Breaking Barriers

Lesson of the day: life should not be all about you.



The first meeting of the day was not until 11:30 so we took the morning to catch up on book reports that haven't been presented. We heard about the Tipping Point from Jeni, Social Media from Kiflu and the Art of the Start from Drew.



We got into a discussion about Twitter and the reasons why we were not a part of the Twitter community before the trip. Pyz made a good point when he said that the reason he didn't want to get an account was because he felt there was a stigma against people who have a big enough ego to always be updating what they had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I agree that I have had enough of status updates and the constant feed of what is going on in the lives of people I am not great friends with, but who I felt obligated to approve as friends. However, I believe that Twitter can be used for more than the people who think life is all about them, there is a great business side to the product and a way to share information to all of those people who are following you.



There is a great potential for things like discounts at stores, coupons for restaurants, and live updates for sports teams. The discussion about Twitter got me thinking about how your life should be more than simply all about you. Life should be about making a difference and educating others. I was still pondering this when we headed to Benetech, a non-profit organization whose multiple products include a reader for the blind and Book Share, a collection of books blind and dyslexic people can use without cost.

The main point the Benetech representative made was to make sure that no matter what we did, whether it be for-profit or non-profit, it should somehow manage to have some positive social impact. In other words, my life and career should not be all about me.

This attitude continued with our afternoon meeting at Sierra Ventures, a venture capital firm whose main area is in the “green” area technology companies. We arrived at Sierra Ventures after all splitting up and grabbing a quick lunch. The firm’s professional and expensive appearance was quickly explained as the firm manages 1.5 billion dollars and is currently investing with a $400 million fund.

Robert Walker, who has an incredibly interesting background in physics and energy efficient lighting, explained that Sierra Ventures was focused on providing money for companies whose product fell into the areas of energy efficiency, energy storage, or hardware surrounding the “cleantech” ecosystem. The venture capital firm is interested in making a difference by being focused not on themselves, but on companies that know there is value to sustainability and having an eco-friendly company.

Let's just say that our conversation with Robert was not all about the ways in which we can save the environment. He had a good perspective on international business including legal implications and challenges that are faced when expanding across international borders. We also talked about emerging technologies like the puke saver where there is a certain frequency and wavelength that makes 30 percent of people vomit. Supposedly, the government is trying to develop this so that police can potentially use it for crowd control during riots. (Please do not ask me how we got on this topic because I am still at a loss for how this came up in the conversation.)

Needless to say, our meeting at Sierra Ventures was an interesting one. Afterwards, the group walked around Stanford University and spent the hour and a half break wandering around the campus and shopping in the bookstore (they have a coffee shop and an Apple store within the bookstore...I was impressed). We all split up to head to Darbar, the restaurant where we would be meeting Craig Cornelius for dinner.

The walk was a bit longer than we expected; however, Kiflu, Bryan, Megan, Pyz, and I did not get lost after we called a few people for directions. We ended up walking for two miles and one of my blisters ended up bursting during our speedwalk which caused me to have an extremely bloody foot, pant leg, and shoe during dinner. (I tried cleaning up in the bathroom, but I couldn't get it all). Other than the blister, dinner was fabulous.

We split samosas for an appetizer and I got chicken curry for an entree. The nan (a flatbread) was delicious and I was stuffed before I could finish my meal. However, we managed to order dessert and split a mango kulfi. After talking with Luther alum and current Google employee, Craig Cornelius, we now know what to expect when we go to Google tomorrow and got to know a little bit about what life is like for a Luther grad.

After parting with Craig for the night, we headed back to the hotel for blogging and a good night's sleep seeing as we have a full day at the Google campus. So in my next blog I will be able to tell you how good the Google food really is.

Unitl next time,
Kaitlin