1415T1g1 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Reflection/12 Dec

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Aaron

Aaron

The Big Guns

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.

Amanda

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Amanda

Benedict

Benedict

DATA

Data

Brandon

Microsoft, Serena Software & Stanford

Microsoft - Going Micro!

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.

Key Learning Points

• 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 therefore this differentiates us from the entrepreneurs within the valley and therefore we should learn from them in this sense.
• 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!

Serena -

Key Learning Points

• TBC
• TBC

Stanford -

Key Learning Points

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Brandon

Brindha

Brindha

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Derrick

Microsoft & Serena

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.

Derrick

Hakam

Hakam

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JiaDong

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Jia Dong

Jovin

Jovin

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JunMing

Microsoft, Serena Softwares & Stanford

Microsoft -

Serena Software -

Stanford Tour & Dinner

Jun Ming

Luqman

Luqman

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”

Melvin

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Melvin

Mus

Mus

Microsoft, Serena, Stanford University

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.

Safi

Day #6

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.

Safi

TengYu

Teng Yu

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YiHao

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Yi Hao