How to build a unicorn from a small village?
Journo Birds August 24, 2024
Welcome back to Moldova Matters! This article is written by Journo Birds. Moldova Matters is collaborating with this team of journalists to share their stories about Moldovan culture and life. You can follow Journo Birds directly on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or their website.
Moving from Silicon Valley to a remote village—and back to your parents' place—can have its perks.
The startup world can be competitive. Entrepreneurs are searching for innovative and disruptive ideas to take over the world. But can you innovate and disrupt in a traditional, quiet place? Do you need to be in Silicon Valley or London to “make it”?
We met two big dreamers in small towns to find out how they keep their minds sharp.
Viorica Vanica (30) proudly rolls out a broad sheet of paper on her bed. It has her steps for a happy life on it. In ten years, she wants every eighth person to use the self-therapy platform Selftalk, which she and her co-founder Elena Oprea (27) are working on. Her dream plan states that she needs to stay fit and authentic.
You could hear a rooster go “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” from the garden. The rainwater stands still in the buckets, waiting to be poured on cucumbers. Viorica lives in a small Moldovan town. One of the biggest attractions is a nearby goat farm. Most people dream about getting married or a promotion, not changing the world.
But only last year, her home address was in San Mateo, in the Bay Area. She won investments and spoke to the most ambitious people in the world. Once, she drove a convertible by the beach—a long-time dream of hers! People would take 4 am flights just to hear her speak.
Now, there is a lot of silence. Viorica keeps the music on in her earbuds when she works. “It keeps me focused!” she explains. Morning cold showers are her daily mental pinches. She has long walks in the evenings to clear her thinking.
Sometimes, her co-founder, Elena, comes to visit her. She also moved back to her childhood Moldovan village, Lozova, an hour’s drive from the capital.
Elena organized workshops and public events in Silicon Valley to discuss mental health. Here, Elena is the first one to bring the topic up. She has movie nights with her relatives. Here, she couldn't go for a jog. Everyone would judge her for running aimlessly. Villagers don't jog. They walk to the field to work.
Being back home makes you confront things. “When my family argues, I just tell myself - this is how they express their anger,” she said. “If something triggers me, I have to deal with it.” She intervenes less now. And tries to accept her family as they are.
In Silicon Valley, much of their time went into driving, finding parking, and ensuring nobody would break into their car. Here, their moms bring them food. Elena's mom brought it to us, too. The whole table was covered with plates—compote, pancakes, chicken soup—about five different dishes for a “quick bite.” When we left, she packed in waffles and cherries she picked from their garden. Most food here is grown by themselves, including the chicken.
Looking for Peace
“To start, all you need is access to the internet,” Elena said. Their company, Selftalk, makes professional therapy available on the phone for anyone. In San Francisco, they were selected to be part of the Draper Accelerator. They received an Angel investment of about 178,000 euros and a grant of 60,000 euros from the UK government. They were chosen to participate in Tim Draper’s pre-accelerator program, Hero Training.
Right now, Elena and Viorica are looking for the right match between what they want to create and what the market needs. They are testing sales channels and interviewing customers. Most of the work is done on their laptops. Elena: “It could be done in any rural part of Moldova!”
They are not the only ones dreaming big in a small place. Zoho founder and tech billionaire Sridhar Vembu moved from Silicon Valley to his village in India. Annie Dean left the Bay Area for the country and co-founded a career support platform ReCastSuccess. There are many examples.
“I was looking for peace all around the world,” Elena explained. “The peace I needed to think clearly about the strategy of the startup. And I found it back home.”
When Elena and Viorica were still in Silicon Valley, they refused a clause one of their investors wanted to add to the contract. That decision left them without money and pushed them to cut costs.
The decision wasn't easy, but they quickly realized that moving back to Moldova had some perks. They could be closer to their developers' team. In small Moldova, they stood out the minute they landed. At one of Moldova's Startup Summits, they met Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, and handed her the book they had written about creating peace of mind.
Moldova has the youngest startup scene in Europe. Things are only taking off slowly. Many people still live in villages, but they, too, can dream big.
Watch Viorica explain her daily routine here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8cjDXmNCKB/
Watch Elena explain why working in a village gives her an advantage: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Z_wHdNd71/
Selftalk
Elena and Viorica founded Selftalk, a startup that gives users access to professional therapy and self-therapy journeys. They raise awareness about mental health among their 1800 users. Before developing the idea for Selftalk, Elena worked for a London company where a team of experts helped founders' ideas come to life. It was a tough school! Her boss called 90% of the ideas bullshit. “I learned a lot!”
The idea for Selftalk came from a therapy course. Instead of paying 250 UK pounds for a therapy session, Elena took a Rapid Transformational Therapy course to learn about mental health. This is where she learned how to create therapy audio. That got her thinking: there should be more audio like this!
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