I'm Starting A Company

Plus some personal stuff

After eight months, eight countries, one tattoo, one piercing 🤪, and countless lessons and memories, the aimless travel is over. Tomorrow, I return to the states to start a new chapter.

As you likely know if you’ve followed along, these last eight months have led to massive personal growth. Simply put, I cannot imagine what life would look like or who I would be without this experience.

Instead of a recap though, I have something better: an exciting announcement and an update on the positive changes taking place in my life. 

Drumroll please… 🥁

I’m starting a company in the music festival accessory space, with one of the best co-founders I could have asked for!

🎉🎵🫨🪭♾️🎉

Here’s a sneak peek (more details to come soon):

The company name: FRVR, pronounced forever. Short for Rave Forever.

The goal: Offer premium festival accessories in a fragmented market replete with cheap and poorly made products, while encapsulating and encouraging the beauty of the festival community: PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect).

Why: Mainly because it’s fun! And if I’ve learned anything over the last eight months, it’s that I want to have fun. But also because we see a gap in the market and know we can execute on it.

The team: I’ve teamed up with Maranda Lujajohnson, aka the 2nd employee at Thesis, an elite operator, and an incredible human being. We were in the trenches together for years at Thesis, complement each other’s skillsets eerily well, and share a passion for music festivals and FUN!

Pretty wild, right?

I don’t know about you but I certainly did not expect myself to be starting a company anytime soon, let alone ever. But after Maranda and I attended EDC Vegas (the festival I came back from South Africa for), a seed was planted. Over the last two months, the seed sprouted… and that’s how we got here.

So what does this mean… you’re going back to the startup grind? Back to life you’ve made very clear you don’t want to return to?

Eh, not really.

As I’ve written about in previous posts, most of what fueled my maniacal work ethic earlier life was deep insecurity. In short, I did not believe I was enough and so I looked to external things (mostly money) to make myself feel better. Essentially, I was working because I needed to… because my identity depended on it. And as one would expect, this unhealthy relationship caused immense stress in my life, which… caused many other challenges.

(And to be clear, I don’t look back with regret. It got me to where I am today and I wouldn’t change that for the world.)

So what’s different now?

Well, now that I’ve 1) become aware of these underlying beliefs and destructive behaviors and 2) been working through them over the last 18 months, I’m living a more authentic life — one where I’m not ashamed to detail my thoughts/feelings/traumas publicly, share about the weird robotic EDM noises that I can’t live without, or get tattoos and piercings I like (to name a few).

Simply put, I’m doing the things in life I genuinely want to do, without the fear of being judged by others for who I am today or who I’ll be tomorrow.

In the case of this new business venture, what’s better than having a lot of FUN, in a space I LOVE, with a co-founder that SHARES all the same values as me?

Not much in my opinion! And the key word here is: fun. I’ll still work hard to make this company successful, but the energy and drive will stem from a positive place. The internal dialogue is “let’s do something fun with a great partner,” as opposed to “you have to be successful or you will be thought of as less.”

Make sense?

I think it’s also important to note that neither Maranda nor I have the desire for this thing to get massive. It’s more of a passion project and we’re seeing where it goes. This doesn’t mean we’re not open to it being big, it’s just not a ride or die goal.

But what about the whole psychedelic therapy in Denver thing?

It’s still a strong passion of mine and something I want to pursue. However, I haven’t found a program that feels right. Legalization is still rolling out so I anticipate having more clarity and direction early next year. I’m trusting the right program will find me when it’s time!

Now that we’ve covered the profesh stuff, let’s get into some personal changes (I think this is more interesting but strong hooks help with readership 😉).

I’ve had a major shift in perspective related to my body and Crohn’s!

In a prior post, I detailed my thoughts on Crohn’s and identity. The TLDR was that I had identified with Crohn’s and that I was constantly telling my body that “I was sick,” which likely perpetuated the dis-ease.

While I’ve worked hard to reframe and dissolve this identity (and all of the others 😜), deep down inside the insidious “I am sick” belief persisted…

…until about a week ago.

In the last two weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time alone and very close to nature. Naturally (no pun intended), I used this time to go inside and really feel into the different sensations in my body.

I’d made this part of a daily practice over the last eight months and became accustomed to feeling intense energy in the area of my gut. It felt like a heavy weight just sitting there and it persisted for most of the day, day after day. I figured it was related to gut issues, but never gleaned any major insights from it.

Then, out of nowhere last week, it clicked. The answer became clear: this sensation was just energy, not sickness. Blocked energy, in fact. And that’s all it ever was. It’s interpreted as sickness because it causes things in the body that we would classify as dis-ease, but the energy itself is devoid of meaning.

I’m not sure if this is at all meaningful to you, but it was revelatory for me. And for the first time in years, I truly felt in my body that I was not sick.

It was unreal.

And then of course my ego came online and attempted to explain why the energy was there and planned ways to transmute the energy to heal. 

Instead of indulging though, I just sat back and noticed the chatter. Because the part of me that wants to “fix” is operating out of fear, which is the same fear that drove me to burnout in NYC (just in a different flavor).

So, my “work” remains the same. Continue to go inside and either 1) console the parts of me that don’t feel like they’re enough or 2) come back to my breath.

These have been very powerful practices.

I’ve also been practicing trust, both towards the personal stuff and the professional stuff (because it’s scary to start a company). 

For the personal stuff, I ask myself: what if everything happening now was designed to make me a better person or be for my greatest good? And for the professional stuff: everything has worked out so far, so why wouldn’t it continue to do so?

Okay, enough of the woo woo stuff please!

Fine 😅.

I’ve really really really enjoyed Colombia. I’ve learned that in addition to being surrounded by nature, I want to be in a small mountain town long term. I visited two tiny mountain towns, Barichara and Villa de Leyva, and fell in love with 1) small town living and 2) the gorgeous backdrop of stunning mountain scenery. Luckily, Denver fits this bill.

Y mi español ha mejorado muchísimo!!!

So what’s next?

Columbus, OH for a music festival I’m VERY excited about (surprised?), then a week or so in Austin, TX to work on FRVR with Maranda, and then maybe Mexico or Guatemala to digital nomad for a few months (y más práctica de español).

What? You’re still traveling?!

Yup! Though I plan to be a digital nomad, which means that my priority is work. It will come with balance (a new theme I’m working with my body to incorporate), so I’ll make a lot of time to be and experience the beautiful places I’ll visit. Plus, it’s not just work… it’s fun, remember!?

Love you all,

Jacob

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Pics

Casa Terracota (clay house) in Villa de Leyva

Beautiful hike in Barichara

Caving in San Gil

New Colombian friends!

Met an awesome Danish ex-banker and we chatted for hours about life in Denmark vs the US

New profile pic 😎

Aerial view of Guatapé

Milhojas: french pastry now famous in Colombia… and they’re unreal

Oblea: cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche, blackberry, cheese and condensed milk… unreal

More street food

Botero’s take on Mona Lisa

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