#1 Public Newsletter
Who am I, and why should you care? A passionate 17-year-old innovator. So what was I busy with in the past 3 months?
Intro
I am a 17-year-old aspiring innovator and entrepreneur from Russia. I have a big mission in life — to create meaningful solutions and discoveries that will impact the world. My name is Dasha. And, welcome to my newsletter series.
What is this article?
I have decided to send out updates about myself as well as post them here, on Medium. These two are a bit different — this one has more content, and the newsletter is more about me— it touches on my personality, AND it includes some cool hacks.
My purpose here is to give my readers value so I am adding a lot of awesome quotes, tips, and resources that I loved. I believe you will love them, too.
The link to sign up for my newsletter will be at the end of an article.
Autumn Update.
What’s up?
TKS. I have joined the unicorn person Bootcamp called TKS, or The Knowledge Society. There I am learning about BCI/BMIs, AR/VR, wireless energy, space tech, and much more. Basically, they are focused on building superhumans. Currently, I need to pick my project(research topic) for the next months. I am in two minds choosing between Brain Machine(Computer) Interfaces and Space Exploration.
TKS is a program for young people passionate about changing the world. Everyone under 18 and with strong English is eligable to apply. Scholarships avaliable.
School. Right off the bat, I have a huge announcement related to school — I dropped out to pursue my dreams. Oops, kidding, but it’s partly true. Now I attend a popular Russian online school named Foxford so I don’t have to go to school, I only pass the exams twice a year and all the learning materials are on my laptop.
Startups. As some of you may know, I have worked on my own startups before. Learn more here. Quite a few reasons why I decided to break up with them for this year:
- I want to get a bunch of different and extraordinary experiences jumping from one thing to another, rather than be tied to one long-term project where I will have a set of responsibilities. I am sure I will get back to my “own startup thing” but not yet.
“If you look at the biographies of the most successful people, they all had extraordinary experiences. How are you going to be different, if you are doing the same thing as everyone else?” — Steve Jobs
2. I want to learn new things, that’s why I left school and joined TKS — to learn about cool technologies and science. I will potentially start a company around one of these fields that I am researching today. Leading your own company is a lot, you barely have time to research your minimum set of topics that you need immediately to keep your startup going. It is obviously different for experienced founders, but I’m not one of these yet. I don’t want to make a school project, I want to build a company — for this, I wouldn’t have enough time.
3. I have joined Nikita Kuraev, usually referred to as the wise friend, in working on his startup. I assume it’s obvious why. If it’s still not then it’s because he is wise. Therefore, I can learn from him.
Reading. Since the end of October, I have finished about 10 books📚. From Anton Chekhov to Nikola Tesla, to Alber Kamu.
Events attended.
I took part in many events this Fall, including(but not limited to):
- Harvard CS50 Puzzle Day where we solved 6 out of 8 puzzles(that’s a lot).
- TKS AI Hackathon where we developed a ‘sleep better, live better’ app.
- Silicon Valley Camp Hackathon where I met some awesome individuals like Pavel Cherkashin (VC), Gideon Nweze(Founder of World Blockchain Hackathon, Village); Max Goncharov, and Nick Davidov (Cherry Labs Founders, former VCs). My team and I worked on a UBER-like solution for booking a table last minute.
- Digital Inclusion Challenge where we worked on an AI-based algorithm that helps students concentrate during online lessons. It’s called AIgage.
- MIT Splash 2020 is a weekend in November where MIT students gather to teach high schoolers classes on a variety of topics.
- I also did a Harvard Business School Case Study(yes, I had to drop the “H bomb”). We have developed a strategy for Alibaba’s problem.
- Y Combinator Future Founders Conference where YC alumni and partners shared their stories and tips for being a female entrepreneur.
Is it getting boring? Let’s talk about some truly exciting stuff.
The projects.
It’s probably the most exciting news. However, most of the information is private so I can only share some general updates.
- Martenly: I have ‘officially’ joined my friend/coach, Nikita Kuraev, in his startup Martenly, as mentioned in the ‘What’s up?’ section.
Martenly is an all-in-one social media management tool. You can post on multiple social media platforms from Martenly, reply to DMs and comments, get analytics, and more. This is a great solution for both businesses and independent content creators.
I’m thrilled to be working on this project because I learn so much from Nikita and the startup idea is very cool. Currently, I am trying to build my portfolio on multiple platforms and it takes tons of time. We have already raised our Pre-Seed round and have an Angel Investor on-board.
Hopefully, we will open our public beta by the time of my next newsletter. If you want to try out the product, email me, we are already connecting our first users.
- Tesla: I have been researching Nikola Tesla and his inventions, and I found some fascinating resources/people. As I was told, the details should remain unseen for my safety. Email me, if you are into Nikola’s inventions.
- Stock Market: in September I have started trading stocks, and I made some money on it. It is an interesting experience.
- Exploring: I was exploring things like space exploration, BCIs/BMIs, AI, teleportation, active noise cancelling, VR/AR, and computer science.
Recs.
I have found this 5-minute lecture by Jordan Peterson very insightful. I do not consider myself anxious, but introverted and this video was helpful.
To read: Nikola Tesla’s Diaries, Ward №6 by Chekhov, Stranger by Alber Kamu.
To watch: check this playlist. For real, do check it out because I made it just for you. All the videos mentioned in the article are in this playlist.
For fun: The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, The Matrix on Netflix(till the end of December), Russian Cyberpunk Farm on YouTube.
Links, as promised.
Sign up for my email newsletter here: dashanikolaeva.com/newsletter . My website is dashanikolaeva.com.
Book me for a braindate at calendly.com/dashanikolaeva
If you want to try out Martenly(a social media management tool), or simply connect with me, email me at dashanikolaeva555@gmail.com
