Aside from Wall Street, the most well-known money-making place in the U.S. is probably Silicon Valley. It’s a place where you can almost breathe in the ideal ambitions for the world. Everyone thinks that as long as you have an idea and a computer, you have the chance to make it big here and shine brightly.
However, the purpose of this show is to take you into this dream bubble and then burst it right before your eyes, over and over again.
Although I haven’t lived in Silicon Valley, the unanimous praise for its authenticity from both domestic and international netizens and industry leaders, along with my own thorough viewing of the series, has given me some insight into the various experiences of living and starting a business in Silicon Valley.
Recommended reading outside the site: Bill Gates’ Recommendation: To Understand Silicon Valley, Watch “Silicon Valley” (INSIDE)
The story begins with the protagonist Richard, who initially aimed to create a music recognition software called Pied Piper. By chance, he developed a compression algorithm with a record-breaking compression rate. At the same time, tech giant Hooli and investment advisory firm Raviga Capital took notice and wanted to buy shares in Pied Piper. After much deliberation, Richard decided to take the investment firm’s advice, accept the investment, and, together with his roommates from the incubator, Dinesh and Gilfoyle, and Jared, who saw their potential and left Hooli to join them, turned Pied Piper into a compression algorithm company. What follows is a series of entrepreneurial struggles filled with blood, sweat, and tears.
The most attractive aspect of this series for me is that I once had entrepreneurial ideas myself, even listing out ideas I thought could make a strong impact on the world. Watching the series, I realized that everyone had similar thoughts. There’s even a scene where various startup teams’ presentations are edited together, repeatedly saying “Make the world a better place.” It was then I realized I was just one of the millions of naive entrepreneurs who hadn’t even started. But if I had started, what would I encounter? “Silicon Valley” begins to narrate this journey.
The energy required to work while starting a business, the business plans demanded by venture capitalists after finally seizing an opportunity, five-year profit and loss projections, human resources, salary distribution, various fundraising efforts due to insufficient funds, being copied by competitors, losing clients, having the board taken over by a majority, investors pulling out, etc., are all things you wouldn’t think of when considering startup ideas. The realistic aspect of this series is that the main characters hadn’t thought of these things either, so they stumble along, navigating the tumultuous entrepreneurial path, solving problems one step at a time. For me, it’s like taking a real-life entrepreneurship course.
Although the content sounds complex and distant, making it seem hard to digest, the characters in the series are also simple engineers who don’t understand these complex terms. So, they always explain things in layman’s terms, allowing both outsiders in the show and viewers outside the show to easily understand these seemingly complicated processes. Additionally, the series is wrapped in a thick layer of comedic coating, allowing us to enjoy the messages it conveys in a joyful and relaxed atmosphere. Compared to “Mad Men” which I watched a long time ago, the seriousness is at least tenfold less.
Further reading: [Series] “Mad Men” – Madison Avenue in the 60s
The series also includes many jokes about the tech industry or engineers, sometimes using seemingly nonsensical jokes to drive the plot.
For example, in one scene, Pied Piper is thoroughly copied by Hooli before its release, and everyone is utterly discouraged, starting to research the most efficient algorithm for masturbation on the whiteboard. As a result, Richard, due to this nonsense algorithm, actually develops a new algorithm overnight with an overwhelmingly superior compression rate, allowing Pied Piper to advance to the finals. Additionally, there was a time when Gilfoyle found his new smart fridge at home really noisy and didn’t have the permission to modify it, so he spent a lot of time hacking the fridge to put inappropriate videos in it. This seemingly humorous subplot later becomes a key step in saving Pied Piper, using numerous IoT fridges to achieve a blockchain network despite insufficient device numbers.
In summary, “Silicon Valley” is very suitable for those who have some understanding of the tech industry or those who are filled with dreams of entrepreneurship. Whether as a reference for the entrepreneurial journey or as a light-hearted piece to enjoy during leisure time, it is very fitting.