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Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8
How my martial arts skills helped me build an app against impossible odds
It’s been a big week for Pretty Deadly Self Defense this past week, and while our Sunday Cuppa feature is usually dedicated to more in-depth discussions about what’s going on in the world, we need to take a step back and appreciate just how momentous our accomplishment this week really is.
Two years ago, we decided to design an app. The idea was to make self defense accessible to people who don’t have access to regular self defense classes: due to work or study hours, type of job, racial, religious, gender stigma, location, or disability barriers.
We wanted to encourage people to learn basic self defense moves at their own pace, in the comfort of their own space. We decided to take 10 of our techniques that we thought would be most useful for daily life, and put them in a video-based app. Sounds simple, right? Ha.
Back in 2018, I worked with Pretty Deadly grad and engineer Inés Seiler to create the basic concept and structure. Once we had that down, we created a pitch deck and Inés and I were invited to present at a pitch fest open mike at a start-up incubator here in Berlin.
Every presentation had 5 minutes, but the first few people helped themselves to 10 minutes each, so subsequent pitches were cut down to 3 minutes…
