Diary of a Brand person at Techstars – On universal stop signs. Week 10

My work week started Sunday at 1.30 am when I got up to put many many layers of clothes on and, together with Jen, Tim, and 3 cases of gear, headed to the top of Haleakalā. We found a little, somewhat wind-protected nook, at the right angle for the sun to come up straight in front of us, and then we waited, while the clouds moved around us, for about an hour. And let me tell you, clouds are cold as fuck!

As this is startup land, this was day 4 of our combined supplier meetings and video production without crew, so I was trying to take photos and help Tim switch lenses on the Arri, with completely frozen hands – not something I would recommend. But nevertheless, I believe we got some amazing footage and ended the day back down on sea level with some cocktails and a dip in the ocean right next to a turtle, so you don’t have to feel all that bad for me.

We were able to join our first TRAVARAS exclusive experience and it was so great to see the possibility of truly regenerative tourism firsthand. Our partners at Skyline Hawaii have been doing incredible conservation work on Maui for over 20 years, all because tourists came to zipline, and are now willing to invite our guests to join them on their efforts, learn about the native plants and the impact they have on the whole island, and let them plant some trees of their own. So cool! We are working on a video specifically for this experience and I can’t wait to share more with you, once we finalize it.?

While we are working on setting up more of these exclusive, culturally immersive experiences, you can book our TRAVARAS Trips and get all of our local recommendations and personal curation for your next visit. And be sure to make time for this special experience when you next visit Maui.

While Techstars programming this week was mostly focused on pitch practice, we also had the opportunity to learn Dan Zavorotny ’s growth hacks and ask him so many questions that we barely made it to slide 2 of his deck. Thanks so much for your time and wisdom. I am starting to notice, that while the super impressive mentors with big exits and decades of successful company growth are very inspiring, the more applicable advice usually comes from the founders who have recently (in the last 1-5 years) gone through Techstars or similar, and still hold vivid memories of the early struggles, when the team was small and the budgets even smaller. Dan had some excellent advice on how to divide and conquer, work your way up on the influence scale, and sell early and hard.?

On a personal level, I learned a valuable lesson, when Jen and I were on our 3rd day of non-stop meetings from 7 am to 8 pm, all around the island. At 9 am school number 1 called me to pick up a sick child, and while I thought that I couldn’t possibly step away from all of the many, many things that still needed to get done, school number 2 called and asked me to pick up the other child. So, I ended up finding Jen a ride and spent the rest of the day with my fever girly on the couch watching Gilmore Girls, while doing some work, instead of all the work, everywhere, all at once. The world didn’t end when I stepped away, and I was able to reprioritize. And actually, probably needed the rest just as much.

With only 2 more weeks to go, we tried to look at our long to-do lists and Eisenhower Matrix this shit, only to realize that really, everything matters and is so interconnected. But again, reminding myself that perfection is overrated at this stage, we are learning and readjusting expectations and goals as we go. And trust that we will get there eventually.?

Thank you for following along on this accelerated adventure.

Much love, Lisa