AUSTIN, Texas — Many of us are transplants here in Austin, some of us just from a few states over – others like myself from pretty much cross country (Massachusetts) – then, others like our next guest who originally came here from far, far away.
Please welcome our next guest, Nebi.
What You Need To Know
- Born in Ethiopia and has lived in Chicago and Iowa before Austin.
- Has founded various start up companies here in Austin.
- BIG adrenaline junky, always looking for something crazy and new to try.
Nebi was born in Ethiopia which I learned recently has over 80 languages spoken. (I couldn’t even learn Spanish myself in high school) – I spent some time with Nebi during one of our recently photo shoots to learn more about who he is, how he ended up here in Austin and what inspires him.
“Yeah man – born in Ethiopia and came to the U.S. when I was 12 – we lived in Chicago before I moved to Iowa for school” Nebi explained.
That’s quite the journey – but I wanted to know more about how he ended up here in Austin.
“Yeah, so I moved to Austin in 2018 – I actually had a job lined up for a firm and three days before I started they pulled the plug” Nebi said with a smile. “So I just said screw it – booked a one way ticket to Texas after only coming here once before with just a few dollars in savings and said, why not”
The one thing you need to know about Nebi is this, the dude sends it – doesn’t matter if it’s moving to a new city or jumping out of an airplane – he goes all in. This must run in the family after his parents moved here from Africa!
“I really wanted to make my family proud, man. Austin has a very entrepreneurial feel to it and I knew I could dive into some cool projects.” Nebi describes with enthusiasm. “I got into eCommerce and some other companies and really cut my teeth on how businesses work and learned how to get into the capital funding arena” Nebi describes. “From there man I just went full in on doing some project management outsourcing and getting into crypto”
Remember what I said about Nebi sending it? The guy is a sponge and wants to be absorbed in as much as he can so he can constantly be learning, evolving and growing.
But what about community?
“I met Tanner a long time ago at Sphere and he was like – yeah man I’m an engineer – and I was like, an engineer with badass tattoos what?!” Nebi leans forward and laughs out loud. “From that point I just liked his energy and have been going to sphere and Secret Disco events since”
This is such a reoccurring theme we see with these society articles – there’s just an energy here within the city that can’t be described. I asked Nebi more around his thought process of just ‘sending it’
“Moving at any stage in life without knowing anyone is scary” Nebi describes with a sense of seriousness. “It’s just crazy how things work out – If my parents never took a risk and moved here from Africa, I wouldn’t be here with you right now, or connected to all these people. I wouldn’t be skydiving, surfing and scuba diving – everything that has happened in my life has led me to do all of these things” Nebi says with Intensity and deepness.
I wanted to know more.
“I try to not over think things – when I asked my date to prom I almost passed out!” We both laugh. “But that’s the thing, I knew if I wanted to grow mentally, I had to take risks to get over my fears”
As we close, I ask Nebi what piece of advice he would give a younger version of himself.
“I think 2Pac said it best when he said ‘I might not be the one to change the world, but I might inspire the mother fucker who is’. Nebi says with a smirk. “I do a lot of things that might be a little out of the ordinary but so what – let me do these things and maybe I’ll inspire others, no matter what – every person here matters”
Nebi and his passion for ‘sending it’ is something we can all take away as a ‘to do’. Sometimes we overthink everything in our life when we just need to strap on a parachute, open the door to that plane – and jump.