1415T1g1 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Reflection/12 Dec
Microsoft, the company the world loves to hate. After killing Nokia, everyone has found a reason to hate Microsoft. Nevertheless, we were treated to a VIP tour around the Microsoft building. We were shown some exciting use cases such as the “Emperor Chair”, a fully immersive experience followed by large touch screens and 3D printing/scanning. The talk given by Matt Thomson was enlightening. It’s definitely true that despite the flak that the company is receiving, they have contributed to the startup ecosystem in many ways. I've heard of the BizSpark program before and it is refreshing that he has mentioned it again during the talk. What was particularity interesting to me was that the average worker in Silicon Valley is 50% more productive compared to the average worker around the world. In addition, more money is invested in Silicon Valley by VCs than anywhere else in the world. At the end of the presentation, he mentioned that the main difference between starting a company in Singapore and Silicon Valley is that it is difficult to find talent in Singapore willing to work for low pay and high equity for an extended period of time. Maybe this is a problem with the education system and culture of Singapore? With a free book and snacks, we felt like were VIPs in Microsoft, compared to the other startups that we went to. They have most definitely left a good impression on us. After a quick tour around the Microsoft store and lunch at their cafeteria, we headed to Serena software.
At Serena, we were ushered into a meeting room where they showed us what they are all about. In essence, they control software changes in enterprises. Yawns. Boring stuff. But they are doing pretty well. Many fortune 1000 companies are using Serena Software to assist them in developing and deploying their software. After the introduction, they moved us to a small room to mingle. It was humbling to see that the CEO was really open and came to engage us despite us being students. He mentioned that the company currently has about 400 employees, a middle sized company. Not huge like Google but also large enough that it doesn’t have to worry that it’ll be bankrupt the next day. A sweet spot that few companies enjoy. Would this breed complacency? Maybe. But Serena doesn’t seem to have many competitors to begin with. If you thought the first presentation wasn’t interesting, the demo would make you sleep like a baby. Though I get the gist of what they guy was demoing, I doubt I would ever use such a software in the future, simple because I would probably not work for a large enterprise. If you compare the demo skills between PayPal and Serena, PayPal wins by a mile. Similarly to Microsoft, we were treated like VIPs at Serena. We got a free copy of their software, among other paraphernalia. I thought that the atmosphere of the company was extremely welcoming and inviting. Might be because it isn’t too big like most other enterprises.
At Stanford, we were greeted by Monica, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. It turns out that she’s only a PR in Singapore and she has been travelling around since her mom moved to Switzerland when she was 15. Stanford has an amazing campus. We had to take a campus bus to get in, just to give you an idea how big is it. Surrounded by beautiful architecture and landscaping, it’s an amazing place to study. She first brought us to the Computer Science building and its named “Gates”, after Bill Gates. The amount of history that was made behind the walls of this school is mindblowing. The school is pretty empty at this time so we just walked around a bit before making our way to the small classroom where we saw the NUS peeps. I soon learnt that the NUS students just finished their 6 month local internship before finishing their module with this trip. As much as I envy them, I hope SMU thinks of doing starting the NOC program soon. It would greatly benefit students who are hoping to intern and eventually secure a job overseas. Anyone could also notice the stark difference between SMU and NUS students. NUS students still have some way to go with their social skills. But I’m sure there are some areas where we, SMU students, are lacking too and can learn from them. NUS made it compulsory to accept an even ratio of students from the different schools. I feel that this is a good initiative to promote diversity and encourage more differing views in their trip. This is something that SMU can learn. I’m not just saying this because I’m the only business student haha. Anyway, it was good to learn that Mohammed, the guy who is working at Google, didn’t go in through the normal route. Instead, he had a decent portfolio on GitHub and recruiters spotted him. Hard work pays off, eventually. It was 5 years before they called him! Before we knew it, it was time to head back.
Microsoft
Microsoft has always been a legend in my mind, it is a company start really changed the world. When I was young, I have always been looking up to Microsoft as the father of all computer. I remembered the first time when I was first intro to Windows 96, and it was so different from my dad’s old computer that was just c command and nothing else. I had a fun time play the minesweeper and solitaire! Those were the few games that I was first exposed to when I was young and I thought those games were really fun. Basically, Microsoft has always been with me since I was a young boy and I am always fond of Microsoft. Ps: I even have a Microsoft Surface 2!
We were greeted by the team at Microsoft and Kenny Space brought us around Microsoft centre where he showed us a few of Microsoft’s new developments. What I was very impressed was the 3D-printing division. They merged the new line of Microsoft Kinect together with the 3D-printing, I was very amazed by how they are managed to scan the environment and 3D-print it immediately. The Kinect product has the capability of capturing live model and immediately transfer it to a softcopy for further rendering on other software. I am very keen in 3D-modelling and this new feature is one of a kind. I believe that I will never have the chance to experience such an amazing feature back in Singapore.
Thereafter, we were brought into a meeting room where Matt Thompson gave us a very insightful presentation. He presented on how Microsoft is changing and evolving. This totally debunked my perception of Microsoft! Indeed, Microsoft is no more the ostrich’s head in the sand, Microsoft believes the concept of Cloud and making its presence everywhere. It has presence on our laptops, mobile and game. Microsoft is now an extensive diverse company that is here to stay.
He also mentioned about the venture capitalist and how Microsoft is there to render its service and technological expertise to new start-ups. This shows how different is Microsoft from other venture capital companies because they participate and share the knowledge to ensure success. This is remarkable because it does not only view start-ups as revenue opportunity but more of encouraging more innovation and initiation in the valley. This truly build the spirit of Silicon Valley’s community and spur on IT innovation.
Microsoft is nowhere near outdated and it strives to improve to ensure competitive advantage against the big companies like Apple and Google. I have faith in Microsoft and they can get back on track in the near future.
Serena Software
Kevin from Serena Software is a very charismatic person, which has a strong deep British accent. He explained to us what Serena Software is all about. So this companies provides an application that operates the Polytron Version Control System (PVCS) for companies. They are the manager for changes. This extremely important for company that has no room for adversity to manage any changes on their codes. This is where Serena Software comes in. Drawing more relatable context to us, Kevin uses Starhub as an example to illustrate the service of Serena Software. He emphasized that Starhub is no more just a telecommunication company but a technological one. It is imperative to handle all Starhub diverse business services all at a go to ensure no failure throughout. He also brought in the Hong Kong’s MTR example where they have 50 over devices to pay with 100 over machines that handles it. This shows the importance of versioning of deployment etc. Thus, Serena Software is very useful in this aspect. Serena Software’s CEO Greg Hudges came to talk to us at the reception, he spoke about the state that Serena Software is and even though it is not a start-up, it is a medium size company that has to always ensure that revenues come in. He spoke about the need to expand the business in the Asia Pacific region where there’s a strong and growing demand for them.
We went back to the meeting room to run the demo of their system. Their system is very user friendly and useful. It runs on all REST web service in its plugins and allows the user to upload his own plugins. Serena Software is very interesting and they were very warmth as they gave us many freebies to take away. I had a wonderful experience in Serena Software and got a great insights of how Singapore has a lot business with the Valley.
Get together with Stanford and NUS
Monica from Stanford brought us around the campus and was very hospitable to us. She led us to the clubhouse where we met up with the bunch of guys from NUS. They were also on a start-up tour for 2 weeks and had the same inspiration as us to gain better insights for entrepreneurship. We had a blast with great food and beer.
I had the chance to speak with the twins from NUS. Both of them are accounting students in NUS, and to my surprise, they are not keen in the auditing/accounting side. They came for this trip because they both shared the same passion of designing and want to craft a business out of this. They have been doing freelance graphic design work over the past years and are hoping to gain more from their trip. I am very inspired by their vision and hard work. I do share the same passion in designing but have not really thought through carefully in doing it as a business. I am truly ashamed of myself when I heard their agenda.
We all had a great time together and took a group picture together. Both the people at Stanford and NUS were pleased with the token and cite up over the tau sah piah. I am glad that we had this dinner together and it was a great hangout as different college students.
Our last day for company visits began with a trip over to Microsoft at Mountain View. Once we entered the building we were greeted by the reception with a sign welcoming us to Microsoft - "Singapore Management University". We were then brought into the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in which it featured many of the products that they have in the market ranging from the Xbox to the 3D printers which they have invested in. Our host within the MTC was Kenny Space who showcased to us the products starting with the Emperor Chair(which involved a set-up with 3 screen that extends the normal monitor for gaming, development and many other uses), he then showcased to us a massive touchscreen television that was as big as a door. On the screen he showcased to us, how the screen can be used as a touch screen to control a windows phone as well as how it can be used to scroll around a panoramic capture of a bridge in Sevilla Spain.
Next, he shared with us about the Xbox Kinetic V2 and its possible using while integrated with a PC. With the Xbox Kinetic V2, he was able to capture 3D images (which could be used for printing), Heat and Face Recognition features (which could be used to put our faces on our computer gamer characters in the future to show our emotions to other players). Last but not least the most interesting thing he showed us about the Kinetic was that it was able to read and interpret our emotions(happy/sad) but most importantly whether we are engaged or looking at the direction of the camera - This function can be used in checking for advertisement's usefulness and effectiveness in the future!
Later, we were joined by Matt Thompson the General Manager of Microsoft's developer & platform evangelism efforts based in Silicon Valley, who is like the person who calls the shots about whether to invest in startups or not within the Valley. He gave us a short presentation and talk within the Nebula meeting room about entrepreneurship and its relationship with the Valley. he mentioned a whole plethora of things during the talk, things such as he believes that most startups are started by technical founders who will think about how to scale/implement their service/business and he business without a technical differentiation/innovation will die out Microsoft on the other hand see this as an opportunity and seeks to provide new startups with such technical support and advice so that they will be more sustainable than in the past. He also mentioned about the reasons he believes why the valley is flourishing so well and important for a technology firm to be in the valley is 1.Tech Startups will be more engaged and it's easier for the VCs to go check on them! 2.The Infrastructure that the valley has in terms of the talents, resources and the hardwares. He also draws the link between the reason ideas are always fresh and innovative, and the influx of foreign immigration into the valley. He also showed us about Microsoft Azure which is an online cloud style computer machine learning tool that they will provide to assist in businesses/startups in their analytics of data.
Last but not least, he shared with us about the Internet Of Things startups which Microsoft is helping to fund and support with their technology to ensure that good ideas and businesses from every aspect of our lives today are given a chance to be supported by Microsoft and realized. This shows that Microsoft are looking to expand their business beyond the field in which they are currently most recognized for.
- The risk appetite and talent within the valley is way different than within the Singapore talent/entrepreneur pool who are less risk seeking and afraid to fail and hence this differentiates us from the entrepreneurs within the valley thus we should learn from them in this manner.
- It's interesting to see that even a huge organisation like Microsoft see the value of looking the micro stuff (especially in the IOT), like them maybe we should look around the house and in our lives to look for our ideas for a business!
Our visit to Serena Software was a particularly different experience from the rest of the other firms that we visited. I took a sneak peek around their office and saw that they do not have the general open concept to their office that most of the other technology firms have. We were hosted by Kevin Parker who took us through a pretty great presentation of what Serena Software is about! During his presentation, he explained to us why businesses choose to implement Serena in their businesses. Serena Software generally provides tools to orchestrate the entire process of a business/application delivery. They help businesses manage with change providing a wide array of tools which deal with change management to release control tools. It holds a great portfolios of companies that have implement their products within their business which greatly illustrates the effectiveness of their tools. (Companies ranging from Lockheed Martin to the Ministry of Justice - all different types of businesses/organisations). Kevin also explained to us that the company believes greatly in Process first before automation, they believe that the business process has to be perfected or made efficient first before an automation of the process will be useful or effective. After a brief explanation of the company's general idea and business we met with the CEO of the company, Greg Hughes, he was very approachable and friendly and he shared with us that he had a school trip to Japan back when he was studying and it was similar to what we were doing and hope that we'd have the same experience here!
During the break i also talked with Kevin, and one thing he shared with me about why Serena flourish was that they were able to tweak their selling point in that worked on what IBM and Microsoft refuse to do in the past which was to provide applications and tools that only functions with their own products and systems. Serena seized on this opportunity and came out with the idea of building a platform which is able to integrate all application together and to be heterogeneous. However, i believe that today, the big companies would not follow the same mantra as the past, with these companies being more flexible and open, we can see that they are also building in a heterogeneous manner. However, i do not believe that this will definitely be a massive threat to Serena as most of the companies which they are already working with i believe would not just switch over or drop Serena since they've already been using and there are not much issues with their products so far.
- We should look to implement a good process and to make it as efficient as possible before looking at automation of it, this would result is a greater improvement rather than just automating on a process.
- Gaps between the major players in the industries can be an opportunity to build a business on as can be seen from Serena Software.
In the evening, we were invited by some of the students studying at Stanford to tour their campus as well as to host a mini-gathering between us, our hosts and the NUS(NOC) who came over after their 7 month long working experience at a startup in Singapore. It was an awesome gathering (Pizza,Wings,Beer & Burgers!) and most of us shared about our experiences and what we do back in Singapore. However, most importantly, we were able to meet the legend of the SIS elevator (Since he's always in the SIS elevator's wall) Mohsin(Muhammad's actually his name)! He shared with me about his time and his experience back in SIS, his application to Google and also his current experience at Google. True enough he had the same kind of interviews that Yan Hao went through however he did 8 onsite interviews instead of 4 because he came early it was out of this world when he explained to me what they made him do during his interviews at Google. Overall it was a great night i believe everyone enjoyed themselves (Especially with the great iconic walk down Palm Avenue away from Stanford - it just gives you the feeling that you've just graduated from Stanford/TSM Technopreneurship with all the knowledge and tips that we have picked up from the companies within the Valley!)
I'd say I've learnt a lot from this study mission to the Valley, we got to see and experience many different companies around the valley which range from the small startups that are slowly being picked up like Nitrous to big giants such as Microsoft & Google. Each of them have their differences between them but the similarities are quite obvious - Flat office structure, openness, objective rather than working time oriented, employee driven structure and also the emphasis on technical ability within their entire staffing. I've also learnt about how we should keep trying and never give up even if we fail, take failure not only as a learning lesson but something that others can value us for as we know of what not to do in the future. I really enjoyed our visit to Twitch.Tv and i'd say there's no other modules lessons out there that could have allowed me to visit a company like Twitch which is so relevant in my everyday life. Personally this trip has inspired me to aspire to come over to the valley in the future, i hope to join a company(whether startup or giant it won't matter) to personally get to experience what it truly is like to be working in the Valley.
Microsoft
It was really cool being in Microsoft’s Technology Centre today. The demos with the Kinect was my favourite part. And seeing 3D models for the first time was definitely super cool.
The presentation by Matt was really good too. He focused on the culture and opportunities in SV and provided us with facts and figures to justify just how awesome SV is.
Matt also emphasised on the trend of successful startups having a technical founder who knew not only knew WHAT to do, but HOW to do it (scaling the solution, platform to work on etc.). Therefore, his main proposition was that the technical aspect is very important for startups and therefore works with a team of technical guys to help him and help startups prosper.
Matt also emphasised the the Internet of Things and machine learning are very important trends and factors to consider when thinking about what the future might hold. Machine learning would be especially good for use in the Silicon Valley (just like what Kai said at BitTorrent) to be able to get loads of data, look at the data and get insights from it and improve your solutions. Matt said that was how Cortana worked on recognising user input and providing suggestions.
Quote from Microsoft:
“We are seeing people fail 4, 5, 6, 7 even 8 times before they finally breakthrough.” How do you even have the determination to continue despite so many failures? Passion and technical expertise I would think.
“Who is the first person you would look for when you need help? The person next to you, your friends and closed ones. Your social network of technical entrepreneurs with expertise. And there loads of these kind of people in the Valley."
Serena
The people at Serena are really nice and welcoming. The fact that the CEO came to visit and talk to us, and the preparation of the food and drinks and the gifts for us really made me feel very welcomed at Serena.
Serena is all about change and efficient movement through a life cycle of an application. My main takeaway from Serena was that sometimes you do not have to become an MNC or remain as a small start-up. Sometimes a size of 400 for your company and financial stability is great too.
Stanford
Love the architecture and the hugeness of the campus at Stanford. Despite the coldness and the dark, it was really nice of Monica and the other 2 students to bring us around and finally to the lounge where we got to mingle with NUS students. I got to talk to many of them and learnt about some of the companies they had visited which we did not. They were really friendly and open too, and I liked the dinner mix and mingle session with them.
Once they had left, we all sat around and was talking to Muhammad, Yan Hao and Prof about making it here in the valley (for example by doing your Masters here, finding an internship in the less popular startups) and that we should believe in ourselves that we can do it too, like all the amazing people we have met on our trip thus far. Really hope I will get to work in the valley one day and get to wake up everyday looking forward to the day because I will be doing what I love the most.Microsoft - Friend to Start-ups
One of the more mind-blowing company visits so far. We were able to see the kinect technologies which were really cool with how they were able to track movements so well and how they could even gauge emotions. All these technologies are actually available for anyone who wants to work using Microsoft's platforms to develop something. It's amazing how far and how much the big companies have gone and can go to further technology.
What I learnt from the talk at Microsoft was that technical start-ups were more likely to succeed and get invested in. Being an information system student, that made me feel more prideful about what we do even though we were not entirely technical students. I also learnt that most start-ups end up moving to silicon valley - many times because venture capitalists are fundamentally "lazy" and they would want to be able to be close to the companies they invest in. Though of course, being here in Silicon Valley has its benefits as well.
At Microsoft, unlike most other companies that choose to buy over successful start-ups, their strategy is more of getting people to do something great on the Microsoft platform. Microsoft actually provides many resources to help people be successful (such as some of the technologies mentioned above). Sometimes they even offer to do the development for you! From what I see, Microsoft really wants to help anyone who wants to develop something and in my opinion, it does seem easier to write backend code on Microsoft Azure rather than on other platforms like Google Cloud. Thus, if I were to develop something, I would take a look at working with Microsoft to see where I can go with my product.
Serena - "We control change"
One of the companies that I was least familiar with. Much of the technology used in Serena were foreign to me, but after the visit, I understood a lot more about Serena. Serena produces software that are mainly for change management. Anything to do with change, whether to track them, version them, audit them or backing them up, Serena manages it with their software.
Their favourite customers? The type that are most frightened of failure - the large companies from the Fortune 500 companies. This was where the money was for them, or rather, these companies are the companies who need their products the most. What Serena products do well is to predict and prevent "bad things" from happening and tell weaknesses in technologies. This helps lead many companies to creating better products - one of the given examples was the Hong Kong subway which had 0 bugs in 5 years!
At Serena, they believe in getting processes right before introducing the tools. When processes are not right, no tool can help. Thus, they want to help companies get good processes and then come in with their products to prevent these companies from getting overwhelmed. Additionally, Serena is capable of integrating with almost all platforms and languages because they want to be able to help and "be friends" to all companies. As can be seen, Serena definitely creates highly useful high quality products that we all can make use of. Since they gave us their software for free, I'll definitely be trying it out to see what I can achieve with it.
The technology showcase at Microsoft was impressive. We saw huge touch screen TVs, a chair with multiple displays and a machine that scans objects and creates a 3D model of it on a software application. The best part of the technology showcase was the introduction of the new features of the Kinect sensor. The coolest was by far the face detection mechanism. It was able to detect whether you are happy or whether you were engaged, among other cool features. Afterwards, we had a presentation of Silicon Valley. It basically sums up what we already know about Silicon Valley but now, there are numbers to back it up. After which, he explained how Microsoft Azure is providing machine learning as a service and prides itself as the only one providing this service. I guess it's apt to have such a service as it might be a similar trend as to what cloud technology was. With the rising number of startups, in Silicon Valley, who knows, those startups that achieved hypergrowth might just want to use Microsoft Azure to have a better analysis of their data. Definitely an interesting presentation made by Microsoft.
The last company that we visited was Serena. They had goodie bags for us and even invited us for some snacks. Serena seems to target the larger companies, especially companies that are in the fortune 1000. Their presentation is by far the most technical presentation. Most of it I had a tough time trying to figure out. Still, they were one of the most welcoming companies. They had everything planned out.
We arrived to Stanford University late. As a result, we didn't get to see the true beauty of the university. Nevertheless, once we arrived at the clubhouse, we met with NUS NOC, some of the students in Stanford and some of the hosts of the companies we visited. With awesome pizza and excellent drinks, we mingled throughout the night. I got to know some interesting things from them. When everything was over, there were a ton of food left. we went to a nearby food court and distributed them to the patrons there. All is well. We ended with smiles on our faces.
Microsoft is another great company that we visited, the first think that surprised me is not something technical, but actually their attitude towards us. For all the companies that we have visited, only Nitrouse.IO and Serena gave us some kind of gifts, I never expect the technology giant will actually care about us. But the fact is that they actually prepare a talk and some gifts for us. Such attitude is very hard to find in MNCs, but personally I believe it is very important because people from small companies will remember that for a very long period of time, they feel horned and appreciated, if they become good next time, they won’t forget such treatment from Microsoft.
Many people think Microsoft products are not user friendly and they are not the cool company anymore, Google, Facebook and many other new companies have taken over him. But the presentation I heard from Microsoft proved again what a great company is like. Firstly, Microsoft or at least Microsoft Technology Center has a great vision, they spot the opportunities in startups and understand that they can hardly compete with the amount of new ideas in the world, instead of competing with the startups, Microsoft actually provides many programs or resources to help those startups to grow, especially those at very early stage when almost no one notices them. The reason is that most technology company needs to choose their platform at the very beginning, and when the company reaches certain scale, it will be very hard for the company to switch technology or platform simply because of the huge cost and complexity involved. Microsoft wants to catch these startups when they are really young and grow them on Microsoft platform, so if any of them become successful next time, they will probably become the next big client of Microsoft. I should say such vision is so great that Microsoft technically does not need to do much, they organized competitions, manage applications and try to spot startups in the valley, all they need to do after that is to provide the resources that they already have to the startups and wait for them to grow. The cost for Microsoft is low, but the potential return is huge.
Secondly, when everyone is talking about analytics, Microsoft has already position himself in a safe yet very profitable position in the market. There is no doubt that business analytics is going to be the next hot topic in the valley or even the whole world, so the question is how does each company do analytics and help their business decisions. Microsoft provides the solution for it. Microsoft does not need to know the context of the business, does not need to look at the actual data and provide concrete plans, all they need to do is to provide the tool and as long as the company wants to focus on analytics, they will definitely need to tool. Just like last century, when most people are trying to find gold in San Francisco, the ones who gain the most wealth are the ones who sell shovels. Azure, as Microsoft’s next selling point, make Microsoft become a tool provider which is the safest and most lucrative position in the analytics trend.
Serena is the only company we visited that actually focused mostly on enterprise product. The company is at a pretty interesting state compare to other companies we have visited. Unlike most companies which are either small startups trying to generate profit, or big companies which are looking for going public, Serena is a medium size company with about 400 employees, its clients are all over the world and from all kinds of industries, such as Starhub, UBS and others. The interesting is that Serena is not at the stage which profit is a problem, but it is not planning to grow in terms of number of employees. This stage for it is quite comfortable, they have already gotten many great products which they can sell to their customers, there is little pressure on developing new products like most consumer oriented market. Hence, they focus on sales of such software, instead of development and this lead to a low demand in terms of employees and eventually result in a profitable medium size company. Serena shows that medium size company is another possible goal for any startups, not just go public or get acquired. If a company can constantly generate revenue, medium size will be a pretty good and easy state to maintain its sustainability.
Our host at Stanford is Monica who is a Singaporean student who studies here, we had a tour around the campus, but sadly didn’t have any chances to experience the lesson in Stanford. The one thing I like the campus is its historical heritage. The buildings and the environment are all telling stories. It is such a good place for learning and research because you feel peaceful here. People here are devoted into exploring learning and exploring knowledge, you will simply be influence and join them.
Being able to visit Microsoft was a dream for me. This is the first technology company I ever knew because of its far reaching impact on our lives. Like most giants, I thought visiting Microsoft might be boring as everything has already been set in place, however, I was terribly wrong. Microsoft still constantly innovates in ways I don’t see outside. One of the examples is its machine learning technology that can enable a lot of the company technologies. In addition to its technology, it’s interesting to know that they actually have a department to groom startups. This really excites me as I would like to be mentored by them with my startup! That aside, I learnt a lot from Matt as he talks about startups and what they are doing with them. One of the key takeaways from Matt is that the only way to succeed is to keep trying. Seems easy to say, but not easy to do at all. He mentioned that successful startups are successful because the founders who run them probably failed a few times already. The never say die spirit makes them successful. Though i always tell myself that I will keep trying no matter how much I fail, sometimes I really wonder how I would react if my first startup really fail. After all, talk is cheap. Though I don’t know what I will react, I just have to keep reminding myself that im always a step closer to success as long as im always trying to make things happen.
Comparing Microsoft and Google who are both tech giants, it’s interesting to find that there are such vast differences in cultures and how people work. It seems to me that Google is a company that tries everything and encourages their employees to try everything. This, of course promotes creativity and possibly interesting innovations. Microsoft on the other hand believes in a direction and goes deeply into it. An example would be their machines learning platform. This is kind of the slow and steady approach to things as compared to Google’s try everything approach. Though it’s unclear which approach is better, I believe each have their own strengths since both of them are so successful.
Serena software is a company that introduces change management. What it does is it audits, tracks and versions the change with their software. From their presentation, I learnt that the reason why they are so successful is because they take a lot of pride in quality, offering the best to their customers. Also their unique proposition compared to other big companies like IBM and Microsoft is that clients can easily use Serena software without changing the systems a company has. This takes away the main pain point of every company because now companies do not need to have major infrastructures changes in order to complement another solution. 2 key takeaways here is understanding pain points as mentioned earlier and building credibility. What Serena has built here is a reputation of quality assurance which makes potential customers has trust in their products. This is important especially as an IT service company where IT screw ups can be damaging to any company. All these teaches me that every business we do has to be customer centric, even if we have cutting edge technology which does not serve the people, there is no point.
At the last part of our technopreneurship journey, I spoke to NUS students who were also on a program to learn more about start up culture in the Valley. I think it was interesting learning what they have seen over the past one week. One of the person I was talking to, currently works in a startup and we just shared ideas and discussed about it. This is really interesting because he managed to point out an area I could explore into for my startup based on his experience. Now I totally understand the meaning of sharing ideas openly. Usual Asian attitude towards sharing of ideas are very closed for the fear that people may steal their idea, however, I feel that I will have more to lose because I may be missing out on valuable feedbacks and suggestions. I learnt the networking is not just about getting the contacts but also a place for knowledge sharing especially the event is full of like-minded people. This whole trip has been really enjoyable and the learning experience is really invaluable.
Microsoft - Nurturing Startups
It was another eye opener at Microsoft when product engineer Kenny showed us their latest technology. The whole group was amazed especially when he was demonstrating how the Kinect technology can be utilized for different applications across different industries. What I thought was interesting was the possibility of creating a human double since the Kinect technology is able to detect the physical features of a person through its detection sensors. The second part of the presentation was by GM Matt Thompson who gave an overview of the entrepreneurial spirit in the valley. Matt pointed out that for tech startups to grow and be successful, they must have a technical differentiation between them and their rivals. He also touched on the trend that people are now not afraid to fail once but multiple times. This reiterated the point that Nitrous founder pointed out the other day, if you do not screw things up, you are most likely not going to succeed. Aside telling us the advantages of using Microsoft azure, Matt also gave us an overview of what Microsoft is doing to help startups. They do not function like venture capitalist who just invest money and wait. They do not merely just approve or provide monetary support. What they do is they nurture startups, guiding them and giving them development tools and support in their accelerators. I believe this is a very good initiative as it benefits a lot of startups especially when they lack the funds and tools when they first start. Another segment that I am interested in was the idea of having machine learning in their products. Machine learning is the usage of artificial intelligence to recognize patterns from data usually contributed by the user. This I felt is something that is critical for all companies to leverage on to improve their products for the future. Overall, the experience at Microsoft can easily be the best in the whole trip.
Serena Software - Good Software Matters
Serena software produces products that help company with change management. Their change management tools are carefully designed using best practices that are compatible with all sorts of other technologies. That is the main reason why large companies often opt for their software. Chief Marketing Officer Kevin explained that at Serena, they always believe in getting the process right before tools can be decided. Another important point about Serena software is their products have the capability to integrate across different platforms with their partners. As what engineer Siva had demonstrated, the ALF based layer acts like a middleware that helps transform and convert data for the usage of other external applications. Kevin also cited an example of how Serena software has helped companies like the Hong Kong Subway to achieve a stunning figure of 0 bugs in 5 years. For software that is capable of doing that, it is good software. He also reiterated the importance of having good software by quoting partners Lockheed Martin. “If bad quality software is used, good people die. If good quality software is used, more bad people will die.” I think the company has the potential to be a very profitable one. For now I believe they might want to try collaborating with schools to integrate the usage of their software to some of the school’s curriculum.
Stanford Tour & Dinner - Rising Stars
The Stanford campus is really huge. We had to take a shuttle bus in before meeting up with our host Monica and a few of her friends. As a sophomore in Stanford who had just finished her exams, she was really kind to show us around the campus and shared with us the history of some of the interesting buildings. The NUS dinner proved to be more than just a dinner. The interaction with NUS students was filled with fun and laughter as we shared our experiences and ideas. We also got to learn more about the benefits that the NOC program can bring to its students which I felt SMU should probably considering having one of them. From all the short conversations that I had with the NUS students, I learnt that most of them were not afraid of taking on new challenges. Their spirit of continuous learning is surely something that SMU students can learn from. Lastly, we got to hear from Mohammed sharing his experience from working in a startup to getting headhunted to join Google as an engineer. One important lesson here is to not lose faith in whatever you are doing. As long as you continue to work on what you are good at, your work will surely be recognized someday.
Microsoft gave me the full technopreneurship experience. From Microsoft, we see that most VCs are actually a form of support for the entrepreneurs, other than just financial. For example, VCS force the companies the move to SV so that you are connected to people who know people who have done things before. Without such support system in place, in the event where the startups get into some problem they have people who can help out easily. This is important, there's always a learning curve, but we can always skip it by listening to the people who have overcome that curve before and being open and humble enough to accept their advice.
Another thing I learn from Microsoft is, for tech startup it is ideal for them to move to the valley. Of course for the support (as mentioned above) but also, this is the place where tech talent is blooming. This is also the place where the most expensive resource, manpower is easily available. In this I mean where the people here are more willing to accept a lower pay for equity. As a startup it's important to invest whatever funding that you have into quality resources like manpower. The short term benefits are lesser yes, but the long term benefit is better - assuming that the startup is successful then manpower will ride on the success of the company.
Unfortunately, Singapore does not have a very good startup mindset. The government does have different policies that help small companies, such as PIC grant(http://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/PIcredit.aspx%23About_Productivity_and_Innovation_Credit) however, at the end of the day Singaporeans do not want to work for a startup that pays less but give equity. Most of us prefer to work in big companies that pays a lot, but at the end of the day it all boils down to one’s preference. Yes, one may learn a lot from big companies, but it comes with a lot of stress. In smaller companies, you will lean a lot but you take ownership of a particular initiative. Singapore itself markets itself as a financial, education and medical hub, but it rarely markets itself as a technology hub. Therefore it is harder to get people with sound technical skills.
This is what I learn from Microsoft.
Serana - Change management is an important aspect in daily operations. I understand this as I used to use Serena ChangeMan ZMF when I was in Citibank. I developed a REXX utility that automated the approval process of installing new code into production using ChangeMan ZMF. While ChangeMan work was to ensure that old code is backup-ed and then new code is installed into production, someone had to invoke the installation process. This was costing the bank a lot of money as they were paying quite a bit for someone to wake up during silent hours to initiate the installation process.
That was 6 years ago. It’s good to see that Serena is still surviving. The bank may not be using ChangeMan ZMF already, but it is really heartwarming to see that they are actually doing pretty well today.
Change is important in today’s world. With requirements changing very frequently, it is not uncommon to have developers changing code on a daily basis. The business requirements changes everyday, it is impossible to keep up with the needs of the consumers. Having a change management tool helps in ensuring that the upgrade of code is not sloppy or a rush job. It ensures that enough backup is done to prevent a terrible disaster from happening. In the event of a disaster, all the user has to do is just to press one button to ensure that the rollback process is done.
When I organized the Stanford dinner, I do not know what to expect. All I know was, NUS will be joining us, and so with the company hosts. But that was the first time I’m meeting the Yahooooooo I got head hunted by Google guy. He gave me another insight into Google from a mobile developer perspective. But most importantly, his success story. Starting off in 3 different startups, he never imagined that he was going to be headhunted by Google. His startup wasn’t necessarily the best – for instance the game company that he has wasn’t doing well, he learnt to cut the losses and move on to better ideas and most importantly work hard.
I didn’t have much time to network with the students from NUS as I was busy ensuring that food was enough, people came and all, but I had a short time discussing with Arthur the program director of NUS Overseas College. He shared that they have two weeks of companies to visit, but at the end of the trip, they must come out with a pitch to pitch their ideas to someone. It may not necessarily turn into a successful pitch, but it is graded. While I don’t have an idea yet, I believe that this is a good idea for us to try – this will definitely help us by giving us a head start into entrepreneurship.
This marks the end of the TSM. It has been an interesting journey. When I embarked on this module, I thought maybe this might be a chance for me to figure out possible ideas to think about and cash in on it. But until now, I do not know what to do. But what I learnt was, from the company that I use the least - Microsoft. Microsoft taught me to inspire, to just try and try and try. But that’s if I have an idea.
What if I don’t have an idea? Well a good suggestion is to work with a startup - this gives me an opportunity to get my hands dirty, experience and build up my network. I am amazed that there is a close-knit community in SV of Singaporeans. All of them said to me: “if you need a job or internship just drop me an email”
Walking through the exhibits and displays, Microsoft seems to be involved with most products any tech geek would love to get his/her hands on. From the ergonomic seat & 3-screen display to the interaction between the 3D printer and whatever possibilities the Kinect sensor can bring, Microsoft continues to remain as an amazing place to be.
Our host gave us a presentation on the overview of the Silicon Valley landscape and how Microsoft is supporting this landscape not just here in the Valley but all over the world. What struck me most was the number of people/immigrants coming into the valley and the number of domestic people exiting it. Like Singapore, our government accepts a high number of people coming into Singapore and like any other place, tension between the immigrants/foreigners and locals may rise, how then does the Valley handle such social issue.
Silicon Valley remaining the top invested place in US is very apparent from the graph shown to us. However, what would be most helpful is a comparison not between local states/cities but overseas. For example, how the Valley compares against other tech cities overseas. E.g. Bangalore, India and Zhejiang, China. I think coming from Singapore, where to government is actively trying to promote the startup scene, it would be interesting to know where we stand against the heavyweights and what we might be able to learn and do to improve ourselves.
In addition, Microsoft is in a very good position to help startups take off, apart from providing infrastructure and technical support, Microsoft actively brings startups into the attention of their partners. While it is great that a big company such as Microsoft is coming into the startup scene and giving it a helpful boost but being restricted in the choice of infrastructure to use when building a startup does not sit well with me.
Our last company for this trip, Serena, gives a more ‘family feel’ as we were brought through an introduction and demonstration of the company’s product. When I first heard of this company, I was surprised I didn’t know of such a big player in the industry. It was only today when our host said that they target where the money is, which are companies listed on Fortune 1000, that I realized unlike other tech companies we have visited, Serena is more focused and specific in delivering their specialized products to a core group of customers, tailoring their suite of products to enterprise grade and level. One question left unanswered was whether aside from the product, does Serena provide courses for in-house training of IT personnel to manage Serena software, or does Serena do it for them, configuring the initials stages and providing backend support. I believe for some of us who are unfamiliar with Serena, could be due to the fact that the exposure level we had with software versioning extends to only commercial products out there in the market, we need not use such powerful tools as shown. However, what perked my interest was the configuration management software that was used by both Lockheed Martin and Hong Kong’s train system. Like the host, I believe that to be an edge Serena has over any competitors. The other edge being Serena’s adaptability and willingness to integrate with most tools and platforms out there in the market, providing the ease of transition and scalability.
With that being said, I end off my final reflection for this trip, being able to be exposed to different companies and startups of various sizes has indeed left an impressionable mark on me. The feeling and experience the Valley has on not just startups but aspiring entrepreneurs definitely gives a different vibe as compared to our Singapore. While one hopes that such a scene and its culture can be emulated across the seas, it remains to be seen what kind of a unique startup environment we will have in our backyard.
Microsoft I am a fan of Microsoft but there are still many things that I do not really know about the company. We were given a tour of the Microsoft technologies of different form factors which ranged from the smallest Windows Phone, to the laptop, to a hybrid computer (transformer) and to a giant screen display which runs Windows 8.1. The host, Kenny, even showed us the magic of the Kinect v2 and Kinect for PC where it can track many fundamentals of physical reality such as depth, movements, sounds and its origins, colors etc and how each of the sensors that are mounted onto the Kinect can be used for various applications, which includes utilisation in hospitals and 3D printing.
The highlight of the event though was when we were given a talk by Matt Thompson, a GM at Microsoft, who gave a talk on how Microsoft helps startup achieve their fullest potentials by providing the resources they will need. Kenny also did mentioned that the Microsoft Technology Centre is a place where Microsoft would aid start up companies to utilise Microsoft technologies to achieve their potential. Also, very much like DreakSparkz for students, Microsoft has BizSparkz as a platform to aid startup in developing their business using Microsoft technologies. Matt gave us the insights to the reality of the startup companies in different places in the US and points that Silicon Valley/San Francisco is the prime location where most deals and investments in startup companies were made. Matt who have work and traveled to Singapore many times noted that the reality in Singapore is different because it is hard to find someone who is technical oriented to build a start up, and if one is found, it is hard to convince him to help to build a start up because the culture in Singapore is always about what is able to bring in cash. Even VCs in Singapore are not willing to invest proper in start ups. See, unlike many other VCs (such as Innov8, which is still very helpful in many ways to help business achieve their goals), Microsoft has the technologies and expertise. As a move to be more open, Microsoft also made competition products available on the Azure platform such as Linux as oppose to Windows, PHP, JSP as oppose to ASP.net which could gain confidence in the companies that they are helping out.
I asked Matt if they helped projects from hackathon or hackweekend and even the Imagine Cup to build into its own business and he said that Microsoft do in what is within their capability to make that a reality. If the project cannot be turned into a company, Microsoft will help projects to be integrated into other companies that is willing to invest on the project for their own business.
Serena
Serena is a company that prides itself as the manager of change. It builds software that helps in project management, software development and project delivery that would be automate many aspect of the project. We met Greg, the CEO of the company, who gave an insight into what Serena is, and what it is before. He said that Serena is a not a large company nor it is a startup. With only about 400 employees worldwide, Serena is considered midsize company that does not suffer from the worry of survival like a startup companies nor does it have to worry about a large masses of employees like Google. As a private company, Serena also enjoys autonomy in what is does, when and how they do it. Greg also shared with us how he once start a company and had to sold it off when it started to fail and kept on working, which eventually led him to the role of CEO at Serena.
Dinner at Stanford University
When I went for the dinner to mingle with NUS students, I don’t really know what to expect. Unlike our TSM, the students seems to have a diverse reason why they were there. But I do get to make friends and learn more about them and what they do. But the highlight of the day is when we get to meet Muhammad (or as SIS happily call him by his father’s name, Mohsin). He shared with me about the fact that Singapore has an agreement with the US to have a special lot every year to work at the valley and it does not get filled up every year, hence making it easier for Singaporean to work in the US, even if they need not have to work for the bigger companies. I am taking this into considerations as a factor to work in the US as the opportunity has already been laid out in front of me right now.
Microsoft
The visit to Microsoft SV was the most informative session of all the company visits in this TSM. Matt Thompson, Microsoft SV’s DX General Manager gave us the insights into VC investments in Silicon Valley and pretty much gave us an overview of the startup up scene in SV as compared to other cities in the US and the world. It’s difficult for startups in Singapore because it’s not easy to find suitable tech talents who are willing to work for benefits other than salary. Here in the valley interns and potential employees are more open to risks and equities as compared to safety of guaranteed job and promise of hard salary figures in Singapore.
In addition, how Microsoft have accumulated an array of products to help startups was interesting. Because the story of Microsoft’s BizSpark startup VC initiative as popular as that of Y-Combinator or TechCrunch Disruptive. Being backed by Microsoft for a startup is a three-in-one match because Microsoft has the technology, the funding and the access to partners to support startups.
Microsoft’s current VC focus is primarily on Internet Of Things (IOT) startups. The story of how a research of a PhD student who figured out a way to inject codes into devices with specific chipsets to shield the running environment of the software and prevent potential hacks and security leaks is an interesting one. The startup was supported by Microsoft and acquired a USD 1 Million contract with the Whitehouse. This comes to show that anyone with a good product/service/solution to offer will be able to find the tech, funding and partnership support in the valley.
Serena
Serena, although a small company, hosted us like many other professional tech MNCs. Serena is one of the companies that has a suite of change management tools designed around best practices to help developers and operations teams work productively.
There are many change management tools out there, but it’s not surprising that companies like Serena survive in the market. Large companies often prefer to pay reputable organizations to help them fulfill certain aspect of their business needs as opposed to developing their own capabilities to cater to their needs. Companies like Serena are able to deliver what they were paid for and thus maintain their reputation among their clients.
This situation was also through about Linux based enterprise systems. Although many Linux products were free and open source, many companies were reluctant to use them in fear of lack of support from experts and specialized organizations. Companies like RedHat and SUSE Linux were able to put a layer of professionalism and specialized services on top of various Linux products and were able to sell a full suite enterprise solution to their clients. Since then, many companies have opted for these services due to the proliferation of expert support from these dedicated organizations. So, it’s not always about inventing an algorithm or developing a new technology, it is also about provide an effective service based on existing but tweaked technologies that can lead to success in Silicon Valley.
Stanford Tour & Dinner
Stanford tour and dinner went exceptionally better than expected. It turned into a unplanned but well organized networking session with SMU and NUS Alumni and current SMU, NUS and Stanford students.
Learning from Adrian, iOS Developer at TripAdvisor, former SMU SIS student, sometimes it’s about just applying for jobs without planning too much that might lead to eventually better career prospects. Adiran received an email from his friend who was interning at a startup in Silicon Valley while doing his NUS NOC program. He decided to apply for the job although he new nothing much about it and eventually got the job at a startup company which was latter acquired by TripAdvisor. From his humble story I was once again reminded of the risks and chances that people in the valley endure to achieve success.
Microsoft
Another one of the highlights of the trip: Microsoft provides a wide assortment of services for all industries and businesses. Taking pride in their work and products, their products are everywhere in their facilities. We were lucky to have the General Manager of US DX, Matt Thompson in the facility to give us a talk about how Silicon Valley is and innovation at Microsoft. His point of view is very interesting as he has been to Singapore for many times. His perception gives a clear contrast between Singapore's startup and Silicon Valley's startup. One of the key point that he brought upon that even though Silicon Valley is attaching vast talents from all over the world, there are still people leaving the state when they did not succeed. The Net Foreign Immigration is +19,194 and Net Domestic Migration is -5,428, about a quarter of Net Foreign Immigration. To put things into perspective, for every 4 foreigners that move into the Silicon Valley, 1 will move up. This turnover is tremendous and we can easily observe the upward trend of the continuous influx of talents. The main 2 reasons that Matt brought up is that it is easier to get investments from venture capitalist here and you are surrounded by like-minded people. However, it will be interesting to see that if this will create a bubble and if the bubble will burst in the future not far from now.
Serena
A company that lies in between start-ups and MCNs, Serena provides solutions to customers such as Fortune 5000, StarHub, Boeing, etc. They are very confident that their business model will sustain as enterprises will definitely require their solutions. The key difference between them and the other software solutions is the way they market/brand themselves. They focus on changes and only changes. By offering tools to control change in the various industries, they are able to stay ahead of all competitors by being able to be the first mover. Furthermore, given the speed that the world is changing every second, there has to be a management tool to manage all these simultaneous changes. For MNCs, Change Management is extremely sensitive as one small change made in one area might have a drastic impact on another side of the company/system. Basically, the risk that comes along with changes increases exponentially when the size of the company increases. Working at companies such as Serena is very stable, but you won't get as high of a recognition as a MNC or as much excitement as a startup. Therefore, it might be a great choice for a mid-life choice in changing jobs.
Stanford University | NUS
Stanford University truly matches up to her reputation. This is a place where all the brightest mind in the world gathers. The campus itself is breathtaking, the buildings ranges from ancient Rome styles to modern styles. The sheer size of the campus makes it not walkable and almost all the students are riding bikes. But what truly stuck me is the friendliness of the student here. Despite being one of the best, they do not exhibit any sign of arrogance. On the contrary, they were extremely friendly whenever we approach them for directions. One of the Singaporeans there even walked us all the way from the bus stop to the clubhouse. I am always impressed if someone is smart, but I will be more impressed if they are humble. All in all, Standford is an amazing place with even more amazing people.
Afterwhich, we had a mini gathering with the NUS people and fellow Singaporeans that are studying/working in the Silicon Valley. It was one of the most important nights and dinner as we get to mingle around and speak to people. Listening to the alumni speak about their experiences from SMU all the way to where they are now was inspirational. It makes us have the mindset that if they can do it, we can do it too. Also, it was awesome listening to our fellow peers from NUS talking about their experiences and dreams. It is so aligned with ours. It was amazing to meet them and find out even though we are different, but how similar we actually are.
Microsoft
When people think of Microsoft, the first thing that comes to their mind would most probably be the Windows product. Also, people, especially the teenagers will most probably think that Windows products such as the Windows phone, Bing Search Engine and Windows OS notebooks are considered more inferior as compared to IPhone, Macbook and Google Search Engine. I have the same belief that Micrsoft is not as good as Apple and Google due to the bad reviews over its products and the technology lag often mentioned in the internet.
Despite my belief, I decided to keep an open mind when visiting the Microsoft Technology Center. During the tour around Microsoft, the host showed us some cool stuff like the Demo with Kinect. The Demo with Kinect is able to detect a person emotion based on his facial expression. In addition, the Demo with Kinect can tell whether someone left or right eye is open or closed. Next, the host showed us how Microsoft is able to use the Demo with Kinect to print out the 3D models. Personally, I feel that 3D models would be popular if the cost of the materials is not so high.
The host also talked about the artificial intelligence that Microsoft is trying to do now. For example, Microsoft hoped to program Cortana so that it will be smart enough to ask the user what he wants to have for Tuesday lunch.
Next, we proceed to the meeting room where the host gave us a brief overview of the Silicon Valley culture. He also talked about how Microsoft tried to help startups by allowing the startups to use their platform. This might lock the startup in the future due to the high switching cost.
He also mentioned about the nature of venture capitalists. He said that they are lazy in nature as they just want to check whether the their investment are making profits but not their operational activities
All in all, I think that Microsoft provides a good platform for a lot of startups. But Microsft has to catch up with the rest of the technology giants to produce better products. If not, their future will be quite bleak.
Serena Software
It was great to visit the HQ of my internship company that focus on change management. It was a different experience compared to working in Serena Software in Singapore. We had the opportunity to meet Kevin Parker, a senior engineer who gave us a brief overview of the Serena Software while his colleague demonstrated the prowess of Serena Release Manager. We also met with the CEO Greg Hughes who talked about the importance of travelling and learning outside the country of residence and his startup experiences.
Change management is important in today’s world as companies are constantly making changes to the web application and then redeploying to the production server. Serena Change management allows the customers to track the changes and reduce the error when redeploying to the production server. Firms that use the Change management will be less likely to encounter problems during auditing.
Serena has an edge over its competitors in the change management as it does not need to care about the OS that the servers are using.
Personally, I feel that we can apply some of the things that we learnt from Serena Software to startups. In Serena Software, they focus on one thing but they do it better than their competitors. I feel that this is one of the things that need to be considered when creating startups. It is not ideal to have multiple core function as there are not enough manpower and funds to handle such thing.
Secondly, I feel that the quote “Do the change, people die. Do the right change, the right people die” is also applicable to startups. This means that startups have to make the correct decision to kill off their competitors or they will falter instead.
