London
Late noughtys, I travelled through Europe, attended and occasionally presented at trade shows and tech events. I met many aspiring people, some on their way to “success in tech.” In 2006 at the first Next Web conference in Amsterdam, I stayed at the same hotel with Tim Ferriss. I had a pretty encouraging conversation with him. He published “The 4-Hour Workweek” the following year. Last week I saw a guy at a coffee shop in Jakarta reading that book. It brought back memories of the ten years I spent on the plane and crushing Airbnb. It must have been Tim’s ‘vagabond bug.’
In 2007 I enrolled in the Imperial College London MBA program, moved to the UK, and expanded my company’s business to Europe. Luckily the global financial crisis quickly brought me back to my senses before I paid the tuition in full and signed a lease on a flat in London. The same turmoil disrupted my company’s revenues, and I had to sell it for almost nothing. As I found out last year, it still operates and thrives today. It provides jobs to over 200 people, moving the same great work as we did back in days.