About two months ago, I got an email from a member of the Kairos Society saying something to the effect of
“Hey, you’re the student entrepreneur who co-founded Replica Labs! That’s a cool company doing cool things. You should apply to be part of the Kairos 50!”
And I remember thinking
“Hey, we are pretty damn cool. I have no idea what this is, but I can’t argue with you, so let’s go for it.”
It was lucky I followed up. The Kairos Society is an organization founded by young entrepreneurs meant to help… young entrepreneurs. ‘Kairos’ itself means ‘the right moment’ in Greek (so they say), and it’s a suitable descriptor for the organization. It focuses on bringing young students with good ideas into the focus of international media, in hopes that these ideas will find a home with an investor or two in order to grow. It’s been pretty successful so far: they report that, since 2013, Kairos companies have made a total of $43M combined, with 6 being acquired already.
I found out early on that my application was strong enough to get into the finals, making me eligible to attend the Kairos Global Summit in Laguna Niguel, CA. The schedule itself looks bonkers: pitch contests, business model brainstorms, workshops with top corporations in every field… it’s going to be quite the event. Lots of coffee for me. Like, cups on cups. I’m not gonna sleep until my business cards are gone. And I have a lot of business cards.
Replica Labs didn’t end up getting into the K50 itself, being placed in the top 100 somewhere. I’m not sure what the scorecard was in the end, but I’m OK with it. The technology that we’re working on at Replica Labs proves its worth all on its own; we don’t need the accolades of K50 to get us through. That being said: for me personally, being a finalist to the K50 is such a privelege. Good things are bound to happen this weekend. Especially on all of that coffee.