I already miss the action I had in the corporate life: meeting new people every day, hearing ideas, getting exposed to different industry roles, getting updated in the latest technology through firsthand stories, lunch with colleagues, sharing my thoughts and accessible opportunities for mentoring, volunteering and society contribution.
Fortunately, every Sunday and Wednesday Google dedicates its 34th floor in the Electra building in TLV (near Azrieli) for entrepreneurs. I thought about visiting in order to smell the aroma, to learn about the newborn startup first steps and maybe even find people to whom I can contribute my acquired knowledge and expertise and my network connections. I also hoped to meet an old friend (currently working at google) for lunch.
So I didn't need to think twice -- I was on my way to the Google Campus.
If you are planning to visit, I suggest you come with public transportation since the parking in Tel-Aviv is a rare commodity and quite expensive. I use the free-of-charge "Fast Lane" shuttle (the parking for the car is also free). It has a stop next to the Hashalom train station. Yes, getting by train is a good way too. The station is a two minute walk from the Google Offices.
Walking in the heart of the city in the rush hour is an energizing experience.
I sat there and was in an observing state. There were some young people with books. I guess they were students that came to study in a nice place (like in a public library). There were also freelancers/self-employed who came to enjoy the comfortable offices. Eventually I opened my laptop and worked on my things. Several minutes later an impressive-looking woman (let's call her ILW) sat next to me.
ILW: "Is it a 'work from Campus' day today?"
Me: "Yes, Actually this is my first time here. Do you come here often?"
ILW: "Yes"
Me: "What are you working on?"
ILW: "I'm founding a startup"
Me: "Really! And why here?"
ILW: "I'm sitting here with another co-founder"
Me: "What is your startup about?"
She told me about her startup, which sounded quite complex, not because of the technology but rather because it requires deep knowledge in high level management in industry.
Me: "How did you get this idea?"
ILW: "I was previously VP in a different company and had to do all these things on my own. Now I'm automating the process".
...
The atmosphere was very pleasant there, people were friendly and I even saw one demo.
At lunch time I was invited by my friend to join her in the Google restaurant, catching up on years we had no time to talk. Surprisingly we found out that one of her team members is a good friend of mine -- and that is how I found myself eating lunch with the Google-Waze team. I felt like I was hanging out with celebrities. So many times I would wonder who that engineer is that improves the ETA algorithm. When Waze perfectly predicts the time it should take me to get from one place to another, I think "that engineer did a good job!" On the other hand, when Waze mistakenly ignores the predictable traffic, I think "I'll have to talk to that engineer some day...." imagining him debugging and rewriting the algorithm. When one of the team members introduced himself to me as working on the ETA feature, I pointed out: "I can't believe you are the one who is responsible for the ETA algorithm!" and he immediately answered "I can't believe its me either!". They were a really nice group, it was fun having lunch with them.
A good pointer for beginners (Hebrew):
https://www.themarker.com/st/c/prod/tm/technation/startup/
Campus official web page:
https://www.campus.co/tel-aviv/en
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