The Garage Goes to San Francisco

The rumors are true! We recently packed our bags, jumped on a plane, and took a group of student founders to the city where it all started: San Francisco.

Colin Pham, Sarah Ahmad, and Vishaal Mali (try to) recreate The Garage logo.[/caption]While many of our student founders have definitely made the trek to the land of tech before, we wanted to offer a small group the opportunity of a lifetime to see San Francisco from our eyes, and most importantly, help them to build important networks and bridges with Northwestern alumni working and living in San Francisco. Our roster included students from Weinberg, McCormick, SESP, and School of Comms working on entrepreneurial ventures ranging from the most comfortable men’s suit ever to a bicycle powered cell phone charger, from cold brew coffee on wheels to an app giving you the best dish recommendations at local restaurants. Needless to say, this batch of 11 students is impressive. Check out all of our fellow travelers below.

The day after we arrived, we got right down to business with office tours. Using some Northwestern connections, we were given exclusive VIP access to the impressive Airbnb office, a peek inside the Northwestern founded company, Apartment List, and a chat with some recent alumni at their offices at Uber. Shoutout to everyone who was kind enough to open their doors to us. We even caught a lucky break, and got to have a chat with Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky. His advice? Don’t listen to your parents and get out there.[caption id="attachment_4372" align="alignnone" width="577"]

Vishaal Mali, Sam Kim, and Lloyd Yates hear from Airbnb co-founder and CEO, Brian Chesky at Airbnb HQ.[/caption]On day two, we welcomed alumni, founders, and VCs to the Northwestern San Francisco space for one on one coffee chats with our students.[caption id="attachment_4373" align="alignnone" width="592"]

Vishaal Mali and Jacob Morgan at Northwestern San Francisco.[/caption]And after sending students on a mission to make sure San Francisco remembers us, we all hung out with alumni at Spark Social to watch the sunset and make memories. [caption id="attachment_4374" align="alignleft" width="606"]

Lloyd Yates made a mark on the Golden Gate Bridge![/caption][caption id="attachment_4375" align="alignnone" width="609"]

Sarah Ahmad, Sam Letscher, and Colin Pham at Spark Social.[/caption]But don't take it from us--here's just a tidbit of the feedback we got from a few students.

“Thank you SO much for planning SF and attending. The networking/office tours were great and I feel closer than ever to The Garage community.” -Lucas Philips, SESP ‘19“I just wanted to thank you all for your hard work in putting on the trip to San Francisco this weekend. I had a wonderful time and learned so much.” -Evan Taylor, WCAS ‘19“The trip has helped me process all the post-graduation options I have, and now I’m super excited for life after Northwestern.” Bennett Hensey, McCormick ‘19

Stay tuned to see where we go next. With us, you never know.