Tag: Silicon Valley

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A Lesson from The Grandma

I recognize that I live in this bubble called Silicon Valley where the promise of a better juicer can attract $120 million in venture capital, fail and everyone thinks this is normal. $120,000,000. Is it just me or does that seem like a lot of money down the drain? Of course, there are many Silicon …more

CliffsNotes on the Silicon Valley Index

The Silicon Valley Index from Joint Venture Silicon Valley leaves no byte unturned. For those who don’t have the time to wade through 100 action-packed pages, I offer the CliffsNotes, filtered by 25+ years of living in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is Larger Than Rhode Island Taking in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Fremont, …more

The “Secret Sauce” in Silicon Valley Isn’t American.

The United States houses roughly 5 percent of the world’s population. It stands to reason that many ideas for recasting technology to improve our daily lives and business operations will come from those born outside the U.S. That’s why the hoopla around President Trump’s immigration policy is so threatening to Silicon Valley. I’m surprised his …more

Is $4 Toast and the Tech Industry Still Ruining San Francisco?

Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary since VentureBeat and Jolie O’Dell’s focus group of one correlated expensive toast to the decline of San Francisco. The O’Dell discourse came with jagged edges, damning the tech industry for a cycle that goes something like this: Someone creates a business for consumers with too much money and pretensions of …more

10 Charts from the Silicon Valley Index that Caught My Attention

Joint Venture Silicon Valley is incredibly thorough in putting together its annual index on Silicon Valley. Perhaps too thorough. Reviewing the 100-page document might be best described as a trudge. To save you the time of plodding through the pages, here are the CliffsNotes.   Where Invention Happens The combined patents generated in Silicon Valley …more

PR as a Company’s Social Conscience

I spoke on the shape of communications in 2021 at a Silicon Valley IABC event last month. Any discussion of this unique alchemy called “Silicon Valley” typically involves innovation, valuations and iguanas roaming the hallways. For the PR function, our job has been to gather this raw content and make sense of it for the …more

Painless (I Promise) Primer on “PR in China”

I made my first trip to China in 1998. To say it seemed like another planet doesn’t quite capture the feeling. Try a different universe. I remember attempting to place a classified ad in China that required signoff from multiple government entities. It turned into a Kafka-esque exercise when the third stop found something out …more