Two years after taking the initiative of launching a startup, I kneel down and surrender my sword to begin looking at new career opportunities. The ride was crazy. Ecstatic moments repeatedly turned into emotional wreckages, only for new impulses to push me forward again. Despite the final outcome, the lessons were invaluable. Today, I feel more resilient than ever to face the next challenges that life will throw at me.
While following my Master’s at EPFL, I realized how lucky I was to have a startup ecosystem that offered support to entrepreneurial students. University really seemed like the best time to launch a startup. It also motivated me for my studies: I didn’t simply want to get them over with anymore, I wanted to enjoy the experience and stick around a little longer.
Naivety, curiosity and a strong desire to express my creativity pushed me toward entrepreneurship. The class of actions that followed made me grow in ways I couldn’t have possibly imagined. Taking on responsibilities, communicating regularly and trusting the right people were skills that I couldn’t have developed in a classroom or through a textbook. Had I known how difficult the entrepreneurial path would be, I would have never pursued it in the first place.
I started brainstorming several ideas, but eventually settled for the Vivino of CBD. My dad was becoming quite a wine expert thanks to Vivino, while a friend was set to start a job at a CBD business. I tried CBD for sleep, stress, muscle pain and even as part of my spiritual practices. I discovered how much science there was to the cannabis plant, but how little was being presented to the public.
University peers recommended me a startup course given by the Swiss Innovation Agency. Participants had to pitch their idea hoping to work on it throughout the course. Selected projects would have the opportunity to recruit team members and have coaches regularly provide them feedback. One of which would become my mentor and business partner: Haider Alleg.
But things could have gone very differently from the start. Haider missed the round of introduction between the coaches and the startups. A couple of weeks later, I received a long thread of emails between Haider and another coach. Haider had been trying to reach me, but the messages had ended up in the wrong mailbox.
When we finally managed to schedule our first in-person meeting, he came over an hour late. I entered our meeting annoyed, but came out amazed by the momentum he was already giving us. He sent me a duplicate of his Wordpress website for a similar project, which he had invested time and money in. It needed some tweaking, but within a week we could have our minimum viable product.
Unfortunately, the excitement didn’t last. Coursework, project deadlines and final year exams were taking more time than expected. On top of that, my team wasn’t helping as much as I would have hoped for. I felt overwhelmed.
Nonetheless, Haider’s input kept us going. His advice was so valuable that sometimes it took me months to realize things he had been saying all along. When the course came to an end, my teammates left the project. Haider couldn’t imagine me going forward with no team and no money.
Still, I didn’t feel like it was time to give up just yet. I started reaching out to friends I thought might be interested by the project. Once I had recruited my first couple of team members, the tables turned: people were coming to me to offer help. We entered our best-ever-yet honeymoon phase. Launching a startup was fun!
Everything was hugs and kisses until one day, my friend who wrote blog articles told me that he was quitting. I was devastated, but wasted little time in looking for new potential recruits.
I was discussing terms with a new co-founder, when Haider called. He had a new project for me. His friend had developed an agricultural commodity trading platform, and was looking to deploy it in new industries such as cannabis. At first, I was hesitant. How could I let go of everything achieved in the past year. After seeing the platform, it became clearer that this project required my full uncontested attention.
I called the previous project off and started dedicating myself to the new one. We had meetings every week. I was the most junior of the three, so every meeting was incredibly stimulating— I was learning so much!
Fast-forward to 10 months later, and a mix of circumstances — including a lack of experience on my side — made us lose traction. Team dynamics weren’t on track anymore and eventually, we agreed that the best solution was to part ways.
Weirdly enough, pulling the plug the second time was far easier than the first. I was happy to notice a reduction in the half-life of my emotions, key to move on in life.
I feel extremely fortunate to have had an experience that I will carry on learning from for years to come. A massive thank you goes to everyone that I met along the way. Especially my parents for their unconditional support. None of this would have been possible without them.
And remember: fail fast, learn faster.
