Day 2 of the Silicon Valley experience was focused on turning disruption into opportunities and our winners started out with a visit to the Airbnb offices.
While we were not allowed to take pictures inside the offices, the space was incredible with a key feature being that every meeting space was custom designed to look like an exact replica of an Airbnb from around the globe.
The focus of the visit was to witness the transformation of business models driven by technology innovations from the disruptor’s point of view. With the delegates getting to hear first-hand about Airbnb’s unique story and culture.
Rocket Space is one of the most successful Silicon Valley accelerators and their campus is located in the heart of San Francisco. Our 2016 Unleashed Award winners got to spend some time there connecting with the start-up ecosystem and meeting some of the up and coming businesses who are destined to be the next big thing! Members of the Rocket Space Alumni include Uber, Spotify and Accenture.
Continuing on the journey of exploring the start-up set, our winners also visited 500 Start-ups, another of Silicon Valley’s successful accelerators. Here they got to see a showcase of some of the most successful healthtech and biotech start-ups who shared their stories and journeys of growth and secrets to success.
The final stop for the day was perhaps the most famous of all Silicon Valley landmarks – Google. The winners enjoyed a bespoke tour of the enormous Google campus with one of their employees who had been there for 10 years, which was incredibly insightful.
Takeaways from Google were definitely that taking care of your employees is vital, as is encouraging them to “take intelligent risks”. It was amazing range of benefits Google employees receive including meals at the many on campus restaurants and cafes, the in house gym and the opportunities to work with other great thinkers.
Dinner that evening was at a San Francisco institution the House of Prime Rib, which was recommended by Talent’s local San Francisco team. All agreed the food was divine!
The anticipation is high for tomorrow’s VIP lunch with Steve Wozniak. Be sure to check back for all the details. Missed all the action from Day 1? click here to read the blog.