Mind the Bridge
Last summer, “Professor S.” was nominated for the European Innovative Games Award. Because of that, we received a lot of attention most notably from ACE Creative, who invited me to present “Professor S.” to a group of investors and game developers at Gamelab in Barcelona. As a result, we were selected to come to San Francisco and present the project to an audience of high profile investors and industry experts in the bay area.
When I got there, I joined a group of of entrepreneurs from all over Europe who had come to San Francisco to hone their pitching skills and explore opportunities in the Silicon Valley. I can tell you that there are many opportunities and the weather is also pretty good. On top of that, I managed to catch up with old friends in the area and met many new interesting people.
Most days were taken up with talks and workshops to help us get our projects ready to pitch to US investors. One day, we were all taken on a tour of different companies around the bay area which was absolutely fascinating. Our visit at Google HQ in Mountain View was definitely a highlight and a great opportunity to have our picture taken with the old logo.
The week passed very quickly and on the final day, I had a chance to present “Professor S.” at the European Innovation Day in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. There were many people there and I had my hands full speaking to everyone that was interested in the project. Luckily, my friend Leonard Cetrangolo was also there. Leonard has been helping with “Professor S.” from the very start and I was especially grateful that he was around that day.
I also managed to catch up with my friend Grant Hosfort, who was in San Francisco working on his very fine Codespark project at the time at Zynga HQ. In the picture, you can see Grant and me in the famous Zynga tunnel.
“Professor S.” captured imaginations in the short time I was there and I know it will not be my last visit to the beautiful Bay Area. The first steps toward the US have been taken and I look forward to my return.
If you would like to check out the other companies in my cohort, you can have a look at this short video:
Mind the Bridge Startup School 2015 – September Session from Jan von Meppen on Vimeo.