A Silicon Valley Native: In Silicon Valley You Can Be Totally Weird and People Will Embrace You
A California native who grew up in the Bay Area for 35 years says the hardest thing to replicate about Silicon Valley is the atmosphere — you can be totally weird and people will embrace you. And for Chinese founders raising money in the US, what's most often missing isn't the details, it's the ability to tell a story.
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Retail work cured her shyness
In high school Sofia worked at a very famous ice cream shop in San Francisco. She'd get out at 2:30, take the bus to work, three or four days a week, closing at 11, often getting home at three in the morning. She says this retail job had a very positive impact on her: she used to be very shy and self-conscious about her accent, but after working she ‘grew a thicker skin’, became outgoing and able to talk to people. She was good at math — while the customer was still punching a calculator, she'd already done it in her head — and the boss liked her. She also learned independence and the value of money from the job. So her requirement for her own kids is: do retail before college, because retail is a great ground for contact with society, teaching you how to deal with people and read your boss's face.
— SofiaRobbed at the bank: over the limit and you lose your job
When she was a bank teller she was once robbed. It was 12:30 in the afternoon, only three people in the branch, and she was the only one behind the counter. The robber pointed a gun at her, gave her a bag, and told her to stuff the money in. What was taken was maybe a few hundred, less than a thousand dollars. She explained an American bank rule: each drawer has a cash limit, and if you're robbed and your drawer has more than that limit, you lose your job, because insurance only covers up to that amount. She was thankful she had moved some cash to the safe in the back half an hour earlier. Afterwards the manager arranged counseling for her, but she says she still has a shadow from it — she keeps her distance from people in baggy clothes and sunglasses.
— SofiaCrying in history class changed her personality
In high school history class they took turns reading the textbook. When it was her turn she froze completely, couldn't read, stayed silent, very nervous, and then started to cry. The teacher smoothed it over and asked her to come see him after class, asking why this happened. At first she just cried and wouldn't talk. The teacher said: if you don't talk about it, no one will ever know what's really going on, so I still hope you'll tell me. Only then did she say she was afraid of being laughed at by the whole class for her English. The teacher spent a week after school helping her practice slowly, read. A week later when it was her turn again, she read smoothly and many students in the class applauded. She says this was the moment that built her confidence, and when she graduated college she even wrote a letter to that teacher. Later, because of her work, she realized that if you don't speak up about anything, you'll actually get bullied, so she gradually learned to speak up.
— SofiaSilicon Valley lets some people see the future first
Zhang Xiaojun asked her to describe Silicon Valley in three keywords. She said it's not really three different words, it's the same word: optimism. If you're not an optimistic person, it's relatively hard to survive in Silicon Valley. She mentioned an American boss who borrowed a line from Deng Xiaoping: let some people get rich first. He said in Silicon Valley it's let some people see the future first. She explained: in many places when someone shares an idea, others think it's far-fetched, ridiculous, and just dismiss it, but in Silicon Valley there's always a group of people who won't impose their own views, who will look at your idea through your eyes to see if it's possible. Her current boss talks about learning to unlearn, and after working with him for three or four years, she finds this phrase more and more profound.
— SofiaShe doesn't find jobs, she creates them
Sofia says she's different from people who come to Silicon Valley only after college: they may want a relatively stable job, while she creates her own work. When a company is growing fast there are many blank spaces, so she'd say no one is on this, so I can give myself a team here, do this area, help you fill that blank. She's done this many times. Her trick for persuading a boss is to use facts: first do the thing, then tell him that because it was done this way it can fill that blank, and if you think it's valuable, would you be willing to invest, give me a budget, hire a few people and let me do it. At Box she inherited a small team writing documentation. She believed that if enterprise software did user experience well, it wouldn't need a manual, so she transformed the team to focus on engineering culture and technology, and the team size actually doubled.
— SofiaWhat Chinese founders lack is storytelling
Borrowing a friend's words, she says what Chinese founders often miss when pitching is storytelling. You need someone at the level of a US junior senator to tell your story, and this ability can be trained. She says Chinese founders can definitely build and know a lot of details, but they may not tell that story. She gives Musk as an example: Musk will directly say he wants to make humanoid robots and get into everyone's home, while Chinese founders would think that's a very distant thing, so they won't say it when presenting their company. She also says this isn't just a difference between Asians and Westerners; there's also this gap between men and women, possibly related to education — if what you say doesn't come true, then what, so you don't dare say it. But in early fundraising it's not about the idea, it's about you, because many ideas will change.
— SofiaTemu won America with environmental details
Talking about Chinese companies going global, she says TikTok is a very sensitive issue, SHEIN is an amazing business and operates very well, but culturally it has controversy, mainly around three things: environmental protection, labor, and copyright and IP disputes. But she says if you look directly, Temu does very well: when you buy on Temu, it tells you they're environmentally friendly, and for how many products you buy it will plant trees for you, offsetting that carbon. She says these are all details, and Temu pays a lot of attention to these details. Zhang Xiaojun asked that Pinduoduo at home isn't like this, and she said its market in the US is exactly where it does very well on these details. Temu does the low end, some things are so cheap she wouldn't dare buy them, but its values are accepted by America.
— SofiaAmazon's writing culture levels the speaking field
She says many people think Amazon is a sweatshop, but for her she learned a tremendous amount at Amazon, it's a very innovative company, and a great career experience. First is the writing culture: everyone writes narratives, which many people dislike because writing is a headache, but its purpose is to give you clarity of thoughts and refine your thinking. Second, don't use lots of descriptive words — in English words like This is great, We made a great progress, very good — every time you want to use very or great, you have to replace it with data, presenting facts rather than empty talk. Third, because everyone writes narratives, in meetings there are always people who talk more and louder, and people who are quieter, but using narratives and being more fact-based, in a way it's already a level playground.
— SofiaIn their own words · checked verbatim
He said, if you don't talk about it, no one will ever know what's really going on, so I still hope you'll tell me.
他说你要 如果你不讲的话 没有人会知道 到底是怎么样 所以我还是希望你讲出来
Sofia19:12
You know what's missing sometimes is really the storytelling
You know what's missing sometimes is really the storytelling
Sofia39:35
It's not about the idea Right It's about you
It's not about the idea Right It's about you
Sofia41:37
Wish is the worst thing can happen to Chinese product — it makes people think Asian things are all cheap goods
Wish is the worst thing can happen to Chinese product 让人觉得亚洲的东西都是廉价品
Sofia51:43
Going global is actually going local
Going global is actually going local
Sofia53:46
In Silicon Valley, you can be totally weird and people will embrace you
那在硅谷 you can be totally weird and people will embrace you
Sofia1:03:53
Figures
| Minimum wage at her first job | About $3 to $3.50, she got $3.75 | 10:08 |
| Bank drawer cash limit | Probably couldn't exceed three thousand dollars | 12:08 |
| Headcount when she joined Box | Fewer than 70 people, by the end of that year 750, IPO three years later | 22:14 |
| Headcount at her first small company when she joined | 30 people, by the time she left engineering had over 300 | 22:14 |
| Average time at one company in Silicon Valley | Two or three years | 25:17 |
| Length of Amazon's annual plan | The whole company writes six pages | 1:01:52 |
| Working hours of founders around Silicon Valley | At least ten hours | 59:50 |
Glossary
- learning to unlearn
- A phrase from Sofia's boss, meaning you have to let go of old ways of thinking to accept new possibilities.
- chief of staff
- The role Sofia held at Twitch, assisting executives in coordinating affairs.
- data loss prevention
- A term invented at her first small company, in the security space.
- narrative
- The six-page document in Amazon's writing culture, using facts instead of adjectives.
How to listen
Founders who want to raise money in the US or go global, Chinese engineers and product managers working in Silicon Valley, and anyone who wants a local's view of the workplace.
The opening memories about the bank robbery and the ice cream shop can be fast-forwarded to the Silicon Valley spirit section at 20:12.