Hello, and welcome to the first ever Saba Says,
This is the first of many, if you choose to subscribe, monthly emails (bi-monthly if I have enough things to share) about what’s going on in my world. It’s targeted to all entrepreneurs, investors, and of course my friends - who always want to know where I am, and what I’m working on.
Before I continue, I assume some of you may be wondering where the Coast to Growth podcast is that you signed up for. Short story: it’s coming later this year.
Long story: the timing just wasn’t right. One of the founders I interviewed had their company go public, so his media team put a block on the episode before it aired. Another (un)fortunate thing was that Techstars was also launching a podcast at the same time, and given that Techstars is a big part of my identity and story - we decided not to confuse the market by me launching mine at the same time. Techstars podcast is called Give First, so I do highly recommend you go give that a listen and subscribe in the meantime. Hence, stay tuned.
So back to it:
SABA SAYS ::: GO EXPLORE
I am currently in Italy! Torino to be exact, where my colleagues and I are putting on Torino Startup Week, inviting founders from all over eastern Europe to a week of startup events, workshops and keynote speakers. Even the CEO of Spotify is coming down. Learn more about the event here. Torino is bloody hot - but the coffee and chocolate is as amazing as everyone says.
SABA SAYS ::: STARTUPS RULE THE WORLD
My favorite startup at the moment is Ovira: Drug-free, Instant Period Pain Relief. Learn more, and share with a friend: https://ovira.co/
SABA SAYS ::: READ THIS
The Elon Musk book. I have no idea why it took me this long to read it. It was on my list for a while, but it seems I just kept punting on it. Now, it’s definitely one of my top two books of all time. Inspiring, candid, educational, and just a remarkable story with actual actionable learnings. I highly recommend it.
TALKING TECHSTARS
Techstars Austin has applications open right now. Another 20ish will be opening in about three weeks! So I’ll send an email right before they open to remind you.
What’s Techstars you say? A pre-seed to seed startup accelerator that provides up to $120K and puts founders through a 3-month bootcamp, from a choice of 15 countries.
ROSE ACTIVITY
When I am out with friends I hate doing the usual, how are you, what you been up to, how’s life, bla bla crap. It’s boring and repetitive. Instead what I like to do is the rose activity. It’s where you go around the table and each person ‘gets the spotlight’, and tells us three things about them:
The bloom - something they’re proud of achieving recently
The thorn - a current struggle they’re having
The bud - something they’re looking forward to
I highly recommend you try this, as your conversations are going to get much more meaningful. Henceeee… I’ll try do them in every email too:
Bloom: last month I was awarded one of the Techstars employee-of-the-year awards! I’m not usually one for awards, but this one felt super rewarding to be recognized for the extra effort I’ve been putting in over the past year.
Thorn: traveling so much makes it harder to have a consistent workout routine. I am feeling super unfit. Got any tips?
Bud: I’m in Italy right now, and it’s just day two. So, I’m excited to meet all the entrepreneurs in this ecosystem here!
What’s your rose?
No seriously, please know that you can always reply. There may be a delay, but I will always read your email and reply eventually. So keep in touch!
That’s it from me. Let me know if theres anything you wanna see more or less of in these emails. Feel free to unsubscribe if this is not interesting to you - you won’t hurt my feelings!
Saba