Sinsheimer & Partners International

How young entrepreneurs and early-stage investors benefit from the startup hotbed Silicon Valley

In the research report "The Startup Ecosystem Report 2012", the twenty best locations for start-ups were published. The study is based on the analysis of 50,000 start-ups worldwide. Top of the research analysis remains the US Silicon Valley, the most influential start-up region and home to companies such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, eBay, Adobe and Oracle. This is due to the excellent conditions and very good financing opportunities for company founders.

It all starts with a simple idea that turns students and young entrepreneurs into start-up gurus and investors into billionaires. Business leaders from all over the world come to the Valley to unlock the secret formula for success. To be accepted among the tech elite and visionaries, you have to act early and with foresight.

„Silicon Valley is like Hollywood. You can't copy it“

Success stories made in Silicon Valley

Ben Horowitz

CEO and investor with vision

Businessman and investor Ben Horowitz is co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and part of the elite investor group Y-Combinator. Horowitz has invested large sums in ambitious young companies such as Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter and Pinterest. Before that, he invented the first mass-market web browser and co-founded the IT company Loudcloud, the pioneer of cloud computing at the turn of the millennium.

Marissa Mayer

Women's power in Silicon Valley

Marissa Mayer, a former Google employee and later a top vice-president, is now CEO of Yahoo. She has made it her mission to support companies founded by women. Mayer's fortune is estimated at around 300 million US dollars.

Lucas Duplan

he next Mark Zuckerberg?

22-year-old Lucas Duplan has the best chance of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg. Duplan founded the start-up Clinkle and received Silicon Valley's highest-ever start-up funding of USD 25 million. The Stanford graduate is working on what is probably the biggest and most revolutionary payment project of all time. The business of payment is to be completely digitised in the future. Duplan is currently developing a payment app with novel technologies that will enable merchants and users to exchange small as well as large sums. Clinkle's backers include Facebook backers Jim Breyer and Peter Thiel as well as the influential venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Kevin Hartz

With Evtentbrite to the market leader

Eventbrite is the name of the largest event platform developed by Kevin Hartz. The online platform makes it possible to organise events of all kinds and to sell tickets for them. Hartz is a Stanford graduate in computer science and one of the first Paypal investors. He also invested in the successful business network Linkedin. Hartz is currently on the board of his newly founded company Xoom, a micro-payment platform whose shares have been rising steadily since the beginning of the year.

Paul Graham

A simple idea becomes a global success

The programmer Paul Graham has helped start-up companies like Airbnb and Dropbox to enormous success and has made it his mission to produce success companies non-stop. At his start-up school Y-Combinator, young entrepreneurs from all countries can apply for a three-month training camp. They are rewarded with USD 80,000 in start-up aid as well as the acquaintance of the most important and influential financiers in the industry.

Top German Visionaries in Silicon Valley

Business leaders from all over the world travel to Silicon Valley, the home of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, eBay and Adobe. Stanford graduates become start-up stars and enterprising investors become billionaires. And in the middle of it all: 10 top German visionaries who play a major role in shaping the products and are thus involved in the success of the Valley.

In Silicon Valley, the American dream is still omnipresent. The inhabitants are optimistic and willing to take risks. Eager young entrepreneurs created billion-dollar corporations with their ideas and workaholism, and there is no end in sight. A clever business idea and the pursuit of success as well as unwavering diligence and a strong will are the secret formula of these high-tech geniuses. The Valley economy currently generates USD 535 billion, the highest gross domestic product in the USA. Therefore, there is no limit to their ingenuity. The Valley geniuses continue to research and investors around the globe invest in our future.

The best German Silicon Valley visionaries

Florian Leibert

For the start-up company Mesosphere, founder Florian Leibert develops software for the data cloud together with his partner Tobias Knaup. The 30-year-old software engineer and developer has more than 10 years of professional experience and has worked for renowned corporations as well as start-ups. Previously, he worked at Twitter, Ning Adknowledge and Head Case.

Sebastian Thrun

Sebastian Thrun is the architect of the first computer that you wear as glasses on your nose. The globally sought-after expert for artificial intelligence developed Google's technology innovation Google Glass as well as Google's self-driving car. The computer scientist, born in Solingen in 1967, taught at the renowned Stanford University and is currently developing the internet platform Udacity. The online academy offers users worldwide the opportunity to further their education in various knowledge disciplines.

Andrew of Bechtolsheim

Andreas von Bechtolsheim, a German computer scientist and entrepreneur living in Silicon Valley, can be described as a brilliant achievement, especially his investment in 1998 of USD 100,000 in the new internet search technology Google. After Google's IPO, the value of his investment was estimated at USD 500 million in early 2005. Thus, he was able to make a profit of 500,000 %.

Peter Thiel

Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1967, Peter Thiel is a US investor. Due to his good business sense and his successful assessment of trends, Thiel rose very quickly to become a billionaire. Among other things, the internet investor became known for his USD 500,000 Facebook investment with which he made an incredible profit of USD 2 billion.

Thomas Arend

German-born Thomas Arend is the international head of product at the housing platform Airbnb in San Francisco. The 44-year-old has more than 20 years of experience in international product management and has worked for major digital companies such as SAP, Google, Mozilla and Twitter.

Gregor Hochmuth

Gregor Hochmuth graduated from Stanford University and then worked at Google for three years. The programmer decisively developed the photo and video platform Instagram. The 29-year-old joined the then start-up Instagram in January 2012 as one of the first 13 employees. Four months later, the small start-up was sold to the social network giant Facebook for one billion US dollars. The Berlin native contributed significantly to the coup and today owns many shares in the company.

Hartmut Esslinger

The product designer Hartmut Esslinger is responsible for the aesthetic innovation of various global corporations, including Sony, SAP and Lufthansa. His greatest success: the re-design of the most valuable company in the world: Apple. It was Esslinger's design that made Apple a cult brand.

Constantine Guericke

Konstantin Guericke is the co-founder of the business platform LinkedIn. Business relationships around the globe are cultivated there. Guericke is very well known and well connected in Silicon Valley. Now the German start-up manager and venture partner at Early Bird wants to use his know-how and contacts to enable German start-ups to take the step into the USA.

Margit Wennmachers

Margit Wennmachers is an investor and partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley. With Andreessen Horowitz, the most influential IT manager in the US invested immense sums in up-and-coming young companies such as Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter and Pinterest.

Michael Busch

The German Michael Busch is a programmer at Twitter. Twitter is a short message service with around 230 million active monthly users worldwide. The platform is particularly popular with public figures from the fields of film, TV, sports, politics and science. The company's IPO in November 2013 was successful. At the end of November 2013, Twitter was worth over USD 24 billion.