Startup School students are now completely accustomed to the “US business culture” and are extremely excited about the way things work here.
Their perspectives have drastically changed in short time; they are all planning to adopt this philosophy and mentality and apply it to their startups.We over heard a student talking passionately and gesticulating on the phone to someone back in Italy about our visits to some of the big companies like Zynga and Dropbox.
“Imagine entering a building by going through a large tunnel with colorful, flashing lights leading to one of the many canteens that offer a wide variety of foods: anything from local to exotic with breakfast, lunch, and dinner served totally for free!”
“Then you go down a floor using an oval, futuristic elevator which opens onto a beautiful lounge space; an open area furnished with the latest modern design and a secret glass door that invites you to yet another world: a high-tech gym. 
Fully equipped with free
towels and water bottles as well as different classrooms where yoga, pilates, and body pump lessons take place. Imagine a building which is completely pet friendly, where you can have your dog next to you the whole day or your bicycle stored in one of the multi dedicated spaces.”
It looked more like an amusment park and none of the students could immagine this is reality for big companies here in Silicon Valley like Facebook, Google, Apple…and so on. What he just described, in fact isn’t fantasy world but the headquarters of another colossal: Zynga. A provider of social game services with an annual revenue of US 1,2 billion, Zynga launched Farmville 1&2 and Texas Holdem Poker, just to name the most famous.
Its spectacular premises fuel creativity, cultivating the mind as much as the spirit. If you feel like resting there are amaca’s lying around the floor to spark big ideas, and video game machines situated in every corner just in case you feel like playing around or emptying your mind. Not to mention the TGF’s (thank god its friday) happy hours held at the end of the week announced with colorful grafitti that covers the surrounding walls and includes inspiring slogans such as “build games you love to play” or “Zynga is a meritocracy, be a CEO and own outcomes.” Companies here are about this: young, happy people in open spaces, who share ideas, take risks, move fast, build great products, and make their companies goal their own. These are just some of the values that american companies hold.
So while Europe is facing the toughest unemployment crisis of all time and italian startup school students are planning not to go back, the US values its employees, investing in them and doing ANYTHING to make them stay. Informality rules, no dresscode, top managers are accesible to speak to (just send an email!), and formalities can be broken.
Hanging down the phone with Italy: “People don’t feel guilty about loving their work here, I just love it!”