By Jamis H. MacNiven
So I was sitting
innocently at Buck’s one morning and these stylish folks from British Airways
came in and invited me to come with them to England for a brainstorming session
in the sky around the subject of STEM. Science Technology Engineering
Mathematics. This is the touchstone today. 130 Important Silicon Valley
Innovators, and me, met up at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco where Gavin
Newsome addressed us and begged off the trip claiming that his wife was about
to go into labor. Flimsy excuse if you ask me.
We broke into teams
at the hotel and went into conference to come up with schemes to promote
education, create products and foster more participation in STEM. Then together with the facilitators
from IDEO and a support staff from British Airways we took busses to the VIP
lounge at SFO where we boarded a new 747 that had been rigged for a 10 hour
conference in the sky. We had 16 teams each charged with developing a plan to
present to the United Nations on our arrival in London.
An example of the
folks on board was Duncan Logan, founder of RocketSpace. Rocketspace is a
collaborative workspace in San Francisco where startups rent space to be part
of a frothy atmosphere conducive to emerging ideas. This plan is to break down
the traditional walls isolating small firms and providing both physical space
and a social atmosphere to make working more fun and increase connectivity.
British Airways has some people in this space.
The event was called
Ungrounded and is part of a larger initiative by British Airways to open the
door to collaboration with the start-up community in Silicon Valley.
We were spread
throughout the aircraft and as we developed our ideas we posted charts and
slogans all over the walls and overhead bins. We roamed the aisles and
eventually voted on the most popular ideas. Our group hatched the notion of
creating mini maker-shops in places like Home Depot where kids could come and
learn to use tools and discover techniques to actually build physical things.
It was no coincidence that the founder of the Tech Shop, Jim Newton, was in our
group. There are a half dozen of these Tech Shops across the country and one is
in Menlo Park. There you can join like a gym membership and come in and use a
wide range of tools from saws and lathes to 3d printers and plasma cutters.
The most popular
ideas from our journey included a backpack wireless hotspot for travelers, a
protocol to engage more women in STEM, and a notion called Init – a technical ingredients
list (much like a food ingredient label) that is meant to educate consumers as
to the exact contents of technical products. Brian Wong hatched the idea for
Init.
Brian Wong is a kinetic 22
year old entrepreneur who founded Kilp. He dreamed up the idea of offering real
world rewards for achievements
in
the virtual world of gaming. For instance you reach a new personal best or beat
a record and you get a coupon for a consumer product. Brands are wild to give
Kilp the goods and in just 3 years he has 45 people sending out 100 million
rewards a month. He told me he wasn’t a good student in school but I noticed he
finished university at 18. During one brainstorming session a facilitator
handed him a pen and he looked at it and asked, “Who still uses these?
Having finished our
project we arrived in London where we were whisked off to the Langham Hotel, a
19th century first class hotel. In the last 20 years they have put
250 million pounds into renovations and it looks it. The Langham is right across
the street from the BBC’s Broadcasting House and is the only corner in all of
London about which I know some history as I was once taken on a tour of the
BBC.
Our
hotel’s roof is the place where Edward R. Murrow broadcast during the blitz
back in the War. It is also where author Arthur Conan Doyle and Noel Coward had
dinner one night with Doyle’s publisher and from that meeting came the novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle as well as Mark Twain were
guests and now.…me.
That night we were
invited to the Houses of Parliament where Baroness Scotland told us about how
the place functions and asked if we might like a tour of the digs. We then
proceeded to crawl all about the joint including a visit to the Houses of
Common and that of the Lords. Down one random hallway I spied the Magna Carta
in a flimsy glass case just begging to be lifted for display at Buck’s. Alas it
turned out to be locked up pretty securely and besides it looked like a fake
We convened for
breakfast and were treated with the 5-star elegance this place is renowned for.
A crumb can’t fall to the floor without a tuxedoed waiter slipping a tiny
silver tray under it (just like at Buck’s).
The agenda for the
day following our in-air confab was a bit of mystery. Most of us had not looked
up the name of the next conference as we just went where and when we were told
to. A nice way to travel. Turned
out we took a bus to the Olympic Village and joined up with other entrepreneurs
and tech folks making us now about 250 people. On entering the auditorium we
were treated to a talk by Richard Branson. And he wasn’t even the headliner.
This was the G8 Innovation Summit.
Ron Dennis, the CEO
of McLaren automobile told us about his new hybrid which gets 25 miles to the
gallon while hitting 0-60 in about three seconds. It costs about 700,000 pounds
so I’m not sure how many miles you would have drive to make this economical.
Now keep in
mind most of us had no idea what was coming next so imagine our surprise when
the Prime Minister of England came in and spoke
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Really Jim, how big is it?
|
to
us about trade, immigration and taxes for half an
hour and then took questions. David Cameron really had the crowd in the palm of
his hand. He is elegant and appropriate. He said he would like to stay longer
but he had to go meet Vladimir Putin in a few minutes. One does not keep that
man waiting.
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June Sarpong UK TV star, Craig Newmark & some guy
|
One of the organizers
of Ungrounded was also a member of a discussion panel, Celestine Johnson. She
is a partner at Eric Schmidt’s new venture firm Innovation Endeavors and her
area of concern is human rights in the supply chain, a topic both very new and
quite pressing. Her panel consisted of women in the forefront of media, tech
and venture. Among the topics they addressed was why there aren’t more women in
STEM. The answer goes all the way back to elementary school. One study shows
that women comprise about 35% of the workforce in tech, and yet women run businesses
have a 12% higher revenue and 35% greater return on equity. Interesting stats,
no?
Thomas Heatherwick,
the designer of the new London bus as well as the stupendous Olympic torch
displayed at the Games last year told us about his design process (I would not
want to have to follow him as an Olympic torch designer).
After a break for
lunch the topic was the DNA Summit (Decide Now Act) with more great speakers,
including the Secretary General of the United Nations ITV who came to us by live
link from Geneva. He commented on our Ungrounded summit singling out the
winning ideas for specific comment.
Afterwards, in a TED
Conference fashion, there was vigorous mixing of the delegates in the public
areas. Me, I passed out face first on the lawn from jetlag.
After the conferences
we were taken off once more, this time for a reception at the Royal Academy of
Art. This was yet another mix of people and I ran into a rather lot of folks
who were Buck’s customers. I teamed up with some Stanford medical researchers
and people from Singularity University in Mt. View. We went to one of those
tony restaurants you see in the movies called Downtown Mayfair right between
Savile Row and Regent Street.
The
next morning I was up early for a stroll around London town. It was Saturday
and the city had yet to wake up. The skyline is changing dramatically with
skyscrapers emerging all round including what will be when completed the
tallest building in
Europe.
London is definitely on. I recall a time in the 70s when it seemed that it
would really become the dystopian Clockwork Orangian fantasy. But there has
been a town and city there for about 2,000 years and it has never been more
vibrant.
Over by Hyde Park
they were setting up barricades for a parade later that morning for the Royals
who were celebrating the Queen’s birthday. The Queen would have to see me
another time. I had a plane to catch.
So why on earth would
an airline go to all this effort and expense in a field they are not in
business in? Well in England British Airways is big. The way we look to Google
here Londoners look to BA so they feel that by creating strong ties to Silicon
Valley they will continue to be thought leaders.
Draper
University
When I first heard
that a new university had been founded I was immediately struck by the
inevitability of this being the brainchild of long time venture capitalist Tim
Draper. Tim has had an abiding interest in education for quite some time. A few
years ago he spearheaded an educational initiative on the California state
ballot and he is also the founder of the successful Biz World program, which
teaches basic business ideas to elementary school children.
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| Professor Draper |
So it is a natural
extension of his egalitarian ideals to found a university. He bought the Ben
Franklin Hotel in San Mateo and remodeled it into a campus with facilities for
about 50 students to live there for the two-month sessions.
The students come
from all over the world and what they all have in common is that they want to
be “in business”. This is not an MBA; it has a very different twist. Basically
it’s about teambuilding, public speaking and a great environment to build
confidence. Tim uses a superhero theme as the hook and he has the students
break into teams for the duration. They work on individual and group projects
culminating in final presentations.
Tim and his staff
believe that creating a fun environment fosters creativity and team
participation. Some of the activities can seem a little corny but try this: at
Google new hires are expected to wear a propeller beanie hat when they first
come aboard and are referred to as Nooglers. Imagine you are top of your class
at Harvard and you have to dress in this less than hip fashion. It is partly to
allow new hires to be greeted by the already arrived but it is also a way of
saying “You aren’t as cool as you might think. Join the club.”
I have been fortunate
to have been asked to lecture about my business history and that of The Valley
and I have also worked with a number of students on their projects at Draper
University.
Right now the whole
affair is in the beanbag-chair phase but the learning is for real. People far
more experienced than I have come forward to participate as mentors and
lecturers. I sense the start of something durable and significant.
Most of the students
have some college or have even graduated. They are bursting with ideas and high
ideals. One of the outcomes of attending a semester at Draper University is to
feel out the process of how it is to create a startup in an atmosphere far more
forgiving than the much colder world of having to compete in the open market of
ideas.
It’s often said that
failure is in some sense good but
I have always thought that failure is the second best lesson where there are just two lessons. So maybe instead
of celebrating failure we should say that we are trailing ideas.
Draper
U is great place to do just that.
SolarImpulse
Many folks recall
that the magnificent SolarImpulse solar powered airplane was here in the Bay
Area recently. I had the great good luck to not only meet the people behind
this effort but to get somewhat involved. The pilots and other key members of
the team were living in Woodside while they were getting prepared for the first
leg of their round the world expedition.
The two principals
behind this effort are the Swiss adventurers Betrand Piccard and André
Borschberg. The goal is to circumnavigate the world using only the power of the
sun. It is impractical, dangerous and wildly expensive. It serves no clear
business purpose. It is simply a magical mystery tour, just like our excursions
to the moon. Except for scaring the Russians, there was no practical
application in taking a car to the moon and hitting some golf balls. I know
you’re thinking Tang and Velcro. It turns out these products were not first
connected with the space program.
What the moon
adventure did was make being a scientist and an engineer, not to mention an
astronaut, very cool and attainable goals for the youth of the nation. Compare
that to the impact of writing the next cool iphone app and you might see a bit
of difference.
SolarImpulse was
founded on the idea that we can all soar beyond our preconceived limitations.
This was the message the founders gave to the sponsors and they have believed
it to the tune of well over a hundred million dollars. The entire enterprise is
expected to cost 140 million. And the funders aren’t aviation companies either.
Among the biggest sponsors are Bayer (a multi-national conglomerate making
everything from aspirin to appliances) and Schindler (an elevator company).
Schindler probably hasn’t improved its elevators much with the materials
science behind the project but Bayer certainly has. One of the structural foams
used in the plane was so revolutionary that it is now being used as insulation
in millions of refrigerators.
It’s hard to say
sometimes what the specific benefit of sponsoring something this esoteric is
but many firms want to be associated with cool future-tense technology. And the
fact is, one has to do something with one’s time and money. There are always
folks who will say that feeding the poor is of first and only importance but we
live in a world of vivid opportunities and the SolarImpuse team is adding to
that.
The plane itself is a
remarkable piece of construction. It has the density of a dragonfly. The
wingspan is greater than that of a 747 yet it weighs as much as a Prius. This
fragility makes taking off and landing with any sort of wind a challenge but
after 6,000 miles it has performed flawlessly. The aircraft takes over 30
technicians to fly while holding just one pilot.
SolarImpulse has just
completed the trip across the U.S. and now it will be retired. The next
aircraft will be even larger so that it will be
able to complete a trans Pacific jump that requires several days in the air
without stopping. Bertrand is expected to be the pilot of that leg as he has
been practicing deep concentration for long periods. Professionally he is a
psychiatrist with a specialty in hypnotism and he says this project will make
good use of this ability.
Bertrand comes from a
long line of adventurers. His grandfather, August Piccard, and a partner were
the first men to the edge of outer space when they flew to 50,000 feet in a
balloon in 1932. August had to invent the pressurized cabin to accomplish this
as well as the pillow-stuffed wicker crash helmet. It seems the German FAA
required crash helmets for the flight so the pilots used the seats from the
gondola.
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| Bertrand, Jamis, Andre and Grandpa in his fabulous hat |
Bertrand’s father was
the deep sea explorer who went to the deepest part of the ocean, 35,000 feet in
1960 in the Trieste bathysphere.
Bertrand set his own
records including the first balloon flight to circumnavigate the earth. After
20 days he and his partner landed with only a couple of hours worth of fuel
remaining. It must have been then when he decided that he would not take fuel
on his next adventure.
Bertrand, some guy and Andre with grandpa w/helmet
If
you’ve heard the name Captain Piccard from Star Trek it is a nod to this
amazing family.
Andre has his share
of accomplishments as well. He has been a fighter pilot on the Swiss Air Force.
The Swiss have an air force? Yes, and it is a volunteer one at that. The Swiss
are a peace loving people despite the fact that adult males are required to
keep automatic weapons at home in case of an invasion. So yes, a volunteer air
force. Anyway
Andre is an engineer and has launched several tech companies. He is the chief
developer of the aircraft and, with Betrand, is the co-pilot.
In 2015 the next
aircraft will take our hopes and dreams on an around the world tour. Mine will
be on board.
