The Culture

Naveed Malik
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

A few standing desks, some low carb lunches and soylent for the macros, it’s safe to say we’re the California cohort at Tech Stars KC. With a dollar and a dream, the team uprooted and landed in a haven overflowing with hospitality and charm.

Our team consists of three co-founders, a remote team of developers in Denver, California, and Africa, a social media intern here in KC, and myself in sales. SaRA recently hired a front-end developer, Nalubega Cecilia Caroline. She works for Andela, a company investing in Africa’s most talented developers, and integrating them into tech companies. She has been nothing but stellar thus far, working proactively to help meet our goals for an MVP after our initial product refresh.

The cofounders obviously have a perception of what the culture is like because they created it, but I can attest to the culture since it was designed for team members like myself.

I had my reservations about moving to another state to work for a startup, but the mission of SaRA Health aligned with a cause dear to my heart. The mission was a push factor and provided an adrenaline rush to move and prove I could survive outside California. After this initial energy was depleted I knew some intrinsic factor would have to be the pull factor. That factor has been the culture our CEO, Steven Coen, has created. This has been the catalyst keeping my doubts, fears, and uncertainties at bay.

The transition has been rocky at times, but every so often I get these signs that this was the path I was meant to walk. These affirmations have been advice from the co-founders, and taking a step back and realizing how much I’ve learned working at a startup.

Having a sizeable amount of life and professional experience, I listen to everything the co-founders say as a student of the game, strategically noting important insights I hope to carry with me into the future. Recently, I was talking to our COO, Ryan Ferguson, about traveling and being an itinerant worker, and he had some thoughts that reinforced why I should be here,

“You should travel as much as you can while you’re young before other commitments impact how mobile you can be.”

This stuck with me, and I took it as a sign; the experience at SaRA, TechStars program, and KC, in general, has allowed me to interact with talented people from different walks of life. Also, Steven has provided ongoing feedback and a key piece of advice has stuck with me.

“Everything in life is a negotiation, and before every negotiation, you have to be the most prepared one in the room”

This advice gave me comfort because it’s a skill I’ve lived and died by in the past. I don’t consider myself extremely charismatic or a people person per se, but being the most prepared is a variable I have control over. Realizing the things I am in control of has allowed me to hedge my weaknesses by exerting my strengths. I still plan to develop better interpersonal skills, but I take pride in the process and being the most prepared one in the room. This is a good segue into the second affirmation, realizing how much I’ve learned in a short time.

Taking a step further back, I’ve learned how to learn. With a large bulk of information and data, I’ve been able to apply the 80/20 rule and selectively learn the 20% that leads to 80% or more understanding. This skill came out of necessity by working in a fast paced environment. Working at a startup there’s no formal training, you just go off of instinct and start tackling issues as strategically as you can. If there’s a skill you don’t have, you enroll in the University of YouTube and Google to learn it.


It’s worth noting that in the first few weeks I struggled to just catch up with the material, and understand our business model. However, even in our fast-paced work, I was given advice and the freedom to make mistakes, and that has been the true testament of culture for the SaRA team.

Thanks to Steven Coen

Naveed Malik

Written by

Data Analyst | SaRA (Tech Stars '18) | Fitness | Basketball

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