Silicon Valley Study Mission

Day 1 – Arrival in San Francisco

Participants arrive at San Francisco International Airport and check into the hotel. The afternoon opens with an introductory session on the Silicon Valley ecosystem: how a single stretch of California between San Francisco and San Jose became the global centre of technology and venture capital, and what it takes, as a founder, engineer, or business professional, to compete and thrive in this environment. The session frames the week ahead: what participants will see, who they will meet, and what questions they should be asking at every stop. A welcome dinner in San Francisco closes the first evening.

Day 2 – Stanford University & Sand Hill Road

The second day begins at Stanford University, one of the world’s great research universities and the academic engine that has powered Silicon Valley for decades, producing companies such as Google, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, and Netflix. Participants attend a session with the Stanford international admissions and career office, tour the campus, and hear from current students or recent alumni about what studying and building a company from within Stanford’s ecosystem looks like in practice. In the afternoon, the group travels to Sand Hill Road, the most famous address in venture capital, for a briefing at one of the VC firms based there. The session covers how venture capital works, how firms evaluate startups, what investors are looking for in founders, and what the fundraising process looks like from term sheet to close.

Day 3 – Y Combinator & the Startup Ecosystem

Day three is dedicated to the startup ecosystem at its earliest and most intense stage. The morning features a visit to Y Combinator, the world’s most prestigious startup accelerator, which has backed companies including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, and Coinbase, for a session on how YC selects startups, what the programme looks like, and what alumni go on to build and achieve. In the afternoon, participants visit a Silicon Valley accelerator or co-working hub to meet a panel of startup founders at different stages, pre-seed, seed, and Series A, who share their experience building companies in the Valley: what worked, what failed, and what they wish they had known at the start.

Day 4 – Google Campus & Computer History Museum

The fourth day takes the group to Mountain View, home to Google’s global headquarters. The Googleplex campus tour provides a close-up look at how one of the world’s most valuable companies organises its people, its culture, and its physical environment, and a briefing covers Google’s internship programmes, its graduate hiring pathways, and the skills it prioritises in international candidates. In the afternoon, the group visits the Computer History Museum, an institution that traces the full arc of computing from the mechanical age to the present day, and closes with a structured reflection session: what distinguishes Silicon Valley’s culture of innovation from the European models, and what concrete lessons participants can bring back.

Day 5 – Meta, LinkedIn & Social Technology

Day five moves to Menlo Park for a visit to Meta’s headquarters, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for a campus briefing covering Meta’s global hiring strategy, its internship ecosystem, and the product and engineering culture that drives the company. In the afternoon, the group travels to LinkedIn’s campus in Sunnyvale for a session that combines two goals: understanding how LinkedIn operates as a global professional platform and, more practically, learning how to use LinkedIn strategically to build a professional presence and activate the network that the week in Silicon Valley is generating. A professional networking aperitivo with Italian and European professionals working in the Valley closes the evening.

Day 6 – Pitching, Product Thinking & San Francisco Exploration

The penultimate day is structured as a working session. The morning features a hands-on workshop on product thinking and pitching, participants are introduced to the core frameworks Silicon Valley founders use to define problems, design solutions, and communicate their ideas to investors and customers. Working in small groups, they develop and pitch a startup concept, receiving feedback from a mentor or founder with Valley experience. The afternoon is free for independent exploration of San Francisco: the city’s neighbourhoods, its food culture, its proximity to nature, and its particular mix of radical creativity and professional intensity are themselves part of what it means to understand Silicon Valley as a place to live and work.

Day 7 – Closing Session & Departures from San Francisco

The final morning brings the Study Mission to a close with a structured round-table: participants share the insight that surprised them most, map their next steps, whether applying to Stanford, targeting a Valley internship, or joining an accelerator programme, and receive personalised guidance on how to stay connected with the contacts and resources identified during the week. A closing briefing covers the practical pathways available to European students who want to pursue opportunities in Silicon Valley: visas, networks, timelines, and the communities that can help. Departures take place throughout the day from San Francisco International Airport.