A Huge Milestone For Any Silicon Valley Startup — Getting Some Sweet Swag

For any startup that ends up in this magical, yet sometimes odd place that we like to call Silicon Valley, there are some milestones that have somehow seemed to become standard fare. I’m not exactly sure where each of these milestones have specifically come from, but somehow, someway they have worked their way into a sort of implied checklist that new startups (like us) knock off one at a time as they begin to grow like crazy (which we are).

What made me think of these milestones was the fact that we just got in our first order of sweet swag — our t-shirts, which is always a HUGE moment for any startup. Yeah, I know, you’re probably thinking, they’re just t-shirts, right? Well, they are just t-shirts, but they’re also one of the first steps to ‘officially’ becoming part of the silicon valley startup scene.

If you’re not following me, let me give you a few examples of what I’m talking about. Here are some of the more common milestones that startups experience and more specifically how they relate to all of us here at isocket:

Some Common Silicon Valley Startup Milestones

• Coming up with an awesome idea and making the trek out to Silicon Valley to get it off the ground. Myself, as well as our two co-founders, Zak and John, all basically got the bug to make the trek out here to Silicon Valley to see what we’re really made of and now we’re a part of the select few who actually get the chance to do it. I liken this milestone to an aspiring actor making the move to Hollywood or the guy with dreams of becoming a financial tycoon deciding to head to Wall Street.
• Starting up the awesome idea in an apartment/dorm room and living off of ramen noodles, burritos, Chinese food (or any other dirt-cheap food product). This is the not-so-glorious part of moving out to Silicon Valley and is something that practically any successful web entrepreneur can relate to. You see, even though Silicon Valley is full of opportunity, it’s also really expensive to live here, which means that for many startups most of the initial work that is done takes place in an overpriced apartment and is fueled by lots of caffeine and really cheap food. For example, Zak and John put in over a year’s work into isocket from their shared apartment in Mountain View, CA, which was luckily located near a really cheap (and pretty tasty) Chinese food joint. They were actually still working from that apartment up until just a couple of months ago before moving into our sweet, new digs here in Burlingame.
• Getting funded for growth. This is one of the more major milestones and why a majority of the entrepreneurs make the move out here in the first place. Big ideas sometimes require some some help to get off the ground and there’s no better place to find that help than from the options that Silicon Valley has to offer. Of course, convincing investors that your idea is worth taking a look at (and taking a risk on) is never easy, but it’s something that a majority of hopeful startups have to put a lot of time and energy into. Me and the rest of the team here at isocket are fortunate enough to have some amazing investors who are all excited to see us begin to grow and that’s exactly what we plan on doing over these next few months.
• Getting some sweet swag. Yep, you guessed it — this is the next logical milestone for any Silicon Valley startup and one that we can now check off of our list. As we hear over and over from one of our friends and investors, the always entertaining Dave McClure, getting the word out about what we’re doing here at isocket is very, very important and getting these t-shirts is just the beginning of starting to do that. We also got hooked up with some great stickers from the guys over at StickerGiant.com (@stickergiant), which I’m now rockin’ on my new isocket-blue laptop. If you ever need to get some stickers printed, be sure to check them out first — it’s almost sickening how much they love the sticker business (in a good way, of course).

So, what’s next? you ask. Great question — the next really big milestone is to hire an amazing engineering team so that we can scale out isocket to what we envision it to be and if you happen to be (or know) an awesomely talented engineer who wants to become part of the journey, be sure to check out our jobs page asap.

Tagged as: stickergiant, swag, t-shirts