Day 12: A Ride on the Non-Profit Side
Today was a whirlwind of activity. We managed to fit in a visit to two different companies, a visit to Stanford, and a (very) quick dip in the pool.
Starting Benetechs
Admittedly, starting benefits and starting Benetechs aren't really that close, but It sounded good in my head.
After a quick hotel breakfast, we loaded up the van to go visit Benetech. Benetech is a company that specialises in increasing accessibility for everyone. Their biggest program, Bookshare, works on making all books accessible for visually-impaired readers, including working in text-to-speech and braille eReader versions of texts. It's the first non-profit company we've been able to visit on the trip, and it was interesting to get such a different perspective on the tech industry. We even got to meet an actual Benetech customer due to a mix-up in meeting rooms, which was interesting. After the mix-up got sorted out, we met with Anh Bui, a VP for Benetech Labs, their R&D team. She talked to us about the many humanitarian projects that Benetech is working on, including the Bookshare service, as well as developing services to help crowdsource human rights monitoring and services that will help create a better way to find information on homeless shelters, food banks, and other social services. We spent time asking Anh how she felt it was different to work at a non-profit company, rather than a for-profit one. She said that much if it came down to how success is measured. Non-profit companies have a harder time discerning how much impact they have really had, which makes success hard to measure, whereas for-profit companies can easily examine how much they made above their bottom lines. She also mentioned an increasing trend in the industry for double bottom line corporations. These are companies that both care about a bottom line for profit, but also work to have a social impact bottom line as well. A notable example of this is Patagonia. In addition to different ways of measuring success, the stressors can be different in non-profit companies. Often, especially when doing work that involves either human rights or social services, there can be severe emotional strain that happens that wouldn't be seen at a larger, for-profit corporation. Sometimes there's just no way around that. Anh ended by posing the question to us of what we have been surprised by on our trip thus far. Answers were numerous, from the number of different corporate cultures to just how important passion seemed to people working in Seattle and the Valley. Personally, my biggest surprise is seeing how the people who work at the major companies (Google, Microsoft, and Amazon) are actually (for the most part) normal people. They aren't all entitled computer geniuses sitting on their bean bag chairs and sipping their ridiculous coffee drinks (though I'm sure there are some there). They work at desks, write code, encounter problems, and debug just like everyone else. That actually really comforts me, as someone who may find myself on the West Coast some day, because it means that I have a chance.
Sound and perception
Anna gave her book talk today on Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology by David L. Morton Jr. The book covered a history of sound recording and playback, from the first phonographs to the first iPod. Anna gave us some supplemental information on the more recent history of audio playback through extra articles. It led to some interesting discussions on whether music has become fully digitised, that is, if it can be fully experienced digitally. In many ways, it has. Getting music on any device is simple through any number of channels. Since the early internet, music sharing has been one of the biggest parts of the internet. From Napster to Grooveshark to Spotify, companies capitalise on the community aspects of music and look to move them online. Often in dubious legal standing, but I'll leave that issue to the courts. In many ways, I can get most of the experience of going to a concert in my bed, with the added benefit of only hearing the songs I want to hear. I can mix and match artists, albums, and songs to create the concert I want to hear. On the other hand, it lacks the physical aspect of a concert. The heat from the crowd, the blaring speakers, and the cheers and whoops add to the music, and create an experience that can't be captured digitally. Someday soon, maybe it will, as audio recording, playback, and virtual reality advance, digital concert experiences may soon replace regular concerts. We'll have to wait and see what the future holds.
A brief jaunt through Stanford
After our meeting at Benetech, we had some time before our lunch meeting at Tibco. So, since we were in the area, we drove around Stanford trying to find a parking spot near the bookstore. Eventually we found one, after seeing many of the Stanford palm trees that litter the campus. I looked it up, and estimates put the number of palm trees on campus around 600. Considering comprehensive tuition costs were about $64,500, that means that students are actually only paying about $107.50 per palm tree. I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I think it's an interesting fact. We only got a quick look in the bookstore (which is 4 stories!), and I spent most of that time browsing textbooks to see if I could find any ones that I would need for Luther. Still, it was fun to take a quick look around at a much bigger school than Luther.
A Tibco Lunch
Our afternoon stop was at Tibco, a software development company. They happen to own a cafe that's open to the public, so we stopped in and got lunch before meeting with Scott Vorthmann ('83). I had a tri-tip steak sandwich with swiss cheese and some sort of olive spread on a baguette. Scott gave us some advice on starting up a company that can really be boiled down to two main points. First, have a reliable source of revenue to start. Whether that's bootstrapping, venture capital, or angel investors, have some way that money is coming in so that you don't waste all of yours. Second, is have an exit strategy. Understand the point where your company wants to go, and where you can get your money and the investors' money back. For most companies, that point is being bought out by a larger company. Whatever it is, make sure you understand your goals and work towards them. The other piece of advice that really stuck with me was more general than startup specific. Understand financial jargon. Know what stock options are and how they're exercised. This will help immensely if you ever happen to find yourself in a position where you're negotiating for stock options. As it stands now, I would be totally clueless.
Getting soaked
It rained today as we left Tibco, which was strange. I was under the impression that it almost never rains in California, yet it did last night and today. Still, we got back to the hotel without getting too wet. As I mentioned earlier, the hotel has a pool. The pool happens to be outside, and is seasonally heated, so naturally, it isn't heated in the winter (though I hesitate to call this winter). So, being good, hearty Midwesterners, Kari, Erik, Jacob, and myself all jumped in and swam across the pool. Kari and I did it twice. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, so that's good. It still wasn't pleasant, but it was fun to do, and I think a recording of it exists somewhere, so if I can get it, I'll post a link. Was it stupid? A little. But it was definitely worth it for the laughs.
After that, most of the group (actually, everyone but me), stayed in and made dinner for themselves. Since I didn't buy food when we went to Trader Joe's on Monday, I went out to dinner at Gombei, a Japanese restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel. I had the titular dish of the restaurant, which included rice, soup, salad, pork cutlet, chicken teriyaki, and a croquette. They also served complimentary green tea, which was really nice to have after the pool. It was all delicious. I hope I get the opportunity to come back some time. If you're ever in the neighbourhood of Santa Clara, Menlo Park, San Jose, or Sunnyvale, you should go to Gombei.
After I got back from dinner, we all gathered in one of the larger rooms and watched National Treasure. It was about what I remembered it being. A decent adventure film with all of the overtones Nicholas Cage brings to anything he's in. There were definitely a couple jokes though that I realise now went completely over my head as a kid.
Tomorrow we ride out to San Francisco proper for our final week of the trip. We should also, weather permitting, do some hiking in a redwood forest, which I'm looking forward to. Expect more pictures than today.
Starting Benetechs
Admittedly, starting benefits and starting Benetechs aren't really that close, but It sounded good in my head.
Best part about hotel breakfast is tea every morning
Sound and perception
This concludes the pictures I took today
A brief jaunt through Stanford
After our meeting at Benetech, we had some time before our lunch meeting at Tibco. So, since we were in the area, we drove around Stanford trying to find a parking spot near the bookstore. Eventually we found one, after seeing many of the Stanford palm trees that litter the campus. I looked it up, and estimates put the number of palm trees on campus around 600. Considering comprehensive tuition costs were about $64,500, that means that students are actually only paying about $107.50 per palm tree. I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I think it's an interesting fact. We only got a quick look in the bookstore (which is 4 stories!), and I spent most of that time browsing textbooks to see if I could find any ones that I would need for Luther. Still, it was fun to take a quick look around at a much bigger school than Luther.
A Tibco Lunch
Our afternoon stop was at Tibco, a software development company. They happen to own a cafe that's open to the public, so we stopped in and got lunch before meeting with Scott Vorthmann ('83). I had a tri-tip steak sandwich with swiss cheese and some sort of olive spread on a baguette. Scott gave us some advice on starting up a company that can really be boiled down to two main points. First, have a reliable source of revenue to start. Whether that's bootstrapping, venture capital, or angel investors, have some way that money is coming in so that you don't waste all of yours. Second, is have an exit strategy. Understand the point where your company wants to go, and where you can get your money and the investors' money back. For most companies, that point is being bought out by a larger company. Whatever it is, make sure you understand your goals and work towards them. The other piece of advice that really stuck with me was more general than startup specific. Understand financial jargon. Know what stock options are and how they're exercised. This will help immensely if you ever happen to find yourself in a position where you're negotiating for stock options. As it stands now, I would be totally clueless.
Getting soaked
It rained today as we left Tibco, which was strange. I was under the impression that it almost never rains in California, yet it did last night and today. Still, we got back to the hotel without getting too wet. As I mentioned earlier, the hotel has a pool. The pool happens to be outside, and is seasonally heated, so naturally, it isn't heated in the winter (though I hesitate to call this winter). So, being good, hearty Midwesterners, Kari, Erik, Jacob, and myself all jumped in and swam across the pool. Kari and I did it twice. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, so that's good. It still wasn't pleasant, but it was fun to do, and I think a recording of it exists somewhere, so if I can get it, I'll post a link. Was it stupid? A little. But it was definitely worth it for the laughs.
After that, most of the group (actually, everyone but me), stayed in and made dinner for themselves. Since I didn't buy food when we went to Trader Joe's on Monday, I went out to dinner at Gombei, a Japanese restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel. I had the titular dish of the restaurant, which included rice, soup, salad, pork cutlet, chicken teriyaki, and a croquette. They also served complimentary green tea, which was really nice to have after the pool. It was all delicious. I hope I get the opportunity to come back some time. If you're ever in the neighbourhood of Santa Clara, Menlo Park, San Jose, or Sunnyvale, you should go to Gombei.
After I got back from dinner, we all gathered in one of the larger rooms and watched National Treasure. It was about what I remembered it being. A decent adventure film with all of the overtones Nicholas Cage brings to anything he's in. There were definitely a couple jokes though that I realise now went completely over my head as a kid.
Tomorrow we ride out to San Francisco proper for our final week of the trip. We should also, weather permitting, do some hiking in a redwood forest, which I'm looking forward to. Expect more pictures than today.
Comments
Post a Comment