Day 18: Stickers and Safegraph
Today I got to see a little bit (like, the door was nudged open and I could see into it) of a relatively new startup, hiked around a park, and made pancakes again.
The art to a later start
We got to start a little later today, since our morning meeting fell through. After enjoying a bit of extra rest, we started with Jacob's book report on The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. The book seems to be very similar to Reality Check, which I read, so it was nice to know some of the material being referenced in the presentation. One point that I briefly mentioned that Jacob focused a little bit more on was the idea of product evangelists--that is, people who are fanatically in favour of your product, and will go out and spread the good news of the product. The way you cultivate these followers may seem counter-intuitive: create a polarising product. Your product should make people either love it or hate it, but nothing in between. A good example of this is Apple, as evidenced by the fact that nearly every technology competition is Apple versus another company. Android vs. Apple, Windows vs. Apple, and formerly MP3 players vs. Apple. Apple does a good job of cultivating evangelists who will go out and buy their product, despite also creating the exact opposite, in people who actively campaign against Apple's products. The other aspect of this is that if consumers are buying your product and using it for a different purpose than you intended, pivot and extend your product into that market. Don't get worried if people are using your product in new ways (unless those ways are illegal, then you may have to get concerned), they're still customers, and you don't want to chase away customers, especially as a startup. If you're interested in hearing more of Guy's ideas, from Guy himself, check out this video of one of his talks. He really is an entertaining speaker, even if you don't care about business.
A golden (gate) oppotunity
After we finished our book talk, we were told that our meeting for the day wasn't until 3:00, so we had some time to go exploring in San Francisco. After hearing from one of the workers at Kiva that we should check out Golden Gate Park (which is nowhere near the Golden Gate Bridge), a group of us decided that would be the perfect activity to spend our free time on. After a couple quick Google searches to get our directions, we trudged up (and down) to the park. I have to say, after hiking around San Francisco the past week, I have a newfound appreciation for when my grandparents would, "walk to school, uphill both ways!" There really isn't any path that doesn't take you up a hill in SF. After a jaunt over to the park, we stopped to admire our surroundings.
It turns out the Golden Gate Park is far larger than we anticipated, definitely more space than we could explore in the relatively short time we had. We decided to take a short route around to see the conservatory and the Japanese tea garden.
Walking around the park really solidified the differences between California and Iowa in January (not that they needed to be solidified). Almost everything was green and blooming. It makes me wonder what the park looks like in the spring/summer.
After our walk around, we stopped at the Japanese tea garden. It was a strangely peaceful area compared to the rest of the park. Everything seemed quieter, and more relaxing. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to order tea, but we did walk around the area, taking in the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, we didn't get to stick around for too long, because we decided to catch a bus back to the Muni station (the subway system), in order to avoid climbing more hills. We did manage to keep up our record of having some sort of public transit mishap on each trip, when Erik and Tyler got off a stop early, and the rest of us had to rush to get off the bus so as not to leave them behind. Luckily, after a quick walk, we made it to the station, boarded the train, and got back with plenty of time to grab a quick bite and change before our meeting.
A mystery company visit
According to Brad, today we were going to meet up with Luther alum Jack Franson to talk about Apteligence, where he worked. However, it turns out that Jack no longer works at Apteligence, and instead works at a relatively new startup called SafeGraph. Needless to say we were all caught off guard. However, we did get to meet with one of the founders of SafeGraph, Auren Hoffman. He had an interesting piece of advice for us: it's good not to know things. What he's referring to is that sometimes it can be good to not have any notions on what's possible or how something should be done. Kari, in her book report on Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, mentioned a similar idea when she talked about the Zuckerberg Phenomenon, or the fact that most innovations are made by people who are in their 20's. There is some question as to why that is the case, and I think that Auren's advice hits at the heart of it. It can be good to not know the traditional way things are done, or know that what you're doing is impossible. Even if it is impossible, what you do might pivot into something new and fantastic. The point is, if you start out by saying, "it's impossible, so nothing will ever come of it, so I may as well not bother," you create an obvious roadblock to innovation. The other interesting thought came from Jack, who mentioned that when he was starting in his career at a new startup where he was the engineer, he felt like he didn't belong. Imposter syndrome, or the feeling that you're accomplishments are fake and someday you'll be discovered as a fraud, seems to be prevalent in the field of computer science, especially for people who are just starting out. In order to fight that, Jack said he keeps his "look what I did" list to help remind him of his real accomplishments and stave off imposter syndrome. Hopefully that won't be an issue for me, but it is still a good practice to have.
Pancakes part II: Electric Boogaloo
I made pancakes again. This time though, we had a significantly larger food budget, due to the fact that Brad offered to reimburse us for the cost since it was a group dinner (even though he and Jane left for dinner out at a restaurant). With the larger budget, came fancier pancakes. We got blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, and whipped cream to build truly spectacular pancakes. Our good luck streak continued when we found out that the house had a long griddle pan, which meant I could churn out pancakes much faster. The only downside came when we realised we had forgotten to pick up cooking spray, and the house had none. The house had no cooking spray or olive oil, but it did have over ten bottles of various kinds of vinegar. I consider myself to be a foodie, and I can appreciate the many applications of vinegar, but that seems excessive. Thankfully, Erik and Tyler ran out to the corner store to pick up some cooking spray, and the cooking commenced. Thanks to the help of my culinary team (Anna on fruit prep and Katie on sausage baking), dinner was cooked quickly, and everyone enjoyed having breakfast for dinner again. There was even some pancake mix left, though not enough for a full group meal, so I might make pancakes for myself and/or a few other people this weekend for breakfast. We'll have to see what happens.
After dinner we did our dutiful job of finishing season 2 of RWBY, because there's no better time to binge watch a show than on a full stomach. I mentioned stickers in the title, mostly because Brad made a joke at SafeGraph when we were offered stickers that we were, "a sticker group." I did get a SafeGraph sticker, and it is now on the back of my laptop, along with stickers from Amazon, Google, Kiva, and LinkedIn that I've gotten on this trip.
Up until earlier in the year, my laptop was kept clean of stickers. I can't quite say why, except for some feeling that I didn't want to ruin the pristine look. At some point last semester, I decided to put a bunch of stickers that I had, that were otherwise sitting around being clutter, to good use and stuck them on my laptop. For a few days it was strange, but now I enjoy being able to display small pieces of stories on a moderately prominent place. I can't say why exactly, but there's something I like about the look. So, yeah, I guess I am part of a sticker group. I wish I had some profound thought to tie into this, but I don't really, so it's just a rambling story about my experience with stickers. That said, I do encourage you to find something that you can cover in stickers that you have. Whether it's a tablet, a laptop, or just a waterbottle, I think it makes the object more personal. Even if the stickers are just the free bank stickers you got at the county fair, it can be fun to deface something in a constructive way.
Tomorrow we visit another venture capital firm, then after lunch we tour Alcatraz! It should be a fun day.
The art to a later start
But was it really Apteligent...?
A golden (gate) oppotunity
After we finished our book talk, we were told that our meeting for the day wasn't until 3:00, so we had some time to go exploring in San Francisco. After hearing from one of the workers at Kiva that we should check out Golden Gate Park (which is nowhere near the Golden Gate Bridge), a group of us decided that would be the perfect activity to spend our free time on. After a couple quick Google searches to get our directions, we trudged up (and down) to the park. I have to say, after hiking around San Francisco the past week, I have a newfound appreciation for when my grandparents would, "walk to school, uphill both ways!" There really isn't any path that doesn't take you up a hill in SF. After a jaunt over to the park, we stopped to admire our surroundings.
"What do you think is in the park?" "Uh... trees, probably"
More colours than I'm used to in January
I'm going to miss this weather in a week...
Just in case you forgot what this was supposed to be
The Zen Garden
It really is a contrast to the rest of the park
It's a nice, but random pagoda
For koi fish, they weren't that shy
This bridge was surprisingly disconcerting
Erik, Kari, and I on top of the bridge
A mystery company visit
According to Brad, today we were going to meet up with Luther alum Jack Franson to talk about Apteligence, where he worked. However, it turns out that Jack no longer works at Apteligence, and instead works at a relatively new startup called SafeGraph. Needless to say we were all caught off guard. However, we did get to meet with one of the founders of SafeGraph, Auren Hoffman. He had an interesting piece of advice for us: it's good not to know things. What he's referring to is that sometimes it can be good to not have any notions on what's possible or how something should be done. Kari, in her book report on Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, mentioned a similar idea when she talked about the Zuckerberg Phenomenon, or the fact that most innovations are made by people who are in their 20's. There is some question as to why that is the case, and I think that Auren's advice hits at the heart of it. It can be good to not know the traditional way things are done, or know that what you're doing is impossible. Even if it is impossible, what you do might pivot into something new and fantastic. The point is, if you start out by saying, "it's impossible, so nothing will ever come of it, so I may as well not bother," you create an obvious roadblock to innovation. The other interesting thought came from Jack, who mentioned that when he was starting in his career at a new startup where he was the engineer, he felt like he didn't belong. Imposter syndrome, or the feeling that you're accomplishments are fake and someday you'll be discovered as a fraud, seems to be prevalent in the field of computer science, especially for people who are just starting out. In order to fight that, Jack said he keeps his "look what I did" list to help remind him of his real accomplishments and stave off imposter syndrome. Hopefully that won't be an issue for me, but it is still a good practice to have.
Pancakes part II: Electric Boogaloo
I made pancakes again. This time though, we had a significantly larger food budget, due to the fact that Brad offered to reimburse us for the cost since it was a group dinner (even though he and Jane left for dinner out at a restaurant). With the larger budget, came fancier pancakes. We got blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, and whipped cream to build truly spectacular pancakes. Our good luck streak continued when we found out that the house had a long griddle pan, which meant I could churn out pancakes much faster. The only downside came when we realised we had forgotten to pick up cooking spray, and the house had none. The house had no cooking spray or olive oil, but it did have over ten bottles of various kinds of vinegar. I consider myself to be a foodie, and I can appreciate the many applications of vinegar, but that seems excessive. Thankfully, Erik and Tyler ran out to the corner store to pick up some cooking spray, and the cooking commenced. Thanks to the help of my culinary team (Anna on fruit prep and Katie on sausage baking), dinner was cooked quickly, and everyone enjoyed having breakfast for dinner again. There was even some pancake mix left, though not enough for a full group meal, so I might make pancakes for myself and/or a few other people this weekend for breakfast. We'll have to see what happens.
It tasted as good as it looks
Also featured prominently are KWLC (Luther's student radio station) and Github
Tomorrow we visit another venture capital firm, then after lunch we tour Alcatraz! It should be a fun day.
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