Networking with Silicon Valley Mindset
Silicon Valley is all about making connections, networking and paying it forward. We have put together a quick list of events, networking possibilities and resources to get into the Silicon Valley mindset.
before you arrive in Silicon Valley
Networking
Join Meetup to connect with your interest groups. For example: Health 2.0 San Francisco, Entrepreneurs & investors - Gazillionairs, Silicon Valley Newtech, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs & Startups
Check out Eventbrite for what is happening during your stay
Apply to Startup Haven Poker Nights
Nordic resources
Silicon Vikings is a 40,000+ network headquartered in Silicon Valley with nodes throughout the Nordics and the Baltic region including Greater Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Norrland, Oslo, Reykjavik, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, and Vilnius.
USLaw for Nordics - Blog and assistance in getting your legal questions answered.
Annual events
Apple Developers conference WWDC, San Jose
CES - Consumer Electronics Show, January Las Vegas
CleanTech Open – Competition and a conference, this annual event funds and supports CleanTech Startups, LA
Collision Conference - Collision brings together the people and companies redefining the global tech industry.
DFJ Thought Leader Series - Featuring talks from leaders in technology, business, finance, education and philanthropy, the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series continues to educate and inspire, weekly at Stanford.
Dreamforce, Salesforce - November, San Francisco
Facebook Developers Conference, San Jose
Game Developers Conference (GDC) – The world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event attracting 22,500 attendees, March San Francisco
GTS – The Global Technology Symposium at Stanford.
Health 2.0 - Health 2.0 showcases cutting-edge innovation transforming the Health Care System, Sep/Oct Santa Clara
Launch - A launchpad for new ventures or ventures introducing new products, San Francisco
SaaStr - The World’s Largest Community for Business Software, San Jose.
SF Newtech – SF New Tech is the Bay Area’s largest, longest-running, and most-loved monthly technology event and networking mixer for people who can’t get enough of technology.
StartupGrind Global Conference - February, Redwood City
SXSW - South by South West, March Austin TX
TechCrunch DISRUPT – Three-day, single-track conference and startup competition addressing what’s changing in technology right now, what’s causing it and what is needs to be done about it to survive and thrive in real time, SF
TieCON – The worlds largest expo for entrepreneurs.
Verge - Where Technology meets Sustainability, Oct Oakland
Email Lists of Bay Area Tech
StartupDigest – Curated guide to the best startup events, people, and products in 48 cities and 5 universities worldwide. You should sign up for StartupDigest Silicon valley & SF Bay Area / ST@B (Berkeley) / Silicon Valley HackersDigest (for developers).
WorkIt.com – Weekly newsletter with upcoming events from hundreds of local organizations.
More General Groups for Tech Networking
Churchill Club – non-profit organization with 6,500-members. Churchill Club has built a reputation for dynamic, in-the-news programs featuring Silicon Valley CEOs, up-and-coming executives and national business leaders. The events regularly draw more than 400 attendees and give members the opportunity to network with the best of Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley Chapter of the Licensing Executive Society – LES events include monthly luncheons with prominent and informative guest speakers from a variety of professional industries.
Silicon Valley Forum - Connecting people and organizations in Silicon Valley
TechCentralSF – San Francisco’s online directory resource and collaborative community for High Tech, Biotech, and Cleantech with over 1,000 start-up companies and established innovators making breakthroughs across San Francisco. TechCentralSF is a B2B exchange to support entrepreneurs, startups & the SF tech ecosystem.
VC Task Force – Provides a forum for many types of investors: LPs, venture capital firms, institutional investors, PE and portfolio company management in which they can share ideas and information that will help them manage their businesses for maximum success.
VLAB / MIT / Stanford Venture Lab – The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) is the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people.
Startup Tools and Resources
AngelList – AngelList is a community of startups—started by the dudes who do Venture Hacks
Hootsuite – Manage your social media presence by cross platform message scheduling and extensive data tracking.
Kauffman Founders School - An online educational resource dedicated to entrepreneurship.
Legal Zoom – Provides you with legal documents that you need for your business.
SpringWise – Your essential fix for entrepreneurial ideas.
Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner – Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner offers 2000 free videos and podcasts, featuring entrepreneurship and innovation thought leaders. Start exploring now.
Steve Blank – Is one of the startup gurus in the valley and teaches entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley, Stanford and Columbia School of Business. His website is an information goldmine for all types of startups.
Weebly – Makes it easy to create a content rich website in minutes with multiple features and it is free.
News Sources
CB Insights - The CB Insights tech market intelligence platform analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships and news mentions to help you see tomorrow's opportunities, today.
LAUNCH Ticker News - Curates the top stories of the day from every tech news source.
Mashable – Covering digital culture, social media and technology news.
Siliconvalley.com – High-tech and computer related news, with focus on technology related financial news.
StartUpDigest - Tailored reading lists keep you connected to topics of your choice
StartupGrind - Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community.
TechCrunch – Group-edited blog about technology start-ups, particularly the Web 2.0 sector.
VentureBeat – News About Tech, Money and Innovation.
BLOGS
Ben Horowitz - Computer science student, software engineer, cofounder, CEO, fundraiser, company acquirer and seller - co-founder and Partner (along with Marc Andreessen) of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz based in Menlo Park.
Bill Gurley - Bill is a General Partner at Benchmark Capital and has realized great success over a long venture career. His latest triumphs include numerous recently exited companies like OpenTable (OPEN), Zillow (Z), and DemandForce (acquired by Intuit for $424 million), just to name a few.
Brad Feld - VC at Foundry Group - Invest in software and Internet companies around the US, runner of marathons
David Skok - Everything you need to know as a founder and entrepreneur
Fred Wilson - Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, and has been an active and successful venture capitalist since 1987. Based in New York, some of his largest deals include Tumblr, Twitter, and Zynga (ZNGA), to name a few.
Mark Suster - 2x entrepreneur turned VC. He joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com.
PODCASTS
TED TALKS
Bill Gross - Bill Gross founded Idealab, an incubator of new inventions, ideas and businesses.
Julie Hanna - Julie Hanna is a serial entrepreneur that has been driven by her belief in information technology as a democratizing force for social, political and business disruption.
Simon Sinek - Simon Sinek explores how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change. He's the author of the classic "Start With Why"; his latest book is "Leaders Eat Last."