Being crowned as Champions, our team made
the trip to San Francisco. Even though only three members were sponsored, the
rest of the team couldn’t pass up the opportunity and flew out together, goes
to show what an amazing team Pawly started with!
The second we landed we all knew it’d be an
amazing trip. The weather alone was worth it (let’s just say February weather
in Toronto is not as fun as in SF). Our stay only lasted a week, but it was so
amusing and inspiring. We stayed at a local hostel. We all stayed in one room,
totally living up the startup low-budget, lifestyle, and there were 9 of us! Check
out the awesome bunk beds!
Bunk beds, where
the magic happens… that is, where Pawly was tested!
One of the highlights to our trip was the
visit to Google Headquarters. Thanks to Google, we were able to get a tour of
the gigantic campus and meet with some of their Execs. And let me just say that
we were absolutely blown away! Hungry? A selection of 20 cafeterias offers free
food with enormous options. Want to lose a few pounds? Free access to gym and
equipment facilities as well as a personal dietitian. The campus even has
bicycles to get around from places because it’s just so huge! (If you’ve seen
the movie The Internship, with Vince Vaughn & Owen Wilson, you’ll know what
I’m talking about.)
The Google Bike and the slides that take you down
floors (cause who wants to use the elevator anyways ;)
During our time there, we were also given
the opportunity to pick the brains of a few Google executives. However, we were
quite sad that Google didn’t buy us out for $3 billion like we imagined, I
wonder what went wrong ;)
Aside from all the Google goodness, Pawly
participated in the LAUNCH festival. LAUNCH festival is a 3-day event focused
on startup companies, venture capitalists, and angel investors who fund them.
Find out more about them here.
We showcased our awesome prototypes, thanks
to some sort of a miracle (or just thanks to Robbie) we got Pawly rolling
around and sniffing people’s feet… yes, that’s right, a working prototype!
Fully 3D printed and controlled by any device with an internet connection.
During the festival, we got a chance to
explore and meet other amazing startups. We were also hinted by one of the
judges that we were chosen to be one of the 40 companies to present on the big
stage, however due to time constraints, we were not able to (alas, there goes
$250,000).
While most companies focused on software
only, there were other cool companies that focused on hardware. As an example,
Knightscope is an extremely expensive robot that can detect any security threat
– you definitely don’t want to mess with that thing. And also OMNI – free moving
virtual reality interface, which will probably be in every home in the next 10
years.
We also received great feedback from
entrepreneurs and investors and all the other people who walked by our booth on
many different levels. Our most exciting feedback was from a dog who is now
Pawly’s BFF. Pawly now has a place to crash whenever he’s in San Francisco.
Pawly with the BFF
Here are some important things we learned that
weekend:
If you ever get an offer of employment from
Google, don’t think twice, take it!
Sharing a single room with 9 others wasn’t
THAT bad, actually it was amazing.
And most importantly, we realized that
Pawly was not just a cool idea and something fun to do, but could be a company
with amazing possibilities. So in order to move forward, we knew we all had to work
on it full-time.
Unfortunately, not everyone from the
original team was able to continue with us on this amazing journey. So I would
like to take this opportunity to thank all the members no longer with us whom
we miss lots: Alejandro, Long, Muriel, Robin and Shiera.
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