new beginnings

back to my first love: community

(The Sun, Edvard Munch, courtesy: edvardmunch.org)

i’m writing this with a mix of gratitude, relief, and a slightly suspicious amount of excitement.

after a formative run as gp at curcuma capital & edenia capital, i’m moving on from the role and joining motier ventures to lead la maison: an 1,800 m2 ai founder hub in paris.

which is, in a very real sense, me coming home.

because if you zoom out far enough (no, not that far), the line through my career has never really been “general partner” or “operator” or “platform” or whatever title looks neat on linkedin.

it’s been community. building it, curating it, protecting it, giving it a reason to exist.

that’s what boka book cafe was.

that’s what i was doing at baby vc.

that’s what i tried to do at elaia.

that’s what dm dinner club was.

that’s what edenia was, too, in its own way.

and yes, that’s what curcuma has been.

that is also what t/o coffee is today.

sure they came in different wrappers. but it was the same instinct.

i’ve always been drawn to places where interesting people can collide without being overmanaged. where the room is the product. where something real can happen because the right people just “happened” to be in the same place at the same time, with enough trust to say the useful thing out loud.

scenius, some might say.

la maison for me is that instinct, scaled up.

this is not “just a co-working space”.

this is not “just an event venue”.

this is not just “a community” in the lazy, overused sense that gets slapped onto everything from an email list to a sad sofa in a corner.

it’s a place for founders building ai, and for the people around them who actually make things move, at the velocity technological progress compels us to.

it’s a place where ideas can become companies faster because the right conversations are happening in the right rooms. it’s a place where the future is not observed from a distance, but built together.

that phrase matters to me.

built together.

because the fantasy version of innovation is always solitary: the lone genius, the empty garage, the myth of the one person and one laptop changing the world. it’s charming, but find it to be mostly rubbish, even when agi/asi comes knocking.

the real version is much messier, more social, and worlds better.

it happens in rooms. over coffee. after talks, and after hours. between friends. through introductions. in the gap between “what if” and “i know someone”.

that’s the kind of room i want to help build.

and then there’s the sun.

for me, edvard munch’s the sun feels like the visual anchor for this new chapter because it says something true: energy, optimism, warmth, scale. it feels alive.

which, frankly, is more useful than yet another polished picture of a founder staring into a laptop while pretending to be profound.

so yes, this is a transition. and yes, it’s a big one.

i’m deeply grateful for curcuma, for edenia, for what we built, and for everyone who believed in the project from day one. i’m proud of that chapter.

and i’m even more excited by what comes next.

back to my first love, then. community.

with a few more grey hair.

with sharper edges.

bigger rooms.

better conversations.

and hopefully, just a little more sunlight.

love, saish.

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p.s. don’t leave just yet, for curcuma will live on as an outlet for my thoughts on capital, culture, community, for likeminded aliens living in its crossroads.