Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the leap takers podcast, where I'm interviewing up-and-coming European entrepreneurs, investors, and shapers. To retrace the journey of how they start their own company or project and to discover the insights, tips, tricks, and advice they gathered so that you too can take the leap. 
My guest today is Alina Bassi. She is the founder and CEO of Kleiderly. Originally from London. She founded Kleiderly in 2019 in Berlin, with the goal of solving the problem of fashion industry waste, 
She has developed a patent pending technology to recycle waste clothing into a new and sustainable material diverting clothing waste away from landfills and incinerators. Her mission is to lower the carbon footprint of fashion and eliminate tons of CO2 emissions. 
Alina is also a Google for startups, female founder, alumna, and the member of the Forbes, 30 under 30 class of 2020. In this episode, we talk about how she came up with the idea for Kleiderly, accelerator programs, the advantages of Berlin as a startup hotspot. The importance of being confident as a founder and a lot more interesting things. So without further ado, let's get started: 
hi Alina. Welcome to the Leap takers podcast and thank you so much for coming on the show today
I would like to start with just a quick introduction from your side. Could you briefly introduce yourself to someone you just met and tell them what you're currently working on?
Alina Bassi: [00:01:54] Okay. Yeah. So my name's Andina Bassi I'm originally a chemical engineer, now turned a founder, basically tackling the problem of textile waste by turning it into a new material.
Remo Kyburz: [00:02:04] great. And we will definitely go more into that. So I like to start off with  the origin story of your current startup Kleiderly.  so. before we go there. Could you tell the audience what you were doing, before you started Kleiderly and kind of , your background , and where you got to where you're at now?
Alina Bassi: [00:02:24] So, so yeah, I was always really passionate about sustainability, probably the age of 15. So a really long time ago before everyone, you know, before it became mainstream. And, when I was choosing my degree, I decided to focus on chemical engineering thinking I can work in. You know, sustainability, wind energy, solar power, that didn't happen to begin with.
it was hard to get a job in that field, many years ago. So I started in oil and gas and then slowly worked my way to finding jobs within sustainable energy. So working in different waste streams. So weight household waste to energy, coffee waste to biofuels, reworking in UN as an engineer. in, in these different sectors, also looking at, processes right from when they've been designed through to when they've been installed, commissioned and are running as a full pantry.
Remo Kyburz: [00:03:13] . And you were also working, I believe, the company called, bio-bean before. Could you tell us a little bit about that? What you were doing there?
Alina Bassi: [00:03:21] Yeah. that was actually really interesting. It's probably the highlight of my career because, I had worked as an engineer, you know, really. Designing things and seeing them being built and not really being physically on the floor of a factory. So by a bean, we were recycling coffee grounds at large-scale.
We had thousands of kilos of coffee from all of the coffee shops in the UK, and it would come to our factory, be dropped on the floor and we would attend into biofuels. So I had the chance to be working on the factory floor. And then to install new machines and processes to make it much more efficient and, and make it circular.
And that was such a great opportunity because, you know, as an engineer, you kind of, if you're designing these, you're just dreaming about how it will work, but this was really seeing an action and doing things really straight from R&D through to actual full blown pilot factory levels straight away, which is quite rare.
I think, Did that kind of experience to get as an engineer. but working in a startup gave me the opportunity to do so. And one thing that was really fun that we did is we ran a London bus on coffee based biodiesel, which was really, really fun project to work on as well.
 Remo Kyburz: [00:04:28] awesome. And, how did you even learn about this company bio-bean in the first place? I'm always curious, you know, there's like so many startups and companies out there. And, how did you learn about this company?
Alina Bassi: [00:04:39] It's funny, cause I really wanted to work in the startup scene at that point. And I thought it's probably not possible in my field because you know, my field is very traditional and being an engineer, a chemical engineer in particular, it's usually really old processes. I had, but I had at that point applied to lots of jobs, and luckily got actually head hunted by a recruiter for that position. and it was perfect position for me and I don't know how she found me. but it was a perfect fit.
Remo Kyburz: [00:05:07] Very nice. And from your learnings  bio bean, is that how you got then, the idea for, , your next step, like what you are doing now?  or what happened after that? After your time there.
Alina Bassi: [00:05:19] It's interesting. So the idea came later, but I think the thing that I did it by being this very special is doing something then never been done before. I was probably seen as a crazy person. I used to have bags of coffee in my backpack, or I'd be in the factory and we covered with the coffee and, you know, going to people and saying, Oh, let's do this with coffee.
It was very red to do so this experience as an engineer again, was really, really w But the idea for this I've actually came about, in the end of 2018. So I have been in Tanzania for a family wedding, because my family, my parents were born there. And, when I was in Tanzania, I really saw where all of our donations end up.
So, you know, , we tend to donate to these poorer, countries such as East Africa. And , they really don't like these donations. I mean, they are just bombarded with absolute rubbish. Now, you know, 20 years ago they were getting great quality stuff. but perhaps my parents were donating and now, you know, many years later we're donating fast fashion and it's not great quality.
It doesn't last very long. It doesn't fit very well. And it was at that point. I think that it started to Dawn on me that we were really just kind of palming off our problem on third world countries and hoping they deal with it because yes, there, there is donation to be made when people don't have enough clothes, but now it's just gotten too ridiculous and that we send them rubbish.
We just find, use it as a way to get rid of our waste rather than dealing with it.
Remo Kyburz: [00:06:44] Hmm.  I was not really aware of this, but I think it is a big problem. Yeah. That a lot of the clothes and textiles that we donate state. Don't really? Yeah. Have like a great use afterwards.   what was the the next step? So you were at this, at this wedding and, you had this idea or you saw this problem.
So how did it, did you then come up with an idea or what was the next step after that?
Alina Bassi: [00:07:06] It was a lot of, I mean, to be honest, I'm one of those people who thinks of a lot of ideas, I think of solutions to everything all the time. And it's probably part of being an engineer. The one thing you learn is problem solving. You have to solve a problem. It's the whole, you know, the whole philosophy of the degree.
And so I just kept thinking of things I could do with it. And what could we do? I have the weirdest ideas, and then, you know, reality of where OK that doesn't work. Oh, that wouldn't make sense. And I kept trying to sort of apply my knowledge as an engineer. Okay. What could we do? Could we do this instead?
All that, and in the end, lots of R& D lots of, trial and error, to basically come up with the final solution, like really tried to think of. Okay. If we were ever to scale this process, what makes the most sense? Can we really take textiles at, you know, at scale, can we really help friends and, and consumers just dump their waste on us and make it as easy for them as possible to recycle with us?
So, I always had those things in mind. but yeah, it was a long process.
Remo Kyburz: [00:08:04] All right. And , could you explain to the audience, briefly you really do now with Kleiderly? Like what is the value proposition and, the idea of the company.
Alina Bassi: [00:08:14] Yeah. So we're basically recycled textile waste into material. It's like a plastic alternative. So you can use this material to produce different products. And one of the first products we're producing is clothing hangers, is really to tell the story of, you know, circular economy, fashion brands are actually able to reuse their textile waste within their industry and, and replace the plastic used for clothing hangers. And clothing hung as a seen as the plastic straw of the fashion industry is one of those things that you don't think about at all, but you need to, so many of them, and they're usually made out of polystyrene, which is really horrible plastic. It produces styrene gas. If you try and burn it, and it's very toxic or it leaches chemicals into the integral water and, the water streams locally, if it's ending up in landfill sites or whatever.
So. This is sort of our first use case for the material, but the material itself is very versatile. So you can use the, exactly how you would use a normal plastic in the standard machinery. So you can produce anything, anything where you think, you know, a hard plastic is used something like a chair, for example, or a plant pots or a table top made just to give you a few examples or packaging or box there's, these kinds of things.
but for now we are focusing on this one use case, which is clothing 
Remo Kyburz: [00:09:30] Yeah, that's, it's very fascinating. , that is probably so many use cases, , in the fashion industry and in others where you can just reuse and recycle materials. So that's, that's very exciting that you do that. And, now if you go back to, you had the idea, you decided to start this company, how did you approach this?
Like did you just from one day to the next day? Okay. I set up the company or, you know, what was your process of getting started with Kleiderly?
Alina Bassi: [00:10:00] it was, it was a tough one actually. I, I was really in, I think it's difficult as, as an engineer in particular, you know, there's a lot of job opportunities, which is a great thing, but it also means that it's very hard for you to just say, no, I'm going to leave and I'm going to do my own thing.
And, I was in this position where I knew I really wanted to start my own company, but I didn't know when was the right time. And the first thing I learned was there is no right time. And wait if I'm going to do it now, it makes more sense in my life, in my life at this point in time, because I've got seven years experience working in different many different companies.
And I have the experience and background to be able to push me and give me that extra edge. but it's very difficult to, you know, go, I think, a monthly salary to then, you know, really being completely bootstrapped to the founder. So the first thing I did, which kind of give me validation was I started to apply to local accelerator programs to see if they take me on.
and they give me that support in terms of, you know, local networks. Then I think this makes sense to do so. I found the local accelerator program. called high-tech seed lab and they take on startups exactly. In my position, they were taking people that had the idea, but didn't have the, you know, the kind of next steps planned.
and they also gave me financial support for six months, which was very important to me because that bridging that gap from full-time employment to completely sign a business as a founder is difficult. So, That was my best on-scene point. And because they said yes, very quickly. and I joined the program that gave me a need to, okay, I've got six months now where I'm still getting a bit of a salary and I can prove to myself that this is worth pursuing.
And if it doesn't work in the next six month is fine. I can find a job. I'm not going to lose anything. so that's how I started. And the accelerator program itself gave me access to a lot of, local networks. So, you know, lawyers and notaries, patent lawyers, you know, just the Berlin local startup scene and all the people that I should know should be talking to a pitching to practicing or.
Even though it can events and because I'm not from Berlin, these are the things I didn't really know at the time. So it was very useful for me to have that access. And by the end of the first six months, I realized I, there was no turning back. I've seen that I love what I'm doing and, I didn't regret it at all, but it was, it was really tough to kind of take that first leap.
Okay. Should I even start? When can I start? And you just have to do it.
Remo Kyburz: [00:12:29] Yeah, I definitely see the struggle. And, a lot of people are probably struggling with this decision if they should go in full time or should they do it just on the side or. Yeah, to really take the leap and don't have a monthly salary anymore. It's it's very tough.
Alina Bassi: [00:12:44] Yeah, but that's the thing is, I don't know if you can do part-time, to be honest. I, I know that I would not be this far along if I was doing this. A few hours a day. I have so much to do. There's not enough hours in the day. And at the end of the beginning, you are your bottleneck. So the quicker you are, the quicker your startup is.
So I think, I mean,  if finances are the reason. Then of course do it on the side. but something that was this technical, it was it's very technical business. I need it needed my full-time attention, but the salary or financial aspect has taken out a bit by doing the accelerator.
Remo Kyburz: [00:13:19] So I think this accelerator topic is very interesting since maybe some people didn't even consider it. So I'm very glad to hear that you had such a good experience. And could you share anything about, Your specific case, like, was there an application process or are there any accelerators you would recommend to people to, participate in maybe that you also heard of from your network?
Alina Bassi: [00:13:43] This was a really great chance for me to just really get into it. And the application process was fairly simple about time. I know it's not that easy now because the program is a lot more advanced. but at the time you had to send an email, they were looking for these high tech, very rare, startups, usually within certain fields and sustainability was one of them.
And, so you had to, send a fill in an application form, send an email and then do a pitch in front of them. And on that page, you know, I had this idea and they were going to base it all on this random idea that I had. and I think. It's hard to convince people when you don't know enough about your idea.
So I did a lot of research and a lot of preparation and analyzing the market and the competition way before, just so that I went really well prepared. the state, I don't know so much about accelerators in other parts of the world, but I know that in Berlin, in particular, there's a lot of, and a lot of accelerators and, and maybe, maybe that probably in other cities as well, where the money comes from the European social fund.
And it goes to these different programs and they choose the startups. They give money to, for different fields. So one example is Berlin founders fund. they give you support for 12 months and it's a really great program. When you  get a monthly salary for both or for all of the founders and you also get the same support, the same network access to all that, all of their events, and other, you know, important VCs and investors that you need to know.
I'm sure there must be some similar stuff like this in other parts of the world, in other cities, but I only know the ones in Berlin.
Remo Kyburz: [00:15:16] No, that's very helpful. I'm sure.
Alina Bassi: [00:15:18] there's also, there's one in, Silicon Valley. 
Remo Kyburz: [00:15:20] so, yeah, well, there is also, Entrepreneur First in, in London and, Antler, et cetera. So they are some of the very, well-known very early stage accelerators or incubators. 
Alina Bassi: [00:15:32] think the difference of the entrepreneur first is usually that you go that if  You, you might have an idea, but you don't have to have an idea. Whereas the ones that I I'm talking about you, you've already sort of your idea, you know, this is what you want to work on. And of course you will pivot.
But, yeah, it's a bit of a different model.
Remo Kyburz: [00:15:48] Yeah, that's a good point. And I think I was in the other two and entrepreneur first and Antler. You have to probably find your team at this accelerator. So you go there really just with, with nothing. So, but it's very cool that there's this, both these types of accelerators. And did you also have to have a pitch deck  to go there and pitch? .
Alina Bassi: [00:16:06] Yeah, you had to have a pitch deck, where you really showing that you do, you've done your homework. You know, you know, the problem you're solving, you know, the, your solution, at least as much as you can, you know what the market is like, you know, the competition, you understand your business model, your value proposition, on what makes you unique and obviously talk about your experiences.
And of course, all of these things will change and they change multiple times, but it's about. I think they just want to see that you've thought it through. And you know, this is just not something you had an idea on the whim that you've really thought about how this company was going to be run. and you come prepared.
Remo Kyburz: [00:16:42] yup. That makes sense. And now to go back again to Kleiderly, I would be very curious to hear a bit more about where you're at today, with the company and, you know do you already have customers or are you working, on the, on the technology and how many people. Do you have on board at the moment, et cetera.
Alina Bassi: [00:17:03] Yeah. So since then, since the accelerator, I think we've been working really fast actually, which is great. we have gotten to a point now where we talking to very many interesting potential customers. We have lots of LOI. Lesson of intent. and we're talking to lots of really large fashion brands. So, really recently I joined, actually on Monday last week, this, retail accelerator program based in Paris, but we're doing it is actually called Lafayette plug and play, which is a really great, place roster, axon rotate accelerator for us to be parceled because.
We have access directly to all of our customers. So all of the corporate partners on there are really amazing launch fashion brands, like herring, who own some behind brands like YSL. to CapitalOne is on there. Richmond is on there and this is a great chance for us to meet our customers directly.
So we are we're in these talks with these customers. some of them have been introduced to us through this program and some others, we were either got a PR attention. And so they reached out to us and a few we have reached out to, so we're hoping to go to market very, very soon, ideally within this month.
we also raising a seed round at the moment. So I'm speaking to lots of angel investors and VCs at this point in time. we're a team of seven now, which is quite big actually. . 
Remo Kyburz: [00:18:25] And are they all based in Berlin or do you work, fully remotely at the moment?
Alina Bassi: [00:18:29] So we, we actually, in Corona time we had to work fully remote of course, because of the way things work. but now that for now, the pandemics tends to be a bit under control in Berlin. we have actually started, joined a new office. So we now have our own room, which is really important because before we used to be part of a coworking space, which is a great co-working space, I really like it.
It's very well known in Berlin. It's called factory Berlin. but the problem is that when you such a large team, it's very difficult for you to have, you know, one space for yourself within such a large coworking space. and we don't want to stop people. So now we have our own space, which is really nice and a huge step for us actually.
Remo Kyburz: [00:19:10] Awesome. That's very good to hear. , I would like to now, go from the origin story of Kleiderly more , towards your experiences and learning from that time. So, could you share a bit your learnings from the time you have so far with Kleierly? I know you're still. Rather early stage, but still, I think there's a lot of lessons you learn in the, especially in the beginning of a startup. So are there any key learnings that come to mind from being an entrepreneur and things you would recommend people that now want to start a company?
Alina Bassi: [00:19:42] Oh, so many, so many every day is a new learning or, the learning curve is very steep. I always thought that my career was a very steep learning curve until I started, I think as a founder, you have to do everything yourself to begin with. You really do everything, especially if you're bootstrapped, like I have been, and I decided not to get funding to begin with. you learn everything from all the legal matters that you have to get involved with, like, how to set up a company in Germany, which is in itself very complicated. It's in lots of different forms. You need to go to a notary. then, even things like how to find a passion, for example, or, How to employ people and, and how that should be done legally.
So the legal side in itself is very interesting. You also learn so much more about, you know, marketing, social media, PR how to sell, every day is a learning. You learn, you learn so much. My biggest learning so far have been probably, how important it is to be resilient. my dad loves saying that word too, and he always reminds me of these beavers because.
So there's always so many ups and downs. every day you have a really high, high and a very low, well, most days you can have that. So you need to just keep going and stay focused and not let certain things get you down. And you will have to pitch your business to people who might not necessarily believe in it.
And you know, not everyone will love your idea. You just need to get used to that. you need to believe in it for yourself and you need to keep going and not let anything. Kind of get you down. You really just need to step back up and keep going.
 that was where we, my biggest learning and, in order to help me with that, I think actually, I didn't realize to be honest, before I had my own company, how important it is to network.
And I don't mean network in the sense of, Oh, what can I get out of people, but more, you know, really genuine networking, making friends within the startup scene. getting to know all the founders, getting to know investors, not, not because necessarily want something from them. But actually you can really help each other along the journey.
one of the things I found quite difficult at the beginning was speaking to people about what I was doing and sharing my journey. And I probably had imposter syndrome because I didn't want to talk about it for a really long time. because I just thought that I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing.
And actually having made friends with lots of different founders along my journey has helped me so much because I realized that you can learn from each other and. You know, you can share your journey with them and they can, they can help you and support you. So the importance of a network, is something I didn't understand enough until I started this journey.
Remo Kyburz: [00:22:20] Yeah, that's very valuable advice. And also reminds me of something, that a previous guests on this podcast that, analog, she was actually, I think, two episodes ago I interviewed her and she said working with the garage door open, which means like, you should. Kind of involve other people and show your progress constantly and what you're doing and  building in public.
And yeah, this reminds me of what you just said, that you should speak about what you're doing and don't be shy about talking about it. So think it's a good advice.
Alina Bassi: [00:22:47] it's hard. It's hard. I found it really difficult initially, because I think I just kept thinking, Oh, what if I fail? and I think that's probably the reason why maybe people don't like to share things because they think, Oh, what if I make a mistake? But the truth , is. You know, when you share it, your journey with other people, when you tell people what you do, you actually get so much more support than you ever thought you needed.
I have met so many of them, fantastic people , over the last few months and last year and a half. And without their support, I wouldn't be where I am today. Anyway. So the fact that I just went out there and told him what I was doing and started to share my journey, has actually propelled me a lot further. So. It doesn't make sense to build in secret, you should do it openly and get people's advice.
Remo Kyburz: [00:23:27] definitely. And were there any challenges, you know, also in this first, year and a half, I think since you started Kleiderly, that you think I could have done something differently or I would do it differently now, and also maybe as a takeaway for other founders to see mistakes that can be avoided.
Alina Bassi: [00:23:44] I think it's very difficult to. And this will always happen is to stay focused, and to keep thinking ahead and, and kind of seeing the bigger picture. And so  it's very hard anyway, as a founder to stop and think. And, you just kind of keep going and going and going, and then. You need to sometimes just get away completely or have a few days off to switch off and see the bigger picture for you to realize some things that might be really obvious to you.
That's I think probably one of the most important things actually taking time away from your company, which is very difficult to do, is actually probably one of the most important things to do. And I do regret not taking enough breaks, I think in the first year or so. I started to force myself a bit more.
To do that because actually I think coming back refreshed with a different, you know, when the bigger picture makes you work better.
Remo Kyburz: [00:24:38] Hmm. that makes sense.  as an, as a next point, we already touched a bit on Berlin with the accelerators you went through. So I will be very curious,  to hear your experience regarding Berlin as a startup location and to start a company there.
what do you like about Berlin and what do you think, are some of the resources or some of the, the, you know, places yeah. In Berlin that are great ,  for the startup community and to start a company there?
Alina Bassi: [00:25:01] Oh, I think Berlin is absolutely fantastic. I'm so glad that I started my company here. Now, looking back, I can never envisaged doing in London, which is actually where I grew up. I think Berlin has so much to offer. It's a great city to live in because it's not too expensive. So when you're bootstrapped as a startup, You need to make sure you're in a place where you can afford to be bootstrapped.
also there's just so much opportunity. There's lots of stuff going on. There's something new happening every single day. new events within the startup scene, within the, you know, startup network, there's always something happening and you can get involved. And then accelerated programs wise.
There's so many and every day I feel like something new pops up, which I could have probably applied for, but that's, it's too late. so there's lots of opportunities and people are very willing and open to help. I've met so many new people who happen to then know someone else who knows someone else.
And people have always been really willing to just. Share that information with me, which I really appreciate because I didn't find that in, in London. So I don't know if that's maybe just, I was in different stage or different plants, but it's a great place to start a company.
Remo Kyburz: [00:26:08] . Yeah. Like Berlin has a good reputation to be a startup hotspot in Europe. So, the full check it out. if you think about selling a company and I think the . Price or the cost of living there is definitely a good point.
Alina Bassi: [00:26:19] Yeah. Normally one of the main factors for why it's easiest to start a company.
Remo Kyburz: [00:26:24] And you also have quite a few VCs and investors in Berlin. So that also helps. Yeah.
Alina Bassi: [00:26:29] Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. great place for that too.
Remo Kyburz: [00:26:33] We also talked a bit about, that you're involved with several, initiatives as well to help minorities, to become more involved, as an entrepreneur or , to encourage them to start companies. Could you talk a bit about that? And some of the initiatives you work with?
Alina Bassi: [00:26:51] Yeah. So, one thing that, I've been, I've been part of so many programs, Google for female founder program. I did the European social innovation competition. I've done now, the Lafayette plug and play accelerator. So I've done a lot of different programs. And the one thing I've found, Well, a friend of mine and I found is there's great support for women to start companies now, but we found a bit of a lack of support in, women of color in particular.
So women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and both of us being from these backgrounds, could probably count on our hands, how many founders we knew from similar backgrounds as us who had started the company. to be honest, I already know maybe two, which is really sad considering, you know, It's such a large community.
Not only in Berlin, but also in London. So we thought then there needs to be something like that we can do about this, you know, maybe from, a mentoring perspective or maybe from a, connection network perspective. So, I have been doing mentoring on the side for different startup founders or people looking to start companies.
but besides that, my friend, Deborah and I, who's a founder of a company called Haute tequila here in Berlin. We are working with an organization in Berlin called Silicon Alley who run Berlin founders fund, really, as a way to encourage other people to start their own company. either, either they've already started and we're going to help them with, connection to VCs and angels who are also looking to invest in diverse founders.
but we'll say besides that actually helping them with, you know, some things that might be really obvious to me now as a founder, but maybe not to someone who hasn't started a company. so really obvious advice. Like what's the convertible note agreement, what's a cap table. How might that be set up our future rounds look like?
the thing that I found difficult in raising investment initially, Was that everyone says you need to have a warm introduction to VCs or angels. And, you know, having a warm introduction basically means you need someone to introduce you. And I have been lucky enough that I have met a lot of people through attending a lot of events who have just been very, open to introducing me to other people who might be interested in investing.
But that might not be the case for everyone. And that's something we wanted to do with this program is really give everyone that support to getting that first chat with a VC or an angel, because it's this first round, that's probably one of the hardest, you know, they always say, Oh, you can just raise a family and friends round. but it really depends on what kind of family or friends you have. If you're not from really, really wealthy background. Most likely your friends and family don't have hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of euros stashed away to just fund you when you, when you have an idea. So, this is the bridge we're trying to, overcome.
Remo Kyburz: [00:29:37] Awesome. Yeah,  that's a really important mission that you have, core support. So, I really liked that. And as you said, it's, it is often really hard to get the first funding, especially. I mean, for, for most people, a family and friends around is just not that realistic because people just don't have the money laying around to invest in you.
So. And very cool  that you help minorities  to become startup founders. And those are raise money. And, with having said that, , I really like what you're doing with Kleiderly and to make, you know, use of textiles and textile waste , to create a sustainable plastic. So, wishing you lots of success there. And those are with  your upcoming fundraising round, 
Before we close. I would like to, jump in the  rapid fire questions. So, starting with the first one, what is the book that you read that had a very big personal impact on your life and that you would recommend people to read?
Alina Bassi: [00:30:32] This is probably really typical one and probably kind of boring, but the lean starter, most of most people have heard about it already. If you're looking to start a startup, but for me, it was really eye-opening and quite obvious. That it needs to be as lean as possible in with. So, that definitely changed my thinking around starting your company pretty early on.
Remo Kyburz: [00:30:50] Yeah. Yeah. It's a good book. I think it's written by Eric R I remember right. Yep. Okay. if you think about, your career so far and, and your life, what would you, you say what's the best personal investments that you made so far? not necessarily in money, but also in time or energy that you spent?
Alina Bassi: [00:31:10] I think it was, I'm actually starting my own company because it's time and energy and money. probably the best investment I've made in myself. because. It's great learnings for me. And no matter what happens, I have learned so much about founding a company and how it needs to be found and what was a good startup and what isn't and you know, how, how a scalable business works. this was my best investment in myself.
Remo Kyburz: [00:31:35]   is there any product that you like to use that you use on a daily basis for the startup, like some kind of software tool, that you would recommend to other founders or some, some type of collaboration tool, et cetera?
Alina Bassi: [00:31:48] Yeah, it's funny, actually. So this is a very new one that I started using, is Asana and, I used to use Trello before to set my tasks, but I, the more tasks I had and they, you know, they're very long, less, the harder it was to manage. So what I really like about Asana is you can set yourself a due date.
And so then it just prioritize your task in terms of when you need to do them by. And then it was very easy to then when I have a team switch and add them to different tasks and then make people responsible for them by giving them due dates. So, it's a great tool to use. You can add files to it. It upsets you, send you reminders. so, it helps me to be really organized and also to just kind of. Take a lot of the noise out of my head, and I know it's in a tool and I will get to it when it needs to be done.
Remo Kyburz: [00:32:39] awesome. And as a note here, I will post and link to all of these tools and also the resources you mentioned before in the show notes. So people can check it out since, have a look themselves. yeah. Then I was also curious if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would you tell yourself maybe like 10 years ago?
Alina Bassi: [00:32:59] well, that's a funny one. I think I would tell myself to believe in myself. I, I think most teenagers, well, I wasn't a teenager 10 years ago, but I still, I struggled with the lack of confidence. I really didn't believe in myself enough and this was probably the biggest, Seeing I had to overcome.
When you start your own company, you have to believe in yourself because how can you sell yourself and your company if you don't even believe in it? So, I would tell my younger self, just keep going, keep working hard and believe in yourself. You'll get there.
Remo Kyburz: [00:33:32] spontaneous follow-up question, but is there any, anything, you know, that comes to mind how to build up that self-belief or like things you can do to help you, that you build up that confidence at all?
Alina Bassi: [00:33:43] Really keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and it feels horrible. It really does, you know, you really have to push yourself, but the more things you do that you don't feel comfortable with that nervous feeling is a good feeling. And you should have that often, because if you don't have it, that means you're comfortable and you feel comfortable. You're not growing. So keep doing new things and. Whenever I was comfortable in a job, I realized I needed to leave because it meant that I wasn't learning anything. I wasn't doing anything near exciting. And, so I, I changed a lot because I just kept wanting the next thing that it would help me to learn and grow.
that's very important, especially in your younger years, because you have the ability to be able to learn and soak so much information. So, Yeah, definitely keep doing things that push you out of this comfort zone and it could even be something completely unrelated to your career. Like, I don't know, learning how to, I don't know, going paragliding or something.
Ridiculous, completely different. It's just the fact that you're pushing yourself to do something you don't feel comfortable with. I think that's very important.
Remo Kyburz: [00:34:45] Yeah. Yeah. I fully agree with that. And the feeling of being uncomfortable. It's definitely it's, it's not nice, but you will thank yourself later if you push yourself into situations like that. . Awesome. last question related to the name of the podcast. so. As, you know, I'm interviewing people that, you know, try to do their own thing. that's, you know, take the leap and do something aside of the typical career tracks. So, related to that,  what does courage mean to you personally?
Alina Bassi: [00:35:12] Courage means going, going ahead and doing something, even if you don't feel a hundred percent confident at the time. but just going for anyway, which is the way what I did with Kleiderly to begin with. but you build up the courage over time. You just have to force yourself to take that first leap.
Remo Kyburz: [00:35:29] Well, Alina really appreciate your time today and, finding out more about what you're building and, before we close, is there anything you want to share? or where can people find more about you and about Kleierly online?
Alina Bassi: [00:35:44] Yeah. so we have all social channels. There are two. So Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, on some, I think we're mostly called kleiderlyberlin on all of our social channels and our website is just kleiderly.com. 
so yeah, definitely sign up, to our newsletter. If you're interested in keeping up to date with what we're up to.
Remo Kyburz: [00:36:10] Cool. And as I mentioned before, you can find all of that in the show notes as well of this podcast. And yeah. So thank you so much again, Alina and wishing you lots of success with Kleiderly.
Alina Bassi: [00:36:22] Thank you so much.
Remo Kyburz: [00:36:23] Hey, before you go. I just want to ask you for a very small favor. If you get any value out of this podcast, please quickly head over to the Apple podcast store or wherever you are listening to this and give the  Leap Takers podcast a positive rating. It just takes 10 seconds. This would really help me to get more visible and I'll be able to continuously bring on great guests to the show. 
If you want to do even more, you can now easily donate something to support with the costs of this podcast. Just go to Leaptakers.com and you see a coffee mug at the bottom of the page. If you click on it, you can donate a small amount as much as you want. Like buying me a coffee. Which helps me to cover the costs of this podcast, like hosting, editing tools, et cetera. Thank you so much. As always, if you have any feedback or want to get in touch. Just shoot me a message. You can find all my contact info as well as all social channels on Leaptakers.com. Thanks again for listening. And until next time bye-bye.