My happy place

A few days ago I was reflecting about the sentence "Go to your happy place". It's supposed to be some place you go to in your imagination when you close your eyes to the rest of the world, just when you don't want to take a little bit more of it, and instead of losing your mind you close your eyes and go somewhere else.

Or at least that's how I think that's supposed to work, since I haven't really felt the need to take a mind trip over there in a while.

It's been long overdue for me to write some closing thoughts about my previous entrepreneurship at Savy, after all, it was over so quickly and unceremoniously that there never was a good time for it. Then life happened, COVID kept going strong and... I just never got around to it. Until a timely apple algorithm decided, last week, to show me the cover picture on this post.

The thing that hit me the most about it, is how blissfully happy everyone looks in it. I know, it's a picture. You are supposed to smile. But there's something genuine about it that captured the joy of that particular moment, present in the air and on everyone's face when the picture was taken.

Because, in spite of all the challenges we faced, for the most part I believe that's the environment we lived in.

And that's what finally motivated me to write this piece: For nearly three years, I had the privilege of living in my happy place. That's what it always felt like, no matter how difficult things where, if a project was out of track, if the numbers weren't meeting our expectations, or even when I felt I had to let someone go from the team (which fucking sucks), I didn't feel like closing my eyes and going somewhere else. Not. Even. Once.

Entrepreneurship is funny like that, you get to experience so many feelings: joy and sadness, success and failure, clarity and despair, pride and shame and so much more. That you get to experience all of this is, in my eyes, reason enough to do it.

Unfortunately, everything must come to an end and 2020 was quite ruthless at ending things abruptly. Going back to the picture that prompted this post, I cannot predict the future but I do hope, sincerely, that everyone from the picture (and from our team) finds themselves, once again, in kind of environment. That once again, we get to experience this electric feeling of being surrounded by a team that's so much more than the sum of it's parts and that we're able to hold on to it for a bit longer than we were able to.

I'm incredibly lucky for having had that opportunity and I'm even more thankful to all the people that took part in those feelings and experiences. I loved being part of that team and having a small part in creating something that brought joy and happiness to the world and lives of many people.

To everyone in that picture (and the ones that aren't, you know who you are), for having shared this experience with me.

To my cofounders, for putting up with me during all these years.

Thank you for being part of my happy place.

And to my family, friends and girlfriend who dealt with my absence during the longest hours I've ever worked.

Felipe.

P.S. Some other memories

Allow me, for posterity, to share some other moments that come to memory from looking at this picture:

• Playing ping pong matches on the afternoon and how Chris' competitive nature drove him to become the best at it
• The after lunch Mario Kart game, to decide who would do the dishes.
• Being perpetually late to every meeting we had, to the annoyance of my very punctual and very french co-founders.
• The moment we released our first app to the app store, and the positive reviews started flowing in.
• Watching Camilo arrive to the office every day with a huge smile on his face.
• How sad everyone was when Sebastián left the team.
• Luis' unconcious habit of singing when he was deeply focused.
• Nathalia, Juanita and Abraham squished on top of each other working together on the office's iMac.
• Mathias 🐕.
• Camila teaching me how to dance properly, she did not succeed.
• Ruby Conf, where Luis and I drank half the beer at the hostal.
• My occasional gossip session with Sandra.
• Las charlas con el jefe de jefes
• The co founder late night meetings, regretting our choice of food for the evening 9 out of 10 times.
• That fancy dinner we had after closing our first investment round.
• Going out to party and having 1 bottle of guaro for every two people in the group.
• The tejo, the parties, the after work beers, the cocktail evenings, the speeches and so many more.
• Telling Gaetan he was right about the gamification project.
• Crashing Chris's bike for running out late. My hand still hurts.
• Practicing the Shark Tank pitch over and over with the team.
• Our first YC application video that took 3 hours to record.
• Our last YC application video that took 3 minutes.

So many more... I'm sorry if I missed some important ones, I might keep adding to the list just for the sake of memory.