Sanza Bulaya: Friend, Inspiration, and True-Believer
In April of 2022, I lost an important friend, a powerful inspiration, and one of our first believers. Without him, I might not have pursued the path I am on now. This article details his impact on my life and Labfront.
2014
I first met Sanza through a mutual friend after arriving in Taipei for a year to join HTC. It was 2014, I had just left a volunteering gig in Thailand, somewhat disillusioned with the NPO/NGO system and the lack of scalability, and had joined a tech company to try the other side, the capitalist side.
This was way before I had any idea that I’d do a startup. Back then, I was a lost kid, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. He was a banker with a successful career but you might not know unless you asked. “Banking, that’s what I do to pay the bills,” he would say. But it's not something he’d bring up. Instead, my first impression was our discussion about Revver, his fashion magazine — something he did on the side, for fun.
Growing up where I did in America, I’ve always thought about what I did for my job as the answer to “What do you do?” Sanza showed me something different. If you asked Sanza, banking would be one of the last things he’d bring up. Editor of a fashion magazine, boxing enthusiast, charismatic host, magnet for authentic people, and most recently, cellist (he’d picked that up during the COVID-19 lockdown in Hong Kong — who does that?!)
He was the first example I had that you could do what you wanted on the side while you pursued a career. And that you were more than your job.
Later that year, when Jordan was in Ethiopia and reached out about a side project to help build a system for ambulances (what eventually became Emergency Dispatch Africa, operated by Nordic Medical Centre in Ethiopia: documentary here), I jumped at the opportunity.
Now, thinking back, I wonder how much of that decision was subconsciously influenced by Sanza’s example.
2015
After my year in Taipei was up, I was floundering about what I should do. The “gap” year I was on had now stretched to nearly two years, and started to feel the pull to go back to the ‘default’ track. But I had also experienced building something for the first time. Launching Ethiopia’s first full-circle ambulance system with Jordan opened my eyes to new possibilities.
Why not try something new? A few months later, in the fall of 2015, Jordan and I moved to Taipei to start Kiipo (which would eventually become Labfront).
With no money, no real plan, and limited skills, our only guiding philosophy was that we wanted to make the world a better place, focusing on health (pretty idealistic and naive, yes, I know, but hey, we were young).
I remember having dinner with Sanza and a bunch of friends at a Thai restaurant, one of the first get-togethers with friends in Taipei where we shared with friends what we were up to — why we were back.
I don’t remember what exactly I said, but, apparently, it was very convincing. Sanza gave us his full support, loving the idealism.
2016–2017
Over the next couple of years, we worked on a variety of things to try to make money to hire team members. Not knowing about the world of VC and startups, we thought we needed to make money first, then hire people (though no longer the traditional startup way, it also served us well). We ended up working with a variety of big corporates including Huawei and an LVMH subsidiary on everything from health data analytics to industrial design.
When Jordan and I were too busy with our noses to the grindstone to remember we needed breaks and social interactions, Sanza would pop up with an invite to a hip party — some Revver or other fashion/creative-people event or a ‘small’ get-together at his house. It helped to break the monotony, get us out of our bubbles, and provide us with a little more inspiration.
When we got our first office in 2016, we even hosted a little party and returned the favor. Shitty photo, and poor lighting. But whatever!
Though I remember these years fondly, brimming with hope and possibility, they were also some of the most directionless. But Sanza was always there, supporting from the side.
2018–2019
After a couple of years of floundering — taking on random projects to pay the bills — we had built our team up to 15 people and had finally started figuring out a bit of what we could do as a scalable business. Though we were unsuccessful in fundraising for our first venture (Lona, a sleep wellness solution that used wearables to give AI-based coaching advice– I think we were a year or two too early), we did discover another need. That was around research and it would eventually become Labfront.
Though we finally had a direction and a path forward, financially, these were actually the hardest years. To pursue Labfront, Jordan and I had made the decision to wind down all our original contracts and consulting projects. This meant no more income — we began burning through savings.
I remember those days trying to avoid spending any money at all, limiting myself to $3 for food a day. Those days I remember Sanza inviting us out for drinks or food, covering the tab multiple times knowing we were struggling entrepreneurs.
Those days were also when my relationship really developed with Sanza, having progressively deeper conversations.
I distinctly remember a lunch at Costumice when he was visiting Taipei. Sanza had moved to Hong Kong after hitting the career ceiling in Taipei. He was talking about how superficial things were, especially in the finance world. Without the same communities he had built up in his decade in Taipei, work was more draining than before.
That’s when we first started talking about the future. After his career in banking, what did he want to do? I challenged him to try to put his skills to use, but for things he believed in. Combine his work life with his values, instead of doing side gigs.
That day, we started planning for our future impact-focused venture fund.
After a few years in Hong Kong, we agreed to check-in.
“Let’s start this in five years.”
After that meeting, it was probably half a year before I saw Sanza again. This time the location was in Hong Kong. I had a short trip though I no longer remember the purpose. I just remember the rooftop bar, the customary non-alcoholic beverage for Sanza, and a Gin and Tonic for myself (thanks again for buying Sanza!). This time the updates were better. After residing in Hong Kong for a bit, he found some communities to balance his work life. He was also making progress on creating the network for our future fund.
I could never have imagined that this would be the last time we’d meet in person.
2020
The year of the pandemic was a rollercoaster for Labfront. Early COVID-19 fears destroyed the financial markets and killed our chances at both fundraising and sales. Many early-stage investors became gunshy and all non-essential research in schools (our initial market) was basically on pause.
With no way to raise money or make money and with only 3 months of runway, we made the hardest decision of our young careers:
We took the nuclear option, cutting the team from 12 strong down to just 3 people on the payroll. Keeping only essential engineers to keep the product development going.
We barely survived, but we did. And by the end of 2020, the world had changed.
The pandemic created a new landscape where remote work was the norm and the repercussions were spreading through all industries, including the slow-moving research market. After successfully partnering with technology giant Garmin, we leveraged their network to reach our first few paying customers.
Customer feedback helped us understand we were finally on to something, and at the perfect time. We were finally ready to raise capital.
In December, I called some of my closest friends and networks to see if they were interested in joining us to change the world of health and research.
Sanza was one of my first calls.
He was also one of our first “Yes”.
Though he was a wealth manager with multiple massive accounts and literally thousands of investments under his belt, this would be his first-ever investment using his own money. He was so excited and such a believer that he even told his friends and family, and they joined the round too.
Building off our momentum, we closed $1M in 3 weeks and kicked off Labfront to fix the world of research.
Sanza and I were now officially working together. And we were well on our way to starting our impact fund, with Labfront as his first case study as a fund manager.
The plan was for Labfront to build up the business and proof over the next few years, and he’d be able to leverage the initial success and his new network to kick off his fund. I’d join as an EIR, advisor, and venture partner.
We were dreaming big.
2021–2022
The reality of launching a startup is never as straightforward as it might look. And over the next year we ran into every challenge that first-time founders face. But Sanza was always there, supportive, never judging as we walked through our mistakes and how to improve. Counterintuitively, this actually made me want to succeed more. I’d rather be yelled at by financial investors than feel like I let down a friend.
Unfortunately, with COVID travel restrictions affecting both Hong Kong and Taiwan, we were unable to have any face-to-face meetings. And with myself focused on grinding out Labfront, we didn’t have a chance to talk much.
Other than some words of encouragement in reply to quarterly investor updates, our only other correspondence was a Merry Christmas in 2021.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
A week after our Q1 2022 Investor update, I found out the terrible news. Jordan was messaging me on a Saturday on Slack, and I had a couple of missed calls on my phone.
“Sanza is gone, he passed away.”
The day I found out was Saturday. Since Jordan and I weren’t in his traditional friend circle and I didn’t use social media, we didn’t find out until Jordan saw the news on Facebook that there would be a memorial service held by friends in Taipei later that day.
He was so important to his community here that even though he had been living in Hong Kong for the past few years, friends in Taipei held a service for him.
That was one of the most challenging days of my life.
At the service, I was a mess. Having just found out, I hadn’t had the time to put together my thoughts. I vividly remember wanting to say something but also knowing that I both didn’t know what to say and didn’t know if I could. The wound was just too fresh.
When they asked if anyone had anything to say, I wanted to stand up.
But I couldn’t. And I will forever regret not going up to say a few words.
I was overcome with regret. I wish we had the chance to chat before. I wish I had taken the time to initiate a call after Christmas. I wish so many things could have happened that could have prevented this.
But this is life and we don’t get to make those decisions.
So, now, almost 9 months since he passed away, I’m finally ready with the message I wish I could say to him.
Dearest friend,
Hey man,
Sorry for the late message. I’ve been meaning to write this forever, but just haven’t known how to start. I kept writing and rewriting, since I had the idea to make it really poetic and stuff. To match your creativity.
Man, that was a bad idea. I scrapped that after realizing that 1) it would probably take forever since I need to, first, become a good writer, and 2) you wouldn’t have cared. I also haven’t had time (or, more precisely, have been making the excuse that I haven’t had time) to process your death.
The truth is that I’ve been running away, using work and the crazy startup schedule to avoid it. But yeah, this year has been a crazy year. A lot of personal growth and no more running away. So, here goes nothing.
First, an update. I’ve been working my ass off to make sure that I’ll live up to the promise I made. Next year will be the fifth year, can you believe that? Okay, I’m a bit behind schedule, but that’s why we agreed to “check-in in 5” right? It was never a hard deadline!
That being said, I’m also confident that by the end of this year, we’ll have hit the growth and scale phase. Wherever you are, I’m sure you get the investor updates, so I won’t bore you with those minor details.
Let’s talk about the important stuff.
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget the plan. I’ve been working on it. We’ll show the world that scalable social impact and financial returns are not mutually exclusive. Actually, long-term value, that’s what will change the world of financial investing. I’ll make the fund happen.
I’ve already talked to a bunch of friends and they are all onboard. We even have a name for it. Let’s call it the [name redacted]. Companies like mine that traditional VC pass over all the time since it doesn’t look like the market is big enough or the mission seems too long-term. That’s what we want. People that are willing to tackle the challenges everyone else doesn’t see, and are in it for the long run. We’ll show them, I promise.
Lastly, I want you to rest easy knowing that I’ll do what I can to take care of your family, if they need it. You should know that if they ever need anything, we’ll be there to help, so don’t worry, we got you!
I’ll keep this short since there’s no point talking about regrets. You and I already know it and that’s all that matters. I just want to say, it was my pleasure to know you, and to have shared a bit of time with you. It was an honor to call you a friend.
Thank you for being a friend, an inspiration, and a believer. Thank you for being a light in this dark world. Thank you for teaching me about the preciousness of life. Thank you for the inspration, the love, and the support.
Stay fresh my man– though I’m sure you have your pick of suits where you are. Enjoy the peace, you’ve earned it.
Miss you tons.
Love,
Chris
Ps. Can you believe that when we met, none of this had even happened yet? It’s pretty crazy to think about, I’m sure that if we were told back then where we’d be heading, neither of us would believe it.
