Trying to be a good industry banker in the investment banking community means getting out to meeting with a lot of companies and working with your relationships to get better information about small private companies, financial investors (which invest in the small private companies), and large public companies (which acquire the small private companies).  My most recent trip down to the valley was spent with Juniper Networks and Google.

Needless to say, Google has an amazing campus in Mountain View.  We toured the facilities, which have a beach volleyball court at the center, tons of toys and scooters all over campus, and (best of all) three meals a day in the cafeterias around campus - all at no cost to the employees. 

For the hour and a half I was on the campus, I honestly felt like I’d been transported back to Colby.  As we were walking, skateboards would go rolling by, you’d see people working out in state-of-the-art gyms and swimming in the current pools.  You then walk into the cafeteria and select just about anything you might want to eat.  After the tour, I was wishing that Mountain View was commutable from Seattle, as it is the type of place where you could just see innovation thriving.