The 47th Silicon Valley Bootcamp: Meeting with Entrepreneurs and All for Good Reason

The 47th San-Francisco Innovation Hub bootcamp was successfully completed. Once again, participants found interesting knowledge and inspiration that will help them on their own business path.

In this article, SFIH founder Ruslan Gafarov talks about the course of the last bootcamp, his own insights and the fact that there are no useless tactics on the road to success. And from everything you do, you can gain experience that you can build on later. 

But first things first.

Preface

I want to start talking about our bootcamp, which we held for the 47th time last week.

My main insight from the work we did together with a team of 40 people is that all the work I do every day, in the morning and in the evening — meditating, reading books, learning — is yielding serious results.

It often happens that you can’t tell whether a particular tactic is benefiting you or not, but there are moments in life when you clearly see the correlation between the preliminary work and how you reacted in a certain situation.

I remember when I used to do sports as a child. There were times when I went to training 2-3 times a day. I did boxing to be able to stand up for myself, to know how to protect myself.

But my sparring partners were always those with experience in boxing. Yes, I was able to knock out or knock down my opponents in the ring, but I truly understood I could stand up for myself the first time I was walking with a friend and his acquaintance through the park.

About 30 thugs surrounded us, and after a brief clash, some of them started put off their shirts, ripping their T-shirts, shouting that they had fought in Chechnya and that we were all going to be screwed. I remember when guys ran at me with their fists raised. I skillfully dodged their punches, landed mine, and they fell one after another.

And after about 8 or 9 out of the 30 had fallen and couldn’t get up, the rest ran away. Only in the morning, recalling that situation, did I realize, “Wow, I actually can do that.” I thought that kind of thing only happened in movies.

Now, after the camp, I tested my inner capacity and was able to do effective work with the people who came to us. And I’m 30 out of 10 happy with myself.

Want me to share the details?

Day 0

It all started on Day 0 when the advisors arrived.

We went through the exercises that we usually do in the program. As always, we added something new to these activities, and by 4 PM, the participants of our bootcamp began arriving.

This time, we had a lot of quite mature and very well-known entrepreneurs with us. For example, Savva Libkin, who is not only known in Odessa but all over Ukraine as one of the coolest restaurateurs in the country. Or Alex Milos, who promotes Bali and is involved in villa construction.

We also had Viktor and Igor with us, who are building villages in Bali, and they’re well-known in the Russian-speaking world, especially among those who have heard something about Bali.

At home, we briefly introduced ourselves, had a meal, and agreed to meet the next day at Stanford.

Day 1

At Stanford, we started with activities that helped us get to know each other better and make introductions.

The thing is, often when an entrepreneur arrives, they have certain fears about seeing something in a new or different way.

There are attachments, beliefs, worldviews, and habits, including business habits, that are hard to let go of.

To make this process easier, we need to create a safe environment within this group of 40 people, where there is no toxicity, where support and inspiration are present, and where people can find meaning.

That’s why we do a series of exercises aimed at achieving these goals.

After the activities we did in the group, we went for a walk around Stanford.

We had presentations from students studying there.

One of the Stanford professors, whom I met while taking a course on venture capital at Stanford, gave a talk.

We wrapped up the evening at the hotel restaurant, not just to have dinner, but also to reflect, exchange ideas, and discuss what everyone had learned or heard that day.

Day 2

We started the second day of the program at the Hardware Startup Accelerator — one of our partners.

They have two locations in Silicon Valley, and we visited the one in Oakland. We heard about the future with AI technologies that will control robots.

Our friend, the founder of a startup in which we are investors, came to speak. He talked about the future of energy and the development of a hydrogen-based power element.

His technology can help remote areas get electricity from renewable sources — solar, wind, etc. Excess energy generated during the day is converted into hydrogen and then used at night or when energy is unavailable — to power cities, cars, AI data centers, etc.

After the presentation, Alex Ivanenko shared his story: how he raised investment from scratch, launched his first startup, and sold it for $100 million. He is now working on a new project. Thanks to Alex, we got a glimpse into life in the Valley and how he found his place here. Many of our participants considered his lecture one of the most interesting.

Next, we went to Berkeley for a meeting with a university professor. His contribution to the history of Berkeley is invaluable. He was the one who laid the foundation for the idea of creating an entrepreneurial division at the university, which later became the Haas School of Business — with support from the Levi’s founding family.

Jerry is now retired but continues to teach as a visiting professor. He shared the history of Silicon Valley from his perspective. He gave us concrete cases from the venture industry because he spent most of his time working with major venture funds and helping startups create technologies and secure investments. Afterward, Jerry showed us the campus, and in the evening, we went to our next meetings.

We also heard from the founder of a startup who recently raised $300 million. We asked him questions about the technology they are working on, what makes them unique, the blockers their company is currently facing, and how they are addressing them.

Day 3

We started the third day at the law firm DLA Piper, where four speakers addressed us.

They talked about the risks associated with different structures and jurisdictions where companies are registered. They also discussed how trends in the legal field have changed since Trump became president. The bills and decisions he shapes have significantly altered the current conditions in the venture capital market.

Other speakers shared trends in AI and discussed DLA Piper’s activities. We asked questions, and afterward, we went to the Plug and Play accelerator, where we had a meeting with Alex.

Alex is creating a server for generating films and videos using AI. He already has contracts with major movie studios, including Hollywood.

He’s developing a technology that allows training artificial intelligence to adopt a specific style, and based on a text script, generate videos—much cheaper than traditional filming or animation. Looking into the future through his eyes, it’s easy to imagine an internet where we are surrounded by digital influencers, individually tailored to each user, speaking “their” language.

Films and other content can be generated based on the behavioral patterns of a specific person. Thanks to the devices we carry with us—phones with cameras, microphones, apps, and algorithms that know what we’re interested in—it’s now possible to create truly unique, personalized content.

Next, we had a meeting with the Plug&Play team. I’ve mentioned their work before, but just a reminder: their story began with a carpet store and some guys who came there to write code and paid rent with stock options.

When the guys’ company went public, the store owner became a billionaire—he earned $1.5 billion. Since then, he has focused on venture investments, rented a building, and built his own ecosystem, working with top corporations from around the world. We saw how everything was set up and discussed how we can become part of this ecosystem.

We also met with startups that, thanks to us, once became part of this environment and today are already fully integrated into it.

After lunch, we had a meeting with Alex Zhuravlyov. He shared trends in venture investments over the past 30 years.

We looked at when the booms occurred, starting with the dot-com era. In retrospect, it’s clear that the fluctuations in investment volume and amounts are happening more frequently. Previously, there was a 10-year gap between them, now it’s 3-4 years.

This indicates that the number of world-changing technologies is growing exponentially each year. As a result, venture investments will generate even greater profits. We are currently witnessing the electricity of the new era—the emergence of AI. Just like after the invention of electricity, we had to build infrastructure: substations, transformers, wire insulation—similarly, the foundations of AI infrastructure are only beginning to take shape.

If we compare AI to electricity, we can understand that it will give rise to fundamentally new products, just as electrical energy once did. Some made money on generation, others on delivery, and others on devices. The same is happening with artificial intelligence today.

The entire ecosystem hasn’t been built yet, but it will be much larger and will provide humanity with enormous advantages. Many tasks that we solve manually will be delegated to computing machines, powered by electricity and controlled by AI.

After Alex, two startups that went through Y Combinator’s acceleration program spoke. We saw how founders have been building businesses in Silicon Valley for over 20 years, and heard stories of failures and attempts that shaped their paths.

Then, we met with Nik Oreshkin. He shared how he became the first investor in Lion and how his LPs—legends of Silicon Valley—ranged from one of the founders of eBay to the owners of brands like Aston Martin and Versace.

He told us about his start: in 2010-2011, he mined Bitcoin to pay contractors for creating websites. He shared his experiences of meeting Peter Thiel, Vitalik Buterin, and other Silicon Valley legends.

Through his perspective, we understood how a venture investor evaluates what’s happening in one of the most tech-savvy places on Earth. He showed us how he makes investment decisions, so we could rely on his experience and take our own steps into the world of venture capital.

Day 4

We started the fourth day with a talk from my long-time friend Andrey. He shared his journey as a tech entrepreneur, which actually began at the age of six when he got his first computer.

Interestingly, he had only two good grades in school—fives in physics and computer science. He found all other subjects uninteresting and received threes. He told us how he was moved to the tenth grade, even though his grades didn’t qualify him. But the physics and computer science teachers insisted that he continue his education instead of going to a technical school. He also shared the story of how he got into Moscow State University: his grades weren’t good enough for admission, but he won the All-Russian Olympiad, which gave him the opportunity to enter.

In 2005, as a student, he won an Olympiad that Google had organized for the first time in Russia. The prize for first place was $7,000. This was the beginning of his serious attempts to build a business.

Andrey talked about how he created a telecommunications company, launched a startup that was later sold to Yandex, where the technology behind Alice was built. He then went to Ireland to build a tech company and later got invited to Silicon Valley to become the CTO of a company developing autonomous vehicle technologies. He shared how the company reached a valuation of $500 million, how he exited, and how the company eventually went bankrupt.

Now, he is developing a technology for business, similar to an autopilot, but for managing internal business processes. He argues that managing a business through artificial intelligence should not be the same as interacting with GPT—by voice and in dialogue. Just like managing a car through voice commands would be dangerous (you can’t explain on the go when to turn or brake), we don’t have time to talk to ChatGPT in business.

We need to teach AI to understand all the metrics that affect the business and make decisions based on this understanding: to buy, sell, launch activities—everything that leads to the company’s success.

Andrey shared his vision of the future: with the emergence of such technologies, people will have more time to reflect, possibly on the most important question—who they are and why they are here.

After Andrey’s talk, Dima Karpov took the stage. He discussed specific cases of using GPT and other language models in business. For example, how ChatGPT can already be trained to analyze the customer base in your CRM and provide recommendations on the sequence of actions that can help increase sales.

After Dima’s talk and lunch, we were joined by Silvio—originally from Italy, now living in the US, and working as a Product Director at Microsoft. One of his tasks is to help the team, using design thinking and AI, to find new solutions. Together, we held a workshop to apply this approach in our own businesses.

Then, we went to meet with Nikolai Davydov. We had a Q&A session where we discussed current trends in artificial intelligence, reviewed specific cases, and ended the evening with a happy hour. Sushi, rolls, and drinks were served, and we had a great time chatting and relaxing.

Day 5

The fifth day began at Uber’s office in Sunnyvale. We were greeted by a whole team of engineering leaders working at the company. We held a panel discussion, which I moderated.

We discussed Uber’s principles, their mission, and the products they are working on that the world doesn’t yet know about. We learned about Uber’s onboarding process, how employees understand where and how they can grow, and the grading and leveling system used to advance careers within the company. We also talked about interactions with management and the role of leaders at Uber.

After Uber, we went to Microsoft, where we were greeted by the wonderful Sveta.

We toured Microsoft’s office in Silicon Valley. The company’s headquarters is in Seattle. The spacious, light-filled spaces, beautiful people, and unique design elements all set Microsoft apart from other companies. Sveta shared her perspective on corporate culture and internal processes.

It was particularly interesting to hear from her because, in addition to her leadership position at Microsoft, she teaches university courses related to corporate culture and mindset transformation in the era of global change. These changes are occurring today in light of international politics and the development of artificial intelligence.

After Microsoft, we went to Meta and took a walk around their campus.

In one of the conference rooms, we held another panel discussion, which I moderated. During the conversation, we identified the key cultural differences between Meta and what we saw at Microsoft and Uber. On this contrast, each participant formed insights and specific tools they could implement in their own business, including myself.

We ended the evening at Snowflake, where our friend Arnon Geshuri works.

I’ve mentioned him before. He worked at Google for about 8 years, directly with the founders, including Larry Page, and helped shape the company’s culture in its early stages. Then, Elon Musk invited him to Tesla.

Arnon hired 40,000 people for Tesla under Musk’s leadership. He joined the company when it had only 400 employees and left when it had 40,000. Using Google and Tesla as examples, he showed the differences in their corporate cultures.

He also shared how the pandemic affected the job market and how it continues to transform thanks to AI. We recalled that Elon Musk fired 80% of Twitter’s staff, yet the company didn’t perform any worse. In recent months, similar layoffs have occurred at Facebook, Google, and other companies that previously hadn’t done this.

All these changes are partly due to the development of artificial intelligence. Arnon shared his perspective on how the job market of the future might look and which hiring elements will help us build successful businesses.

Day 6

We began the sixth day at Google, where a whole team of engineering leaders was waiting for us. They took us on a tour of the campus, told us about the uniqueness of Google’s corporate culture, and answered our questions.

Afterward, we all went for lunch at the cafeteria, where every Thursday the CEO of Google holds All Hands Meetings. It was here, when Sergey Brin and Larry Page were in charge, that they answered any questions from employees.

After Google, we went to Circuit Launch, where we started working on our own projects. We divided the participants into three groups. The first team worked on a corporate culture project, the second on a startup project, and the third on venture investments.

Understanding how artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, in particular, work, we gave the right prompts, and the participants developed their ideas and presented them. As the work progressed, the participants came up with more precise requests, and we were able to delve deeper into the material we had studied earlier.

We ended the day on a positive note—with insights, gratitude, and a warm atmosphere—and then went to a house where we threw a party.

Day 7

On March 8th, we met with the participants of our bootcamp at the Circuit Lounge venue in Mountain View to take part in our event Love, Life + Robots.

The event was open to either those who were already part of the community, i.e., those who had completed the bootcamp, or those who had passed an interview and shown interest in joining our program.

First, the advisory team took the stage in a panel discussion format. We introduced ourselves, talked about our community, shared the principles that help us interact effectively, explained our mission, and answered participants’ questions. There were about 80 people in total—not everyone who wanted to attend could make it.

After the advisors, we invited Andrey, who had previously been a speaker at the bootcamp, but now to a larger audience. He spoke about trends in AI, and we pondered the future together.

Next, Grisha, a venture fund founder, spoke. One of his funds is currently focused on space investments. He shared how a new, serious industry is forming right before our eyes, with a future market and new companies creating technologies that we haven’t even considered yet. For example, there are so many satellites in orbit now that there is already a business opportunity for towing them from one orbit to another.

After lunch, Alex Zhuravlyov spoke about AI trends from a venture investor’s perspective.

Then, we had Dan Sigmund speak, whom we had previously invited to the retreat.

His Zen Buddhism teacher was Steve Jobs’ mentor. Dan himself held leadership positions in top companies, with his most recent role at Apple, where he left just a couple of months ago.

He shared his practices and how they help achieve material results in business. Together, we did a meditation session. Afterward, we did several analyses, answered business-related questions from participants, and discussed insights.

This helped us better understand the expertise present in the room. Everyone could ask questions, receive answers, and share their experiences. Through this, we identified each person’s strengths and were able to better organize meetings between participants.

The networking session began afterward, and even more friends living and working in Silicon Valley joined us. People from the Circuit Launch community also joined in. There were many interesting people.

For example, Sean—one of the first employees of a major IT corporation back in the 90s. He made his money, became a venture investor, and now has his own winery.

Daniel Kottke, one of the first employees at Apple, was also there. He lived in a dorm room with Steve Jobs and traveled with him through India in search of enlightenment.

We also had Mark Gratz, former Head of iTunes, who worked with Steve Jobs even before the iPhone existed and continued at Apple until Jobs’ departure. He was a companion and friend of Steve Jobs.

The evening ended with music. Those who wanted could not only chat but also relax and dance.

The next day, we started with a walk in one of my favorite spots. The walk went by faster than I expected. Then we stopped by the Flavor Point cocktail bar in Capitola, took a short stroll through the city, and headed home.

There, I invited a musician to organize a musical jam: playing instruments, singing songs, and simply enjoying the evening.

On this warm note, we wrapped up our bootcamp.

The Beginning of a Bigger Journey

Our program is not the end — it’s just the beginning. We continue to support our participants even after the course is over, helping them find partners, investors, and new opportunities. Many of our alumni move to Silicon Valley, launch their own companies, and become part of this unique community.

Silicon Valley is a place where dreams turn into reality — and we help people find their inspiration here.