I’m Sélim Benayat, co-founder of Bento. Ask me anything! 😻❤️‍🔥🍱

Letters

Featured•3yr ago

Hey Product Hunt ✌🏻 I’m Sélim, and I’m currently working on Bento - a personal page to share everything you are, create and sell. Think link in bio, but rich and beautiful ✨. I’m a serial builder and entrepreneur, founding companies for 10 years by now. I’ve launched on Product Hunt twice before, love this place and super happy to be able to do an AMA here! Previously, I founded RosieReality, an augmented-reality company. After five years, we got acquired in 2020. The first employee at RosieReality - Mugeeb - is now my co-founder at Bento. I feel very lucky to be building products with him for the past eight years. 🥰 For Bento, we have raised a pre-seed from Sequoia - you can read all about it at Bento.me/2022. Our cold start, the first iterations, the pivot, and now our successful launch in December last year. All of it resulted in a huge, and for us, unexpected storm of love! Eight weeks later, there is a global community showcasing themselves and their work on Bento. Ask me anything about building startups, product- and community-led growth, going the VC-backed route, or getting into the Sequoia Arc program! 🕺🏻🪄

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Hi Sélim, Bento looks clean and slick! 1. Which stage were you with Bento upon joining the Sequoia Arc program? 2. Do you think you'd be here without the program? 3. What is one lesson that you've learned from the program that you could share with us?

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3yr ago

Letters

@ieraj Eraj - thanks for your questions! Happy to try and answer! 1. Mugeeb and I were very early in our journey. So early in fact, that the product had a different name and look/feel. There was an MVP we could play with - but not too many users. 2. Definitely not - just due to the fact that Eike and Valerie joined us because they discovered Bento on the Sequoia site. 3. It's rather simple - but powerful. You have to keep growing as a founder, to be able to grow a company. Keep improving your ways of working to keep improving your company.

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3yr ago

@drmanhatta Awesome, thanks for the insights!

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3yr ago

Hey Sélim, Joe Here! Thanks for taking some questions. Wanted to know how you got connected to the Sequoia Arc program, and what the journey there was from exiting RosieReality. ...also are you Berlin based?

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3yr ago

Letters

@joseph_natoli Joe - thanks for the questions 👋 My connection the the Sequoia team was rather serendipitous - I was talking to a friend of mine while grabbing coffee who then told me about what Arc was about and that I should reach out 🙏🏻 My journey at Arc was nothing short of transformational - as mentioned in another comment. Sequoia did a brilliant job brining together a driven group of founders and help us better understand our own ambitions and how to get there. They made sure to show us “greatness” and how we too could get there. 🪄 And yes - Berlin!!! Hence the cheeky reference in our product image on TechCrunch hahah 🤫 https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/1...

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3yr ago

@drmanhatta Thanks for sharing Selim, seems to be that rather serendipitous moments are how most good things happen. 😅 Ahh, glad to hear you are based in Berlin. I am down in Leipzig. Would love to connect in an email and try to grab a coffee sometime when I am back in Germany in a few weeks. Just send a note on Linkedin.

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3yr ago

Hi Sélim, first of all, congratulations to the successful launch! I have three questions: 1) Who has been your greatest inspiration? 2) Can you describe/outline your typical day? 3) Where do you want to be in, let's say, 20 years? What do want to have done/achieved/experienced? What's the bigger meaning behind life for you?

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3yr ago

Letters

@andrin_renz1 Wow three big questions - not sure if I have the answers... Let me try. 1. Who has been your greatest inspiration? This has to be my dad! To this day he is always working and pushing his own projects. Always has been. Seeing this drive to create things was very inspiring! 1. Can you describe/outline your typical day Honestly, currently rather repetitive - trying to build a company is not something to share on Instagram .. most of the time. I get up around 6:30, hit the gym, get to the office and try to get as much stuff done before the day comes to a close haha Dinner time often is around 9pm, followed by emails until it's lights out :) hahaha Of course there is the traveling and all, but the typical day is rather busy. 1. Where do you want to be in, let's say, 20 years? What do want to have done/achieved/experienced? What's the bigger meaning behind life for you? This my friend - I honestly can’t answer right now haha I hope to have answers over time :)

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3yr ago

Typo

Congratulations on the successful launch! Product of the day, woohooo! What do you think one thing that worked out so well for your team for your PH success?

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3yr ago

Chatbase

Hey Sélim, do you have some advice about community buidling?

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3yr ago

Letters

@inesfenner Hey Sandra, I am sure @valerie_kramer has some wonderful insights for you 😊

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3yr ago

Hi Sélim, I have a few questions: 1. If I may know, why did you decide to build "link-in-bio" kind of product when the market seems to be full of competitors? 2. How did you acquire your first few customers? I'm curious because there are a lot of similar products out there.

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3yr ago