Follow the adventures of P-Cubed, Domestic Angels, and Blue Buddy as they embark on their adventure in the Silicon Valley!
Day 0 – Tech Girls Tour of Silicon Valley
It’s ice-cream time with the seals and superheroes at Pier 39 – we in the Tech Girls Movement Foundation team so excited to meet the teams today! The red hoodies are a fantastic idea – the team stands out amongst the crowd in our brightly matching Tech Girls gear. Great to meet everyone before our industry visits and tour around San Francisco (SF) and Silicon Valley kicks off tomorrow – so much energy, enthusiasm and excitement!
Today’s takeaway: Yes, we’re goingggg to San Frannnnciscooo… !!! (For those of you too young to know the song, here’s a link)
Day 1: Trailblazers, Igloos and an VISITING AN Aussie startup in SF!
What a day! Business for social good, IoT (Internet of Things) in retail experiences, smart materials, an Australian startup in SF, and more! Three inspiring visits today kicked off with breakfast at Salesforce right in downtown SF. Hearing about the Salesforce ‘Ohana’ (Hawaiian for ‘family’) a workplace culture that is built around people, celebrating our diversity and supporting each other. What a view from the 61st ‘Ohana’ floor! 360 walk-around panorama of San Francisco – wow. Definitely a tech tourist moment, we can’t imagine what it would be like to be able to hang out here every day at work!!
Down a few floors in the Salesforce Tower to the Accenture Innovation Hub – such a warm welcome with Tech Girls Are Superheroes signs throughout the lobby, and our own branded tech girls cookies for afternoon tea – thank you so much to our hosts! What a whirlwind tour seeing emerging technologies (almost like science fiction!) applied to solve real-world challenges – excited to see what future retail with IoT might look like, materials that have ‘shape memory’ for soft robotics, and 360 wrap-around screens for immersive experiences with multimedia storytelling (‘The Igloo’). Lots of whiteboards, post-it notes, and design prototypes throughout!
A friendly and chill startup vibe with Skedulo shared the journey of an Australian startup making it big in SF – hard to quantify into words how you can feel and see the mix of Australian culture in the company, their office and how they work – go Aussies! You can’t go wrong when there is the company dog welcome to roam around the office for pats and cuddles, and pizzas for snacks too! Great informal networking session with the Skedulo team – such a diverse and friendly team – looking forward to connecting with the local team when we’re back home.
An atmosphere of opportunity and ‘giving it a go’ are abounds here – well done to the girls for excellent pitches during all three visits today! Fantastic feedback on the pitches and apps from our hosts, such attention to detail with the teams showing their app prototypes and carefully handmade gifts for our hosts.
Google! Tomorrow! Yesssss.
Today’s takeaways: a panel discussion that raised ‘being comfortable with being uncomfortable’ and ‘being your authentic self’ (you don’t need a tech background to work in tech!), and that an idea that was built into a tech platform in a room above a Brisbane garage is now a startup outgrowing its offices in SF with Series B funding just raised – you can do it too!
