2020, MY HERO YEAR!

Dear 2020 - it’s instinctive to treat you as a supervillain and associate you with negative words like depressing, worse, restricted, irritating & misery. But if I look back and deeper, you were the BEST year of my life so far... filled with great challenges, learnings, and growth. When I look back, I will always remember you as the year that made perfect sense.

2020 was supposed to be my year of travel. I had things planned, and I was looking forward to traveling to Peru, Chicago, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, London, Dubai, India, and a couple more countries. But, it wasn’t meant to be. It all started in Jan 2020 in Puerto Rico - I woke up to a jolt, knowing it was an earthquake. I was so used to 4-5 tremors a week in Chile that I did what Chileans do - act normal and not run out - only to know later that it was the second biggest earthquake in Puerto Rico in 100 years!

Within minutes, I was living without electricity (which lasted for 3+ days). I couldn’t cook, so I just ate bread. And I used my landlord’s car to charge my mobile phone. But, work continued as usual and I didn’t share this with any family member other than my husband who was in Chile at that time. But, in the end, Jan went well because I got to travel to Miami and see family & friends, and my sister-in-law visited me in Puerto Rico. Little did I know at that time that we were in for many more world-changing experiences. 

Feb was busy, working on sales. And in March, I was preparing for my jet setting life. I was excited and packed my bags to start flying. I started with a 1-week business trip to Chile, leaving almost all my belongings in Puerto Rico. I did not know that it was going to be the last flight I would be taking in 2020! I heard about sanitizers on March 6th, but nothing about masks. Before getting on to the flight, I went to multiple CVS and Walgreens in Puerto Rico but couldn’t lay my hands on a sanitizer. I asked for spare ones in a couple of WhatsApp groups, but I didn’t know that I was asking for the liquid gold of 2020. I took the flight to Chile without a sanitizer, pitched for a Govt. grant of US$ 150k, and met a couple of investors who we were doing due diligence to invest in The Live Green Co. I was all pumped up, in my best mood, ready to hustle and charged up. 

But I was on a battlefield where my chances of survival were bleak. Statistics regarding VC funding for female-led startups are depressing, and I had extra RED cards such as woman of color, foreigner without a permanent residency, first-timer, and non ivy league. And then, the pandemic broke out! Curfews & travel restrictions were put in place. So, our supposed-to-be Lead VC, who spent 6 months knowing our startup and team, backed off on the final day of their board meeting. My energy went spiraling down for a couple of days. But, thanks to my amazing co-founder and mentors, I decided to fight... rather than to take flight which is our natural reflex when faced with adversity. I started re-planning and taking control of things. I made my survival excel sheet, marked the exact trigger points and actions I would / would not take. I armed myself with the simple but powerful thought that there are some things in life that are not in our control and that we should do our best and not worry about the end result. 

April was a new beginning. We won the US$150k Chilean Govt. grant, a US$20k grant from Proveg Germany, and our follow-up investor offered to become our lead investor! As they say - success has many friends, but true ones are those who stand by you during your hardest times. So, I immediately knew that this was the right investor for us and that it would be a relation of genuine trust and confidence. In this process, I also built other new bonds for LIFE - our Chilean distribution partner who gave us the signed guarantee that we need to receive the US$150k Govt. grant, and our lead mentor who quickly lined up other like-minded investors so that we could oversubscribe and close our SEED round at 1Mn USD. After a gloomy winter, our spring had arrived (symbolically! I live in the South Hemisphere).

Amidst these crazy times and the pandemic, we grew 5X. Our product became one of the most sold products in gourmet stores, with zero marketing spend. People were looking for shelf-stable products, plant-based, and healthy. This gave me the energy and confidence to double down on strengthening our technology and our team. I now have team members across 4 continents, many of whom I haven’t met in person but feel so connected to. 

Due to the pandemic, there has been huge democratization of access to information. The world has become small and accessible. There have been great opportunities in leaps and bounds for anyone with access to good internet. Conferences, meetings, and events from all corners of the world have come to just a click’s distance. I have been learning so much in so little time! I have been saving on all travel & wait hours in metros, cabs & airports and repurposing them to live and learn better. For example, I could never imagine MARK CUBAN answering my question live, or being a speaker at a world-class conference of like-minded people at Vegan Women Summit.

In spite of the pandemic, I have been able to lead Live Green to achieve a lot in 2020... from closing the SEED investment round, growing the team, putting the products on the shelves of one of the best retail brands of Chile, launching 2 new product lines, entering 2 new countries and completing a successful tech pilot with a US$ 6Bn food manufacturer to being recognized as one of the top 10 Startups of Startup Chile in 10yrs of their existence and one of the 100 Women leaders of Chile. 

So many positive things have started coming our way that it has started to feel like Magic. 

During a pandemic, the divide between the have and have nots only increases. We all have read about how Jeff Bezos' wealth increased by the day, while millions of SMEs and daily wage workers lost their livelihoods. For us at Live Green, this made our vision & resolve stronger... that people and profit can happen together. Most investors & judges at events, pitch competitions and acceleration programs always told us that working with SMEs is risky and not scalable. But, our SME production partner (in San Fernando) was able to grow as per our needs and give gainful employment opportunities to multiple people including other locals who lost their jobs in Santiago! They have all become extremely loyal and dedicated to our vision at Live Green. I can’t express how satisfying it is that we chose to go the extra mile by DOING BETTER Vs. Doing What’s Acceptable.

My personal life too has been great, in 2020. In addition to building so many great relations, I completed 10 years of my marriage (with my co-founder)! We grew so much together, as people. It was scary to start up as a couple, but it only made our bond stronger. 

And the BIGGEST shift for a city girl for 35+ years of age who was caught up in the vast ocean of consumerism has been to launch a plant-based food-tech startup, start living minimalist, making ‘LESS is more’ as her new mantra, and finally... moving into a tiny house (made from recycled shipping containers) on a farm… to really be the change you want to see in the world! In the past, I would sit within the 4 walls of my apartment, look at things on the internet and say ‘I would kill for views like these’, ‘I wish I could find my true purpose’ or ‘I would love to create a small dent somewhere on this planet’. 

But now, I can safely say - I am peaceful and happy with all my choices. As I reflect... Life is all about choices. You make some and some are made for you. Keep it simple! Don’t try to always be in control.

Thank you, 2020! 

Looking forward, 2021.