A year of reflection and new adventures to come
In the quest of making a difference 🌍
For the first time in a year, my name is not at the bottom of the The Hub email digest for job updates. As of today, I’m no longer an employee of SUP46 and thehub.se.
An incredible journey has come to an end. 😿
Growing a network in the tech community
It started last summer when Petra Sundell, SUP46 Community Manager, announced a “new cool secret project” on Linkedin. I “completed” my bachelors thesis and was ready to commit full-time to getting my startup off the ground whilst interning at SchibstedMediaGroup under the mentorship of Miriam Grut Norrby over the summer. This opportunity to work with her and their investment team was part of an award I won for my startup, which I expand more on in a blog post “Meet the team - Arish Karadaghi”.
The cool secret project being The Hub, it occupied every waking moment and I even began to sketch it’s launch even before I was offered the role. After speaking to SUP46 CEO, Jessica Stark, whom I admire greatly, the prospect of working on The Hub became real. My new job; to work with the SUP46 team and bring The Hub platform to Sweden. My startup was unfortunately going to have to take a backseat for now.
If you live and work in Stockholm you will realize that in order to get anywhere you need to have a network. Growing up in a small municipality 30min northwest of Stockholm doesn’t give one the same opportunity from start to put your name out there. I promised to give it a year and grow the platform, but also my network). Joining the Hub was the best decision in my life!
Building a new job platform
TheHub.se
I started in August, 2016, and by October we had launched the platform with 100 Swedish startups. Together with my friend, Marika Tedroff, we interviewed and created content for over 50 startups in Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, and Linköping. Finally a platform for startups! 👌
Our vision statement says it all;
“The Hub is an open digital platform tailored to the needs of growth startups. We aim to give visibility to all Swedish startups and via the platform assist startups with the recruitment of talents, fundraising, best practices, useful tools, and also by listing all the relevant tech events out there.”
Today, less than a year later, the platform is the leading job platform for tech startups in Sweden. I’m proud to say that over 715 startups have joined, over 1 100 jobs have been published, 7 000+ job applications have been received, and 100 investor profiles have been featured. With more than 25 000 visitors per month and an average of little more than 40% returning visitors to the platform, many Swedish startups have enjoyed success in recruiting and finding investor partners.
Work hard play hard
It’s hard to put it into words how this last year have gone. The learning experience have been exponential. Google Analytics is my new friend having helped me grow a sizeable following in our SoMe channels (=social media – yeah it’s SoMe nowadays 🤓). I’m officially measuring everything there is judging by the hours spent analyzing data & conversion rates. I have seen startups employ hundreds of different recruiting strategies, read thousands of CV’s, helped both founders and business angels to connect. The most fun was meeting all the amazing people in the tech ecosystem and attending my first SLUSH event. The Hub even enabled me to travel around Sweden to places I never been in (hello Umeå! 👋).
With success comes sacrifice. I stretched myself working on my startup and The Hub plus managing an accounting business. I have lost some valuable time with my family and friends and they ended up having to pay the price. Long working hours, no workouts, fast food and sleep deprivation finally took it’s toil on my health. One morning on my way to the office, I collapsed on the subway and only then did I realize that I need to prioritize and let go of some of my projects. I was lucky. It would had been a total breakdown if I had continued for some more months. Do I regret doing all this? No! This realization helped me build more character. With clarity and a spring in my step I am setting up a new mindset, new targets and new adventures for my future.
I came to Sweden with my parents when I was two years old. Growing up seeing my parents work hard and sacrificing their dreams for their children instilled in me the value of hard work. It is the only way to achieve greatness and reach your dreams and goals. This is the biggest lesson from this year. I realized that it has shaped me more than I thought and I appreciate this even more today.
A day of thanks!
I was a SUP46 community member before I was hired and I will continue to be long after my last day. It’s the best startup hub out there in Sweden and also the Nordics. I’m excited to see what’s next from the team, especially from Stina, the new Country Manager for the Hub and the Nordic Hub Team.
I would like to thank everyone at SUP46, everyone helping me with The Hub, the other hardworking country managers’ of The Hub (Raja, Giulia, and Silja), the amazing team at Rainmaking (Ninna, Mathias, Andreas, Sophie, Jeppe & the rest), the Danske Bank crew (Jonas, Johan, Klavs, Pascal & the rest), and also a special thank you to all the founders and entrepreneurs for supporting The Hub by using it! 🙌
What’s next?
This post is my reflections on the year and also a personal announcement letting you know that I am setting up a new startup and looking for more opportunities to grow, in business but also personally.
Building something that makes a difference have always been a passion of mine. Starting today, I’m in a quest of recreating learner driving with technology. Feel free to follow along our journey.. 🚗
I am also joining as a new member of the Advisory board for a PR agency. I look forward to this new challenge.
In addition, I would like to keep connecting with inspiring professionals and I’m looking for a mentor that wants to help me grow to become a great leader. Feel free to reach out if you have anything interesting you want to discuss (intros welcomed).
Let’s stay connected:
Much love ❤️,
Arish
