San Francisco M1 Alumni Event
I was in San Francisco for about 36 hours, and had a really good time reconnecting with the M1 guys who sponsored this event. Great day of networking, presentations, and speakers. Challenging! One of the interesting sessions was by TJ Stiles, a Pultizer Prize winning biographer. His speaking topics included his latest biography (Cornelius Vanderbilt) and the parallels of business then and now, moral hazards, market manipulation, monopolies, etc. Very informative, I need to read his book (which they gave to participants) The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Fascinating. Quite a few Bay area entrepreneurs, some very interesting and succesful start ups to learn about. I was intrigued by Groupiter for example and chatted a bit with the founder. Or the guy I had lunch with who is finishing his Ph.D at Stanford, and has a company he started a year ago that is reclaiming commercial land space and biologically restoring it to farmable space!? Lots of stimulating conversations. Lots of really smart people, definitely the most Silicon Valley types with Stanford graduate degrees I've been in one room with.
We also took a night tour of Alcatraz which was cool. The sound of the cell doors closing is creepsville. I took a quick video of it. Lots of history at Alcatraz, and the Parks Dept does a wonderful job guiding. The audio tour is amazing. Fun times, but really glad to be home.
