Google launched from a Silicon Valley garage over 20 years ago, and the magic of garage-style entrepreneurialism is alive and well thanks to
Area 120 — an experimental program within Google, aimed to help small teams build new products in an entrepreneurial environment.
Last month, 150 students gathered at Google’s NYC office for the first-ever Inspired@ Summit. The Inspired@ Summit was an opportunity for students to interact with Area 120 co-founders and team members, learn about current projects, and embrace Area 120’s entrepreneurial spirit of “try, experiment, and apply.” We have gathered some of the key takeaways from the summit and hope that by the end of this post, you also find yourself inspired and ready to build, launch, and improve upon fresh ideas without fearing failure.
Fuzzy Khosrowshahi, an Engineering Director at Google, is serving as Area 120’s Founder-in-Residence. He’s also the co-founder of
Google Sheets and helped jumpstart the day as the event’s keynote speaker, sharing his professional journey. As a former history major, who used to run his own Subway sandwich franchise, Fuzzy reiterated that there is no uniform path to Google and that there are countless ways in which individuals discover their passions and capabilities, “each job offers a learning moment.”
While the Inspired@ Summit introduced attendees to a number of Googlers, the attendees were also invited to present and share their own stories.
One storyteller, Nia Asemota, a New York University first-year majoring in engineering, shared how she’s overcoming the challenges of being a woman in tech. In high school, she saw how she was relegated to more peripheral roles compared to her male counterparts on the school robotics team. As a result, she recognized a need to create her own space to enhance her engineering skills — one where she could thrive as a woman in tech and empower others along the way. Nia’s tenacity led her to go on to form her own all-female robotics team, and later become the only female leading the programming and electrical departments. Nia also became the first female pilot to represent her school in the International FIRST Robotics Competition.
Another student, Bethwel Kiplimo, shared how his path to technology began only three years ago. “Growing up in a rural village in Kenya, I never had a phone. I got my first one as a present from a local leader for performing exceptionally well in the national exams. The nonexistence of roads meant cars or any terrestrial machines beyond bicycles were foreign. However, planes flying high above the valley greatly fascinated me. I lived my childhood life studying so that I can one day build planes or at least get on one. At one time, this dream was lost because no university in Kenya offered aerospace engineering. However, my new phone rekindled the dream. Using Google, I was able to find an organization that paid for my SAT exams and gave me a chance to apply to Princeton. It took just a Google search and determination for me to pursue a dream conceived in the third grade while watching planes fly overhead in the early evenings in a remote Kenyan village, far removed from the rest of the world. This has completely redefined my relationship with technology and I am using it to promote access to education and drive change in my community, country, and our world.”
In addition to motivational talks, attendees had the opportunity to “try, experiment, and apply” in an interactive design thinking workshop led by Chris Ross, a Senior UX Engineer. The workshop introduced students to the creative problem-solving process of design thinking, which focuses on a user-centered approach to create a solution that is both technologically and economically feasible.
Afterwards students met with Area 120 team members and learned about their projects. We asked Googlers Laura Rokita of Pigeon, a “Waze-like app for the subway”, and Aayush Upadhyay of Augmented Reality (AR) Ads, the first project to graduate from Area 120 and evolve into its own team at Google, what career advice they would give students. Though Laura and Aayush had different career paths, they did share a similar overarching message: don’t always expect a linear path — pursue projects you’re interested in, experiment, and embrace where your learnings lead you.
The day concluded with an inspiring and memorable talk given by software engineer Eric Duran, as he touched on imposter syndrome and how he dealt with it. Eric is a New York native from East Harlem, and throughout his talk, he emphasized how this played a key role in his journey to Google. He reiterated the importance of persistence and confidence, “you can really do anything - nothing is stopping you. It’s all about what you tell yourself and [how hard you work]. It’s effort - Try. Experiment. Apply.”
Students who are interested in opportunities to be involved in the “testing” process of Area 120 products, can express interest by completing
this application form.
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