1415T1g1 Silicon Vallley/Participant Information/Amanda Lee

About Amanda

Academic Year: 3
Degree: Information Systems Management
2nd Major: Operations Management
Interests: Playing basketball, swimming, watching dramas

Why TSM Silicon Valley?

What motivates you to join TSM?
TSM will provide me with an opportunity to learn outside of the classroom by allowing me to meet with entrepreneurs. Through these meetings, I hope to learn more about the trials and tribulations of starting a company. I will also be able to gain firsthand experiences that I will never be able to gain from a scholastic environment.

Why pick Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley is the legendary sanctuary for tech startups, and it is home to many hugely successful companies. I feel that it would be fascinating to have a feel of the culture there, and I'm really interested in finding out for myself what it is that makes Silicon Valley such a conducive environment for such companies.

Internship Opportunities

What types of internship opportunities interest you?
I can see myself playing the role of a business analyst or a project manager. I would also relish the opportunity to work in a startup.

Any ideal firms (based in Silicon Valley) that you wish to join?

Tesla Motors is a company that deals with electric vehicles. The company has diversified its products: not only does Tesla Motors produce its own line of electric vehicles, it is selling car parts to established companies such as Toyota and Daimler. Something unique about Tesla Motors is that while other new car brands opt to start off by making their cars more affordable, Tesla had the intention of making themselves known as a luxury brand right from the start.

Chegg is a company that focuses on higher education. It specialises in homework help, textbook rental as well as internship matching. The company is hugely successful, Chegg's IPO in 2013 raised $187.5 million and was valued at nearly $1.1 billion.

Pantomime is a company that builds augmented reality software. Their products allow consumers to interact with a 3D augmented reality world, instead of just letting users view them. This is done by tracking the movement of the device that the users are using, such that people are able to control objects through movements such as bouncing, tapping or touching. The company has won the Silicon Valley World Cup Tech Challenge in 2014, a competition hosted by the Silicon Valley Forum

There will be much to learn from this tech giant, where some of the brightest minds are at work. The company allows employees to dedicate up to 30% of their time on self-initiated projects, which has resulted in many innovative and useful products that help to diversify their business. It also doesn't hurt that Google provides an amazing work environment.

Starting a Business

What types of business interest you?

• E-commerce
• Social enterprises
• Companies that deal with augmented reality

What plan do you have in starting a business? (list existing business)
Most successful businesses offer products or services that makes a consumer's life a little easier, and one of the ways to do this will be to enable people to do things that they were previously unable to. I would want to create a website that makes it incredibly easy for people to create their own websites. Also, augmented reality applications fascinate me and I would like to move in that direction. However, I do not yet possess the necessary skills required for this, so I will have to gain more experience and find people who have the expertise in this aspect.

Past Experiences

Describe your past experience (entrepreneurship, or works in start ups, etc)

I have not worked in any startups, but I have worked in organisations of various sizes. My experiences in those places have exposed me to some of the problems faced by these companies which I feel will better prepare me to be an entrepreneur.