Our CEO Kim Nilsson, joined fourteen of London’s fastest-growing female-led tech companies to Silicon Valley last week as part of an international trade mission organised by Silicon Valley comes to the UK (SVC2UK) and the Mayors International Business Programme.
The fifteen female entrepreneurs, who are leading businesses that are growing at an average of 115 per cent annually, travelled to the valley on June 19th in a bid to learn from US founders about scaling businesses globally, drum up investments develop new networks and identify new customers in the bay area.
During the trip Kim got to meet many companies including Instagram, Facebook, Slack and GoogleX. This is the third time the SVC2UK has led a Female Founders trade mission Silicon Valley. Last year, entrepreneurs met with Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer for Facebook and author of Lean in: ‘Women, Work ad the Will to Lead.’
“The keyword for the week truly was ‘disruption’; a disruption of a way of thinking. The trip simply blew my mind. Being a first-time entrepreneur with a science background, it was eye opening to listen to these incredibly smart people on how they build and scale businesses. There were a couple of key learnings I took away; around speed, focus and people/culture.
I came back from this trip with a wider world view, which is a double-edged sword. It is painful to grow, because growing means seeing what is not perfect and wanting to change it, and we all know that change can be painful. But ultimately, it is also a blessing because growing means becoming a better, stronger person. I hope that I will be able to share the energy, enthusiasm and inspiration I found in Silicon Valley with my team at Pivigo, and that Pivigo will grow faster as a result.”
Kim Nilsson, CEO Pivigo
The Mayor’s International Business Programme is an initiative to help London’s high growth firms in tech, life sciences, or urban industries break into new international markets or grow their existing operations overseas.
For more insights into the trip you can find Kim’s post on LinkedIn here.
