For over 5 years, I have been living in Silicon Valley, what brought me here was the company I founded in Brazil, Movile, and our need to expand internationally and learn from the best players in the world.
Our dream is to create a company that makes life better for billions of people thru our apps and that means we were born to be a global company and the Valley is a mandatory step for this — there is no going back. As the proverbial birthplace of entrepreneurship , it’s daunting to think that all the companies that I have admired from Brazil were built right here. That’s why when I chose to come here, I got some great advice that I would like to share with my fellow latin entrepreneurs because it can be overwhelming if you are not prepared.
#1 Build Your Network Remotely
If you don’t live in Silicon Valley I would highly recommend building your network remotely at the beginning. Once you have a network established make sure you plan frequent trips when it’s feasible. I would visit at least twice a year and for events that are beneficial to your business needs. Another option could also be coming here for a month out of the year exploring, networking and building your business as much as possible. Online and phone networking can be very beneficial for your business at the beginning but the face to face interactions are hands down the best way to grow your business and get the support you need to make your business survive. Valley entrepreneurs are always eager to network so reachout in a respectful way.
It’s also interesting to attend programs at the incredible universities in the region. Stanford, Berkeley and also the super innovative Singularity University, offer great options for entrepreneurs. I myself attended a fantastic program at Stanford called SEP (Stanford Executive Program) that changed my life forever. The faculty was amazing and incredible networking that gave me an even stronger vision from SIlicon Valley.
#2 Come With a Plan to Execute Your Idea
Silicon Valley can be cutthroat and there is almost always lots of competition. You have to come with a plan to execute your idea. The valley is expensive and fighting against VC backed companies for talent can be brutal. Don’t overspend especially in the first year where you may make your biggest mistakes. Consider working from co-working spaces, spend time in meet-ups to receive feedbacks, save as much money as possible during the discovery phase. Another fact you should know is that companies that move to Silicon Valley after gaining traction in their home countries end up with better success rates. Win the game at home first, and then come to play in the Champions League against the best teams in the world. So come with a strategic plan, a strong investment thesis, a proven model, traction and execution track record increases your chances to succeeding in the Valley.
In some cases, you can still have parts of your organization back home. In fact, in some cases, that’s a strategic advantage since you will have people that know how your product works and usually, the cost of developers is a lot lower. There is really no substitute for being in the valley if that’s where your customers and investors are.
#3 Move Quickly & Break Things, and be open to change your plans
The valley is always on the move so, if you want to survive, you have to be as well. One of the best type of leaders is one that’s an expansionist. This means you do, fail, grow, direct, invest etc. This creates momentum in starting your business, makes it exciting and new however maintaining that momentum and energy can be difficult. It usually takes more than 1 or 2 years to start gaining real traction in the Valley. That’s why as a leader you should have a good team behind you with a clear motive. The best way in my opinion to make this happen is to tell your team you want to move fast, learning from your mistakes and re-plan everything weekly, as cheap as possible. Consequently, the more you do the more you will grow and the faster you will move. After publicly announcing your motive you will more than likely hold yourself accountable to accomplish your goals. There is always a high chance you could fail but you shouldn’t let that get you down. Pick yourself up and keep moving.
#4 Ask For Help
The Valley is an extremely meritocratic and collaborative environment. It values people that deliver results and good products that show engagement and growth. Taking into account this competitive scenario, there will be times when you will be stuck or want advice to move your business forward. We all know it can be difficult to build a business and you will almost always need help. The fear that you don’t understand what you need or that people will think you are not on par with them are things that may haunt you. Don’t worry. Everyone in Silicon Valley seeks out help and as an entrepreneur, you should always be looking for ways to better your business. By also helping others, you will probably learn some new things to help your business progress in ways you couldn’t have imagined.
#5 Practice Communicating
Don’t be afraid to speak english even if you feel it’s not that good. Silicon Valley is a melting pot of people, ideas, and languages. Most native and non-native Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are well versed in understanding all sorts of accents and are always willing to help. Being latino is even an advantage since Californian’s are used to hearing and speaking Spanish and even other latin languages like Portuguese.
Go Ahead. Come to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is the a great place to launch or expand a business. It can be overwhelming at first but the opportunities are endless and the environment is great for building a business. If you apply my advice, you’ll have a lot easier time and will avoid some of the mistakes I made. If you are a latin entrepreneur, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to hear what you are up too and help out if I can.
For people that speak portuguese, this video explain better our story moving to the Valley and this article and book gives much more detailed advice.
About Eduardo:
Blog: https://edulh.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @edulh
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edulh
Movile’s Co-founder and SVP of Business Development . Brazilian entrepreneur, Stanford Alumni (SEP 2016), graduated in Computer Science at State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Marketing at School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM-SP) and also concluded a graduate study in Digital Marketing at FECAP-SP. In 2006, he co-founded Movile – leader of mobile commerce in Latin America. In 2008, he managed all mobile marketing business in the company and, after that, the B2B bulk SMS Area. In 2010 Eduardo took over the position of Movile’s mobile payment area and settled a platform called Mozca (mozcapag.com) for carrier billing. In 2011 he developed projects for smartphones and tablets using HTML5, Android and iOS platforms and increased the number of users from zero to 9 million users in one year. In 2012 moved to Silicon Valley to lead the business development around apps in the innovation area and was part of the team that created PlayKids, the world’s top grossing educational entertainment app for kids, with more than 6 million MAU. Currently works leading business development globally for all Movile businesses.
