It’s been ten years since I wrote my last book, Finding the Next Starbucks, and like starting a second business, it’s advantage to have a poor memory as not to remember the amount of pain there is to get a book written and published.
Thankfully, I had a team of supporters and contributors that helped me keep going, even when I wasn’t really sure where I was headed. Namely, my wife Bonnie has been a cheerleader for many years and tough coach when I needed it. My daughters Maggie and Caroline, who keep me up on what’s cool without making me feel like I’m a relic. An additional thank you to my oldest daughter Maggie for her hilarious edits and making sure I didn’t take for granted that most normal people have no idea what an Angel Investor is.
Special thanks to the GSV TEAM who are really like a family to me. They are bright, passionate, tireless and really nice. I had the idea for The Global Silicon Valley Handbook for a while but without Rahul Singireddy and Ryan Demo, this project would have gone nowhere. Rahul’s amazing wit and writing made this book come alive, and Ryan’s eye for design was exceptional.
To Suzee Han who has been my right-hand and who has helped me on every aspect of The Global Silicon Valley Handbook and literally got it over the goal-line. Among her many talents she can read my mind, which is both scary and efficient. Also thanks to Nick Franco—my Chief of Staff, Chief Researcher, Chief Advisor and Chief Critic—whose roles have been immeasurably helpful. And thanks to Li Jiang, GSVlab’s self-proclaimed Chief Evangelist, who is the heart and soul of GSV and inspires me to never stop reaching for the stars.
Thanks to others at GSV who have especially put their shoulders to this effort including Matt Hanson, our man about town in the Big Apple; Luben Pampoulov, who does his scouting from Paris, but has a nose for ideas and people everywhere; Gopi Pepakayala, who is based in Bangalore, and leads our research efforts at GSViQ; GSV Venture’s head Larry Aschebrook who in any given week could be in Dubai, Mumbai and Shanghai; Deborah Quazzo, who leads GSV Acceleration; and GSV Growth Credit’s David Spreng.
I want to give a big thank you to Andy Goldenberg and Cliff Humphreys at BrandLift who have helped me and GSV in so many ways to really articulate what the Global Silicon Valley is about.
Another huge acknowledgement of appreciation to the GSV Family who have also contributed to The Global Silicon Valley Handbook: Debbie Elsen, Mark Flynn, Bill Tanona, Spencer McLeod, John Denniston, Mark Moe, Richard Harris, Michael Cohn, Diane Flynn, Sidarth Balaji, Michael Narea, Siya Raj Purohit, Maria Victoria Ferrara, Sandy Lin, Anthony Palma, Chidvi Pemula, Emily Ha, and Justine Hausner.
And thanks to the rest of the contributors who helped make the book a reality: Brian Abraham, Tom Adams, Tom Alexander, Jeanne Allen, Agnaldo Andrade, John Bailey, Anshumaan Bansal, Maxwell Barnes, Rodrigo Barros, Michael Bartimer, Peter Bell, Marc Benioff, Michael Boyers, Walter Buckley, Evan Burfield, Alex Capecelatro, Mike Carter, Steve Case, Lucas Ceschin, Sanjay Challa, Terence Chan, Anthony Chang, Audrey Cheng, Jessica Chitkuer, Grant Chou, James Citrin, John Coughlan, Michele D’Aliessi, Pieter de Jong, Perry Dellelce, Rahul Desai, Akankshu Dhawan, Pat Dillingham, Aidan Donohue, Tim Draper, Joe Ducar, Alex Ellis, Joel Eriksson, Chris Fernandes, Lisa Flynn, Patrick Franco, Nicole Franco, Jordan Frankfurt, Aaron Fu, Graham Furlong, Amir Gelman, Sourish Ghosh, Garrett Goehring, Murray Goldberg, Jonnie Goodwin, Karen Greene, Alexandra Greenspan, Rusty Greiff, Sina Gritzuhn, Puja Gubbi, Vicky Guo, Justin Halsall, Albert Hanser, John Hartnett, Felipe Held, David Helfer, Andy Hidayat, Rand Hindi, Derek Hockman, David Hoffman, Drew Hoffman, Gordon Hoge, Marissa Hopkins Secreto, James Hu, Ricky Hunter, Lauri Järvilehto, Colleen Jiang, Victor Jiang, Jeremy Johnson, Tara Kelly, Karan Khemka, Charmaine Kng, Aneesha Kommineni, Dick Kramlich, Arun Kumar, Sunyoung Kye, May Lee, Jesse Levin, Mike Levinthal, Dan Levitan, Garros Li, Harry Li, Par Lindstrom, Marianne Lins, Joe Lonsdale, Ronnie Lott, Nancy Lue, Jeremy Lum, Christoffer Mailing, Pramath Malik, Andrew Marks, Anna Mason, Vaibhav Menon, Cindy Mi, Joey Mi, Nathan Millard, Jaime Montgomery, Ricardo Morales, Bryce Morisako, Mark Musolino, Karim Mustaghni, Jaime Nack, Margaret O’Mara, Evon Onusic, Dave Pottruck, Rudy Prince, Scott Prindle, Chris Protasweich, Tammer Qaddumi, Ben Quazzo, Louise Rogers, Audrey Russo, Jamal Saab, Bill Sahlman, Joe Sanberg, Mike Sanders, Dave Schiff, Joanna Schwartz, Lakshmi Shenoy, Ryan Shuken, Ben Slivka, Matt Sonsini, Matt Spector, Björn Stansvik, Lucy Stonehill, Kasper Suomalainen, Kelly Szejko, Jessica Tan, Stephen Tang, Aditya Tripathi, Howard Tullman, Tracy VanGrack, Anton Waitz, Ben Wallerstein, Patrick Walujo, Howard Wang, Todd Warren, Andy White, Joseph Wilkinson, Melissa Wooten, Kylie Wright-Ford, Dun Xiao, Sam Xiao, Kevin Zhou, William Zhou, Gabriella Zielke.
And finally, I want to thank the fantastic people at Grand Central who believed in the book, including my acquiring editor Gretchen Young, and to my editor Katherine Stopa. Thanks also to Jamie Raab, Beth de Guzman, Jeff Holt, Shelby Howick, and Tiffany Sanchez. And last, but certainly not least, thanks to Jillian Manus, who made this all happen.
A big thanks.