A story about us getting started, experimenting, learning, pivoting, and growing a community.

The Official Bento 2022 Year in Review

Bento is your personal page to show everything you are and create. A link in bio, but rich and beautiful ✨
🔎 Search: Use CTRL+F💌 Help? support@bento.me 

Hey hey 👋🏻 

New updates and improvements to Bento ✨🥳
🔎 Search: Use CTRL+F💌 Help? support@bento.me

Changelog

Create a beautiful personal page to show your audience everything you are and create - in one link.

Bento - A Link in Bio, but Rich and Beautiful.

Bento - Explore

The 4 people building Bento. Are you number 5?

Bento - Join the Team

Send Special Letters

Listen to this episode from Stretch Four Podcast on Spotify. Happy Monday,If you’re enjoying this newsletter, consider clicking the ❤️ button above so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏🏿.I hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s newsletter — Companies do more with less, Frugality vs. ROI, and Tasting the Rainbow, if you missed please check it out.On this week’s show, I recapped three books that I read in January and how I did on the fitness front with my workouts. I also shared some behind-the-scenes results on how the Stretch Four Media business is doing, what my goals are for the next few months, and how the first two episodes of this podcast are doing.Finally, I end with an interview with Selim Benayat — Founder and CEO at Bento.me one of the first founders to participate in the Sequoia Arc Program.We got an inside look at what a high-performing founder’s lifestyle looks like, how and why he chooses to live in Berlin, Germany, and more on how he got into the Sequoia Arc program including what the evaluation process was, and what he built with Bento.As always, thanks for subscribing, and please shoot me your feedback when you check out the episode.Find the show notes below.Also, check out the podcast on your favorite podcast players including Spotify and Apple.Episode 003: Stretch Four PodcastMy Recaps* 6:25-17:58 - Summarizing the read three books in January* Loonshots* Safi Bahcall, an American author, physicist, technologist, business executive, and author, has written a book that highlights companies and stories from the past 100 years, weaving through biotech, aviation, and hardware. He has studied at Harvard and Stanford.* Lords of Easy Money* The New York Times bestseller from business journalist Christopher Leonard is highly recommended. I had previously read his book, Kochland (an extraordinary account of how the world's largest private company grew to become so powerful, and how it shaped modern corporate America, with a focus on the Koch brothers and their empire), and it was remarkable.* Freezing Order* In his follow-up to the explosive New York Times bestseller Red Notice, Bill Browder recounts his journey to becoming Vladimir Putin's nemesis. He details the events that led him to become a fierce critic of the Russian president, from his investment in the Russian stock market in 1996 to his eventual exile from the country in 2005. Browder's story is a gripping tale of corruption, courage, and resilience, and a powerful reminder of the power of truth.* 17:59- 24:43 Fitness Check-in powered by Future reporting and dashboard tools* I broke down my Future report for the last 30 days, shared in the newsletter, to show how active I was at the gym in January and what my baseline is for the short month of February.* 24:54 - 33:32 How the Stretch Four Business Performed in January* In January, we reviewed our financials, including revenue, subscriber growth, and the performance of our newly launched podcast in its first few episodes.Thank you for reading Stretch Four Insights. This post is public so feel free to share it.Guest Interview* 33:50 - 1:17:27 — Selim Benayat Founder & CEO of Bento.me* Selim Benayat— Founder and CEO at Bento.me—shares his lifestyle tips, how he manages his schedule and food, and life in Berlin, Germany. He also opens up about how he got into Sequoia's Arc Program. Finally, he sheds light on what he is building with Bento, which you can sign up for today using the code: STRETCHFOUR.Church Announcements* 1:17:30 - the end* This week, I'm participating in a Black History Month Panel in San Francisco. If you're local and looking for Friday night activities, come join us! Here's the registration link: Cap Table Coalition & Pay It Forward MBA Black History Month Panel. I'm also preparing for a presentation at the Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas for ModernTax.Check out the podcast on both apps below.SpotifyAppleThanks to our sponsor Future. To hear more, visit stretchfour.substack.com

Episode 003: 3 Books I Read & My Fitness Check-in for January; The Stretch Four Business Results & Selim Benayat — Founder and CEO at Bento.me the first founder to participate Sequoia's Arc Program

Listen to this episode from The New Creator Economy on Spotify. Sélim Benayat on First-time Founders and The Vanity Metrics You Might Not Want to Follow, What American Football Taught Sélim and The Concept of Self-Governance, Problem Deconstruction and the Characteristics of a Great Product Manager, The Story Behind Bento, Sequoia’s Arc Europe Accelerator and Building A Company ‘The Sequoia Way’, Bento - A personal Hub for the Next Generation of Businesses and Brands, The Future of Work and the Shift in the Generations’ Relationships with Work Towards More Individualism, The Creator Economy and Europe’s catchup vs. The US, The Internet Culture, Leadership and The Mistake of Over-indexing on Input vs. Focusing on Outputs. Second-time founder, Sélim is now the Co-Founder & CEO of CreatorSpaces (now Bento.me), a link-in bio for all your links on one beautiful page. The vision? Be creators’ personal hub for the Next Generation of businesses and brands, empowering everyone, everywhere, to work on what they deeply care about and build and truly connect with their community. In May this year, CreatorSpaces raised a $1.6M Pre-Seed round led by Sequoia Arc Europe, a 7-week acceleration program designed for ambitious European seed-stage founders, and since then it rebranded as Bento and Today (19th Dec 22) finally opened up their waitlist. Go check it out!   This is Episode #15 of The New Creator economy: Web3 creator platforms focused on interviewing The Founders of these new exciting start ups. Today, I am joined by Sélim Benayat, Co-Founder and CEO of Bento, with whom I discuss: Entrepreneurship.  You are not a first-time founder. What led you to the start-up world in the first place and how did you become an entrepreneur? What are the learnings you took with you from building the first start up? What are the mistakes you will Not repeat?  Leadership. Something that both Vincent and Mugeeb mentioned is your ability to ‘hone in on the essence of concepts and thoughts’, meaning your ability to distil ideas into their core essence, and allow everyone to see what truly matters with clarity, and push towards a common goal.  So first I want to ask, where does your ability come from – to (A) Break down complexity and convey a clear, simple message to the team, and (B) How do you align the whole team towards a shared vision and common goal? Building on this, Vincent said that this is exactly what makes you an incredible Product person – your ability to simplify complexity and getting to the core of the issues, fast. What is it, in your opinion, that makes a great Product person’? How has your leadership style evolved from your first start up to Today  Self-governance. Jan also told me about how you combine Living in the moment with Discipline; work out every single day (I knew you were my people!), lives between two cities, learns new languages, works multiple businesses, travels. It’s insane. He says you have “algorithm-like self-governance,” and suggested I explore the concept of “self-governance” with you.  What does “self-governance” mean, and means to you? How do you combine Living in the Moment with Discipline? Again, for the early-stage founders listening to the show who are probably struggling with (A) I wanna say “Compartmentalizing” almost and living their life separate from their business while also (B) Staying Disciplined and Focused?  Sport and American Football. We already touched upon sports, but I want to deep dive here.  Both Jan and Vincent mentioned you played American Football at a competitive level and said this was one of the turning points in your life. How so? This one is from Vincent – with many ex-athletes now getting into the VC game, do you think they bring something extra?  Bento. First, big congratulations on the big unveil today! (Selim replies).  Bento - All your content on one beautiful page. So, first for our listeners, what is Bento and what’s the origin story behind it? In May this year, you raised a $1.6M Pre-Seed round led by Sequoia Arc Europe, an 8-week acceleration program designed for ambitious European seed-stage founders. Again congratulations! First for founders also interested in the program, how does it work and how did you get into the program? And now, what’s next?  The Creator Economy connected with The Future of Work  Mugeeb would love to hear more about how the mentality of generations has changed in regard to how they view their work and what professional and / or personal fulfilment means to them. It feels to Mugeeb like this matter has been a central topic for almost every generation and the beliefs and answers of every generation seem to be different than the ones before. Tell me more. That said, how do you see the Creator Economy evolving, especially in relation to the Future of Work, Online? 

Sélim Benayat, Co-Founder and CEO of Bento

Listen to this episode from DX Podcast on Spotify. In the fourth episode of the DX Podcast, we welcome Selim Benayat - Co-Founder and CEO of an ETH-Zürich spin-off using AR to get kids interested in robotics and programming. RosieReality, their first gaming title, was picked up exclusively by Apple Arcade. Many thanks to Thomas Rechberger for providing the soundtrack. Please visit WONDROUS for more information about us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DX Podcast #4 w/ Selim Benayat

Listen to this episode from Open Podcast on Spotify. Sélim Benayat is the Co-Founder of Rosie Reality, an augmented Reality Start-up that didnt start out as one! We talk about his journey and how he ended up setting up the Kickfund to help the Innovation Ecosystem in Switzerland thrive and other founders achieve their goals and dreams.

001_ Sélim Benayat

192 Followers, 494 Following, 108 Posts - S (@itsdrmanhattan) on Instagram: "Co-founder bento.me 🍱😍"

S (@itsdrmanhattan) • Instagram photos and videos

06/2022: Back in the operational seat! Let&#39;s goooo: Bento.me 

2020: I focus on a… · Experience: NALA · Education: ETH Zürich · Location: Zurich · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Sélim Benayat’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.

Sélim Benayat - NALA | LinkedIn

See what kind of products Sélim Benayat (Co-founder & Product Bento.me) likes on Product Hunt

 Sélim Benayat's profile on Product Hunt | Product Hunt

Outliers, underdogs, and independent thinkers with the grit to make an enduring impact.

Our Founders

Storytelling That Sells: How to Build a Product Everyone Wants to Share - with Selim Benayat, Bento

Builder and bento fanatic 👨🏻‍💻🌏🍱