Several things I want to note about Silicon Valley which I didn’t expect.

First of all, the internet connection sucks. Comparing with Japan’s stress-free high-speed internet connection, it felt so slow and stressful every time I tried to download something. I am sure that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way about the internet speed, I thought to myself, this is pretty much the same as Cambodia.

Next topic. Well, this is something more than I had imagined but the reality of salaries for IT engineers and their lives. Salary for a freshman IT engineer who has some coding experience starts at about 120,000USD for someone who is slightly more talented, the salary starts at 140,000USD. But even with such high salaries, they are the sort of people who travel far from home and live on a tight budget without any savings, paying taxes and insurance is all they can cover. If one gets a tooth decay and have to go to the dentist, they will end up being in debt.

When a salary exceeds 170,000 USD, you will be able to commute by car. By the way, a startup CEO with full ambition’s salary will be about 80,000 USD a year, it seems that this is such a level of life that they will have to live in a tiny shared flat to be sustainable. The land price in San Francisco seems to be higher than of that in Manhattan, NY and the rent on a small one-bedroom room apartment will cost more than 3,000 USD.

By the way, AGRIBUDDY’s development section is based in Hanoi and even a quite high-leveled engineer can be hired at around 15,000 USD/year, that is roughly a tenth of the salary in Silicon Valley. So, if we say which would have a higher quality of life, I would say most likely Hanoi even with an annual income of only 15,000 USD, comparing with Silicon Valley’s income of 150,000 USD/year. Oh, of course, if you start talking about the atmosphere of the city or the quality of urban management, then it is not comparable. Personally, it seems like you will be living a pretty low-end life in Silicon Valley even if you had 150,000 USD per annum.

The other thing that everyone was saying, “You need to have strong connections if you wanted to survive in Silicon Valley, way more difficult of that in Japan, and if someone who has no connections visited investors such as venture capitals and angels without any notice, you will be denied. (well, even inquiring though the website or sending in your details or trying to make an appointment can be hard.) such actions that young people may like just does not work in Silicon Valley.” Taking a moment to think about this, it seems reasonable because thousands of people from around the world who think “my business is the BEST!” keep on sending corporate portfolio or trying to make appointments, just looking through the inquiry will be exhausting. Naturally, they will turn to those they trust for referrals to seek investment opportunity.

There will be cases that you will meet management directors who make more than a million dollars, so it will be an overwhelming task for those who send referrals to such investors too. One mistake can cost your trust that you spent your lifetime to build. Nevertheless, I have had the opportunity to talk to many influential people thanks to the referral of people around me. This is one of the “generosity which is hard to give back”, something I wrote in me last article.

In fact, Silicon Valley was nothing like what we had imagined, there are no such things as “Asia-oriented thinking or Global thinking” in Silicon Valley, most of whom we met seemed to have made time for us but quite puzzled when we told them that we were an agricultural service startup in Cambodia.

First of all, you must be successful in the American market.

That sort of ideology was the major premise and the reality is that you don’t have to be able to cover the global market. It might be natural to reach the global market as a result of your business activity. But first of all, you would register the corporation in the state of Delaware, live in the suburbs of Silicon Valley, create a service that is adopted by the American market. In order to be recognized in this intense connection-oriented society, you will have to bare huge costs (time and money) to form a network of great connections, wait for the big fish to catch you.

Silicon valley was on opposite sides with the image we have of an American dream, a place where anyone with dreams and ideas can challenge. This reality of Silicon Valley was quite surprising to me.

Well, but I was really glad I went. The direction and vision of AGRIBUDDY, the content that we must focus on and what the investors are interested became clearer. Thank you to those who took time to meet me during my stay in America.