This week, we continued our visits to tech companies including Uber, LinkedIn, Palantir, and innovative start-ups, including Impossible Foods and Rothy’s. The common thread that I found between these companies is their mission-driven culture to solve critical problems. Uber aims to bring smarter transportation to the world, LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more successful, Palantir helps institutions
We continued our second week by visiting YouTube’s main offices in San Bruno. YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing website founded in 2005. YouTube innovated quickly and grew larger than even Google’s own video streaming service, so Google acquired the company in 2006. Under Google, the company has been growing continuously and is now being used by millions of people
Our visits this week truly focused on the idea that people from all different types of backgrounds can find their home in Silicon Valley. Tech and consumer companies need team members from a variety of disciplines like sales, marketing, finance, and software engineering to operate, and it’s the combination of these skills that truly make a firm successful. Understanding how
“Using knowledge for the service of society!” -Brenda, Tesla Tour Guide regarding the amazing opportunity of DSV Week one of Duke in Silicon Valley took our cohort of students around the Bay Area, presenting learning opportunities in and out of the classroom. There’s no better place to start than with our professor Salman Azar. Prof. Azar’s unique approach to teaching
It feels as though it was just yesterday that we were meeting each other, making our first trip to Safeway, and touring the Plug and Play Tech Center where we would have class for the next month. We were in awe, curious, and invigorated by Mountain View’s beautiful and homey scenery and by the remarkable list of companies we were
As our Duke in Silicon Valley experience comes to a close, I am ready to go home, but also reluctant to leave this amazing place and program. These past four weeks have been challenging, thought-provoking, exhausting, invigorating, incredibly valuable, and everything in between. We have spent days tested by Professor Azhar in class, bonding with my classmates on long bus
“It’s not a course. It’s an experience.” These are the words we see on the screen every day we walk in our class that teaches us how to build and sustain a successful enterprise. These words could not be more true. Since starting Duke In Silicon Valley, I have been introduced and exposed to many things inside and outside of
“Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” – Steve Jobs Up until Silicon Valley, I always thought of leadership as someone who directs others – who brings them to success. I used to think that everyone at Duke was
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” -Rumi I share this quote not only because Rumi has been the resounding poetic voice throughout our course with Professor Azhar, but also because its message, to tell your story, has been repeated by everyone we’ve met here in Silicon Valley. As humans, storytelling is
We are halfway through Duke in Silicon Valley, and I have found the key takeaway of the program to be speaking with those that have personally dived into the startup and venture capital culture. Our class gets this exposure through interaction with the guest speakers at our Plug & Play classroom and site visits to diversified firms in Mountain
