A quick overview of what happened last week. I apologise for any details I leave out but a week of really shitty sleep and a very busy week doesn’t help my memory.
Sunday: Flight over on Sunday, Got no sleep while the mulley man who was sitting beside me kept teasing me about it in between naps. However I was unusally alive after the flight which I am still paying for now.
We regrouped at the airport and after figuring out how we’d get there and how to pack suitcases in rented cars we arrived in the Cardinal Hotel (Kudos to Shane for managing to fit myself and Hélène into the back of car). I think we just relaxed for a while and then met up later for pizza and then I’m pretty sure we went out for a few beers. Seeing a good few people get carded was a good laugh. Especially when Damien laughed at someone for being carded and then was carded moments later.
Monday: We did little that morning but scope out places to have a decent breakfast. We met up with Robert Scoble and Loic Le Meur that evening in a bar in San Francisco
Tuesday: Tuesday was a very interesting day indeed. We met up with Facebook at 9am in the morning where we met Mike Murphy (VP of Media Sales) and Dave Morin (Head of Platform) and then we met up with Ross Mayfield of SocialText who gave us such valuable insight into running a startup.
We then went to the Enterprise Ireland event that evening where a select few got to pitch to a panel of VC’s
Wednesday: We headed off to Microsoft in the morning where we met Scott of the MTC who showed us how nicely Exchange 2007 integrates with other software they’ve developed to build this kickass unified communication system. I can’t find words to describe it, you should look at unified communications on the Microsoft website to see how nifty it is. We also got vouchers to use at the Microsoft employee store which is dirt cheap.
Some of us went to Google for a tour of the campus and lunch. I went along happily while carrying my Microsoft bag. All I’ll say about Google lunch time is that its like some sort of organised chaos. Everyone forms queues around different buffet tables which no obvious signs anywhere, wandering around like an idiot I eventually managed to find some food I liked.
We headed off to Ning where Diego told us all about Ning and about it and after a while Marc Andreessen showed up and had a little Q&A session. Very impressive.
Thursday: We met Seth from Meebo that morning who gave us a talk about Meebo and getting funding and from what he told us shows how much he is on top of his game. Its an inspiration to see someone with such motivation and drive (This applies to everyone we met but if I kept repeating that, this wouldn’t be a particularly interesting blog post)
We went off to Yahoo! Brickhouse then where we met with Salim and the folk at Yahoo Brickhouse and we got told about their upcoming products which sound quite nifty alright. We were looked after well by the Yahoo gang, there was beer and pizza provided for us.
We then headed off to another bar for the Irish in San Francisco event which was interesting and then caught the last Caltrain home.
Friday: We met the law firm WSGR who told us all about them and what they could do for us if we decided to set up in the US and what they are offering is very nice for the top tech legal firm in the valley. They are also sending us out their course material for their entrepreneur course which is quite nice of them.
We hooked up with Salim again (after having a semi difficult time to find Yahoo by car, merci to the bench’d gang for being the drivers this time) and he gave us a quick tour of Yahoo’s campus and we met with their head of M&A and people gave a little pitch to him.
We met up again with Salim and Nathan (former tech advisor to the Canadian government) at a pub that evening in Palo Alto and spent the evening there.
Saturday: We did very little that day and took the morning off and headed into San Francisco via the Caltrain where I bought a very comfortable and stylish jacket from The North Face. We wandered around for a bit and then all met up for some food in the Empress of China and then headed back to Palo Alto on the Caltrain and we decided a week long of long days was taking our toll and we headed off to bed… then disaster struck.
While checking emails and watching some crappy US tv there was a burning smell in the air and moments later the power died. I decided to get up and take a look and it turns out the transformer had burst into flames and knocked out power in the surrounding area. We hung about for an hour or two to see cops show up and close off the street and firemen trying to reverse a pump into the alley
Sunday: A lazy day where we got some breakfast and packed our bags and got a taxi to the airport where they are at THREAT LEVEL ORANGE. To be honest I was expecting some hassle from the TSA for having a laptop and various other bits and pieces but just got waved through. Despite taking 4 Tylenol PM I only managed to get an hour of sleep during the flight.
When I eventually got home I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 4pm. I wish I stayed awake.
I know this post has probably missed out on something and full of grammar holes but its too late in the evening to care.
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