Silicon Valley Ecosystem Pull

A story about Shaan's realization that he needed to leave Australia for Silicon Valley to advance his entrepreneurial career.

"I was sitting in Australia and I wanted to do startups. I went to a local startup event and I was looking around - everybody's being super nice, it's Australia, everybody gets along great. In my head I thought 'Who's the most successful entrepreneur in this room?' and it was this one old guy who had built something in the nineties and stuck around, and then nobody else pretty much.

I was asking some questions, talking, and the organizer was like 'Dude you should give a talk next month at the meetup!' I was 23 and had done nothing. At first I was flattered, then caught myself two seconds later thinking 'Wait, this just means I'm in the wrong pond.' I shouldn't be the smart guy in the room - they should be telling me to shut up because I don't know anything.

I went home, activated a phone plan and got a 650 area code because mentally, before I even moved, I needed to go to Silicon Valley. I booked a ticket and my mom was like 'Where are you going to stay? Do you have a job?' I said 'I don't know, I'll figure it out, but I have a better shot of figuring it out there than I do from here.'"