IUT and Openbucks Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding within the visit of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the United States in September 2017.

Within the framework of the signed memorandum, IUT and Openbucks intend to cooperate in the field of IT education. In particular, the parties intend to invite leading American experts to conduct lectures and transfer best practices and information for development of innovative projects and start-ups in the format of Silicon Valley Talks. It is expected that Silicon Valley Talks will be held on regular basis and the organizers will invite representatives of various companies from Silicon Valley.

After some preparations, IUT and Openbucks conducted the first Silicon Valley Talks lecture for students of the university. Marc Rochman, CEO of Openbucks Corporation, became the first guest of Silicon Valley Talks.

Marc Rochman is a founder of Openbucks Corp., a startup in Silicon Valley. The service allows its users to make payments without use of banking cards. Being specialist in banking cards technologies, he founded CardUSA, which produced plastic cards (banking, gift, phone and other cards).

During the lecture, Marc Rochman shared his experience on development of startup projects after he moved from France to Silicon Valley in the United States.

In particular, he told to the participants how to realize successful startup. Mr Rochman underlined that ideas belong to those, who implement them.

He also underlined about importance of team in success of the project. He stressed that startups should be realized with the team, not alone.

Mr. Rochman recommended that students should think big, start with small and move fast. Test, iterate, change and evolve the ideas, he said.

As part of the event, the founder of Openbucks also answered to questions of students and participants of the Silicon Valley Talks.