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Last week was the first week of Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit over App Store fees; Meanwhile, Apple is expanding its advertising business with a new App Store AD slot *** and has hired Samy Bengio, a former Google AI research scientist, to help improve Siri’s performance; In addition, data showed that Clubhouse downloads fell to 900,000 in April from 9.6 million in February, and the company released a beta of its Android app last week to counter the drop in sign-up users.

Today we want to talk about Google’s hybrid office system and a short story from Tech Crunch about how to break into Silicon Valley as an outsider.

/ Some Thoughts.

Google has introduced a hybrid work week

Whether you choose to relocate to another office or work completely remotely, your pay will be adjusted based on your new location.”

As some Googlers voluntarily returned to the office last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the tech giant will adopt a new hybrid workweek.

In the pilot expansion, which began in December, most Googlers work out of the office for about three days and “wherever they feel most productive” for the other two, a separation that will depend on employees’ product priorities and the teams they work on.

In addition, Google will provide more mobile job opportunities for employees. By mid-June, it will roll out a process that allows employees to apply to work in different offices, giving all employees the chance to leave their assigned offices for four weeks.

Google also plans to develop more remote characters, or even teams made up entirely of people who are not in one place. The company will also allow employees to apply for remote work within its product territory. When it comes to working in different offices and taking on remote roles, companies say they take into account the needs of their teams of employees.

“Whether you choose to relocate to another office or work completely remotely, your compensation will be adjusted based on your new location,” Pichai said of the policy. As a result of the changes, it is estimated that about 60 per cent of Google employees will be on-site several days a week, 20 per cent will work from home and another 20 per cent will work from the new location.

This may sound google-silicon Valley cool, but implementing it involves a host of challenges — expectations, remote collaboration, local law enforcement — that a well-structured, well-funded, telecommuting company like Google can absorb in a short period of time. Do you prefer working freely or are you comfortable working in an office?

Sources: Engadget

An outsider breaking into Silicon Valley

Nothing is more important than networking. When He was networking in the Bay Area, Holland would schedule 10 to 20 meetings a day, and he still does so often.

Comm Holland, founder and CEO of e-commerce startup Fast, looks like he’s fulfilling every entrepreneur’s dream.

The idea for his business came from a small moment in real life when Holland saw his wife’s grandmother trying to order groceries, but she forgot her password and couldn’t complete the transaction.

And at the time, Holland said, “I just remember thinking it was ridiculous.”

So he built a prototype password-less authentication system, in which users fill out their information once and never have to do so again. Within 24 hours, thousands of people had used it.

Consumers aren’t the only ones supporting the idea. In less than two years, Holland has raised $124 million in three rounds of funding, bringing in partners like Index Ventures and Stripe.

While Fast’s one-click checkout product has been an immediate success, it hasn’t been effortless.

For one thing, Holland is Australian, which means he started out as a Silicon Valley outsider. When he arrived in the United States in the summer of 2019, he had only one San Francisco Bay Area contact on his phone. He built his network from scratch, a strategic process he attributes to one thing: hard work.

In a podcast, Holland talked about how he built his network and why it’s important — not just to raise money, but to build an entire business.

Look for relevant information

Holland’s main strategy for networking might sound like an obvious one — connect with relevant people.

“When I first came to America, I wanted to build my own network,” Holland says, “but I didn’t know anyone in the Bay Area. So I spent a lot of time reaching out to relevant people — people in the payments business, people in technology, people in identity — just really relevant people who work at big tech companies and build large-scale networks.”

One of Holland’s contacts was Allison Barr Allen, who at the time was Uber’s head of global product operations. Allen also manages her own angel investment fund, but when Holland approached her, he wasn’t actually looking for money. As the head of a huge financial services company, he was more interested in her views.

Allen immediately became interested in Fast based on his experience in the field and offered to introduce Holland to some venture capitalists. The first investor she introduced Holland to, Jan Hammer of Index Ventures, made a pre-seed offer after a conversation. Holland then asked Allen to join him as Fast’s co-founder and CHIEF operating officer.

“Raising money is not the only thing,” Holland said. “You have to hire people, you have to build a team, you have to build strong relationships with customers, with suppliers, you have to build an ecosystem. So anybody that’s interested in this area, anybody that I can learn from, anybody that can help me, I’ll take the time to meet with.”

Keep it short and strategic

When he was networking in the Bay Area, Holland would schedule 10 to 20 meetings a day, and he still does so often.

He devised a reliable system for connecting with new friends:

Do some research and find out who you need to talk to. Holland says he gets dozens of emails a day from founders asking for advice or pitching them to investors. But it’s clear that many of these people take a “cast a net and pray” approach without laying the groundwork — their outreach activities without background information, or they work in industries Holland has neither expertise nor interest in. “You have to put yourself in a bucket with other people who have done the same thing,” he said. You need to spend more time on research and customized communication.”

Writing a short outreach email is not easy. People in the startup world are busy, so providing contacts with a condensed version of information they can quickly read and understand is key.

Early on, Holland came up with a template that would work: “I would say, ‘Hey, I’m Australian, I just arrived in San Francisco, I’m building X, AND I’d love to tell you about it.” ‘In just a few sentences, he expressed what he was doing — which he already knew was relevant to contact research, based on his own advance research — and his Australian background also piqued interest.

Plan to have an interesting conversation — no demands. Holland points out that not all outreach activities involve asking for money.

“The closer you are to this person, the less you need to make demands of them,” he says. Talk about your common interests and see how the conversation pans out. You can form a good network just by hanging out with a few people — that’s part of the process, of course.”

There is no shortcut(It’s all about relationships.)

Although Holland seems to be on the fast track to success, he stresses that there are no shortcuts to starting a business. There is no database to connect founders with a thousand eager investors, and no display platform bright or shiny enough to help you close deals in a flash.

“There’s nothing more important than networking,” he said. “That’s how you get the job done in terms of fundraising.”

Plus, he adds, through hard work, you need to connect and hold meetings to show people in your industry that you have what it takes.

“Showing you can do it, showing you can build the business — that’s what you have to do to build a customer base, to build a team,” he said. “Those are important characteristics that you need to demonstrate, and you have to execute them successfully.”

Sources: Tech at

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