By Wasi Alam
OPEN is an annual event for Pakistanis entrepreneurs to network with each other and to show off their startups. But its more than just that. This is a place where CEO's of big companies like Make a Wish Bay Area© (http://sf.wish.org) and JadooTV© (http://jadootv.com) come and present, and OPEN gives you a chance to meet them! How cool would it be if you could meet the CEO of a HUGE company like Make a Wish© and network with them. Well, thats what its like at OPEN, and here's my take at what it was like at OPEN 2015! (My first year at OPEN!)
The event kicked off by Mark Goguen, a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, talking about the stories of different startups that he's funded. He funded startups like Google, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Airbnb, Dropbox, Gaurdant Health, and Instacart. There were also startups that he didn't fund that caught fire and succeeded such as Uber.
After that, I listened to Mohammad Khan (founder, VivoTech), John Mc.Donell (CEO Bitnet), Bill Melton (founder, Global Internet), and Hans Reisgies (SVP, Sequent) talk about mobile payments and how they're taking off. And they also gave some advice on implementing mobile payments in your startup and mobile payments in general. They said that digital money is one way to improve friction of your product. They also talked about needing a wallet that works everywhere, linking to that, they said that retail will be more about having a great experience, with ease of use of electronic payments! One of them gave an example of Uber, creating a really good experience because you don't even notice the payment happened, it just happens in the background! One of them also stated that payments gives you access to a lot of different things as a seller, you can view statistics and give them ads based on what they buy and when they buy it. And in the end, they said that banks and mobile payments is a big business, and if you want to cause a disruption in the market like Apple Pay and Android Pay, then think twice. Use the resources for mobile payments that developers already give you and be thankful about it, because in the end, it's the easier way to go! That's essentially what the mobile payments presentation was about, it was targeted mostly for entrepreneurs and startups but really anybody could benefit from the presentation.
Now, there are TONS and TONS of presentations I could have attended but it wouldn't have been possible, because of something called 'time'. So here's one of the last presentations I attended, and it was so far the best! Now, this was the founder of Make a Wish©, Patricia Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciasuflitawilson) who talked about her experience at Make a Wish Bay Area. Make a Wish©, if you didn't already know, is a foundation that gives kids with disabilities a chance to make their dreams come true. Patricia Wilson gave many examples of HUGE wishes she's made come true, but one quick example is of 5 year old Miles, who had leukemia. He wanted to be Batman and save Gotham city. Now, you must be thinking, how is that wish going to come true? Well, since San Francisco looks a lot like Gotham city, why not make spice it up a little and make it look COMPLETELY like Gotham city. And that's what Make a Wish© did, and it was all over social media. It was a HUGE event with millions of people flying in from around the world to cheer up and watch 5 years old Miles save the city! And, she talked about how every wish that comes in gets fulfilled. Some take a couple of hours to set up and take through while others take MONTHS to prepare for! And, its amazing to see how much work Patricia puts in to Make a Wish©.
So by now you've seen many CEOs and entrepreneurs come and present at OPEN 2015 but there's still more. There's a chance for people to present their startups to Venture Capitalists to possibly convince the VC's to invest in their idea. This year, the top three were: Bookmarq (http://bookmarq.io), YotaScale (http://www.yotascale.com), and another company of who's name I don't know of. The main goal for Bookmarq was to create a service through which you could find new books from different authors easily. This service was not made for reading books, just for finding them. The other startup, YotaScale, had a goal to make a service through which companies can manage everything, and it won the Startup World Cup Awards for OPEN 2015! Another notable mention for which I forgot it's name is a company that creates constantly updated smart receipts for email receipts and paper receipts but it didn't win because, I mean, who looks at receipts, right?
In the end though, OPEN Silicon Valley 2015 just can't be described in a page-long article, it's an event to actually go out and experience, and that's why you should come and join OPEN Silicon Valley 2016 next year! And by the way, if I haven't told you already, they have GREAT food!
OPEN Silicon Valley Website: http://opensvforum.org
OPEN Silicon Valley YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/opensiliconvalley
OPEN Silicon Valley Twitter: https://twitter.com/opensv?lang=en
OPEN Silicon Valley FaceBook Page: https://www.facebook.com/opensiliconvalley
Check Out My Website: http://www.wasitechie.com
Subscribe to My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/WasiTechie
Check Out and Read My Blog: http://wasiblogs.wasitechie.com
Follow Me on My Twitter: https://twitter.com/wasitechie
P.S. If you didn't already realize, I'm 12 years old :)