APT Women ACCELERATION PROGRAM IN TOKYO FOR WOMEN

Staff Blog

29-06-2018Report of 2nd ProgramIntroduction to the Destination of the Second Season of the Overseas Dispatch Program

With the help of many predecessor of entrepreneurs, leading companies and venture capitals, the second cohort of the AptWomen Domestic Acceleration Program ended successfully on June 22! In early August, Overseas Dispatch Program will be launched and the selected five finalists will be dispatched to Silicon Valley!

Silicon Valley is a synonymous with innovation for many people. But What’s in Silicon Valley? How those entrepreneurship mind in Silicon Valley has evolved from that area?
In this month’s blog, we will introduce you Silicon Valley, a destination of our Overseas Dispatch Program.

■Where is Silicon Valley located?
Silicon Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley and its surrounding areas, located in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, U.S. “Silicon” refers to the high concentration of semiconductor makers (as silicon is used to create semiconductors) and the “Valley” refers to the terrain of this region.

Major Silicon Valley cities include San Jose, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and Cupertino. In recent years, many startups have emerged from the Soma (South of Market) area southeast to San Francisco. In the area from San Francisco to Silicon Valley, there is an ecosystem in which startups can work and co-create with universities, venture capitals, law firms, etc.

■What does entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley look like?
There are many phrases that represent the entrepreneurship culture in Silicon Valley, such as “out of the box thinking,” “learning experience,” and “fail fast, fail cheap, fail smart.”
In Silicon Valley, there is a culture to praise to try out something new, unconventional idea which is conceived as flexible thinking. Even if such an attempt does not go well, it is not a mere failure but seen as an error for future success. Also, it is considered important for startups to experience small failures at an early stage to minimize the damage, and quickly reflect the lessons in the next action. Such entrepreneurship culture is the driver of innovation in Silicon Valley.

APT Women provides participants with opportunities to join pitch events where they can directly receive feedback from local business experts and get connected with processors of successful entrepreneurs, etc.

We hope that the Apt-women Silicon Valley dispatch members will take bold actions, instead of being afraid of failures, while directly feeling the entrepreneurship culture of Silicon Valley.
Through this Dispatch Program, our hope is that the participants will find their first step toward business expansion to not only Silicon Valley, but also across North America, and eventually to become a leading Japanese female entrepreneurs in the future.