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Exactly today, one year ago, Vin, Dom and Fabian started StartupDiaries.

As with most things worth doing, it started as a crazy idea; running our company from a Land Rover was pretty ambitious. Through a deep belief in the idea, and taking the necessary incremental steps, one at a time, we made the whole adventure a reality.

Before we could blink an eye, we were sitting in the Land Rover somewhere in a desert in Peru, doing a call with a client in the US and it felt like the most normal thing.

Exactly a year ago, we had no idea what was going to happen, and no particular goals we were looking to achieve. We knew that doing something like Startup Diaries, would be at the very least quite the adventure, with many unpredictable consequences coming out of it.

And that’s exactly what happened: dozens of new connections, speaking at TED in Bogota, TOA in Berlin, interviews on Deutsche Welle, and more.

One place it led Fabian down, was that to the stage at DNX Berlin. We’ve shared the recording of the keynote below and we hope it will resonate with you, perhaps inspiring your own adventure.

Tech Open Air Berlin is the perfect “unconference” for Berlin. It is a city that is bustling with creativity, in the worlds of science, music, art, and of course, tech. Since 2012, TOA has been bringing these ideas together for 2 days, packed with workshops, music events, parties, “pitch-nics” and great opportunities for interdisciplinary networking between normally separated worlds.

So it was a great honor to be able to present Startup Diaries in a workshop entitled “How To Run a Company From a Land Rover Defender”. Fabian shared what he learnt about efficiency while driving across South America as a nomad company for 7 months.

For those who weren’t luck enough to attend TOA, you can watch the workshop here:

If you are a digital nomad, or an ex-pat, you’ve probably heard of Teleport. To sum it up in their own words, they “build software for startup people on the move”. For those who move with their families around the globe, who know how complex these moves can be, Teleport is a lifesaver. Figuring out where to stay, what to expect, where to pay taxes or which visa to get, it’s their mission to make it all easier for you.

So when they wanted to talk to us about our experiences as a nomad company, we welcomed the opportunity to contribute the lessons and ideas we’ve picked up along the way. Here’s a peak at the interview:

On the core idea behind Startup Diaries:

“Startup Diaries was started in effort to explore the future of the Nomad Company, to understand how people can balance growth and freedom from location. When I first started Helpando.it after leaving a very lucrative yet time consuming position with a top global startup, I knew that I wanted to push my boundaries further. I wanted to see how far I could take the idea of a “company” in a connected, global economy…It’s a project we started to document our travels, struggles, and conversations with people who are also redefining how we work.”

On the difference between Nomad Companies and Digital Nomads:

“The biggest difference is the long term vision. The most common digital nomad story is “pay to play”, work to make just enough money to be able to pay for the next day, week or leg of the journey. There are careerists, those who take it seriously and maintain a long term pipeline. But it’s exceedingly rare for the freelancing nomad to actively pursue growth, right? As a Nomad Company, though saying we work 9-5 would be a misnomer, we have meetings (easy when you’re driving around all the time), structure and most importantly, a cohesive focus on the growth of the company and brand.”

On our favorite locations around South America:

“Lima has been my favourite city with the very bohemian Barrio Barranco sticking out in my mind as one of my favorite places to be.

In general, the food was most amazing in Peru. Not only was it exceptionally cheap, but the ingredients were incredibly fresh and varied, including but nowhere near limited to fish, ceviches, llama, fruit straight from trees, and more.

Patagonian Chile cannot be beat for landscapes with lakes, volcanos, peaks and waterfalls that are invariably surreal.

The coolest co-working space we found was Sinergia in Montevideo, not only for its great design and layout, but for one of the most varied and incredible concentration of ideas under one roof (think drones, 3D printers, SaaS stratups and the rest).

Crossing the desert from Chile to Peru was a great adventure. We got stuck in the sand, and slept in the car for several nights. There’s more sand out there than you would ever want to see.

Baños in Ecuador was great for activities like zip lining, jungle tours and waterfalls.”

Check out the complete interview on the Teleport blog, and while your there have a look at their platform. Even if you aren’t thinking about moving. It might just inspire you.

We’ve driven over 18,500 km in the past few months.

Ok, we’re guessing really. Who counts that high?

A lot of it travelling as slow as 40km/hour driving on hairpin curves with rivers running through them. It’s a lot of time in a car.

We listen to a lot of music.
And shout out the lyrics, generally out of key.

Here are a few of the songs that we’ve chosen that get us moving in La Oficina:

Fab’s Picks:

Dominic’s Picks:

And Vin’s of course:

What’s your roadtrip/travel song of choice?

(if you’d like to view all as a playlist, click here)

When it comes to redefining how we work, Val Figallo is an inspiration to us at Startup Diaries. A self taught developer from the age of 14, she made the choice on her own to drop out of school. Every kid in the world would jump at that opportunity and perhaps rightfully be denied, but not Val. She made such a strong case, that her parents weren’t able to deny her search for an alternative life path.

And she quickly proved to them that she had made the right choice.

A textbook example of those people who inspire us, this is why we are travelling across South America on our search for the people redefining work. It follows a path that is unexplored, where most people may rightfully call you crazy but you prove them wrong.

Val is a trailblazer. She spoke to Fab in La Oficina as they drove around the streets of Lima. And she explained how a model from the USA and a Western Union payment, changed her life forever. Check out the video on our Youtube channel and don’t forget to subscribe.