Come see Mr White from Nomnom @Sofiaqt

A Frenchy at Techstars London — Part 1

Sami Moustachir
Startup Mag
Published in
2 min readAug 23, 2015

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A couple of months ago, I had the chance to be selected for the “Hackstars” program. That’s when my journey in London started.

First things first, who am I?

Well, it depends on the version you want to hear. The official one is that I am a 22-year-old French engineering student who is passionate about tech stuff and meeting inspiring people. But what most of people don’t know is that I am one of those kids who has no clue what they want to do later because engineering means everything and nothing to me at the same time.

The application process

When I applied to be an intern at Techstars London, I had just a vague idea of what it meant. I still had classes but I knew that I wanted to do something challenging during this summer.

The interview process was long. Very long. I think I saw six different people, and did everything from technical tests to personality interviews. One of the questions I remember was : “What is the most exciting thing you did yesterday?”.
Try to answer that question when all you did yesterday was passively listen to someone in class all day long!

After being accepted, I had mixed feelings. I was excited because I knew I would meet awesome people and be challenged like I had always wanted. But, I was also scared. Scared to live for the first time in a foreign country. Scared to not meet the expectations. Scared to fail.

So far so good

It’s been more than a month now since the program started and, well, it’s been awesome! I’m working among eleven amazing startups (you can see the current batch here if you’re curious). I’ve met mentors with incredible backgrounds and founders with very impressive stories. I’ve read a lot and learned loads in just a month. I’m also discovering what it’s like to work in a co-working space. We are currently based in Warner Yard if you want to come by and say hello.

Come see Mr White from Nomnom @Sofiaqt

What’s next?

You probably noticed the “part 1” in the title. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the all point of the program for me is to find out what I want to do with my life. Surely, I’ll finish my first degree. I’ll go back in January for my last six months. Then, it’s complete darkness. Phd? Start-up? France?
What could be the best option to fully use my potential and have no regrets?

To be continued…

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Sami Moustachir
Startup Mag

Data lover, AI thinker, Founder @biasimpact.org. Eating knowledge one bit at a time 🍎. http://samimoustachir.com