Episode 30

From Drop Shipping to Bitcoin Education: Sanjna's Entrepreneurial Shift - Part 1

Are you curious about how Bitcoin can transform lives and empower individuals globally? In this podcast, we'll delve into the journey of Sanjna, who found herself drawn into the world of Bitcoin after discovering its potential for financial freedom and human rights empowerment.

  • Drop Shipping to Bitcoin: Sanjna pivoted from a COVID-era drop shipping business to diving into Bitcoin.
  • Husband’s Bitcoin Introduction: Before her interest, Sanjna's husband was already deep into Bitcoin.
  • Human Rights & Bitcoin: Sanjna's genuine Bitcoin interest was sparked by its potential for human rights and financial empowerment.
  • El Salvador's Bitcoin Transformation: El Salvador's pioneering move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender could be responsible for its economic boom, reduced crime, and increased tourism.

Sanjna's Info:

Sanjna Mehta

Co-founder, Yzer

yzer.io

@sanjna_connect

Special Mention: Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club – a space to delve deeper into the world of Bitcoin. https://www.meetup.com/womensbitcoinreadingclubwithorangehatter

Please email questions/comments to Tali@orangehatter.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Aleia Free Market Kids Sponsorship FULL

Get your HODL UP ("The best bitcoin game ever!") at www.freemarketkids.com.

Transcript
Tali:

Hi everybody, welcome to Orange Hatter.

Tali:

Today you're going to be listening in on my conversation with Sanjana.

Tali:

Hey Sanjana, welcome to Orange Hatter.

Tali:

I am so happy to have you here.

Tali:

Um, can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you heard

Tali:

about Bitcoin, uh, when you did?

Sanjna:

Of course.

Sanjna:

So thanks for having me on the show, Tali.

Sanjna:

I'm super excited to be here.

Sanjna:

I'll tell you a little bit about my background.

Sanjna:

I'm based in Belgium.

Sanjna:

I've lived here my whole life.

Sanjna:

I, uh, went to the UK, studied sociology, and then went on to pursue

Sanjna:

a master's in media and communication.

Sanjna:

And then I came back to Belgium, and I was super interested in,

Sanjna:

just, marketing in general.

Sanjna:

So I worked in a startup.

Sanjna:

I worked in B2C, B2B, did about seven years in marketing, and

Sanjna:

then had a complete career switch and came into Bitcoin.

Sanjna:

I came into the Bitcoin space.

Sanjna:

So it's, it, it, it is very interesting.

Sanjna:

I, when I left, left my last job as a marketing manager in an

Sanjna:

industrial company, I was wondering what to do with my life next.

Sanjna:

And then Covid hit about six months later.

Sanjna:

So, my husband and I actually started a drop shipping company together.

Sanjna:

We, we we're both very creative and very adapting and we're very, we, we've

Sanjna:

always wanted to start something out of the blue and just try something

Sanjna:

that no one else has ever done.

Sanjna:

So we came across drop shipping and we thought, okay, this is cool,

Sanjna:

'cause I'm super into marketing.

Sanjna:

He's super creative.

Sanjna:

So we had that whole knowledge and, and sense of, you know, creating

Sanjna:

ads, creating compelling videos, just getting a little creative with,

Sanjna:

with that whole marketing front.

Sanjna:

So we started a drop shipping business, which eventually led into

Sanjna:

a white labeled beauty product.

Sanjna:

So of course at the time of Covid, you know, salons were shut worldwide.

Sanjna:

Women still wanted to be completely groomed and, and have a way

Sanjna:

of doing their beauty routine.

Sanjna:

So we started selling an eyebrow hair removal pen.

Sanjna:

And you think it's just such a niche product, and it's so random, but

Sanjna:

it, it actually worked really well.

Sanjna:

We, we, we sold, I think over...

Sanjna:

we had over 15,000 customers worldwide, so it was super interesting.

Sanjna:

And then we got into the whole business of more home beauty gadgets.

Sanjna:

So we, we kind of scaled that business.

Sanjna:

We worked on it for a year, almost a year and a half, and then there

Sanjna:

were just a lot of changes going on.

Sanjna:

We thought that, okay, COVID was making it a little difficult 'cause

Sanjna:

of the logistics, but there were a lot of issues going on with

Sanjna:

advertising and small businesses.

Sanjna:

And we just thought it was, it was more of a passion project and we're like, okay,

Sanjna:

maybe you know, maybe we stop this now and we find the next thing that we wanna do.

Sanjna:

So I think in that much time, we gained a lot of experience on how to start

Sanjna:

a business and how we can actually work together, me and my husband.

Sanjna:

'Cause it's a nightmare for most couples, right?

Sanjna:

It's not easy working with your partner.

Sanjna:

But I think taking that as a first experience is what actually

Sanjna:

led both of us to Bitcoin.

Sanjna:

So my husband's known about Bitcoin since, I'd say, 2013, 2014.

Sanjna:

He is, he is always been very knowledgeable, very intrigued by

Sanjna:

the whole space of, of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, but he never

Sanjna:

really took a lot of action in 2013.

Sanjna:

Then I think when things started picking up again, he, he got into it.

Sanjna:

We, you know, we quit, we quit this ... business, so he had more time.

Sanjna:

He, he, he does some other work on the side.

Sanjna:

He's a, he's a jeweler.

Sanjna:

He is in the diamond business.

Sanjna:

But he also kind of wanted to explore, explore other opportunities.

Sanjna:

So once he started getting more into Bitcoin and reading about

Sanjna:

it, he was fully immersed.

Sanjna:

'Cause when you get into the Bitcoin space, there's like,

Sanjna:

there's no turning back, right?

Sanjna:

It's, it's a rabbit hole and just go deeper and deeper.

Sanjna:

So I think for about a year I was still kind of figuring out what I wanna do,

Sanjna:

and he kept talking about Bitcoin, and it just, it never interested me.

Sanjna:

I just, I would go blank every time he spoke to me.

Sanjna:

He would, he would do all these sketches on a whiteboard, try to write these notes,

Sanjna:

and he really wanted me to learn about it.

Sanjna:

And I, I was just like, I, I don't get it.

Sanjna:

And there's nothing about it that's, really hit the spot where I feel like,

Sanjna:

okay, I need to learn about Bitcoin.

Sanjna:

But then I think the more he got into it and the more passionate he got about it...

Sanjna:

like, I could hear him talking about it with our friends or

Sanjna:

family and, you know, at that point everyone's like, oh, what is crypto?

Sanjna:

What is this hype?

Sanjna:

It wasn't specifically just Bitcoin, it was the whole space.

Sanjna:

Right?

Sanjna:

It was, there was this hype of Ethereum, Solana, just a lot of

Sanjna:

these different coins and tokens.

Sanjna:

And suddenly I'm like, okay, maybe I, I have a little bit of interest.

Sanjna:

I just wanna know what, you know, what you spend so much time in a day doing.

Sanjna:

So he started explaining a bit of the technicals to me.

Sanjna:

He started explaining hash rate blocks, mining, all of that.

Sanjna:

And then again, like, I don't come from a very technical background.

Sanjna:

I don't have a finance background.

Sanjna:

So for me, I was, I was still, I was trying to get interested 'cause

Sanjna:

he was so passionate about it.

Sanjna:

But nothing, again, nothing still really hit the spot where I was like,

Sanjna:

okay, this makes a lot of sense.

Sanjna:

I think that moment where I was like, I wanna get deeper into Bitcoin is

Sanjna:

when I started learning about the human rights part about Bitcoin, right?

Sanjna:

So it's funny because when I talk about this, a lot of women are

Sanjna:

interested in the same thing.

Sanjna:

Maybe it is a gender thing, I don't know, but he never told me about

Sanjna:

Bitcoin from this perspective.

Sanjna:

But I actually started doing a lot of reading.

Sanjna:

I started finding out that, okay, there's a lot more to the

Sanjna:

technical aspects of Bitcoin.

Sanjna:

Sorry, there's a lot more than just the technical aspects of Bitcoin.

Sanjna:

There's this whole crisis that can be solved with Bitcoin, right?

Sanjna:

People actually use it as a financial empowerment tool, as a human rights

Sanjna:

empowerment tool, especially in developing countries, in countries

Sanjna:

where there's authoritarian regimes.

Sanjna:

Maybe because he's from the U.S., I'm from Europe, it doesn't hit

Sanjna:

us, you know, the way it should.

Sanjna:

But we're both originally from India and, and we spend a lot of time in India, and

Sanjna:

government corruption, monetary issues, a lot of the stuff does hit close to heart.

Sanjna:

And then, that's when Bitcoin started making a lot of sense to me, when I

Sanjna:

thought that, okay, there's about 5 billion people, four to 5 billion people

Sanjna:

in this world who are living under these kind of governments and authoritarian

Sanjna:

regimes, and it's a place where Bitcoin can really solve all, all your issues.

Sanjna:

When, when I really started understanding that Bitcoin is for everyone.

Sanjna:

It, it's a form of money that's borderless.

Sanjna:

There's no restrictions based on age, gender, sex,

Sanjna:

religion, caste, none of that.

Sanjna:

Right?

Sanjna:

It, it, it doesn't matter where you come from, Bitcoin is literally for everyone.

Sanjna:

And I think that is when I started going down the rabbit hole and I'm

Sanjna:

like, okay, I, I can do something with this and I, and I wanna get into

Sanjna:

this, and this is the future, and I think I wanna spend the next 30 years

Sanjna:

of my life just focusing on Bitcoin.

Tali:

That is so wonderful.

Tali:

We have a very similar journey, in that, my husband started, he

Tali:

started down the Bitcoin rabbit hole before me, and he tried very,

Tali:

very hard to get me interested.

Tali:

And I wasn't.

Tali:

Like you said, they would go...

Tali:

I don't know if it's a man thing or an engineer thing, but they

Tali:

always go from the technical side.

Sanjna:

Exactly.

Tali:

He said, he was explaining, he was explaining the hash rate to me,

Tali:

and the, the, the whole blockchain, you know, structure and I'm like, I don't...

Tali:

what, what?

Tali:

But I really wanna find out more about that moment of spark.

Tali:

So you said that you...

Tali:

what interested you in the first place was the human rights aspect of

Tali:

it and that it's a freedom money and it's, it's financial empowerment.

Tali:

So can you think back to maybe a specific story that really jumped out

Tali:

at you and grabbed your attention?

Sanjna:

Yeah, sure.

Sanjna:

So I think the first thing that I read about actually was, was the strike.

Sanjna:

I think it was in Canada, but basically there were a bunch of truck

Sanjna:

drivers also who went on strike.

Sanjna:

They wanted to raise money through crowdfunding, and I think the government

Sanjna:

completely blocked them off some platform.

Sanjna:

I'm trying to remember the exact story, but that that's what kind of happened.

Sanjna:

And basically you realize that the government has a lot of

Sanjna:

control over, over any system.

Sanjna:

Everything is centralized, whatever bank account, whatever, uh, way

Sanjna:

you're transferring money...

Sanjna:

anything can be blocked, seized at any moment, because they

Sanjna:

have all your information.

Sanjna:

Right.

Sanjna:

So I think when these truck drivers went on strike and their money was blocked

Sanjna:

from transferring it to other people.

Sanjna:

It was, it was Bitcoin that actually saved them, and they could actually make

Sanjna:

a lot of remittances and, and transfers.

Sanjna:

And I think that's actually, I'm giving a first world example because

Sanjna:

that's when I think a lot of people started realizing that it makes a

Sanjna:

difference all over the world, right?

Sanjna:

It's not just about where you come from.

Sanjna:

It's not just about Africa and certain countries in Asia.

Sanjna:

It's actually, it's happening in North America.

Sanjna:

So, so that's one of the things that struck me.

Sanjna:

I mean, there's a lot of, there's hyperinflation happening

Sanjna:

in countries like Zimbabwe.

Sanjna:

There's, there's issues going on in Lebanon.

Sanjna:

There's again, India, right, like...

Sanjna:

it, the government's so corrupt.

Sanjna:

They're trying to block, they're trying to block Bitcoin in general.

Sanjna:

But even then, there's just so much corruption and so much politics.

Sanjna:

You, you can't even understand what's going on.

Sanjna:

It's like only the top 5% of that country actually has access to

Sanjna:

wealth, or whatever happens to that country is just in their control.

Sanjna:

And what...

Sanjna:

India's like the most populated country today.

Sanjna:

It's crazy to think that 95% of the people there don't even have, have

Sanjna:

access to bank accounts, or they just get seized, or they just get frozen.

Sanjna:

So I, I, I, I think for me it's, it, it, the best example is just India,

Sanjna:

'cause it's close to heart, and I know what's going on in that country.

Sanjna:

But for example, we've been speaking to a lot of people from, from

Sanjna:

Venezuela and Nigeria, Philippines.

Sanjna:

Like, these are all, all personal stories.

Sanjna:

One of our co-founders is from Lebanon as well, and there's so many

Sanjna:

countries going on in their own...

Sanjna:

so many issues going on in their own country.

Sanjna:

And I think it's, it's just one of those things where people are not aware.

Sanjna:

You know, if more people were aware of what's going on worldwide, they would,

Sanjna:

I don't wanna say just, move to Bitcoin, but they would try to understand how

Sanjna:

flawed our economic system is in general.

Sanjna:

But, but yeah, I think, yeah, I think again, for me it's just, it's just

Sanjna:

really India that hits for me, because it's, it's, it's really one of the...

Sanjna:

if you move away from the three largest cities in India, it's

Sanjna:

like it's a horrible situation.

Sanjna:

Whatever's going on in villages and remote areas and the way, yeah, the

Sanjna:

way the government has just been since the past like 60 years, it's very

Sanjna:

difficult to get, to get any kind of money into your bank account or to

Sanjna:

just, you know, get past the government and, and, and that whole KYC process.

Tali:

I really would love to be able to picture, like, a specific example

Tali:

that maybe that comes to your mind when you reference the village situation in

Tali:

India outside the three large cities.

Tali:

Because I think, especially for us women, we, we tend to want

Tali:

to relate through our feelings.

Tali:

And so if you can think of something more specific, maybe some particular family

Tali:

that comes to mind, or particular specific situation that you can describe for us...

Sanjna:

It's funny 'cause I've spoken to a lot of people from India, and they've

Sanjna:

told me their stories, but I'm just like completely blanking out right now.

Sanjna:

But the country that does come to mind is actually El Salvador.

Sanjna:

'Cause we actually just, like, did a class on this in our byte section as well.

Sanjna:

But I think El Salvador was seen as one of the most dangerous countries

Sanjna:

until we got the new president.

Sanjna:

Right.

Sanjna:

Nayib Bukele, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing him right.

Sanjna:

But basically he came into power and I think in, I think in 2019.

Sanjna:

So before he was in power, the country was known for its high

Sanjna:

crime rate, for violence, for a lot of the population being unbanked.

Sanjna:

And after he came into power, he actually, he's, they're the first

Sanjna:

country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

Sanjna:

So there's so many people who support this, and I mean, of course the country,

Sanjna:

but there's so many people outside of El Salvador who support this.

Sanjna:

And we, we'll probably see a lot more countries follow, and following, and

Sanjna:

taking the step because we've seen Bitcoin's impact on El Salvador, right?

Sanjna:

So crime rates have gone down.

Sanjna:

They've gone down more than 30%.

Sanjna:

It's become a new hub for tourism...

Sanjna:

for talent and tech startups to, to start their hubs there.

Sanjna:

Of course, he has a lot of popularity, positive popularity from

Sanjna:

the, from the population itself.

Sanjna:

Just, economically they're doing a lot better.

Sanjna:

So I think this is the best example of where you see a pre-Bitcoin country

Sanjna:

and a post-Bitcoin country and how much of a change there's actually been

Sanjna:

economically but also socially and, and just, yeah, just in, it just...

Sanjna:

very positively within the country and how many changes it's, it's made.

Sanjna:

And they're getting a lot of support.

Sanjna:

I think there's...

Sanjna:

we went from Bitcoin Miami, and there's just people who, who wanna

Sanjna:

move to El Salvador, they wanna, you know, start investing in El Salvador.

Sanjna:

Like it's, it's just opened up like a million new opportunities.

Tali:

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today.

Tali:

If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would

Tali:

like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the

Tali:

Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club.

Tali:

The meetup link is in the show notes.

Tali:

Also, if there are women in your life whom you think will both enjoy and

Tali:

benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them.

About the Podcast

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About your host

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Tali Lindberg

"Hello everyone, I'm Tali! If you had met me a few years back, you'd have found me in the thick of homeschooling my four incredible kids. That was my world for two decades, filled with lesson plans, school projects, and a whole lot of beautiful chaos. But once they all graduated, a new and unexpected journey began for me - in the world of Bitcoin.

The spark was lit by my husband, nudging me towards this peculiar thing known as Bitcoin. At first, I resisted. After all, the complexity of Bitcoin was intimidating and my plate was already quite full. But he persisted, and even went as far as creating a bitcoin-mining board game, HODL UP, to teach me what it was. Before I knew it, I was orange-pilled, and my curiosity was piqued. What started as a casual dip of my toes soon turned into a fascinating dive into Bitcoin. Like my homeschooling journey, I took it slow, one baby step at a time, learning and adapting as I delved deeper.

Fast-forward to today, I am absolutely thrilled to share my Bitcoin adventures with all you amazing and busy women out there through this podcast. I've made sure the episodes are bite-sized and easy to follow, perfect for your coffee breaks or while running errands. My goal? To share my experiences and the experiences of other women in Bitcoin in an engaging, easily digestible way. Don't let time constraints or technical jargon stop you from diving into Bitcoin. As your friendly guide, I hope to provide a grounded, relatable perspective to help you navigate the Bitcoin rabbit hole. So, here's to us exploring this thrilling digital frontier together!