Enterprenuer
Julian Sarafian is a lawyer, advocate for mental health, writer, content creator, and entrepreneur.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Sarafian worked as a corporate lawyer at Wilson Sonsini before devoting his efforts to mental health advocacy.
His content focuses on mental health and its importance in the academic and workplace worlds.
Bloomberg, Newsweek, and the New York Times have covered his advocacy.
His digital media following is almost 250,000 as of February 2022.
Sarafian is also a co-founder of Nest. Mode and the CEO.
This startup aims to revolutionize shower storage. Nest. Mode’s flagship product, the Nest Wall, was created to improve shower storage.
It features two storage holsters and magnetic-based refillable bottles.
Some hooks can hold all your accessories.
His writings have been published in Bloomberg Law, The American Lawyer.
What is the story of the idea for Nest.Mode?
Nest. The mode was born from my fiancee Cat’s idea for a new type of shower storage.
The idea was a floating, magnetic-based shower organizer.
Our team loved it, and Kathleen, our Chief Design Officer, took over the creation of the Nest Wall.
We knew it was time to make the Nest Wall a reality after seeing initial feedback via social media and the prototype.
The design combines beauty, sustainability, and technology to address a problem that’s often overlooked: storage in our showers.
The Nest Wall is the first product in a long line to improve the home decor in a sustainable, modern, and practical way.
How do you stay productive?
Right now, it’s all startup mode for me. My time is mainly spent marketing – creating Tiktok videos and Instagram posts and copy for emails, our website, and email templates.
My Co-CEO Arvin and I will have a few calls on a typical day.
We’ll discuss the current state of play, plans, and general messaging.
We are still pre-launch, so much of our energy and time is spent on social media and spreading the word about our product.
My background in corporate law means that I will occasionally think about high-level legal issues and business issues, such as intellectual property claims or the structure of our company.
How do you bring ideas to life?
We are highly execution-oriented. We believe it is essential to test the waters before investing more resources.
If possible, we will start prototyping our product.
We then test the waters by marketing the product via Tiktok or Instagram to get feedback.
We also share the design and idea with family and friends to get their opinions.
We move forward to commercialize the product if we get positive feedback and are passionate about it.
The first prototyping phase and community feedback are where the design is developed.
Next, we will negotiate directly with manufacturers.
Our plan right now is to launch a crowdfunding campaign to bring about the Nest Wall’s realization.
What’s your favorite trend?
We find the increased democratization of eCommerce creation exciting.
E-commerce has never had such low barriers to entry.
This opens up new avenues for creativity and innovation that can be used around the globe to create new products of all sizes and shapes.
This is happening quickly, with solopreneurs establishing brands on Amazon and Etsy.
I believe it will become more common as time passes.
It will become increasingly accessible for anyone to develop an idea, prototype it, and then market it digitally.
This is a great time to be creative. Hobby ideas can quickly turn into businesses.
It’s the democratization and expansion of entrepreneurial and innovative thought.
What habits make you productive?
It is essential to know when and how to communicate with your team.
Our team is jam-packed with many personal and professional projects.
Time management, mainly when applied to team meetings, saves time and energy.
It also makes us a more efficient machine. It is also essential for our mental health.
It’s a waste of time and a waste of resources.
I’ve been in many teams that communicate too much or need to check in more than is necessary.
Every team must know when, how, and why to communicate.
I am proud of the teams’ ability to do this effectively.
What’s your advice for the Noob?
Do not worry about being perfect right away. It doesn’t matter what you’re interested in; know that you won’t be able to do it perfectly the first time.
But that’s part of the learning process. When I was younger, I was a perfectionist.
It’s something that still plagues me today.
I didn’t see the point in launching my projects because I was afraid it wouldn’t work out.
Take a deep breath and get going. Focus on what you can control. You will be fine.
What is one thing we can all agree on?
Although it’s difficult to imagine right now, I believe we will see a shift in how a business looks and feels.
In the next ten years, people will be brands.
People themselves will soon be their revenue source.
The world will be one where being a creator is a full-time job, with infrastructure and venture capital funding available for the most promising candidates.
You’ll see training camps, further layers of de-democratization, and people scouting out the next generation of content creators and influencers.
What do you recommend as an entrepreneur?
Keep a list of ideas you have. One of your ideas may come back to you later and be helpful, insightful, or just exciting food.
Keeping a log of all your thoughts will help you stay on track and keep track of everything going on inside your head.
It is crucial to consider, meditate on, and sometimes even partially execute any ideas you get as an entrepreneur.
This is the essence and purpose of innovation. Without a system to manage all the ideas you receive, keeping the momentum going will be even more challenging.
What’s your rich strategy?
Tiktok is a great way to learn the culture and practice it.
Tiktok is a dream for digital marketers – it’s free, and you’re almost guaranteed viewership.
It has also helped us scale our network for zero dollars.
It is essential to be open-minded as an entrepreneur, especially when bootstrapping.
We explored every type of digital marketing, from Instagram to Pinterest to Facebook Ads.
We ultimately decided that Tiktok was the right place for us due to cost, scale, and attention.
So we started to market the Nest Wall to the platform and put our heads together.
We have seen a tremendous increase in our initial community’s number to almost 20,000 on Tiktok and nearly 2,400 on Instagram.
How do you overcome Failure?
Although we pride ourselves on building trust with our community and people, it was clear that some of that trust had been lost recently because we hadn’t spoken with them in a while.
It was a failure because we viewed our community as our team.
We were disappointed that they felt excluded from our work process and about the status of Nest Wall.
We learned a lot about transparency and how important it is to communicate with our community often.
Can you share a business idea?
Optimize your countertop cleaner! Swiffer for kitchen countertops and tabletops.
There is nothing like it, and people use all kinds of inefficient and non-sustainable products, such as paper towels, rags, and wet wipes.
What’s your recent best buy?
I bought a new computer mouse. It’s a bit geeky, but it has made a massive difference in my home office.
My ergonomic mouse is a great tool to help me feel productive and comfortable while working from home.
It can also be used for gaming, so I don’t feel defeated in Halo Infinite; it’s always ready for me.
What are your favorite Softwares or Apps?
It is incredible to think. It’s a great tool to help you organize your projects, create action items, and schedule meetings.
You can create your action items and to-dos. It is versatile.
The platform allows you to create and design pages that you want.
Which book would you recommend?
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. This is an excellent book for many reasons, but the most important is that it shows how amazing it is to live in this moment.
This book inspired me in many ways, but it is most powerful because it offers a perspective on how fortunate and grateful we should be to be alive at this moment.
It was a powerful reminder that humanity had made great strides in a rapidly changing world, where there is always a new story and room scrolling.
What’s your favorite quote?
“There is a point in all of our lives when the past disappears and the future emerges. This is the moment you face the unknown. Some will return to what they know. Others will continue to walk in uncertainty. I cannot tell which one you should choose. However, I can tell which one is more enjoyable.
Phil Knight
TL;DR by Julian Sarafian
- Tiktok is the best friend of 2022 entrepreneurs. It can be used to increase your product’s reach, community, or audience before, during, or after launch.
- Communication is essential in every business, but it’s especially important when it comes to customers. Let them in and make sure they feel valued and heard. It will pay off.
- Although it is the hardest part of any journey to be successful in the entrepreneurial world, getting started is the most important. Be prepared for bumps in the road, but don’t let that stop you from trusting the process. You will miss every chance you don’t seize!
- Every team is unique. There is no “ideal” or perfect team structure. It is more important to work well with your team members, even if this may seem unconventional.
