My NEXT Story
I will never forget my first impressions of Berlin. It was during a cold and foggy winter morning, riding a lime scooter to the renowned start-up event TechCrunch Disrupt, hosted in an old industrial building in Kreuzberg, a hip neighbourhood in the south-west of the city.
During my short twenty-minute ride, I experienced a thousand different sensations, and my artistic sense reached cloud-nine in a burst of a second. I saw everything, from huge parks, graffiti and unconventional street art, modern penthouses, and to a cosy Christmas market. All in the same place.
I felt like the city was created by artists supposed to collaborate but instead said f*ck it and did the opposite. Smart decision, my friends, you truly made something unique. I felt immediately at home in this melting pot of creativity.
Once I arrived at the venue, things went from good to great when I saw one of my heroes on stage, Andrew Reed (a real beast in the VC ecosystem) from Sequoia Capital talking about the thriving start-up ecosystem in Berlin. I had stars in my eyes during the whole speech, and I couldn’t resist imagining myself being a part of this sparkling ecosystem.
For those who wonder, being a daydreamer has always been my full-time job; aren’t we all dreamers at the end of the day? Dreaming is fine, but turning a dream into reality is challenging, and in my opinion, made up of two components, luck and hard work. I left Berlin with an inner fire, telling me it was not the last time the city has seen me riding on its streets (I guess it is useful to attend inspirational events after all).
I left as a new person, but that by itself would not be enough to get me there. I had to maximize both my luck, and work harder than ever if I wanted even a slight chance seeing Berlin again, and not as a tourist this time.
However, my number one priority was to graduate, distracting me from my dream and keeping me inside a bubble known as reality. Shame on you, reality, we are not good friends. But during every study break, the sparkling feeling of cruising on lime while discovering every neighbourhood of Berlin invaded my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Maybe asking for some luck, would help me? It was worth a try, so I asked, and I got it (ironically). And here it is, hold tight to your seat and drum rolls, please…But, instead of a rabbit coming out of the hat, or a blue genie out of a bottle, a full epidemic emerged, eradicating all my hopes. It was over and out for me and my dream. Sigh*
The whole world was panicking, and rightly so. But my luck kept flourishing, and my University closed down for the foreseeable future. Great, I thought (ironically). What should I do now? But I rapidly found myself having more time than ever. I was finally able to focus and I applied to hundreds of different positions, in a desperate attempt to get the wheels back spinning and give my dream another shot (welcome to my quarantine everybody). Maybe there was still some hope?
One day, I checked the spam on my mail (I guess I was incredibly bored at that time), and witness something unbelievable. I had received a message from a recruiter in San Francisco, telling me that my application was successful, and they would like to schedule an interview. My first reaction went something like this: what application are they talking about?
Let me explain. A big portion of time as a student is spent applying to hundreds of different positions, praying that the numbers game is in your favour. I had completely forgotten about my venture capital (VC) application at Samsung NEXT at its Berlin office. I was sure I had no chance, but I applied for fun, because why not?
Long story short, as you probably read from the title, I got the position, and my dream turned into a reality despite a world-wide epidemic. The moral of this story is not to shed a light on my accomplishment, but rather invite you all to never give up on your dreams and keep persisting even if the odds are stacked against you. What do you have to lose? Dream a little, and magical things will happen. It worked for me, and I am sure it will for you.
Now, it is time to achieve my NEXT dream, to support the most extraordinary founders building revolutionary companies, in a city I have always been in love with, Berlin.
Dreaming big,
Michelangelo Pagliara
