Designing Space Gloves for Mars and Breaking through Burnout with Ntention’s Moina Tamuly

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Start of episode

[06:25] Meeting Pascal Lee at his masterclass

[09:59] Were you intimidated working with big luminaries?

[11:12] Advice for young entrepreneurs in big tech spaces

[12:32] “Hitting the wall” and causes of burnout

[17:30] Preventing Burnout

[24:53] Why tech founders don’t need to be technical

Were you intimidated working with Pascal and other luminaries? 

Early on, Moina found inspiration in attending Pascal Lee’s masterclass, “How to Colonize Mars.” Pascal Lee is a co-founder of the Mars Institute and is well-known in the space world. Moina went from being a starstruck attendee at the conference and masterclass to working with Lee at his research station in the Arctic on Devon Island. Moina says that, of course, he was intimidated but the excitement of being in this space was enough to drive him and his team forward.

“We weren't adept business developers yet. We were technology visionaries.”

Do you have imposter syndrome working with well-known people?

Working with highly successful people at a young age with the potential of being thrust into the same spotlight could certainly get intimidating. Moina said that, in the moment, he was just happy to be there and that the imposter syndrome didn’t hit him until later on. He was working with his heroes and learning from their experiences which Moina said was incredibly rewarding. Under constant pressure, working on ‘sweat equity’ and running on fumes of excitement deferred any anxieties until later. This only lasted so long, however, and Moina said that the pandemic was his breaking point. 

“You never have the time to just stop and feel and get grounded again . . . it's like being in a Kafka play at times, especially when the pandemic hit. All the things you've built over the year just pouring through your fingers.”

What did you do to decompress from burning out? 

After traveling around the globe, working in the Arctic, and attending conferences, the pandemic forced Moina and his team to a halt. Moina said that, at first, this caused immense anxiety. Moina shares how he had to learn to be content. His ideas started to feel far-fetched and his perspective narrowed to his immediate surroundings. Until he was forced to take a break, Moina said that when you’re in the middle of it all, it feels impossible to take time away. Moina shares his journey, how he reinvented himself, and realized the vital importance of building a life not conducive to burnout. 

“It was complete anxiety every single minute of every single day because you used to move 100 miles an hour all the time traveling the globe. And suddenly, there's just nothing and you don't even know who you are anymore. But it was at that point as I let time pass by . . . I was completely content, rebuilding from that point on.”

As a Norwegian, what do you see in the US technology and ecosystem?

Compared to the US, the Norwegian tech scene is a “newborn” Moina says. Without a large framework in Norway for investing, Moina said it can be tough. But there are some “cowboys” in the Norwegian ecosystem yet not as many are willing to take the risks that those in America do, Moina said. Chris said that it’s all about risk perception and finding ways to de-risk investments. Ultimately, Moina said his goal is to set up a studio in Norway—and this is how he wants to forge the future.

“I've found a great CEO in the right industry with the right discipline. And if you have a studio on top of that, you can help facilitate your own ideas and other people's ideas. It's just a dream because you get to work on a strategic level.”