Rewriting Our Beginning: What Our First Mission Got Right & Wrong

Essays
Written By Aaron Rolston

The Start

In early 2020, four of us loaded a borrowed truck with gear and headed toward a lowland forest region outside Luang Prabang. We had a water pilot, a translator, a field doc, and half a logistics plan. That was our first mission.

What Worked

  • The mission was small

  • We had a real partner on the ground

  • We kept comms simple

  • We wrote everything down

What Didn’t

  • We brought too much

  • We didn’t calibrate for cultural pacing

  • We assumed our gear would do the talking

“The first trip taught us what Venture needed to be — slower, lighter, and listening first.”

Anya Kader

Why We Remember It

Because it was the last time we showed up without a real system. It was also the trip that made us build one.

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Aaron Rolston

https://studiomesa.co
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