Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Why I love living in the Silicon Valley area

I want to say first that I went to school down in southern California and I still love it down there however for my industry, technology, I love it up here.

Let’s talk about the cons of San Francisco Bay area:

• Expensive housing
• Besides San Francisco, very spread out, made up of many cities like Mountain View, San Jose, Palo Alto, etc
• For you single men, there are not a lot of women
• No good public transportation for the whole area
• Sometimes it’s really cold and windy in SF city

Now the pros:

• There are a ton of technology companies in the area
• If you love outdoors, this is the place for you
• For you single women, there is hope for you with the high number of men
• BART is convenient for those traveling up to the city
• SF is up to an hour away

Alright, so let’s get down to why I really love living in the Silicon Valley area.

• There is a strong sense of community among technology folks.  People love to exchange ideas.  People are very nice when it comes to meeting strangers.
• On any given night, there is a tech-related event to attend and most often it’s under $20 or free
• There are two major universities nearby (Stanford, Berkeley) and sometimes they host cool women-related and/or tech-related events
• We have well-known tech companies in the area such as Google, Yahoo, IBM, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc
• We have major VC players in the area, just in case you get the itch to start something

For those career-minded, ambitious folks, you should consider living in an area where your industry is bustling with people and companies.  When I did my MBA at UC Davis, I took a class called Technology Innovation taught by Professor Rodney Lacey.  In this class, he talked about the benefits of being in the same area as your peers.  Basically, by interacting with your peers and working for different companies, you build up your own knowledge.  Companies are located in an area like Silicon Valley, even though the real estate is very expensive, is to get access to the wealth of knowledge, the people.  If you are a techie and live in the Silicon Valley area, you are doing yourself a disservice if you are not getting out and networking with your peers.

So what does this mean to you?  Move to an area where things are happening in your industry!  Just kidding.  I suggest that you network with your peers and consider switching companies sometime in your career.

If I wasn’t in the technology industry, I would think twice about living in the Silicon Valley area.

Did you do DECA in high school?

Back in the days of high school, I joined a marketing club called DECA.  I credit the club in shaping my passion for business.  For DECA, I managed the operations of my high school’s espresso coffee cart covering sales and purchasing of coffee and snack products.  For DECA competition in a written business plan category, I placed first in the state competition and top eight in the national competition.

You are probably thinking what exactly do you compete in because this is a marketing club.  I’m glad that you asked.  For majority of the categories, students do a role play with a judge.  They are given a business scenario usually a typical business problem and then they sit in front of a judge to play out the “scenario”.  The rest of the categories are written meaning students submit a business plan before the competition, then they answer questions from a judge.  Okay, got it?

Last weekend, I volunteered to be a judge at the Northern California district DECA conference.  I had a written category, Internet Marketing Business Plan.  I spent the morning reviewing four business plans and then the afternoon listening to presentations then asking students questions.  I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of business plans and the presentations by the high schoolers.  It was funny though because the budgets were unrealistic and the returns on investment were so high, but I got the gist of what they were trying to do.

If you have the opportunity to volunteer / mentor younger folks, you should.  When I was a younging, I looked up to my mentors and still remember how they changed my life today.

Datecheck app is a good spin on an existing business

I was browsing through the web reading things here and there and ran into an article about a Datecheck iPhone app.  For some reason, I really like dating business ideas.  I think that one day I’ll start a dating business myself, but that will be a different blog entry.  Imagine this, you’re on a date with someone or perhaps you are about talking to some random guy and you decide on your way to the bathroom to do a background check using your iPhone.  Well Datecheck can make it happen.  Find out if this guy is in debt, where he lives, if he has any criminal charges, etc.  What a neat idea!

The company that owns Datecheck actually is in the business of doing background checks, genius!  This is a prime example of an existing business finding different markets to apply its expertise.  If you look at the Datecheck website and compare it to the corporate website, you will see that the marketing is night and day.  The corporate website is boring and not very flashy whereas the Datecheck website is fun and bubbly.  As long as you can sell your business to other markets without interfering with your main market positioning, you should sell like crazy.  Kudos to Intelius for creating the Datecheck iPhone app.

Mommies influence consumer tech purchases

There was an article on msnbc.com talking about tech firms targeting Moms.  Based on a survey by Babycenter.com (a good website for everything about babies / pregnancy), about 1,000 Mommies divulged their tech buying / use behavior.  The article talks about how Mommies are the “Chief Memory Officer” of the home, they use technology to capture the memories of their kids / life.  Mommies also use technology for its function rather than for fun.  When the kiddies need something techie, it’s Mommy that goes first and then maybe the Daddy.

Basically if it makes sense, market your tech products to Mommies and don’t forget that their input counts when it comes to buying / using tech products.  Women rule!  Just kidding.  This doesn’t mean that your products have to be pink and look all feminine now, but you should think about spinning your product messaging such that Mommies can resonate well with it also.  If you do make your products pink, let me know because I’ll buy it.