San Francisco and Silicon Valley startups, MIT alumni, and venture capitalists complement and enhance the Start6 learning experience.
Since the 2015 Start6 IAP class for innovators and entrepreneurs ended in mid January, the MIT students who took part were eager to continue another phase of their Start6 experience by venturing to California’s Silicon Valley and San Francisco’s startup culture during spring break in mid March. For two days, over 30 members of the Start6 class were given the opportunity to visit and network at Airware, AppDynamics, Khan Academy, Lemnos Labs, Nutanix, Pinterest, Quizlet, and Wearable Intelligence as well as attend several alumni receptions and meet with venture capitalists (VCs).
“I was lucky to pick two great companies for my visits,” says David Ogutu, a senior in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Ogutu chose to visit Wearable Intelligence and Quizlet — both early-stage but expanding startups. “It was impressive to see just how much you can do with a small force of engineers,” he said. “Seeing the companies in action was very encouraging and worth more than 10 talks.”