[00:00:01 – 00:00:11] Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the INDUStry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Nicolas Khonaysser. Nick, welcome on the show.

[00:00:12 – 00:00:14] Nicolas Khonaysser

It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m very excited.

[00:00:14 – 00:00:18] Nitin Bajaj

Likewise. Let’s start with the big question. Who is Nick?

[00:00:19 – 00:00:34] Nicolas Khonaysser

Nick is a traveler. Nick is an adventure. Nick’s a a lover of community, a community builder. I would say Nick’s a leader, but, through and through, Nick’s a founder of heart. But, I think most importantly, Nick is a friend, and, Nick is a community builder.

[00:00:35 – 00:00:48] Nitin Bajaj

Love it. And I especially resonate with the last two words you used because I’ve come to know you as a community builder and, looking forward to being a friend for many, many years to come.

[00:00:49 – 00:00:59] Nicolas Khonaysser

Thank you. I look forward to our friendship as well, especially with the, the added value that you add and the way you come in and and, add value right off the bat, and we try to be the same way here.

[00:00:59 – 00:01:26] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you. Much appreciated. Tell us about Vently. What is it? What’s the mission? What’s the vision? And, you know, the word we like to use a lot, which is the impact you and the team have been able to create. And I know it’s early days, but would love to hear a little bit about that. But as you do that, would love to get a sense for why do this and why do this now?

[00:01:27 – 00:03:30] Nicolas Khonaysser

Yeah. I I guess the the story for Vently in short starts, long before Vently. Right? I was fortunate enough to be a student president at Arizona State. We got the manager on a 144,000 kids. And, a thing called COVID happened, so everything went on lockdown. I said, how do I connect communities to the largest public university while everything’s on lockdown? A company called Fizz was a company that I was helping growth with and was a social network for entire colleges. And people really love engaging with their community on it, specifically on a college basis. We scaled that to 250 universities across the country. And one thing that we heard a lot was, like, wow. I wish I had this type of community when I graduate a respective city, whether I’m in Iowa, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. And I came back to this a city like San Francisco, a city that has so much culture, a city that’s rich in events and community. And I saw so many communities on so many different platforms scattered out. I saw people using 7 different platforms to to just discover events. And on the flip side, I saw amazing communities like San Francisco Women’s Social Club or San Francisco Social Club or a run club or a founders club, using also a a stack of maybe 7 different tools just to be discovered or just to engage with the community. So in connecting communities, which is something that that we’ve done very well, I wanted to build a platform to discover, to engage, to join. And, I think in a post COVID era, it’s it’s definitely been easy to capitalize on all the communities here in in San Francisco, as well as the need that people have to, as humans, want to connect with amazing people. Like, if you told me there was a a guy like yourself that I have connected with and I can meet in a van, I would immediately want to connect. So I think, connecting people and and fostering, not just a baseline connection, but a community driven connection has been a a bit of what Vently is and what’s what’s been, at the fire of our hearts. So, yeah, it’s it’s a in a small nutshell, what we’ve built in in regards to being a social network for events, communities, and businesses to grow and engage and discover.

[00:03:31 – 00:03:43] Nitin Bajaj

Love it. And I love where the energy comes from in, building a community. And when you bring the right people together, magic happens. And, I’m starting to get a taste of that, with you guys. So amazing. Awesome. Congratulations.

[00:03:44 – 00:03:46] Nicolas Khonaysser

Well said, magic happens.

[00:03:48 – 00:04:01] Nitin Bajaj

Now as you do this, you know, you’re bringing in many different personalities, many different brands, logos, people, everything in the mix. I’d love to hear what’s the one big challenge you’re facing.

[00:04:03 – 00:06:11] Nicolas Khonaysser

Oh, wow. Great question. I guess every every startup has its, has its plethora of challenges. And, I guess to to to go a bit off track in connecting communities, we thought the challenge was gonna be a commitment. We thought the challenge was gonna be like a yes from these big players, these big communities. And I was realizing yesterday, I was thinking about this podcast 1, and I was up at 5 in the morning, someone on Godly hour, and I did as any other person does. I scrolled through Instagram, and I saw a a a reel by Steve Jobs. And he said it was, like, 13 or 14 in the valley and in San Francisco. He found it such a beautiful place because he could call the CEO of Hewlett Packard because it’s not where we’re slowing he stole my phone book, and he said, I wanna work for you. I wanna drop, and I want parts because I’m gonna build my own computer one day. And the CEO of Hewlett Packard drove the 14 year old Steve Jobs’ house, dropped off a bunch of parts, and then gave him an internship, and then helped him grow up. And in that regard, what we thought our biggest problem would be was the commitment, the agreements for communities that have been using platforms for a very, very long time. But I found that everything from some of the biggest performers to the Golden State Warriors to some of the biggest VCs that, their whole check is the size they are around currently. Just pick up the phone call. Just send them an Instagram DM, and most of these people are so willing to engage in community and foster those connections, the it’s been a yes. So that’s what we thought it would be. What our biggest problem is now is, detaching people from, the platforms that they’ve been using for the past 10 years. They want the to, but it takes process. A lot of these people have communities of, you know, 5000, 6000, 7000 subscribers that they’ve taken 10 years to build. Our value add and our differentiation in the product definitely makes them wanna move over, but it takes time. And I guess in in doing so, throwing events with them and slowly moving people over week by week is a bit of a painstaking process, but it’s, allowed us to understand communities more and grow better relationships. INDUStry I went off on a bit of a tangent, but

[00:06:11 – 00:06:38] Nitin Bajaj

it’s it’s Perfectly relevant. And, as we know, we humans, most humans don’t like change. So I can understand how, especially if things are set for several years and we’re talking large numbers, how people would be somewhat hesitant. But then on the flip side, they look at this tremendous value you guys are bringing in and the get behind it. And and I’m happy to see you’re starting to see a lot of traction in that direction.

[00:06:38 – 00:06:39] Nicolas Khonaysser

Thank you. Thank you.

[00:06:40 – 00:06:46] Nitin Bajaj

Now on the flip side of challenges come opportunities, what’s the one that’s most exciting for you?

[00:06:49 – 00:09:03] Nicolas Khonaysser

We talked about it a little bit before the call. One that has been exciting on a large scale level was a collaboration with the Golden State Warriors. Everybody knows the Warriors. Not in my life the I ever think I’d be a pre seed company collaborating with the Warriors. Alright. But I think you look at basketball and you look at team like other The, and they’re very much centered around community just as many teams are. And if Steph Curry was his ankle and he’s out a couple of games and they’re having trouble filling out a certain amount of people on the stand and they dedicate a section to us and they get community driven people who haven’t really been to a game before, like myself as an immigrant. That was the the basketball game I ever went through in my life. That’s that’s that’s a bit fun. But the, at a core that makes me emotional, I saw a pop up on our platform the other day as I was scrolling through my platform. It was a toy drive. It was a big car community that I actually follow on Instagram that’s doing a toy drive for underprivileged kids, in low income communities in San Jose. And I thought that was so cool. I called I have the info of, obviously, the host. So I called the host. I was like, oh, this is Nick. And he was like, who are you? And I was like, oh, sorry. I’m I’m the founder of this thing called Vently. You know, you’re using a suit to go to a toy drop. He was like, yeah. I wanna get, you know, toys in the hands of kids who wouldn’t have a toy this holiday. And I was like, you know what? Let me call a couple of VCs. I’m coming with a crap ton of toys. And so now I’m I’m I’m using the the Suburban, and, we get to just jump in there and play a bunch of toys. And we moderate chat, so I saw on the chat. And they were like, yo. The founder of this platform is even coming now. I thought that was so cool. I couldn’t say it. Like, I saw the chat, but I I thought it was so cool from the flip side. And one that I’m excited to to to bring up is one that, the industry show is gonna be at, which is our VC super event where we’re collaborating with we’re bringing in the biggest VCs in San Francisco and in Silicon Valley with the mega event for founders and for investors with just a bunch of tier tier 1 high class partners such as yourself, and tier 1 VCs. So I’ll open the invite to anybody in the Bay Area listening. January 31st, mark your calendar. Vently, The, and some other big net partners will be there.

[00:09:04 – 00:09:35] Nitin Bajaj

Congratulations again and super super excited for Jan 31st and, looking forward to being a part of this. So Yep. Show as we look forward, I would love to pause and reflect and talk about 2 moments from your past life and career. 1, where things did not work out as you had expected and there was failure, there were lessons, and another one where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:09:36 – 00:12:05] Nicolas Khonaysser

Yeah. So community, I call myself a community builder. I guess self branded because it’s what I love to do. I’d rather be a community builder than a CEO. I think a CEO carries, like, a big title. Who cares? I I started a company in 2019 called Food for Hunger, and the elevator pitch was simple. We resourced food from Fortune 500 companies, USDA, FDA supply. FDA checked the, and they give it out to shelters in the Bay Area that are Show in need. We saw some traction, some really good traction, and then I think all COVID happened and, like, the world stood still. And anything regarding food or the food supply was just not even a chance. So I guess, that made me question myself as a founder, made me question myself as a as an operator, but I did attribute a lot of it to, god factor on unforeseen circumstances. Understanding how to kind of shut operations down without it hurting your own ego was was a big part. Understanding how to pivot and how to take what you’ve learned and and move Nitin a new chapter in life has, has been pretty pretty good. And then, obviously, with with family, I think, like, we fail so many times. Like, I think I fail, like, 2 or 3 times a week, but, you learn so much from those failures. And it’s like, if you’re not failing enough and you’re not trying enough things. So I think that would be what I would give to any investor or any, entrepreneurs. Like, you should just fail, but if you fail, feel forward. Understand why you failed. And then a place where I saw success, out to Arizona State, stood by about a 144,000. I want to connect communities again, so I ran for head of recruitment. And then in the time where COVID happened, again, it was the struggle recruiting kids at a large public university when, like, people like, hey. We should recruit online. Running a hybrid mechanism between online and in person, we’re able to get around a lot of those things, and we had the largest recruitment batch in ASU history for the year of 2020. Show, pushing the needle in the face of unforeseen circumstances by thinking out of the box has been a huge thing, and it led my way into, running for president and being elected president. So, I think that’s one that that as an immigrant, as a kid who had gone to had had started college late, I I couldn’t have seen myself getting that involved in the student body, and then going getting 3 degrees from that university was also a blessing. So, yeah, I would say that was a good success as well educationally.

[00:12:07 – 00:12:42] Nitin Bajaj

You know, I love your positive approach and outlook on everything. For all of us, COVID was a was a major block the, a life stopping moment. But I see this as a you know, COVID also obviously played a big role in your life. But each of those instances, you spun it and made something positive out of that. So really, appreciate that attitude you have to not get stopped by any of these barriers and hassles that come in our way, but to come out ahead and stronger. So love that.

[00:12:42 – 00:12:45] Nicolas Khonaysser

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

[00:12:46 – 00:12:54] Nitin Bajaj

Now I’d love to hear what do you do for fun to de stress, to pause, and, you know, kinda just get off the treadmill for a bit.

[00:12:56 – 00:14:44] Nicolas Khonaysser

This is gonna sound horrible to any, to any founder out there. And I I guess, like, I wanna preface this by saying, like, I run a social network. Right? We’re gonna build a social network for that. So a lot of the things that we do are consumer facing and consumer forward. What does that mean? Right? A lot of things that we do are in the face of VCs or in the face of other founders or in the face of our consumers. So, like, what I do for fun is is probably Vently. I don’t I kinda live and breathe Vently. Like, this weekend, we’re throwing a SantaCon rave, and there’s multiple raves that are being hosted and thrown on our platform and events being hosted and thrown on our platform. Tomorrow, we’re doing a collaboration with Tesla, and the the collaboration don’t ask me why I put 2 and 2 together, but it’s an open bar and free test drives of the cyber truck and the what about it? It’s autonomous test drives, I guess. So I was like, why not? And for me, it’s like I get to go to Tesla and I get to collaborate with Tesla. But my name is but I get also another bar. We did a collaboration with JPMorgan, and that was, like, with some Michelin Star Indian restaurant in San Francisco, and they did, like, a deconstructed lossy punch ball, and it was just absolutely amazing. It’s like, that’s fun for me, and that’s, like, I guess, what I do on the weekend, what I do to de stress. So I’ve definitely found a cool niche where, like, my work is my de stress, and I’ve been able to incorporate everything about my personal life into my work. Like, I play a lot of tennis, so we did a lot of collaborations with tennis test communities. Now if you were a founder of, like, a CRM or a SaaS product or an AI different product or you’re building an LLM, we totally understand that that you in the part time, you have to go play tennis. You have to go on rock. You have to go out to a bar. But it’s very easy if the bar is running on my platform to use it as an excuse to go to the bar for due diligence purposes at 2 in the morning.

[00:14:46 – 00:15:03] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Love that. When your passion becomes your profession, there is Yeah. There’s a lot of joy that, it brings with it. Now any podcast or a book that you would like and I’d like to recommend to our listeners?

[00:15:04 – 00:17:00] Nicolas Khonaysser

Oh, this is a good one. I I like the book Too Big TO Fail. It kinda puts, like, into perspective a lot of, like, it talked about the banking system in 2008. It flops the banking system. Completely irrelevant to, like, what we do at startups. But, in terms of, like, corporate ending and the small things that that tick a company into a breakdown, it it’s weird to read a book like that right now, but it it’s important as I check off the marks for how to scale the company. I was took the out of Joe Rogan. I’m not too big of a fan of Joe Rogan podcast. I’d rather take something that’s that’s more like information driven. And, there’s one other one. Oh, the book Super Founders. Amazing stuff. It it details a very data driven approach, towards what makes founders successful and what makes founders repeatedly successful. And, with us, we have a team of previously exited or previously successful founders on my team. Like, our CFO sold the company for $80,000,000 at 21. Our CTO built one of the largest consumers facing apps in India and in the UK called Nearbuy, scaled 214,000,000 users in India, and he Show has the Nitin India. So I think it’s it’s interesting to see some of those same things reflected in my team, and then how to lead from that, given what I get from that book. But I will say I I listen to anything and everything Elon Musk, while I’m in the car, if I’m not reading, and I’m driving something, and I listen to a lot of early Steve Jobs stuff. I think once you hit this this one threshold as a founder, motivation is, like, awesome. Like, you’re motivated, but I need something more on top of that. And, I think Elon and Steve Jobs is very much out of the box thinking is is awesome for me. And then, I I like listening to a lot of, Sam often stuff as of lately because it very much applies to to us, and he’s in our backyard. So it’s it’s pretty awesome in that regard.

[00:17:01 – 00:17:11] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you for sharing those recommendations. Now on to my favorite part of the show, we call it the one line life lessons. Nick, would you like you to share your life lessons with us?

[00:17:12 – 00:17:13] Nicolas Khonaysser

In one line?

[00:17:14 – 00:17:15] Nitin Bajaj

Yes, please.

[00:17:22 – 00:17:28] Nicolas Khonaysser

I wanna actually get something good here. So give me give me one second as I think of something here.

[00:17:28 – 00:17:32] Nitin Bajaj

And here’s the the kicker. You get to share more than 1. Okay.

[00:17:34 – 00:19:10] Nicolas Khonaysser

One thing I’ll share for a lot of founders. I don’t know if it’s a one line life lesson. I don’t know if it’s a life lesson in regard, but if you’re a founder, if you’re a builder, that’s something that I live by is what gets you here won’t get you there. And if you’re a pre seed company or if you’re a seed company or if you’re an a company, what got you here won’t get you there. But understand all those small things, the LinkedIn post that you do, the buffing up of the Instagram, the flyering in the city at a very early stage, that cold email that you sent out, every small thing is getting you closer and closer to that efficient. You’re like a a loading bar, and it’s 1%, 1%, 1% every single day. And if you win that day, you won that day. And if you win the 1st car for the week and the the half of the week and you win that week and you win the next week, you win the month. If you could pile enough of those weeks 1 and those months 1, you win the year. But what gets you here won’t get you there. And it’s it’s it’s very much to always be pivoting. And then my, my my one minor, I guess, here is a seed planted today will not yield a fruit tomorrow. So start planting some of those seeds. A lot of founders are very much in the early stage. A lot of founders who listen to podcasts are very much in the early stage. Plant those seeds. Don’t expect them to yield the fruit tomorrow. I the, the seed that I’ve planted with, with units and as a the that we had after I spoke at TechCrunch, and it’ll yield the fruit for, the industry show January 31st. And with any endeavors that we decide to collaborate on as you come to San Francisco, we support you, and you support us coming down to to SoCal. And don’t just plant 1 seed. So I I think that’s that’s 2 things that I’ve been living by very much, very much laterally.

[00:19:11 – 00:19:28] Nitin Bajaj

Nick, thank you so much for sharing your journey, your story, and your life lessons with us. Really appreciate it. Again, congratulations for all of the successes so far. And I know you and the team are just getting started, so many more to come. And looking forward to our continued partnership.

[00:19:29 – 00:19:36] Nicolas Khonaysser

You’ll be seeing a lot of us with the industry show, and you’ll be seeing a lot of the industry show with us. So I look forward to it. Thank you for having me on. It’s been a pleasure.

[00:19:36 – 00:19:37] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you.

[00:19:37 – 00:19:38] Nicolas Khonaysser

Cheers.