maybe we’re like a bunch of benjamin buttons

Newsletter #1 - November Update

“Maybe we’re like a bunch of Benjamin Buttons,” my co-founder Angie said to me after someone mistook us for high school students. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 film starring Brad Pitt who is a man who ages in reverse.

As goofy as it sounds, it resonated with me...unusually deeply. I graduated high school and college a year early. In many ways, I feel like I grew up really fast due to this – got corporate jobs right out of college. I’ve had to “teach” myself how to have fun and stop overthinking everything.

I had a deep sith level hate for school. I skipped both graduation walks, because as stated to my mom, “I am so over school.”

Even though I really detested school - I managed to find the fastest way out of it.

• I transferred to a self-paced high school, originally designed for student mothers. (no extra curriculars and a daycare on campus).

• I took accelerated summer courses.

• I found the chillest and most interesting classes by scouring ratemyprofessor.

• I found a loop hole concentration program that allowed me to skip certain beginner classes.

Ironically, my last year and half of college was when I transferred out of the business school and pursued my passion in film. That was when I started having fun, connecting with like-minded people and created work I was proud of.

And… that's where I find myself again – with badass co-founders and a tribe of creative minds to learn from.

Overall - being a Benjamin Button is a good thing. The older I get, the lighter I feel. I am grasping a better understanding of myself and the world, and I’ve been having a bunch of fun during that journey.

So, why was I in San Francisco for the last 3 months?

First of all, I am so truly blessed (10x)… and rather tenacious.

What led to all of this?

Back in February, I was skeptical and curious about web3, but I still wanted to learn. I decided to take a leap to attend Miami Hack Week for UXDesignathon’s hackathon.

I’ve never been to Miami.

I hounded the organizer to make sure it wasn’t a scam.

I truly thought the sponsored liquid death was alcohol and everyone was day drinking while hacking.

I felt a bit out of my league, but I ended finding a super cool team and we won.

Little did I know, here was where I would also meet the best co-founders a girl could ask for, all around our late twenties and thirties, who know how to make me barrel laugh.

After Miami Hack Week, I stayed in touch with Angie and we started putting together a UX accountability group and we “pitched” to Rebeca to join buildspace.

We gave her only 24 hours to decide… pretty hilarious that this was our first official pitch deck 🤣

What is buildspace?

buildspace hosts a program where people tune into livestreams weekly, accomplish checkpoints, and compete for money. In March, we launched Sprintfolio, a remote upskilling program that pairs designers and developers to create portfolio projects.

Out of thousands of projects, we were selected among 29 others to attend SF1, Buildspace's first in-person school in SF.

Within our 3 months in sf, Sprintfolio went through many transformations: a recruiting service, a fast-paced design agency, a hackathon design partner - but it just wasn’t quite right. We weren’t serving our original purpose the way we had wanted - uplifting junior and emerging designers.

Well, something magical happened…

At the end of every buildspace season, there’s an IRL event in SF or Dubai. At SF, I sat down randomly across from Nicholas Carey to have breakfast, and we talked about how bad online courses are. We decided to hack over the weekend and have continued collaborating ever since.

One statistic that stopped us in our tracks recently:

• 96% of online courses don’t get finished 😱

This is an MIT statistic reported in 2019 that has persisted for the last 5 years.

My co-founders were shocked! We generally finished courses before. It seems we are not the norm.

Nope, we are not normal at all.

Wise, young, crazy and old, we’re all determined to change online education.

To change something, you have to understand what it was, what it is now, and what it can be.

This was my last day at buildspace with my “diploma.” This is a photo I’m proud of and I’m glad “I walked the stage.” Attending sf1 wasn’t a decision I took lightly, and one that required a lot of sacrifice and unknowns.

I’ve learned so much in 3 months, about myself, about others, and what it takes to solve a BIG PROBLEM. I’ve been thinking a lot about my “alternative self-paced highschool,” and in many ways, it was modeled after online learning.

Every student was on their own path, but we were separated in subject classes. Some students stayed there for far too long, but I found a way to condense two years of classes into one.

Here are 3 things that got me to the finish line:

1. Purpose: Whether it was high school, college or buildspace, I knew what I wanted and why I was doing it. For buildspace sf1, I wanted to work with my co-founders and build something that can help junior jobseekers. I also wanted #2 on this list.

2. Freedom: With online learning, you can learn as fast as you want. While there was some structure and mentorship to buildspace sf1, we had free reign in what to learn (all geared towards the purpose #1) and how to implement our learning. Have some structure, but don’t be too rigid!

3. Community: Have people around you who are doing cool and difficult things and willing to share their experiences with you. Give them permission to keep you accountable and challenge you. This is invaluable to the creation process.

So what’s next?

We’re sticking with UX design, because this is the craft that keeps us up at night and where we have most empathy with our users. AI and tech moves at the speed of light, and so should we. Sprintfolio is launching an ai-powered UX design school.

We’re releasing a limited 3 week cohort to get UX designers to create their case studies 10xs faster. Designers will work alongside real companies and their trusty AI tutor. You can select between these projects: AI flashcards, AI E-greetings card website, and a Web3 Ethereum Bank.

If you’re interested in securing a spot, it’s only 30 bucks.

That’s only 10 bucks a week. This is like a fancy coffee, and maybe a muffin. 😉

I spent 5k and 3 months of my life creating my first UX case study and I don’t think anyone should go through that - especially with the future of work changing drastically due to AI. So why not learn with AI?

Deadline to secure your spot is Wednesday, November 8th!

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Some newsletter goodies

• I’ve been cackling during car rides, listening to AI for Humans. They train a new AI cohost for each episode and it’s hilarious. The last one I listened to the host was the future AI offspring of Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce.

• An emotional “hack”: Scientists found that a one-time act of thoughtful gratitude produced an immediate 10% increase in happiness and 35% reduction in depressive symptoms. When I’m feeling down, I have a song that I revisit to think about things that I’m grateful for. What’s yours? Feel free to share it with me :)

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