People talk about connection, but this week’s Millennial Master builds it. Lara Varjabedian is the founder of UBQT, a platform reconnecting people in real life.
Before launching her startup, Lara spent 13 years inside the global corporate machine. Then she moved into the startup world, helping VC-backed companies scale at speed... until she realised she was ready to build something of her own.
She bootstrapped UBQT from Dubai during lockdown, turned an MVP into a real product, and raised a $750k pre-seed round to go global. Today, she’s building a social platform with no feeds, no likes and no ego, just real-world connection.
This conversation is about what it actually takes to build when there’s no safety net, and how to stay sane while doing it.
Takeaways from Lara’s episode
1️⃣ Momentum beats perfection
You don’t need a full product to start. Lara bootstrapped UBQT with a simple MVP and used momentum as a growth strategy long before investment arrived.
2️⃣ Fundraising is not validation
Money in the bank doesn’t mean product-market fit. Lara raised $750k pre-seed but kept building like she had nothing, staying close to users and pushing for traction over hype.
3️⃣ Build for behaviour, not vanity metrics
UBQT has no likes and no feeds on purpose. Lara designed the product around real-world behaviour: catching up, travelling and meeting face-to-face.
4️⃣ Female founders face a bias tax, do it anyway
Lara shares how women are judged harder and pitch with more self-doubt. Her antidote: evidence, conviction and relentless resilience.
5️⃣ Your runway mindset matters more than your runway
The highs and lows don’t slow down, they compress. Lara protects her mental energy and reframes setbacks as signals instead of failures.
In this episode we cover:
00:00 Intro to Lara Varjabedian
02:17 From corporate to startups
05:08 Making the leap to entrepreneurship
07:29 The birth of UBQT
09:42 Designing for real-life connection
12:42 Building communities across borders
21:15 Navigating Dubai’s startup ecosystem
24:26 Why Dubai is a global launchpad
28:25 Lessons from bootstrapping to pre-seed
33:19 The emotional rollercoaster of startups
38:22 Coping with stress and execution pressure
