eSmart Systems has these days started an internationalization process and as a first step in this we have joined Innovation Norway’s FRAM USA program. The goal of the program is to introduce and help Norwegian companies expand in the US markets. The program consists of several gatherings in different US cities over a period of 1,5 years. This fall the first of these gatherings took place in the legendary Silicon Valley, San Francisco. Knut Gustavsen, COO in eSmart, and the newly hired intern, Thomas Nergaard, was present.

Thomas and Knut in California

Exciting days in Bay Area

Already the first day a theme for this trip presented itself; Hectic, but exciting. The day started with the first winter storm in California this year, with large amount of much needed rain for the region. In the following traffic chaos Knut headed in to San Francisco for some really exciting meetings, while Thomas visited the brand new Samsung office in San Jose to learn about their innovation strategies.

Samsung Office

Afterwards there was a pitching workshop with incredible experienced pitching coach Nathan Gold. He challenged us to come up with a 'once sentence answer' to the question “What do you do?” that both excites and intrigues the listener. Not an easy task and definitely something we needed to work on!

Workshop with Nathan Gold at Nordic Innovation House.

The day ended with a networking event at Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto, with several Nordic Start-ups and even some Venture Capitalist’s in the crowd. Nordic Innovation House is co-working and virtual office for Nordic tech start-ups, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. eSmart Systems is actually one of the companies that uses Nordic Innovation House as our US office right now.

A hectic, but exciting day!