Last round of video editing. Soon I’ll be able to share with you every single discussion that happened on the main stage, during this 1st edition of the NewKid Days. We’re almost there!
Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to share the backstage of the past six months. The good, the bad, the ugly.
I crossed data from my good old notebook (what’s been in my mind + ideas), my photos (epic times), my calendar (who I met).
I’d lie if I’d say the journey was easy. But I’d lie if I’d say I didn’t enjoy it all. I have met new people at an incredible pace. People I never thought I would now be friend with.
If you’re new here, welcome! Today’s letter will help you know me better faster 😄
The haha moment
Last Christmas, I suddenly interrupted kev, as he was pitching me an event he was plann… this is it ! AN EVENT. Everything clicked. The conversation with Kevon Cheung 🥦 when we talked about a retreat for families in Thailand one day, my deep love for gathering people and connecting them together (a wedding through a newsletter, three Objet soirées), the lifelong thrill for planning and getting things done, the longing for meeting IRL the smart folks I had been reading online for too long. That. And the future of our kids right in the center.
OK, where should I start?!
January
planting seeds for your future self.
drafted my ikigai : what I LOVE / am GOOD AT / the world NEEDS ; realised the NewKid Days was sitting right in the middle
got out of my comfort zone : met new folks and put the word out. Impostor syndrome, what’s that? (kidding). I had the passion. I lacked the structure. Felt like an half-baked project. Yet with a lot of potential
visited a couple venues, no clue what to do with this information
partied hard and -woww!- how good that felt
got slapped in the face : after I pitched to a well-respected lady in the startup world, she asked “is this going to be a wine-club-for-montessori-stay-at-home-moms?” 👀 OK game’s on, watch me 😈
that same night, I joined Carly Valancy & Sari Azout workshop “how to write an unignorable email”. Few things stayed with me.
1. the best moment to reach out is now
2. reaching out comes at a cost: being open to rejection
3. it takes a lot of emotional energy to do this work
4. who is making what I am loving? one person leads you to the next
5. your email must be : Specific. Generous. Honest. Relevant.
Can’t thank you enough Carly for this was what I needed. That exact day.
the next day, I had a call with the CMO of VivaTech. I just pitched the most amazing event I could envision - yes, the one with a DJ set by Martin Solveig
me. I know.
February
is that all worth it?
lots of downs. First half of Feb was tough. Momentum? Dead. I realised (and wrote that down) that I needed to pitch NewKid at least every other day or else I was starting making up stories
decided I needed a new working environment - signed up for BalladClub, great folks, went for a breakfast, met Sebastien, a Spring Framework master and tech conf’ OG who quickly became my unofficial mentor 🙏
kept exploring new venue options
reconnected to people I had not seen in years ; kept meeting new folks, who introduced me to new folks, who…
finally got full speed with Dust (that would become my new intern) encouraged by Tifany Clemenceau 💫
March
looks like momentum, girl, keep pushing
joined a 6-week program for creative founders: Play Into Being (Pip), designed and led by Kristen Pavle & Dave Gorum. JUST what I needed : a peer group of doers showing up, genuine, every week, to share progress
used A LOT of sticky notes : extremely hands on to draft a day and play with sequence!
coffees, dinners, more coffees ; incredible intros starting to unfold (thank you to all of you who did so 🫶)
March 18th : sat down with the team at VivaTech. They thought about my proposition : “how about 380sqm to land NewKid Days 1st edition?” LET’S DO THAT.
reached out to the speakers I had in mind ; looks like momentum is back !
OK and what about bringing in early stage companies building for kids? they would showcase their products, meet their users, get access to media and investors, meet other peers, all in one place? Started designing that call for startups 💫
April
embarking the “people beyond my league”. and wrapping up my 1st triathlon.
April 4th : MacKenzie Price, the founder of Alpha School is in. Flying from Austin, TX to meet with us, crazy parents. DANG. Cold reach out with intention actually works
in a week in San Francisco, I met with Anne-Sophie, Mathieu, Iris, Greg and Nikunj Kothari. Planned and unplanned encounters. All incredibly insightful. Run twice (absolutely unprepared for that triathlon but who cares)
as soon as we landed back, more meetings in Paris
then off to Cannes 🚘 (jetlagged? what’s that) to pick up my bib
🔫 took the starting line! I was already exhausted as I entered the water.. looked at my watch.. girl, it’s only been 150m 🤦🏻♀️. So I stared at fishes underneath, imagining what they could be thinking of us humans right now… well anyways that kept me going. In the end I loved it all. Did decent timing (19th in my category 😱). Sucked at transitions though.
“the mom club” ghost kept haunting me
kept postponing the sponsoring work, for I obsessed about closing the best line-up-ever first
designing the day, by area, really helped me get clarity :
“You can’t fake that you love connecting people, what you do is curatorial and relational design” — Dave 🫶
May
it’s now or never : making everything click.
May really challenged me. I am never sick. Except I was. A bad sinusitis knocked me out for three weeks. 5 doctors appointments, 3 antibiotics treatments and 17 564 tissues later:
took some convincing to get Linda Liukas to make space for this crazy idea of mine (to which I will dedicate a whole newsletter soon!) in her packed schedule 🫶
went to hear one of my favorite writers about motherhood, Julia Kerninon, on stage at the Bliss show festival, with my good friend Lena
got an extra shot of lucidity from our long talks with Kristen & Dave visiting us
felt energised by my weekly calls with these three legends Anne-Sophie Seret, Mathilde Cerioli (everyone.AI) & Linda Liukas - as we imagined and designed this ‘brain wall’ exhibition, fine-tuned the call for startups, workshops for kids, LLM panel and more
a lot of back and forth in my head, as I was framing the panels ; it always started with the same question : “Mathilde, what do you wanna learn?” ; then looking for the people I thought would have interesting insights AND different points of view too — oh, and curating moderators felt just as hard!
went through an epic startup selection : from designing the application form to gathering an incredible jury, involving them in the evaluation process and finally interviewing 20+ fabulous founders, all in three weeks
June
surviving spin-dryer mode.
not sick anymore, though lost 6kg in the process (a reminder that the only thing you wish when you’re sick is not a sponsor, is to be healthy)
coped with some roller coaster last minute changes of plans : a sponsor opting out after a verbal commit “oops, I got ‘pause this’ from my CEO, because of the price/fee”, a speaker cancelling “oops, I forgot I had a wedding that day”
… thus rushed to find even-more-exciting-planBs!
organised our kids birthdays in the midst of this chaos ; seemed like a good idea
would not have missed my best friend dance show at Opera de Vichy in the world
danced with VivaTech constraints, and my own too! Lison, Yasmine & Emilie, thanks for bearing with me all along!
designed so many stuff on Canva & jumped back on Figma after years away from it : banner, slides, presentation, exhibition, flyers, bookmarks,.. extremely tight deadlines, OF COURSE, right. Dang, working alone felt good and overwhelming altogether
didn’t sleep much, skipped many meals, overall absolutely excited
W-1
attended many events throughout the week : the iRaise/G7 summit, the OpenAi Forum, an epic dinner organised by Arnaud Chaigneau,.. meeting many folks I would probably see again on Saturday! Excitement = through the roof!
received the many orders I had (obviously) ordered last minute : how delighted was I to discover these Mexican restaurant flyers instead of my program 😭🤣 ; the rest was fine, fortunately [sigh!]
had the good idea to visit the lounge three days before, on VivaTech opening day. Realised the space was much more welcoming (colours, wall textures, sofas, lights) that what I had in mind ✨ YET discovered the three exit doors were… curtains?! Mayday‼️ There’s no way kids will not play hide and seek and escape the lounge. Had to find an army of volunteers in no time to watch for these exits. So so sooo grateful for everyone who helped Margaux Pelen, Maeva, Anne-Sophie.
chilling
D-1
almost didn’t get in VivaTech at night, for we didn’t have the appropriate passes (!) ; thank you Clara and Costanza for sneaking us in!
got granted 45min ⏳ to set up everything, Will, the lounge manager was a star. And that team of roadies, well, see for yourself :
The day !! Go enjoy it, girl.
As expected, I was not able to listen to any panels. I felt like running around all day. But I got fuelled by every single one of you occupying the space, discussing, laughing, drawing, hugging, writing, nodding, smiling. This energy was contagious. Conversation must happen. These moments must happen.
I must admit…
After over a decade launching and building companies with the same two irreplaceable cofounders, I needed to prove myself I could build something solo from the ground up.
I did. And for this I am proud.
But I could not have done this by myself. It took convincing strangers and people I admire to believe in this project. And it took friends to believe in me in the first place. Daniel, Kristen Pavle, Dave Gorum, kev, Lena, Kevin, Laura, Maxime Cattet you’ve been here at times it was damn hard to keep pushing. Merci.
If you made it down here - well thank you :) - but also : a lot can happen in just a couple months. Just reach out to that person who’s ‘out of your league’. And the next.
My work serving childhood has just begun but it is already thrilling.
Now go.
Be brave enough to suck at something new.
(my new motto)
… and see you next week for deep dives on what happened last June 20 at the NewKid Days!
Yours,
Mathilde
so proud and happy to be the first witness of all this -- you just rock!
Wohoo! Read everything here and I’m super proud of you! Taking it baby steps and making it a reality!!
That grit. That scrappy mindset. I know more will come! So, what’s coming next? ❤️🔥