INTERVIEW WITH JEFF WALLACE, CO-FOUNDER OF SILICON VALLEY IN YOUR POCKET

INTERVIEW WITH JEFF WALLACE, CO-FOUNDER OF SILICON VALLEY IN YOUR POCKET

CAN YOU PROVIDE A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SILICON VALLEY IN YOUR POCKET AND THE PROGRAMS IT OFFERS TO STARTUPS?

Silicon Valley in Your Pocket provides a variety of ecosystem-building and startup studio programs that help optimize startups’ chances for long-term viability, market readiness, investor ROI, and even job creation. Our acceleration and innovation platform combines in-person, virtual, and on-demand coaching with a data-driven assessment framework and a deep set of tools, templates, checklists, and calculators that help put startups and their ecosystems on the right track. We built our program around the Nine Vital Signs of Startup Success, allowing partners to get detailed evaluations of startup portfolios, with clear, actionable feedback for startups on needed areas of improvement. Once a vetted company is flagged as investor-ready, we begin introductions to the right capital markets.

WHAT INSPIRED THE CREATION OF SILICON VALLEY IN YOUR POCKET, AND WITH WHOM DO YOU PRIMARILY WORK?

While leading another startup accelerator that I was a co-founder of, I frequently met with non-US founders who had trekked to the Silicon Valley/Bay Area in search of the entrepreneur’s dream – investment, partnerships, etc. I found myself thinking and saying “I wish you were a bit further along in your business. I could have made your journey here a bit more productive. It would have been great if you could have accelerated at home (wherever home was for that founder).” At one point, sitting with a wonderful South African founder, I pulled my mobile phone from my pocket after saying this to him and said, “if you have one of these, it is like having Silicon Valley in Your Pocket. You can learn the best practices, techniques and methodologies of Silicon Valley from home.” To make a long story short, that founder became my cofounder, along with my co-leader of the other accelerator, as we formed a virtual accelerator with the same name. Now, we support thousands of founders of early-stage companies (pre-seed/seed mostly) from over 40 countries across the world.

COULD YOU SHARE SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE NINE VITAL SIGNS OF STARTUP SUCCESS FRAMEWORK AND HOW IT HELPS EVALUATE STARTUP PORTFOLIOS?

Here are our Nine Vital Signs of Startup Success. When we evaluate startups, we use these Nine Vital Signs to assess the overall readiness of the venture to align with investors’ expectations for companies they would be interested to invest in. We require startups to score over an 80% in order to be willing to facilitate investor introductions.