Mentored, episode 1: Diego Sáez Gil

Diego Sáez Gil mentoring Gen.5 #P18Startups

Mentored is a Facebook Live Series, where parallel18 visiting mentors share their knowledge, experiences and advice. Watch Live every Friday at 10 a.m.

Entrepreneur Diego Sáez-Gil raised $20 million in venture capital through his two enterprises, WeHostels, an app to reserve hostel spots, and BlueSmart, IoT travel products developer and manufacturer. He’s the inaugural guest mentor in P18’s Mentored.

On his start as an entrepreneur

I’ve been an entrepreneur for eight years. I’m originally from Argentina and my first enterprise was in New York. I went for an internship and decided to start my career there. My first enterprise was a mobile application to reserve hostels [WeHostels] and with that we were able to raise some capital. Then we made it to Startup Chile and two years later; on the next round we sold the our enterprise to a group in Boston. It was my first experience from starting a project to selling it.

And after that we had another idea, that lead to the creation of BlueSmart, which was the first smart luggage with GPS that could be tracked all over the world. We launched a crowdfunding campaign; then, we entered Y Combinator; we moved to California and opened two offices: one in China, for manufacturing, and one in Argentina, for software development.

We raised capital, we had a lot of ups and downs; we had a lot of success and then we started having some issues with regulations, when lithium batteries were prohibited in planes. We sold to a big luggage company in the U.S. It was a second experience filled with adventure and passion, and near death, but it ended well. We learned a lot.

On his decision to become an entrepreneur

When I was done with college I was working with companies and I didn’t see myself as an employee for a big company. I saw myself creating. So, I launched myself without really knowing it what it meant and in the path I learned. It was a path with a lot of cons, like the lifestyle. But, it also has a lot of pros: it’s a life with independence, growth and that makes it worth it.

On what drove the creation of his startups

Both enterprises have both something in common: they were solving problems that I had. [With WeHostels] I was traveling as a backpacker in Europe and there were no apps to reserve, you had to sit on the computer. Same with BlueSmart: the airline lost my luggage and I had the trouble of having to finding it. I set to create a luggage that could be tracked.

Both have in common that they’re were solving my problem, both have in common that they’re taking advantage of early emerging technology. With WeHostels it was mobile apps, and in the case of BlueSmart, it was IoT to sensor, hack things. And third both had to do with a passion mine: traveling. It is what I enjoy the most.

Personal problem + emerging technology + personal passion launched companies that were good opportunities and I had to passion to work them

On his accomplishments and the challenges faced to reach them

Before anything, everything was a group accomplishment. If there’s any personal accomplishment it was choosing and getting to be near a talented group of people and working together to reach those goals. It’s the most important thing: to be with people smarter than you, as passionate as you to create that service, that product.

The biggest challenge that an entrepreneur faces is their own head. It’s navigating the ups and downs without going crazy, getting too depressed, stressing too much, making decisions too quickly over emotions. You have to make decisions with a cold head. The solution I have a found is meditation and the personal work like like oneself and creating space to chill the mind, exercice

There are many challenges in having an inclusive group. You have to make sure that the communication is the best, the most transparent, as clear as possible. We are having more and more remote work, but even if everybody is in the same office there’s an intention of being transparent of communication. And if you don’t do it, it could bring horrible results

Advice for founders

There’s a basic advice at Y Combinator: “Do something that people want.” And to do something that the people want, you gotta communicate with them, especially in the beginning and adapt the product to them. It’s very generic and basic but very important, you gotta go to the basics of giving someone something value and you gotta talk to them.

Number two, do something with purpose. Life is too short to look into just making money, being famous. Do things that really contribute to society, to your community to the world and it lets you navigate with perseverance because you know it’s worth the effort.

Number three, take care of your head. Meditate, not getting too close to the result of your actions, but to your path, to your destiny and remember that everything passes. Have that philosophical view to take care of your head and those around you.

The work of the leader is to create a space where everyone can grow and take care just as much or more than you take care of yourself.