A Personal Story

I want to share briefly my story about moving to the U.S. and how GABA has helped me to make a good start in the SF Bay Area. It shows that GABA is truly a great networking platform providing opportunities for its members (and non-members). 

In 2009, I won a Green Card in the U.S. Visa Diversity Lottery and had the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S.. It’s a once in a lifetime chance and I couldn’t pass it up. At this time, I didn’t really have an idea what it would be like living in the U.S.. My previous trips to the U.S. were just short vacations, a semester abroad at San Diego State and an internship, but now I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. long term and build something from scratch.  In essence, live the American dream.

So in April 2010 I left Germany and I moved to the Bay Area by myself.  I didn’t have a job nor did I know anyone in the Bay Area.  But while researching the Bay Area I came across the GABA and was impressed by its members, events and sponsors. I thought this organization would be a great opportunity for me to get in touch with Bay Area professionals, particularly in the IT industry in which I have an affinity for and have always been interested in the latest technologies.  So I decided to join the GABA and became a member.

I remember the first GABA event vividly as it was just one day after I arrived. Though I was jet-lagged and tired, I am glad that I made it to Phone Wars 2. It was an interesting topic about the smart-phone market and I managed to meet kind people such as Mandy Herrmann from GABA. With the good impression of the first event, I started to attend GABA events regularly to chat with people and learn more about interesting subjects such as Cloud Computing, Social Networks or Innovation Models at Google.

Some people call it serendipity, but I think it was my regular attendance at the GABA events that lead me to meeting Dirk Lueth. He’s also German and moved with his family to the Silicon Valley in 2009 to start a new venture: ENTARENA. This software startup company operates in the Enterprise 2.0 space. It develops enterprise software to improve the performance of an organization through enhanced real-time communication capabilities. Dirk and I met each other at the Social Media for Business event and, as always, exchanged business cards. Afterwards, I sent him a follow up email and we met for coffee in Palo Alto to talk a little bit more about ENTARENA and ourselves.

To cut a long story short, Dirk offered me an opportunity to work for this promising startup company and I thank GABA for providing the environment to meet him!

Do you also have an encouraging GABA story? Write a comment.

See you at one of the upcoming events!
Jan Belke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/janbelke