To Silicon Valley and Back: Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my, let's say, diary from abroad. Since I was surprised and thrilled by the reactions to my first article, I decided to go even further this time. So I even quickly activated my YouTube channel so I can show you my experiences even better with videos. If that isn't awesome 🚀 I'm editing the videos right now, so please bear with me a little longer.

It's crazy how fast time flies: I've been here for a month now and feel like I'm getting a pressure refueling of inspiration and new impressions. I'm meeting lots of new people who are incredibly open and friendly. Everywhere I go, I'm warmly greeted and welcomed. I'm working hard on my English and believe (at least that's the feedback) that I'm doing pretty well so far. Until now I've rather avoided the typical tourist hot spots, because I'm really more interested in the companies and the technologies being developed here. It's not that we don't also have great companies in Germany and Switzerland working on future technologies, but the concentration here is on a completely different level. This has also led to a special culture developing around the tech scene, and it's exactly the closeness to this "bubble" that I'm seeking as best I can.

My week usually looks like this: during the day I go to work as normal. For those who don't know: I work for a large pharmaceutical company and am based in South San Francisco, right in the middle of the bio and pharma park. A cluster of many international biotech and pharma companies, but also smaller ones. At home I work in Basel for Roche. Here in San Francisco I work for Genentech - a pharmaceutical company founded in 1976 that was acquired by Roche in 2009. Globally, we therefore all see ourselves as part of the Roche family. There's no denying that stays abroad like the one I'm experiencing right now are more likely to be possible in international corporations than in small (local) SMEs. And even though I of course can't share any internal matters here, I can say that my work essentially focuses on finding out what our infrastructure at the sites needs so that it is as digital and connected as possible for the future in terms of research & production. And it's precisely to understand these requirements even better that I'm in San Francisco - as well as to explore the other side, namely what's out there and where the big tech visions are heading.

By the way, the cover image of this post shows the two founders of Genentech, the Roche company I work for here in South San Francisco: the biochemist Herbert Boyer and the investor Robert Swanson. The two founded Genentech in San Francisco in 1976, and this statue is meant to show them at their founding conversation, so to speak. The first company meeting, if you will. I simply sat down with them and listened in.😉

After work I usually go to the gym and maybe do some grocery shopping. Luckily my colleagues put together a list with loads of recommendations for me. Very important: if you're looking for food that is as little processed, sweetened or whatever as possible, go to Trader Joe's. The good thing: they work with local companies and farmers. That keeps the products fresh, and you help the local suppliers. Some things from my first shopping trip were downright inedible because they were far too sweet. Not to mention all the white-flour "bread". The best bread (what I consider bread and not toast), by the way, is called "European-Style" and is simply dark rye bread.

In my free time, I then drive out to the tech companies. Some, like Twitch, have small visitor centers. With others I made appointments in advance, or they are still coming up. At LinkedIn, for example, there wasn't much to be done; I didn't get any further than the lobby. I cheekily messaged people on LinkedIn and asked for an exchange, but haven't received an answer yet - let's see, maybe something will still come of it, because persistence pays off. At Google, Apple and Cisco, joint workshops are planned for September and October, and I'm really looking forward to them. Of course I'll report back 🤓

Funny fun fact: I had made a list beforehand and researched which well-known (global) players are based here in the Bay Area. Via LinkedIn I then look for people who work there and politely ask for a visit. You really do need some kind of contact. Otherwise it is (understandably) almost impossible to "just walk in". This Friday, for example, I'll be at Rapid Robotics, a robotics startup. Here the head of marketing contacted me via LinkedIn. Since I had asked nicely whether I could report on her robotics company. Not only here on my blog, but also, for example, for the VDI.

At the end of September there's the big Tesla AI Day - only 20 miles away. Elon Musk is coming too, but you need an invitation to get on the guest list. So I simply contacted the Tesla press office - after all, I want to report on the event. Let's see if it works out 😜

Last week I walked more than 14 km through the Financial District in San Francisco. I went to several beaches and out to dinner with colleagues (Taco Tuesday...yummy). If there's one thing that strikes me again and again, it's the noticeable gap and, at the same time, the closeness between rich and poor. On one side, great houses, fantastic skyscrapers, rich companies and wealthy employees. On the next block, a pungent smell, lots of garbage and homeless people who are forced to pitch their tents on the sidewalk (if they even have one).

It's terrible to see what happens in and to society when wealth and opportunity are unequally distributed. A ticking time bomb. In the middle of the day, I walked past a long line of people waiting for a bed for the night. I have never noticed it to this extreme in German or Swiss cities so far.

On my trips through the city, I increasingly noticed black cars with a huge number of sensors. We've all seen Apple or Google cars now and then, capturing our streets for their map services, but these were special. The number of spinning sensors was something else entirely. They were from Zoox - an autonomous driving company owned by (surprise) Amazon. An Uber, just without a driver. So something new is very concretely in the making here, and it'll be exciting to see. Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick failed internally with this plan back then; maybe Amazon will now see it through.

Another situation that also put a smile on my face was at a restaurant: no waiters, self-service via a QR code on the table - nothing more. Not unfamiliar at first. After scanning it (to open the menu), however, I noticed the redirect to Google Analytics in the background – a session for table no. 10, where I happened to be sitting.

Why is this basically clever from the restaurants' point of view? Quite simple: the restaurant owner gets a transparent customer. He knows which pages of the menu the customer looks at the longest, which tables generate the most revenue, which combinations of dishes are ordered, the average table occupancy and much more. And all of it in real time, at any time, without having to analyze a single receipt himself. On top of that, the whole thing was linked to a customer account. So the next time I came, he could recommend a dish to me even better based on my previous orders (upselling). Back home, scanning the QR code opened a boring PDF. A missed opportunity for the restaurant, lucky for data protection, because that was too much for me as well. But it shows this tech mentality even in the smallest things.

To see how young founders work, I rented a spot for a day at WeWork in the Salesforce Tower. What can I say? It was an awesome day! I was surrounded by lots of young people who were all busily philosophizing about go-to-market strategies, product features, user tests, etc. And all of it in an atmosphere that is second to none. To be fair, though, I have to say that our new office setup in Basel is in no way inferior. 😉 Still, I found the mood among all the founders exhilarating. A saying from a VC came to mind: Grow or die! Again and again you heard how important it is to be fast, to grow fast, to get feedback fast, to expand fast.

Here, too, the diversity was visible: diverse teams, a stimulating work environment, and creativity can hardly be stopped. I love it ❤️

Of course, I also couldn't resist finally visiting an Amazon Go store. And what can I say? BRILLIANT....from a purely technical point of view! I can enter with the Amazon app, by scanning my credit card or with a palm scanner. Just the thought that Amazon now also has a scan of my palm sends a shiver down my spine.

I was lucky that Carlos was the store's security officer that day. Every store currently still has someone like that sitting at the entrance. As it turned out, that makes sense, because if the app isn't set up yet or it's your first time there, there are still quite a few questions. Besides, without him there would still be too many burglars who simply walk in, hop over the barrier and help themselves.

In any case, Carlos took a lot of time for me and really tried to explain everything to me. He said he always talks to the engineers when they come by, and they in turn explain everything to him.

As I said, an Amazon Go store is truly fascinating from a technological point of view. Really all kinds of sensors come together here, for example:

• Weight sensors under the shelves measure when goods are taken
• Spring tension sensors register when goods are taken that are pushed forward
• Constant 360° visual image monitoring registers changes on the shelf fronts (e.g. when bottles are taken)
• Sensors, e.g. in the drink refill stations, register what is taken, and the visual image analysis then assigns it to me
• and much more.

Each piece of sensor information is then assigned, by means of a visual monitoring system, to my entity (person), which is constantly visually detected and monitored. What's simply fascinating is that this assignment of goods to entities via the visual method also works when there are loads of visitors in the store. So the system "knows" who is where and when, and which sensor information was just triggered by that person taking goods.

Whereas in the past the so-called store manager was responsible for the store, it is now a computer-based system. Taking goods or putting them back in the wrong place triggers a push notification in the backend, which is sent to a person in the back room asking them to restock item xyz.
During my visit, this led to a door opening and a lady restocking a bag of M&Ms. Simply because the system had just instructed it. So the algorithms control the entire process in the store, no longer the human. But the human becomes completely transparent, because from now on I can measure, for example, how long the restocking took. So the human becomes part of the algorithms' micromanagement. No room for mistakes. Only 0 or 1...done right or wrong. In the context of all the discussions about Amazon's harsh management of its warehouse workers, this gives me a strange feeling, because the direction is foreseeable.

What's locked now is no longer the stockroom, but the server room where all the data comes in – and nobody in the store has the key. The data is now more important than the store's goods themselves.

Still, Carlos was all fired up to show me everything, because he was (still) important now, he said. I don't know if it was his naive way, but he told me he really enjoys working there. He also didn't share the argument that Amazon destroys jobs. They are just created elsewhere, e.g. in engineering or in supporting the machines and networks. A thoughtful opinion, I think, which would bring us to the topic of digital upskilling.

At the end, Carlos asked me for a photo. He showed me more than 150 pictures on his smartphone that he had taken with other customers from all over the world. He is so proud of his work that he glues the pictures into a photo album at home. It is titled: The world visits me.

Rarely have I felt the curse and blessing of advancing technologization and data collection as strongly as here. A double-edged sword that must be wielded with care.

What else is in store for me and for you? As I said, I'm still visiting the well-known big tech players. I hope I'll be allowed to film and take photos there as well.

In addition, a bigger trip to a well-known company is coming up for me. Where to, I'm not revealing yet. 😉 This much I can say: it's going "to the stars".

⚠️ As announced, I also plan to publish some videos on my YouTube channel . Feel free to subscribe already so you're sure not to miss anything (heads-up: advertising). Besides working, writing and exploring, I just need a bit more time for editing.

Until next time, and inspiring greetings. 👋

• To Part 1 of “To Silicon Valley and Back”
• To Part 3 of “To Silicon Valley and Back”
• To Part 4 of “To Silicon Valley and Back”