Silicon Valley Trip - Class of 2014

Google, Inc.

Google utilizes a high level of many factor inputs in the Porter Framework within the IT Cluster of Silicon Valley.  Much of the talent recruited is done in and around Silicon Valley, although, global hiring is encouraged for anyone that is qualified. High percentages of talent turnover is naturally a part of an IT Cluster, but the availability of high level talent is also much higher, especially for an organization like Google who has the capital to pay their employees well and provide benefits such as free food all over campus, free amenities (sleep/nap quarters, workout centers, etc), and allow employees to work in a casual work environment.  Google sponsors local educational and internship programs for schools like University of California (Berkeley), Stanford University, Claremont McKenna College, Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley University, and many others surrounding the Silicon Valley area.

FreeWheel

After it was founded in 2007, in its first years as company it was very important for the organization to be located near easily available resources, such as a large talent pool and large amounts of capital provided by willing investors.

Remind

Remind's success is directly dependent on the initially utilized input factors available in and around Silicon Valley.  It only took 5 years to evolve from conception to where Remind is today.  This is mostly credited to Brett and David Kopf's determination to move to Silicon Valley and find the necessary financial backers necessary to start a no-revenue based company.  Besides family and friends back home in the Chicago area, Angel Investors and Incubators were only a couple of the capital resources that invested in this growing company.  As a startup company in its first years, Remind also took advantage of the large talent pool available within the Silicon Valley area.  Many talented individuals are eagerly looking to join a startup company that might possibly turn out to be the next "million dollar idea", and in this case, Remind.com might just be that next big thing.

Trulia

Trulia's organizational culture values customer communication and feels that you should never underestimate the value of in person meetings.  Trulia works directly with its B2B customers, which is a small niche of the real estate market focusing specifically on real estate agents.  Trulia offices are located nationally and often meet with groups of chosen real estate agents located near each office.  The office in Silicon Valley focuses on website development, such as research and development (R&D), so access to highly skilled IT talent is very important to the organization.  The need for direct access to both local customers and local talent, Trulia understands the high value that Silicon Valley provides in both of these aspects.  Trulia's business model and corporate culture focuses on employee work to life ratio, and motivates employees to be productive without working an extraneous amount of hours.  This has been the driving force that has kept employee retention higher than in most other organizations founds within Silicon Valley's IT cluster.

GroupOn

Groupon’s understands the value of close proximity to two different types of clusters.  In Silicon Valley, the organization takes advantage of the IT cluster, in order to take advantage of the high quality of talent and other resources available within that local cluster.  Although, there is a high rate of employee turnover, accessibility to highly skilled talent within the IT Cluster allows for an influx of new experience, knowledge, and ideas to be circulated through with each newly recruited employee.  Whereas, in Chicago, the cluster focus is more on the Sales side of business, and the overall retention rate is very high compared to Silicon Valley.  Groupon has taken advantage of the smaller IT talent pool available within the Chicago metropolitan area, as they are able to demand a higher level of standards for newly recruited employees that will potentially also work for the company longer than an average employee would in Silicon Valley.  Engineering internships are available at Groupon’s many office locations, but the organization would like to work more closely together with local Universities in coordination of research grants and an increase of internship availability.  Groupon also rewards its employees with available referral programs, and motivates them to be part of the local community through involvement of charity and social events.

Orbitz

Orbitz main office is located in Chicago, which poses a challenge for the organization as it is not focused in the ecosystem that is Silicon Valley, as there are a limited number of experienced employees available.  On the other hand, Orbitz feels that this also has its advantages as employee retention is higher, since each employee is not being pulled by the “trend of the day” mentality that is founds within the Silicon Valley culture, and has found that Chicago employees are actually more loyal to the organization overall.  Loyalty programs have been implemented throughout the organization to help improve retention.  The Orbitz organizational culture believes that college recruiting is also necessary to develop talent and acquire new perspectives and ideas that can be used in innovation and new development throughout the organization.

Google, Inc

Google works directly with some of its rivals in a form of coopetition.  For example, in the past Google has worked with Microsoft to create a standard request for comment (RFC).  Although, these two organizations are in direct competition within many technological markets, they work together to explore knowledge and to research products, in order to exploit the knowledge dually created and obtained.  On the other hand, Google’s multiple campuses in the Silicon Valley area are under high security restrictions and limits only Google employees access to most campus buildings and even open areas.  This has caused some friction between the organization and the local government & law enforcement.  For example, employees are directed to call Google Security before calling 9-1-1 in an emergency, as police, firemen, and EMT’s would need Google Security clearance before entering any building or secure area.  To ease some of the tension, Google allows for planned SWAT and negotiation training on approved and sanctioned areas of campus, and cooperates with local charity events to encourage employee involvement within the local community.

FreeWheel

Currently, Freewheel works with some of the biggest television and online video streaming companies for ad-supported content.  Recently, Freewheel was acquired by Comcast, previously a customer, for about $375 million with the intentions that Freewheel will still be run independently and will not be fully absorbed by the now parent company.  With this acquisition and the realization of the importance of the flow of advertising, Freewheel was faced with newly surfaced issues, as many of their customers are Comcast’s direct competition in online video streaming. Measures had to be taken to cooperate with customers in order to maintain their trust and their business.

Remind

Although, Remind.com’s direct competitors apps do not complete the exactly same tasks, the rivalry around Silicon Valley is still very fierce, and therefore, has become a driving force in innovation within the company.

Trulia

Trulia’s biggest direct competitor was Zillow.com to date, but it has been recently announced to have been purchased by its competitor for quite a large sum of $3.5 Billion (the transaction to be complete in 2015).  Competition and rivalry amongst these two companies was fierce, and were each other’s driving factors in the race for innovation.  As both organizations share the same mission and goals, so the combination of these two industry leaders will provide for competitive dominance. The official article announcing the acquisition is located on Zillow’s website. For additional information, please click here.

Groupon

Competition and rivalry for Groupon includes not just direct but also other indirect competitors that are sales and IT focused organizations within the retail and IT industries. Staying ahead of the curve through customer focused innovation is driven by supply and demand, a “just-in-time” business model, current trends within local markets, and acquisition of foreign competitors to enter international markets. Groupon also provides employees with similar amenities and a casual work environment as compared to other organizations found in Silicon Valley or Chicago.  One noticeable difference between the two cluster areas includes daily meals. In Silicon Valley, Groupon provides free meals to all employees, whereas, in Chicago employees have food available on site, but it must be purchased.  This significant difference illustrates that retention, turnover, and attrition are directly related to the industry culture as a whole.

Orbitz

Orbitz's biggest competitor is currently Expedia with $34 million in annual revenue, as compared to Orbitz’s $11 million. A focused competitive advantage is that Orbitz chooses to support local brands and businesses in order to appeal to the local culture and consumer.  Although Orbitz may be located in Chicago, it operates like a west coast company, as it focuses on innovation and having employees work on highly advanced projects in order to challenge them, requiring employees to take ownership of decisions which are to be made with a "2 levels up" mentality, and all while providing the flexibility for a comfortable work/life ratio.  The organization also benefits from being a mainly Chicago based organization due to friendlier legislation from a business perspective as compared to Silicon Valley.

Google, Inc.

Demand conditions, as an influence or factor in IT companies is difficult to find. The companies are on the internet and therefore everywhere is local. Most of the country under a certain age could be considered at least a somewhat sophisticated user. This is different than some other clusters discussed such as "wine country" or some fashion clusters. Having sophisticated competitors is useful if for no other reason than poaching employees, but as customers they aren't much more useful than non-local sophisticated customers at supplying feedback. Cluster theory for this factor relies on the fact that the product isn't used everywhere all the time. The internet and other google products like cell phones and tablets and such are used everywhere all the time and of course are made of/for communication, as opposed to clothing or wine. There could be some affect that Google as a whole and perhaps individual employees wouldn't be aware of. Imagine hanging out in bars and overhearing ideas from another table, or being out with friends from other companies who talk about what they are on to. It's hard to believe those ideas, that information, doesn't find its way into product. Testing isn't done locally or at least doesn't have to be. Google is tested internally by design and externally even if they don't wish to be. Security companies, hackers (white and black hat) other browser, all test Google constantly. But this is not a factor of the cluster. For more information, please click here

FreeWheel

Television companies such as ESPN and ABC all have developed websites that host videos of their shows, clips or extra footage that can't be seen on television. With this new surge in companies putting their videos on the web, they ran into the problem of monetizing their online content. That is where FreeWheel comes in. FreeWheel realized that there was a need for monetizing the online content, and came up with a technology platform for ad management and monetization. Members of FreeWheel come from the company DoubleClick, which is another internet ad service. With their experience and knowledge in the industry, they created a new ad platform from scratch to meet the exact needs of the online television industry. FreeWheel now sells over one billion ads a month through sites such as ESPN.com, by hosting the ads and displaying them at the beginning of videos.

Remind

Quality or consumer protection standards:
The information shared by teachers with parents is extremely private and should be handled with care. In the world of information technology a secure system is a good system. Remind has tailored a quality app to protect its customers. In the new app teachers, students, and parents all have a robust view of their classes and message history with more control over how they'd like to receive messages. One of the features on this new app is push notifications which allows students and parents to receive messages faster than SMS and email. The demand from teachers keeps developers and engineers on a consistent product improvement campaign.This app offers improved privacy flows for students and parents. And parents are now notified when their child signs up for Remind. The phone numbers are kept private; phone numbers are never visible between teachers, students and parents. Messages are one-way only and teachers save time by broadcasting messages to their entire class or a minimum of three students. And starting this fall Remind will be going global which is good for improving keeping up with demand as there company grows. This new app development has improved the sophistication that Remind can offer clients. As an engineer I would like to work in such a creative environment like Remind and become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem of engineers. It's a place to develop technology and your personal skills with and participate in all the exciting projects the team constantly works on. And the company is small and has a personal feeling to it unlike say a team of engineers at google who may never even meet the person that hired them. With its continued progress Remind will need more team talent. Luckily the local talent in Silicon Valley is amongst the best of the best.

Trulia

Trulia is an online residential real estate site that gives home buyers, sellers, owners, renters and real estate professionals local information about homes for sale, apartment for rents, neighbourhood insights, and real estate markets and trends to help them figure out what, where and when to buy, sell or rent. It has unique information on areas that people will like to live that can't be found anywhere else. For example: users can learn about agents, neighbourhoods, schools, crime and even ask local community questions. Real estate professionals use Trulia to connect with millions of transaction ready buyers and sellers each month through adverts, social recommendations and top rated mobile apps. Trulia is the largest real estate community on line and has developed 10 top rated apps for various mobile devices to keep its clients updated. The presence of the best talents, best companies, and nearness to its raw materials accounts for its location within the Silicon Valley cluster. Trulia provides several paid advertising products for real estate agents. These include Trulia Pro, Local Ads, and Mobile Ads. Trulia Pro provides featured listings which appear higher in search results on the website and personalized lead forms displayed at the top of listings pages. Local Ads allows real estate agents to "lock up" their local area on the website by purchasing all available spots in a ZIP code or city and create customized ads which are displayed on property and search results pages in their purchased markets. Agents can also advertise via Trulia's Mobile Ads apps. As with Local Ads, agents can select the ZIP codes or cities where the ads will be shown. Trulia rolled out the listings nationwide to help in meeting the consumer's needs in less than a year. Trulia's mode of operation is agile in nature. It is constantly building, reiterating and redesigning its product road map to keep it competitive.

 

Google, Inc.

In the beginning, Google benefited from all resources in the cluster. They hired from local schools as well as schools around the world, they were founded in Stanford a well-respected University in Silicon Valley. It also found capital to expand early on in its history, within the cluster. Initially it was angel money ($100,000) and then it got VC money *very* quickly, $25,000,000 one year later. Currently it benefits more from things like having a local airport, areas set aside for tech parks, and surrounding companies that know how to work on a tech park, from gardeners to pool cleaners. Google participates in the cluster in a different way now than it did initially. Its own needs and resources have changed. It sponsors meetups once a month, it sets the agenda, it sends out invitations, supplies speakers, supplies drinks and food. Developers from anywhere may attend. http://www.meetup.com/gdg-silicon-valley/ Google (along with other companies) sponsor "startup weekends" which are focused on getting ideas into action. It gets people with ideas together with people who can provide help and advice and a place to network http://siliconvalley.startupweekend.org/ Google sponsors events run by a program, predominantly for youth kindergarten through 12th grade (some adult programs) called First. It focuses on getting kids interested in technology and mostly robotics through competition, teamwork and mentorship. http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-on/event/3777

FreeWheel

FreeWheel is a more standard company than other companies you see in Silicon Valley. While some companies, such as Google or Facebook, are paving the way in a new direction for how companies are run, FreeWheel implements the tried and true open workplace feel, with not much else. If you walk into Google, you see food courts, portable barbershops, and gyms for their employees to use. At FreeWheel, you do not see any of that. You see desks and offices, meeting rooms and bathrooms. I wouldn't call it a boring place to work, but it does not implement the supporting industries in the area like other, larger companies. A supporting industry that FreeWheel takes advantage of is the surrounding shops and restaurants, which workers frequent for lunch and business meetings. A second supporting industry is the internet and hardware companies that they use to purchase their computers and provide their internet. All employees use laptops at work, so that they can work from home or at the office with the ease of being able to take their entire workspace with them. Outside of how their company functions, FreeWheel prefers to hire local engineers who are already in the industry, working nearby or looking for work that lives in the area. It is difficult to find a place to live in Silicon Valley, so asking people from all around the country to move can prove to be a difficult task. Also, the universities in the area are highly accredited universities, giving FreeWheel a large pool of qualified potential employees.

Remind

There was a time when the education sector did not welcome involvement from independent businesses. Remind through its careful planning has changed that. And now Remind has a lot of momentum in Silicon Valley in their efforts to improve education and technology. And this has caused competition and related industries in the education management field. One competitor in Silicon Valley with the same interest as Remind is Khan Academy.

Like Remind, Khan Academy is reaching teachers around the world. Khan Academy's materials and resources are available completely free of charge. How Kahn's technology works is every time a student learns on Khan Academy, they'll remember what the student learns and where they like to study. Khan Academy keeps all of this data private but shares powerful statistics to each user and their coaches. One teacher is quoted on the Khan Academy Blog and he says, "I teach the way that I wish I was taught. The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being who is fascinated by the world around him."...Sal. I think what Khan Academy and Remind have done is one reason why companies that start in Silicon Valley cluster typically stay there. A successful startup company eventually spawns another that has a related or coinciding interest that will create or support other smaller businesses in the same ecosystem. Demand and conditions drive this sector of the cluster and more than likely will continue to grow and create supporting industries.

Trulia

AKAMAI

Trulia relies on Akamai's intelligent platform to accelerate and optimize the delivery of real estate information and to create a robust, comprehensive and lightning fast real estate search experience across the web and mobile devices.

RENTWIKI

Rentwiki partnered with Trulia to provide her with a solid rental listings base and a seasoned management team that knows how to successfully build in the space. Trulia has a similar online personality and Product with Rentwiki which accounts for its ability to provide a comprehensive experience for active renters, home buyers, sellers and real estate enthusiast. The dimension used encourages sponsor forums targeted at bringing together cluster participants. It encourages specific cluster efforts to attract suppliers and service providers from other locations.

ZILLOW

Zillow has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trulia for $3.5billion in a stock-for — stock transaction. Zillow and Trulia are two rapidly growing real estate sites on mobile and the Web, enabling advertisers to reach a large and expanding consumer base. They have a shared mission and vision of empowering consumers while helping real estate agents, brokerages and franchisors benefit from technological innovation. By working together, they will be able to create even more value for home buyers, sellers, and renters, as well as create a robust marketing platform that will help their industry partners connect with potential clients and grow their businesses even more efficiently.