Silicon Valley and this Blog

Back in 2010 I started this blog as a way to keep notes of my new journey in Silicon Valley. Instead of burying those notes in a notepad where only I would have access to, I decided to make them public. And so here we are few years later. A blog full of stuff that may help you when you get to Silicon Valley. I also share thoughts & interesting articles on Twitter, follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Who is Ernest Semerda

I am an Aussie currently based in Silicon Valley. Mountain View to be precise. I left the beautiful Wollstonecraft in Sydney for Silicon Valley back in March 2009; during a US financial crisis and H1N1 pandemic. What a time to move hey. There really is no time like now so don’t wait for the perfect moment. Purpleblue Pty Ltd, building websites for small businesses when Netscape 1 was the browser of choice. To help with sales and to better understand the customer, I launched my first ever SaaS product; WebAnt Analytics (way back before google analytics existed).

Post graduation, I did an enterprise stint at AMP Ltd in Australia & NZ; getting corporate experience and an MBA to better understand business dynamics. With all that new found knowledge, I shifted gears into the startup space as CTO of Couponstar helping grow that business internationally with a mission to help people save money. The success of this venture landed me in Silicon Valley (March 2009) when Coupons, Inc. acquired Couponstar. amazon ankle brace

In 2012, instead of heading back home, I got the Silicon Valley startup bug and with a burning desire for disruption I shifted gears for a new chapter in my life; a new mission, to help save lives at Medlert. My 1st venture backed startup.

Then in 2017 I started Veryfi to build the world’s most experienced construction bookkeeping automation expert! The success of this new business venture took us through Y Combinator. Today Veryfi is a profitable company serving both the small business market and corporate enterprises with its industry leading APIs for data extraction.

It’s been a wild ride! And there’s more to come. Reach out if you have questions about startups, YCombinator or just want to say g’day.

Popular Articles I’ve posted here

Moving to Silicon Valley

• Comparing Sydney to Silicon Valley
• Aussie Occupational Therapy Accreditation in the USA
• Place to live: apartment hunting in Silicon Valley
• My Green Card Journey: E3 to H1B to GC
• Stuff to do before you leave Australia for Silicon Valley
• The Road to Silicon Valley Begins

Stuff to do in Silicon Valley

• Things to do in Silicon Valley
• Farmers Markets: bay area fresh organic produce suppliers
• Hacker Dojo – a community center for hackers and thinkers
• G’day mate – Aussie & American vocabulary comparison
• Mountain View, the heart of Silicon Valley
• Find a Great co-founder and start a business

Software Engineering

• Startup School 2010 – the recap, highlights & lessons
• Linux security paranoid check-list – Top 10
• How to setup Django + mod_wsgi on Apache & Ubuntu
• Building an Ubuntu LAMP Web Server
• JavaScript: made better using the Module Pattern
• PHP: coding horrors & poor excuses
• Gentle Introduction to Python

Getting Things Done

• Infinity save: move even faster with this feature
• iPhone Calendar Sync of your Stuff
• How to Focus using GSDTimer, a Pomodoro Technique
• The Psychology of Tools in Getting Stuff Done
• How do you focus? A systematic approach to how I focus
• Sensory Lifestyle – Helping your child start on the right foot.