Why asking for the job was the best thing I could do

Hi, my name is Marcela. I’m a co-founder at Polsie. It’s been a year since I’ve joined this roller coaster up and down journey. I’m sharing what I should’ve written since I’ve started this. How me being a fashion designer student with no tech knowledge somehow managed to be in one of the best experiences of my life.

August of 2014. I just came back from spending two months in Africa on a mission trip. When you are in the middle of nowhere and you are stuck building blocks from mud, looking at the sunset and people carrying water from a puddle, yes, it’s time to think what you are doing with your life.

Somehow, in that August, now back at my home-town in Monterrey, Mexico, I end up at this party. It’s in this terrace in a hipster office in what is the most creative part of the city. I had no idea who worked there, what they did, but everything just seemed so cool. White walls, all kinds of notes written in bright market, custom designed tables, and lots of design books.

I was kind of shy there, I only knew a few people and the other ones there seemed to have their own circle. The party was over pretty early, and some friends came over to my place. I meet this guy, who works at the office I had just been to, and me with a little over 4 drinks asks him what they do. Apparently, he owned a web development studio with 2 partners and shared the office with a graphic design studio. Sounded pretty cool. And randomly, with a good attitude, going for it, and not thinking twice I ask for a job. “So what are your skills?” he asked me. “What can you do?”. “Well,” I answered, “I’m pretty good at speaking english.”(At this point I continue my whole conversation in english).

Monday comes, and I get a message. “Can you come for an interview?” With nothing else to do, I’m like sure. I go the the office the next day, excited and with no idea what to expect, all dressed in black and to my surprise, Ramon, the guy who I asked for the job was not there. There’s this awkward guy who I’ve never seen before, and he interviews me. After all the “what we do” and “your job will be”, he agreed to have me work for 2 weeks, and then they’ll decide if they hire me. My job would mostly feature talking with clients, making phone calls, sending emails. Secretary stuff I thought, pretty easy.

My first week at work, there was really not much for me to do, but I payed attention. They used words like MVP, html, stuff I never heard. I write everything down on a small pretty used moleskine notebook and googled everything I’ve written afterwards. So they ask me to contact this guy, who apparently was a big deal, (turns out it was the founder of Startup Grind Mexico) and pitch him this startup they created called Shark. Shark was a management tool for lawyers and they were looking to sell it. That’s all I knew about it. I send an email, call they guy, meet up with him in some coworking space before he had a conference, pitch Shark in the hallway and well, no one bought it but the guys at the office were really impressed that me not knowing a thing had the guts to go up to this guy and try to sell him a startup. So after 2 weeks, yes, I was officially hired.

After maybe 2 months since I started working at the office, one day Ramon comes and tells me about this project. It’s called Polsie. Basically, Polsie lets you build an online store from Instagram. So you could upload a picture from there, add a name and price, and done, it went straight to a site where it could be sold. Nothing had been built yet, except that when you posted a picture on Instagram with #polsie, it uploaded to a site online. “It’s a startup” (*googles startup*) “We want you to be part of it, we will quit the office and dedicate 100% to build Polsie.” “I’m in.”

Opportunities do not just come by. I never thought that asking for job and just “knowing English” would open so many doors. To be willing to do something that’s totally new, but with just so much enthusiasm, was what got me here. It’s been more than I year since I’ve met these wonderful people with whom I agreed to go on this long and sometimes stressful journey that’s a startup, and everyday, I’m thankful for it.

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