The European founder in Silicon Valley

Full of enthusiasm, our hero takes the first flight to Silicon Valley for a two-week trip. It’s their first flight to America since a vacation with their parents in NYC when they were 12.

They have been reading about this magical Silicon Valley for too long on the internet. Time to see what it's like for real!

Phase 1 - Almost a Billionaire

Having just landed, they go to take pictures in front of Steve Jobs's garage and the Google campus. It's a dream. APPLE was born here! Right in this garage!

After realizing that beyond that in the suburbs there's nothing else to see, it's time to move to San Francisco, where all the life actually is.

After a couple of networking events, they start suspecting that there's actually something different about this place. In a few days, they have already met tens of 20-year-olds who dropped out of school and have millions of dollars raised or in revenue for their startups.

“Are you guys all crazy? This is fucking awesome!!”

They also have the chance to chat with some famous billionaire investor or entrepreneur. Success and impressive people seem so easy and accessible here. And everybody is so refreshingly positive and willing to help, asking for nothing in return!

It's nothing like they have seen in Europe.

Excitement is through the roof.

Phase 2 - Going Back Home, Reorganizing the Ideas

After shaking hands and connecting on LinkedIn with hundreds of people, the first Silicon Valley trip has ended. Our friend realizes that there are a lot of things to study and many others to improve on about their startup. Those people in the Valley are too good, but everything now feels so doable and close!

As soon as they get back home, they start telling everybody and their mother how crazy Silicon Valley is—that they have no idea. And they have so much work to do now to go back in a few months.

Everybody looks at them like they have lost their mind.

Phase 3 - Maximizing the ESTA

In the following 2 or 3 months, our hero should have made progress on their company. Instead, they mostly watched YouTube interviews of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors.

Becoming a billionaire has never felt this close.

After months of liking memes on Twitter and watching interviews on YouTube full-time, it's time to organize an 89-day stay in Silicon Valley. The goal? Raise at least $2-3M like all their new Silicon Valley founder friends (because it's what everybody does here) and officially relocate!

The founder is back at border control with a level of adrenaline rarely experienced before.

At the border:

Officer: “How long are you gonna stay, sir?”

European Founder: “89 days”

Officer: “Mh... Okay, what do you do here?”

European Founder: “I’m here to start my own company”

Officer: “Okay... unemployed. Noted. Sir, I need you to follow me.”

They get arrested and interrogated for four hours in a dark room.

Luckily, since it's only their second time in the U.S., they eventually let them in. The dream didn’t start exactly as expected. These Americans don’t play games at the border! But now we're in. In the most special place in the greatest country in the world.

The show can now begin!

Phase 4 - Fundraising

The founder starts sending messages to all the people met during the first trip.

“Hey, are you down for a coffee? I’m so back!”

Our founder uses all the meetings with random Silicon Valley people to refine their pitch and to talk to some angel investor or VC associate/intern introduced to them.

After a month, they are starting to surrender: as a solo founder without technical skills, it’s hard to raise a single dollar here. And they don't want investors outside of the Valley, because the mindset is just so different! “Hearing people talk from [home_country] feels like sandpaper on the brain.”

55 days left before the ESTA expires.

It’s time to find…

Phase 5 - The “Exotic” Co-founder

Our friend goes to YC Co-founder Matching.

After three weeks of talking to randos, they find a cool Indian guy who seems skilled, with all the right stamps on the CV and also funny. He has worked at a hot startup here in San Francisco and was already working on something similar.

“Let’s work together for a month and see where it goes!”

In the meantime, the personal savings of the founder are going to zero at an unprecedented speed. The poverty line here in the Bay Area is $130k per year after all! And the family doesn’t seem so happy to financially support this mission. But it’s just a matter of weeks, our founder thinks, because:

“This co-founder is exactly the kind of person that investors like!”

“I also need some validation back home,” they think, “having an SF-based co-founder from India sounds like I have a real job now. Mom will be proud!”

Everything is now great.

Well, everything except…

“It has been four days since the Indian guy has replied to any of my messages. Weird, working together was great! He really liked me! Maybe he has some problems at home?”

7 days of ESTA left.

“I can’t go back home with nothing. People will ask me what I’m doing. I don’t know, okay? Oh… wait…”

Phase 6 - Canary Islands

Our friend is almost personally bankrupt. But there’s one last hope to dramatically extend the runway and figure out what to do. Bali or the Canary Islands! The paradise of digital nomads.

“The plan is staying here until we figure something out. And when we have something, we will go back to Silicon Valley.”

In the meantime, almost a year has passed, and the initial idea based on the hype of the moment now has 10 identical competitors that have raised between $30 million and $100 million each.

“Okay, competing in this space doesn’t feel particularly doable anymore. Thank God I saw all those YouTube videos. It’s time to…”

Phase 7 - Pivot!

The new exotic location is great. But after a few weeks, reality sets in:

The mental and financial breakdown is close.

All the new ideas seem not good enough.

And it’s basically impossible to test them because we are 20,000 km and 9 hours' time difference away from any real potential customer. It’s hard to talk to them, and when we get 15 minutes, they don’t take us seriously.

Our conviction was low. But after these first calls, it is now even lower.

And yeah, honestly, we know nothing about this field.

In the meantime, after a couple of months of explorations, the bank account is dangerously approaching zero.

A year has passed since the first trip to San Francisco. Living the dream is not a job. It’s a great experience, for sure, but it’s expensive.

The burnout is bad. Time to…

Phase 8 - Getting a Real Job

At this point, our friend starts polishing their resume and LinkedIn profile and starts interviewing for jobs.

PwC or this early-stage European startup?

They end up becoming a BDR at some startup in their home country.

“Silicon Valley, I’ll be back soon, I promise!” they say.

(They won’t.)

Life and career will start compounding in Europe, and it’s gonna be a good life anyway.