Shady Elyaski

Howdy readers, it has been a while since I ever blogged.

This summer I was on a mission to explore & disrupt Silicon Valley. Read on to find out about my tale on how I got started at Draper University of Heroes.

I was so excited once I received my acceptance letter to the Draper program. I promised myself that this experience would be an unforgettable life changing experience. Here is what I did to get started. First, I quit my full time job after my start up in Egypt got funded. Second, I booked a ticket to fly off to the what’s called the center of entrepreneurship… Silicon Valley.

I arrived on June 20th in San Mateo (where Draper University is located)… two days before the program officially started. Unfortunately, the program didn’t start so I was left with no place to stay so I had to figure something out. I thought to myself… “Should I rent a hotel? Should I hostel? Should I spend the night on the streets?”
I considered all of these thoughts but a hotel was too expensive and all hostels were booked. As for living on the streets? Too cold. I left Egypt when it was 33 Celsius only to find San Mateo to be 15 Celsius! There is no way I could spend the night on the street.

I thought to myself. There had to be another way. I put my mind on hyperdrive. A Tesla whizzes by me while I walked down the street by the coffee house. Ah-ha.
I am going to rent a car and live in it.

I spent the first night in my sweet Hyundai Elantra. The following morning, I woke up and decided that I am going to venture on and explore the city of San Francisco but… where will I go?

I wrote down a list of places that I wanted to visit and spent the day visiting the Computer History Museum, Google HQ, Microsoft HQ, Apple HQ, Intel Museum and the NASA Museum.

The following day I arrived at Draper University. I knew that being surrounded by a group of top-notch very smart people (39 in total) would make this a special experience. People came from all parts of the globe and had diverse backgrounds. Mechanical engineers, graphic designers, software engineers, finance & law. Although we had such diverse backgrounds, our enthusiasm for starting our own companies immediately bonded together. The diversity was just the right combination to promote intellectual growth and foster together life long friends.

On the first day, we were all welcomed by Tim Draper personally. I can’t forget his wide smile. His cheerfulness and his ability to recite each of our names.
Classes started right away. I liked that everything learned favored practicality over theory. Speakers came in everyday. On average, 3-4 speakers came to speak to us. The backgrounds of the speakers were diverse. I am in paradise. This is where I am meant to be. This is my new home.

Stay tuned for my next blog post, having some insights of our crazy activities that we do here over Draper University of Heroes.

With gusto & enthusiasm!