I’m Kirsten: My time at wedo – Wedo.ai

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I’m Kirsten: My time at Wedo

Indy (the illustrious founder of the Wedo startup sweatshop) and I go back to the time where it would say “singer/songwriter/rockstar” on her CV – if she had one. Last year I listened to her CD for the 1st time in years…. 

… and a few hours later the phone rang, and it was Indy…. 

She had gone and founded her own company and wanted me to join her on the adventure! So, I did. 

Working with Indy is quite an experience (positive of course!). Which is something my teammates are discovering and trying to cope with 😊…. Keeping up with her fountain of ideas is like running a marathon, only with your mind…. 

But in a good way. 

I have no excuse though; having worked with her before, I knew what I was getting myself into…. 

Getting involved in a startup, taking a risk, bootstrapping, working 60/70 hours per week were not really something I envisioned doing at this point in my life (again). I was quite happy on my lazy COVID lockdown couch.  

Most jobs in my life have just dropped in my lap and I have accepted them and fared well with that strategy…. and for the moment it is working out again. 

I also did not really anticipate getting into marketing once more. That’s what I studied and started my career with, but I never found a product or service I was passionate about and that I felt good about marketing. Don’t we all have more than enough crap? I know I do…. But Wedo is different. 

The vision we have of Wedo is one of a community, where people connect to share their knowledge and make a living but can also just be social. If our tool can contribute to a future that is more sustainable by selling knowledge rather than things, I’m in.  

So, what does work at Wedo look like? First and most importantly we have a fun team. Hard-working and fun. Together we work around the clock. With India, Europe (Spain & Germany), UK (not sure if it still counts as Europe…) and the US we pretty much cover 24hrs. (Indy gets up at 4am, for my biorhythm the update that enables me to function properly before 8 am has not been installed – and I don’t want it…). But I might work until midnight or 1 am. It’s after midnight as I write this. Many days I wake up to a string of messages in my Teams thread with Indy: ideas, to do’s, brainstorms – more interesting to read than the news!  

We have a culture of hard work, fun, respect, and trust. All? Most? of us don’t have an ego, so there are no power plays or bad feelings. We just talk things out. 

My days seem to consist of a lot of meetings and writing to people, which means they are mostly spent in front of the computer. I’m either typing away on some message, plan, brainstorming, or reading.  

But I have also sewn the first (and so far, only) Wes*, built shelves with Indy when I visited our headquarters this spring, helped set up her office, and walked Indy’s dogs. 

I know everyone keeps calling them puppies, but they are a full-grown Labrador, a full-grown retriever and some other dog Indy found on her doorstep. (She’ll take in any stray on her doorstep – that’s how she came by her menagerie). They are big, they are monsters and rascals. They will tear the shoes off your feet to chew them up while you’re trying to escape! 

Except for that one trip to meet Indy and Dan (our COO) this spring, I am sitting by myself in the office, only “virtually” meeting everyone. In November we will have our first in-person team meeting when we go to Lisbon to Web Summit, and I am excited to be able to meet everyone in person! 

As far as my hobbies and interests go, I like to try all kinds of things. In my (far away) 20’s I used to skydive and practice self-defense. At the moment, in my (scarce) free time I like to and have always liked to travel, read and practice Aikido and Qigong. But I also add new things; that’s how in the recent years I have started diving, practice aerial yoga and gone on a week-long horseback-riding trail ride in South Africa. I have a few things on my list of things to try which include (but not limited to): sailing across the Atlantic, a trail ride in Mongolia and hiking along the coast in the Bretagne, France. So, I am really motivated and I intend to work hard to make Wedo a success so I can take time off to do all these things! 

The Future is Wedo and of course Wes, as some of my teammates have already stated! 

 

PS: If you’re a dog trainer reading this, please reach out to us. Beta test this app by helping Indy train those monster dogs. You’ll be doing everyone a great service!  

*PPS: If you have not met Wes, check out our mascot on the website or even better on Instagram. Macarena, our graphic illustrator is doing a fantastic job of bringing Wes to life. I just LOVE Wes, he’s our superhero!

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