Hyetech, a leading organizer of the Armenian technology community in Silicon Valley, is soon launching their Entrepreneur Immersion Program (EIP) on February 15. At HIVE Ventures, we firmly find commonality with Hyetech in our vision to empower early-stage Armenian entrepreneurs and provide them with access and understanding of Silicon Valley. That’s why we’re incredibly excited to once again be a Venture Sponsor for EIP and contribute to the growing success of the program, which focuses on founders with less than $500K raised.

The primary focus of EIP is to provide promising and ambitious Armenian startup founders the opportunity to explore the Silicon Valley network first-hand. After the program’s initial success in 2016, HyeTech and organizing partner SmartGateVC elected to relaunch EIP this year and bring a fresh group of founders to the US to again learn what leads to sustained startup success. During the 10 days intensive program spanning both San Francisco and Los Angeles, entrepreneurs will attend a variety of seminars and 1:1 session to learn about three major areas of early-stage growth: initial sales strategy, cross-border growth, and fundraising. Startup founders will engage in a series of presentations on startup strategy followed by 1:1 advice sessions with successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors. Founders will also have access to accelerators and investment firms to learn first-hand what drives investment decisions, both historically and in the year ahead. The program will be capped off with a startup pitch competition. Through the program, Armenian founders will:

• Understand how to engage with Silicon Valley on an on-going basis, and draw maximum value from available resources;
• Discover and meet with key subject matter experts and business leaders in their industry, including competitors, partner, and potential customers;
• Experience the tempo and highly competitive nature of building startups in 2019, as well as the dynamism of Silicon Valley culture;
• Develop the empathy needed to succeed in professional relationships.