Let me start by explaining why I'm writing this and who it’s for.

A few months ago, I started my own business with a keen interest in the energy and sustainability sector. Along this journey, I began a fellowship with ClimateCAP where I was asked to share my experience, so I decided to sit down and write a blog for whoever is interested in learning about the early stages of starting a company. I believe writing a journal is liberating and has helped me reflect on my previous decisions. I’d say, for me, it’s not only that writing is the best way to express myself, but also revealing ‘an inside view’ into someone's process can benefit potential students who are thinking about taking that leap of faith into the startup space. Even more so, to those pursuing an MBA and are interested in the sustainability sector. A big shoutout to Jessica Wingert and the rest of the Climate CAP at Duke University for their support!

So… Is this venture headed for success? No one knows. To be completely blunt, we just started this crazy adventure and have no idea where we’ll end up and that is OK!! Dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty is always going to be part of this process. However, I do think it is fundamental that you accept there is a high likelihood of failure with any startup. It is common knowledge that most startups will not survive. For me, I asked myself: should I really do this? Or should I devote my time to a different path? At MBA programs Consulting, IB, and General Management roles are the most common paths (with good salaries and placement percentages). But, I kept going back to the same answer:

I KNOW I’ll regret it if I didn’t give it a shot.

I came into the program already knowing I wanted to pursue this path. Plus, your opportunity cost will never be this low; when you’re in school you can devote as much time as you can to jumpstart the business without worrying or burning out due to other jobs and paying bills. All you need to do is commit, learn, and keep pushing. Even better if you can align your classes with your business! At least that’s what I did…

So here it goes—my story and the mental gymnastics that led me here:

First, Identify the Problem

When you hear about startups and those ‘million dollar ideas’, you might imagine major epiphanies—someone gazing at a sunset, pondering life's most complex issues, and BAM! A brilliant idea emerges. To be completely honest, I’m not sure how often that happens, and it certainly wasn’t my experience. Instead of a sudden epiphany, it was more like a ‘slow cooker’ process for me; perhaps connecting the dots or building a bridge between seemingly unrelated concepts.

I think when one works for an extensive period of time and gets intimate with a specific process or industry, one starts to identify its limitations and opportunities. Nevertheless, it is extremely hard to detach yourself from your career to take a bird’s eye view and try to pursue an idea because of a ‘hunch’. I’d say many people have these ideas (probably all the time!), but unfortunately don’t end up acting on them. It’s those who weigh the pros and cons and decide it’s worth the risk who build the companies we all read about.

My professional career began around 9 years ago. I worked at ZGF Architects as a Project Architect for their DC and Seattle offices, and I loved it. The dynamic nature of the profession kept me engaged; no day was the same, and I had to deal with new challenges and opportunities constantly. I was fortunate enough to work with incredibly talented teams on multiple projects and even witnessed my last project, the first phase of Amazon HQ2, evolve from the early stages of design to completion. However, despite my love for the job, I often faced burnout. A lot had to do with my own ambition (working late seemed like a badge of honor), but also manual and inefficient workflows that forced me to work extensive hours. For instance, one of the most time-consuming tasks was writing and reviewing construction specifications. This process was not only slow but also prone to human errors. The constant repetition and meticulous attention to detail required made it one of the more stressful parts of my job. Non-surprisingly turns out after many conversations, my colleagues and other architects feel the same way.

When I first started learning and working with specifications, I found it daunting. I did not know much about them from school (or at least I do not remember touching them haha). Generally, specifications are written by very experienced team members (say, Spec Writers or Technical Leads), and having to review them for construction submittals or prepare for meetings with the contractor was intimidating. Once you gather more experience and confidence, you become more skilled and realize their fundamental importance. They are the backbone of your team’s work. In times of disputes at the construction site, these specifications could be your lifeline because they explain the workmanship, products, and installation of all the components that go into a building in much greater detail. As one of my previous mentors used to say: “Specifications are all about liability protection. And liability is the name of the game”. (Yes Kian, I did pay attention to your guidance!)

Simultaneously while working at ZGF, there was a fundamental emphasis on sustainability for our projects. It was integral to our work and we also noticed the growing interest across the industry. Today, sustainability is a major topic in all markets, and in architecture, it involves multiple layers including energy efficiency, water management, material selection, etc. As I learned more about sustainability in the built environment, I became deeply interested in carbon-storing materials and new methods to lower embodied carbon. For several of my projects, we explored specifying materials with lower Global Warming Potential (GWP), relying heavily on Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Tools like EC3, a free database of construction EPDs with a building impact calculator, became part to our workflow for Amazon HQ2. I just remember thinking: “Wow, this is so cool.” I hadn’t seen anything like it and wondered if all architects would use it one day. Additionally, with various jurisdictions starting to consider more embodied carbon guidelines, it was clear that significant changes were coming.

These two experiences—dealing with inefficient workflows and sustainability awareness—motivated me to seek a way to drive change. I strongly believe architects deserve faster and more efficient methods for evaluating products and ultimately creating cohesive specifications. The current process requires hours of searching through PDFs, manuals, drawings, and websites to find relevant information, and then translating selections into specifications (think of a 2000-page Word document). Comparing products on a granular level and including all the relevant information, especially in terms of environmental impact, was a complex and time-consuming task that many of us face. I started to believe that we could leverage some of the latest and greatest technologies and take advantage of economies of scale to create a solution that can be adopted by many firms worldwide. This idea kept marinating in my brain for a while so I decided to take action.

In August 2023, I took a leap of faith and decided to leave my position in architecture and pursue an MBA to explore these ideas further. Right after I stepped foot on Carnegie Mellon’s campus, I was taught about the "Lean Entrepreneurship" mindset through my classes and a program called Project Olympus. This is an extracurricular course where new founders can learn the fundamentals of customer discovery and user validation (startups like Duolingo came from here as well). Within a few weeks, I started my new project called ‘ConAssist’, which later became ‘Sabana’ (what I am working on today). My mentor’s first assignment was to define a clear problem and a hypothesis I believed to be true. I was so excited to get going and leverage all of the resources the university had to offer that I started immediately. As one of my first assignments, I wrote: Architects need a streamlined, efficient way to evaluate materials and create specifications, particularly with an emphasis on environmental impact.