DurianGray
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- May 13, 2014
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I heard through the grapevine about a startup event this past weekend: The Thiel Foundation Summit.
So naturally I decided to crash it. After a little bluffing I got in.
This event brings in high achieving students along with mentors involved in the high tech start up community. I previously was deep into the SF tech startup scene having made a company in college that raised way too much money and spent it all. That lead me to go on a more traditional entrepreneurial route, but I eventually want to get back into startup world.
The main attraction were the Thiel 20 under 20 fellows. They are kids ages 14-20 who either dropped out or did not attend college and now have 100k and 2 years of mentoring to pursue their startup idea.
(If you didn’t know Peter Thiel founded Paypal and is now a billionaire philanthropist).
I received an advanced copy of his Thiel’s new book, “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future”. It is based off the notes on a course he taught at Stanford a few years back. I found it to be an interesting read on the ethos of Silicon Valley. The main premise of the book was that to build the future we need to innovate. Somebody has to go and build the first of its kind. That is the 0 to 1. The rest of the book goes in depth on the psychology of startups and the founders along with the current economic eco system. Definitely fast lane, but definitely riskier.
The bulk of the weekend was spent with guest lecturers who talked more about the psychological and mental toughness needed to pursue such innovative ideas. I sensed a lot of youthful naivity at the summit which I suppose every starting entrepreneur experiences. People here on this forum I think hustle better and can sell way better. I also got a more firsthand experience at the liberitarian mentality of Silicon Valley. You need to be crazy (in a good way) to innovate.
On the other hand, my biggest criticism of the event was the someone ostentatious attitude towards certain topics. Silicon Valley culture is pretty much as bad as Wall Street, except populated with alpha nerds. I also felt like the VCs were taking advantage of young kids and their naivety. It was a bit strange too how a lot of these startups seem like cults, but that’s always the case looking outside in.
Below are some photos I took of the event:
From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Patrick Collison co-founder of Stripe giving a talk on his entrepreneurship journey.
2. The location - Old SF Mint
3. Thiel Foundation Summit
4. Another talk. The kids on stage each received 100k and mentorship to work on their ideas.
Overall I got a deeper insight on the startup mentality. I will definitely pursue this once I get a my life more stable before putting in the huge amount of effort and capital to build something innovative.
So naturally I decided to crash it. After a little bluffing I got in.
This event brings in high achieving students along with mentors involved in the high tech start up community. I previously was deep into the SF tech startup scene having made a company in college that raised way too much money and spent it all. That lead me to go on a more traditional entrepreneurial route, but I eventually want to get back into startup world.
The main attraction were the Thiel 20 under 20 fellows. They are kids ages 14-20 who either dropped out or did not attend college and now have 100k and 2 years of mentoring to pursue their startup idea.
(If you didn’t know Peter Thiel founded Paypal and is now a billionaire philanthropist).
I received an advanced copy of his Thiel’s new book, “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future”. It is based off the notes on a course he taught at Stanford a few years back. I found it to be an interesting read on the ethos of Silicon Valley. The main premise of the book was that to build the future we need to innovate. Somebody has to go and build the first of its kind. That is the 0 to 1. The rest of the book goes in depth on the psychology of startups and the founders along with the current economic eco system. Definitely fast lane, but definitely riskier.
The bulk of the weekend was spent with guest lecturers who talked more about the psychological and mental toughness needed to pursue such innovative ideas. I sensed a lot of youthful naivity at the summit which I suppose every starting entrepreneur experiences. People here on this forum I think hustle better and can sell way better. I also got a more firsthand experience at the liberitarian mentality of Silicon Valley. You need to be crazy (in a good way) to innovate.
On the other hand, my biggest criticism of the event was the someone ostentatious attitude towards certain topics. Silicon Valley culture is pretty much as bad as Wall Street, except populated with alpha nerds. I also felt like the VCs were taking advantage of young kids and their naivety. It was a bit strange too how a lot of these startups seem like cults, but that’s always the case looking outside in.
Below are some photos I took of the event:
From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Patrick Collison co-founder of Stripe giving a talk on his entrepreneurship journey.
2. The location - Old SF Mint
3. Thiel Foundation Summit
4. Another talk. The kids on stage each received 100k and mentorship to work on their ideas.
Overall I got a deeper insight on the startup mentality. I will definitely pursue this once I get a my life more stable before putting in the huge amount of effort and capital to build something innovative.
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