark Z's favorite

We finished up around 4:45 and headed back to the hotel where we were to have our next meeting at 5:30. Priyanka Sharma of WakaTime made arrangements to meet with us at the hotel, So, running a little late and a few text messages later, at 5:45 we all gathered by the pool to chat with Pri about her developer analytic software. She was wonderful with the students and helped them understand the process she went though as the co-founder of this company. The students enjoyed chatting with her for the next hour and a half, as if they had known her forever!

I met Priyanka, as well as Cy from Concastic, through a guy named Eric Simons, you know, the kid who moved in/slept (a squatter) at AOL for 2 months before they found him, after running out of money whie working on a 20K accelerator project, ClassConnect, a platform where techers can post and share lesson plans. check out his story .  After reading his story, I Tweeted Eric hoping to arrange a meeting with the students. Amazingly, he Tweeted right back saying he'd be happy to meet with them. After a few back and forth emails we discovered he'd be in Seattle during the time of our visit, and then connected me to Pri and Cy. -It's all about networking.

Anyway, after taking Pri to the train station and returning back to the apartment to crash, I quickly discovered that I wasn't the only one tirred, the students were on their own for the night but all chose to grab some quick food and crash as well.

Friday was a very early day.  We left the hotel at 7:30 to get to San Fransico for our first meeting at 9:00 with TuneIn Radio, who stream radio from around the world, as well as create their own radio content. Andrew Bock was a great host.  We toured the new offices (they used to be in Palo Alto) and then had an hour Q & A in their boardroom.  Radio being an interesting topic for the students, they were all anxious to have their questions answered, though still a little groggy from the early start. After our meeting we were all given TuneIn t-shits - a very nice parting gift.

Target's "Innovation Offices" was our last stop.  Shawn Edge, one of Curry's alums, and his colleague, Melissa Chu, were our host.  We were toured through the offices and then brought to a large working area for our presentation.  We learned all about Target's new products and a few hints as to what is in the future.

Shawn joined us at the Embarcadero for lunch, then everyone took off to do their own thing until 6:00, when we have get our van out of the lot before it closed. Seven of us went to Fisherman's Wharf for a boat tour of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then splitting up again, the girls shopped at the gift stores and Boudin's Sourdough shop, before getting a cab back to the van.  The cab driver was very nice and gave us a ride down Lombard Street, explaining the neighborhoods and hot spots as we drove through the city.

We left the city about 6:30 after waiting for 3 students who finally decided to stay in San Fransisco a few hours and take the Caltrain back down to Palo Alto.

Arriving back in Palo Alto about 8pm, the students headed to downtown for a quick dinner then back to their rooms to pack ... it was all coming to an end.

Overal, an outstaanding trip, and an invaluable oportunity for networking, sharing and learning about the Silicon Valley.  I can't wait to do it again in two years!

Checkout my student's blogs

John	Chagares	ChagaresSiliconValleyTrip.blogspot.com
Ryan	Connelly	http://rconnellysiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
Kaitlyn	Cole	http://kcolesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
Stephen	Maywald	http://siliconvalleymaywald.blogspot.com/
Gregory	Bury	http://gburysiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
James	McCormack	http://jamesmccormacksiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
Jake	Rappaport	http://jakeinsiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
Derek	Degon	http://ddegonsiliconvalley.blogspot.com/
Matthew	Cocuzzo	http://cocuzzosiliconvalley.blogspot.com
Thomas	Rapini	http://rapinisilicon.blogspot.com

1/2 Way There

Today was a very busy, long day, but lots of fun of course!

Deanna and Jake bond at Google

The day started at Google.  Sadly our tour guide cancelled at short notice and we were never able to connect with our backup, but no worries, we had a nice visit.  After a failed attempt in the lobby to find someone who would take us around, the students quickly spread like a web throughout the campus.  As most grabbed a colorful Google bike (plentiful on campus and throughout town) only to quickly find out by the numerous security guards that you had to be an employee to use them.

A sea of Google bikes

Matt takes a spin ... hiding from security

Still being followed by every security guard in the Googleplex, we were instructed that maybe we might want to head to the "Android Sculpture Garden" which IS a public area. Doing as we were told, we found the "garden" and a near-by lot full of self driving Google vehicles, of which they were testing.

Kaitlyn takes a ride around the Googleplex

After another short visit to the museum and a little lunch, we headed back to Palo Alto to visit Boxfish, a start-up that captures and indexes television data.  They actually capture everything on tv, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, among a few. They then index it and push topics of interest, assisting companies in the marketing process.

Eoin explains data capture at Boxfish

Eoin Dowling and Kevin Burkitt explained how they transplanted themselves here a few years ago from Ireland They started from scratch working out of a small apartment in downtown Palo Alto, like so many newcomers do. They now have Global office and are on their way to success.

Our next appointment was a couple hours away, giving our group some choices for "downtime". Some went back to continue their tour of Stanford, James stayed downtown to explore Palo Alto, and some went back to the hotel to re-group. I headed to the Stanford bookstore to take advantage of some discount shopping.

At 4:30 we met with Criteo, where we met up with one of our alums.

Dimetry explains Criteo

Criteo is a data collection company as well.  They monitor web search trend and shopping trends online, also indexing the information for their clients in order to target their customers. The VP of R &D, Dimetry Povlov, explained his experiences since arriving from Russia to the Valley.  His big piece of advice to the students is the importance of collaboration and teamwork with all companies in the valley.

The evening ended a with dinner at Trellis. Curry alumni in the area joined us, engaging the students in conversation about their experiences and giving them advice if they plan to test the waters in the Silicon Valley area.  It was a wonderful opportunity for both the students and alums to bond and share stories about Curry as well.

Dinner with students and alumni at Trellis

Amber Rice tells her Curry stories

Shawn Edge prepares the students for their visit to Target on Friday

Of course, the night wasn't over until the students ate one more time .... a quick stop at Happy Donuts ...a 24 hours spot with "the best donuts in the world" according to the students!

Tuesday in "The Valley"

Gotta get those blogs done

Today started with just a little confusion as we re-created and shifted the schedule a bit and rolled with the punches. Flexibility is a virtue!

After lots of blogging and a  late breakfast, we headed to Stanford University for a walking tour.  The students were able to take in the architectural beauty of the many diverse buildings, including Hoover Tower, and absorbed some history as they strolled the grounds. Wrapping up the tour at the book store, where they took advantage of the faculty discount Deanna was able to help them with.

The next stop was lunch - yes these students do eat A LOT!  What's a trip to CA without a visit to "In & Out Burger"?  With a 10 minute limit to grab some "to go", the students were really "in & out" in no time, and off we went to the Computer History Museum with food all over the van....fun times.

The lunch spot

The main section of the Computer History Museum, as it turned out,  was closed on Monday & Tuesday.  In my haste to schedule as much as possible into a day, I neglected to check the hours of operation.  Not to worry though...there is a section of the museum that is open every day.  To me, it is my favorite part of the museum.  We had a blast checking-out the Google "self-drive" car, and the massive Google Earth map.

Our last stop was at the start-up, Concastic.  Cy Khormaee, the founder, was an outstanding host and explained every detail of starting a company in Silicon Valley. He described the unique culture and acceptance of failure and expectation of trust in order to succeed. He also introduced the students to the path to funding a venture, from seed money to venture capitalists. All in all an amazing visit with so much to take away.

Cy had so much to offer

The schedule for the day ended with a 6:00 "team play" dinner.  Everyone met at the suite, and rather than holding a meeting, they participated in creating an Italian dinner. As I helped to coordinate the happenings in the kitchen, I listened to many conversations about the day's happenings. I was so proud of what I was seeing and hearing.  The students were growing, collaborating, and sharing their thoughts of the past two days experiences.Truly a turning point in the week.

We have another big day ahead, with Google first on the agenda ...so i think I'll call it a night.

Everybody played a part

A  collabaorative dinner

The students chat with Deanna about the week