Towards the end of five years at boarding school together, my co-founder, Jan Kryca, and I had a series of conversations in what came to form the start of our company, Arda. It marked the start of much to come, and we’re only getting started.

In this episode, we tell our stories and the Arda story. It’s a candid conversation that gets to the foundations of who we are, what we’re building and why we’re building it.

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

1:30 - Backgrounds, family, communism, culture and bucking the trend

13:52 - Religion and its modern forms, building community

20:46 - Going to boarding school together, education

26:57 - Organisation and communication as pillars

35:29 - First conversations that came to form Arda

40:16 - Going to university in the US, why America, systems of higher education

48:22 - Raising first money and taking a trip to Miami

53:14 - Taking leave from university, real-world experience, responsibility

01:03:20 - Being young founders

01:06:58 - Personal development through founding a company

01:14:57 - The toughest moment of building Arda, dealing with unexpected adversity, taking control of your own wellbeing

01:22:00 - Dealing with disagreements, utilising different perspectives

01:26:13 - Why Arda?

01:32:51 - What we’re doing in The Gambia

01:33:41 - What’s on the horizon?

01:36:12 - Jan’s adventure

Between Shadows & Light elsewhere

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Mizt3mEGvss

Shubh

Website (Writing, Art Portfolio):  https://maldes.myportfolio.com

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhmalde/