An immigrant entrepreneur's love letter to San Francisco.
Dear San Francisco,
I am writing this letter from Austin, a new city I moved to after living and breathing the Bay Area vibe for over a decade. You are the city where I found love, startup, and loss. You are the city where I discovered my immigrant footing. You're the city where I saw what it really means to be an entrepreneur. I don’t know if I can really say this is a farewell letter because who knows if life will get me back to you, BUT it indeed is a love letter that expresses all the things and moments I am grateful for while living in this golden city of dreams. I am sure there are too many moments I will miss and too many that I have forgotten.
Some of these will be sad and sour, and others will be happy and full of nostalgia. But, each of these moments is worth mentioning because they have been an experience for an immigrant who came to the US. After all, she was in love with this human she had just met, and together, they had a dream to build something meaningful. And together, we built a life, a business or 2, a failed startup, and figured out our visas and immigration. And I hope any aspiring entrepreneur, once in their lifetime, gets bestowed with the honor of living in this city, the truly special city of San Francisco.
In the following letter, I will share some very special moments, even though they are not all happy….
Dolores Park & Fort Mason - thank YOU!
I remember Dolores Park being the first place Anshul got me to right after I landed in November 2013. It had such an energy of freedom, expression, and authenticity. Both Dolores Park and Fort Mason became our haunts for the next decade as entrepreneurs.
The best memories are of us sitting and brainstorming strategies for our venture-backed startup, venting about our visa issues, silently sitting together when potential investors rejected us, and finally raising our first round in a crowdfunding campaign by asking people to donate money in these two iconic places! These two iconic places have witnessed the highs and lows of our lives and have brought Anshul and me such peace!
HULT International Business School- Thank you!
I don’t think I can ever thank San Francisco enough without thanking Hult! My social entrepreneurship journey started here with the professors, my mentors, my early supporters, and my first job; everything happened here! The opportunities that this institution has given me are just so heartening! Bringing me back as a professor and commencement speaker has been a true honor.
Downtown Thank you!
I have been lucky to live in San Francisco Downtown, where startups throng and ideas thrive! I have so many moments where I felt truly alive and grateful to experience it all. My TEDx talk! Building an epic network of the most intelligent minds and getting first access to the latest technology that will change how humankind works and grows! I hope every 20-something in the world gets to live and breathe the magic that is SF downtown!
The inspiration - Thank you
If there was an opportunity, I took it! If there was a seat at the table, I took it! If there was a spot to share my vision, I took it all because San Francisco gives you this burst of energy that makes you courageous. It makes you stay up at night and keep going after a million rejections! It makes you tick. The time we were part of Zynga’s Co-lab accelerator, or the time we presented our startup at The Expat Women conference, AWE conference, Women in tech conference, or when I won the social entrepreneur award at SOCAP and so many more! 100+, to be clear!
The people who saw us, vouched for us, rejected us, helped us, supported us, let us - Thank you
Anshul and I started from square one in a city where you have to know someone to be someone, and boy, this city did not disappoint. We met some of the most intelligent and empathetic people who vouched for us, supported us even when we failed, and made sure we were OK! As an immigrant who felt alone so many days at a time, without any financial or psychological security, this was a blessing.
I want to take a moment to thank the people who rejected us, too! My initial thought when I was rejected, was anger and hoping to have the feeling of ‘I told you so’ one day, BUT honestly, it was due to the rejections of people and opportunities that I was truly able to move beyond my limited thinking at the time and pivot multiple times to build a life that I truly love. Had I not been rejected or ghosted, I would have never realized the changes I had to make to create a fulfilling life.
The panoramic views and the pandemic that brought the silence in us - Thank you.
For a lot of people, the pandemic was a dark time, and for Anshul and I, who were so far away from our family, it was too, BUT it also brought us our BIG move, physically and metaphorically speaking. The move from San Francisco to a small village of 800 people in Occidental, in Northern California that would become our home for almost the next 3 years and the huge shift in our identities that we need not be in San Francisco to take the spirit of SF with us! It was surreal, humbling, and freeing. In that village, we spent rethinking all our years in SF and how we could take the best and leave the anxiety, the burnout, and the hustle and redefine what it meant to be living a successful life.
The redwoods and people of northern California changed us, maybe forever, and left something in us that ignited a wave of intrinsic motivation to show up as we are, live the present moment, and be okay with grief and failure.
Thank you!
The YC rejection and the Caltrain journey - Thank you
And if we are thanking all the rejections and shifts in my life, then I truly don’t think I can do without mentioning the epic rejection of YC we faced and the Caltrain ride back from Mountain View to SF that changed our entrepreneurial journey forever! When our application was accepted at YC, and we got invited for the YC interview, there was just nothing I felt I couldn’t achieve. I thought I was in already, but then the interview happened, and we were rejected. Anshul and I were really struggling with our visas at the time, drying up our financial reserves, working tirelessly round the clock while working multiple jobs and this rejection was truly a blow because we were really hoping to win one!
So, as we took the train from Mountain View to SF, we barely spoke to each other. We needed the silence and some time to rethink whether this path was still for us. And then we met the team from Slush conference in the same Caltrain, which led us to Finland. Our research for our edtech AI startup took place there, got us venture-backed, and got us to our first 1000 paid users. Just imagine if we were not rejected by YC! The opportunities for growth we would have missed! I think sometimes we start thinking that silicon valley is EVERYTHING! And it most times is but this change told us so much about the world view and research on education.
It changed me as a professor, educator and I still continue to bring that methodology in my lectures and at New Founder School.
SF, you truly built the dream for us two, Arjita and Anshul! Thank you for all the ebbs and flows and for making us fearless and anti-fragile (as Nassim Taleb would say)
As we embark on our new journey in Austin, I come with an open heart and energy to accept everything this new place has to offer, Anshul and me!
Until next time, SF! I’ll carry you in my heart!
Love and Light,
Arjita