The Silicon Valley Internship Program (SVIP), a new consortium of start-ups and industry organizations led by Michael Hughes, co-CEO of LoopUp, has announced today its initiative to inspire entrepreneurialism in the UK.
Its programme will offer select, recent computer science and software engineering graduates a year’s experience in Silicon Valley, the quintessential hub for entrepreneurship and start-ups.
SVIP will match each programme participant with a sponsoring start-up in Silicon Valley, where they will work full-time for one year, earning a $60,000 salary.
Each participant will learn the ins and outs of building a company by eating, sleeping and living the life as an early employee of a start-up.
To further enrich their experience and development, each participant will also receive a mentor from outside their startup, plus formal training on subjects such as business strategy, fundraising and team building.
To remove the barriers of their one-year move abroad, travel costs to and from theUS are paid and SVIP is working with the British Consulate and British American Business Council in San Francisco to arrange working visas – a key barrier to preventing UK graduates from finding internships in the United States.
“We welcome this opportunity to further exchange knowledge between the US andUK. This internship gives our students the chance to study with some of the brightest entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and put these new skills to work upon returning to the UK,” said Priya Guha, the British Consulate General in San Francisco.
Michael Hughes, who created SVIP, added: “There is something intrinsically different in the way Brits and Americans approach innovation and entrepreneurship. In Britain, we see too many barriers, and any stumble or fall is seen as a potentially career-ending failure. But in the U.S., wrong turns are more likely to be seen as lessons to eventual success.
We envision the SVIP engendering willingness to take the first step and determination to succeed in the UK’s most capable engineering talent at the very beginning of their professional careers.”
He made his way from the UK to Silicon Valley and entrepreneurial life after he was awarded a Sainsbury Management Fellowship to pursue an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Fellowship develops engineers to become leaders in UK industry.
The president of The Sainsbury Management Fellowship, David Falzani, added: “Michael Hughes is one of 300 Fellows who have benefited from the generosity of our patron, Lord Sainsbury of Turville. I can’t think of a better way to reciprocate than the SVIP program. A fantastic and creative way to encourage entrepreneurialism in the UK.”