I've passed on a ton of companies where I've met the founder and I've just felt like they're not obsessed with what they're solving.

And I think that hunger that is brought in from an obsession about a problem or experiencing the problem for years on end,

that kind of just creates a level of determination that I don't think you can replicate without that obsession.

Hi everyone, it's Alex York and an associate editor at Forbes, and I am here with Zara

Akvi today to talk about all you are building as a 30 under 30 alum and now founder of

lore. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

I'm super excited to have you here. You've had like a crazy career journey, I feel like. Over the past couple years, you've gone from, you know, one industry

to another, and now you're entering into like the founder space. So I'm really excited to talk about

the company that you are launching. But before we get into those things, I'd love to know just a little

bit about you for our viewers to learn about you as like a human first.

So let me in on like where you grew up, where you're from and kind of, yeah, who you are today.

Yeah. So I was born in Singapore, but I grew up in Hong Kong and that's pretty much where I identify as home.

I'm ethnically Pakistani. And so it's like I always like to say it's like a huge melting pot of Asia and all of those cultures that they grew up with.

I think fundamentally when I think about growing up, a huge part of it was obviously my identity and growing up abroad.

And in that kind of vein, having this like desire to learn more about American culture.

And it's funny to talk about it now, but like 15 years ago when I was 10, 11.

The only way you could learn about American culture

was via like J-14 magazine, Teen Vogue, 17,

and there was almost a delay that kind of existed within Asia.

And so when Tumblr came out and Pinterest

and obviously social media, that to me was like a huge unlock

because I found communities of fans particularly

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