It’s been a while — my last monthly update was in March. Which means it’s been almost half a year since! I want to get back on track with these newsletters, and I have a lot of super cool stuff to go over in this post.
To compress ~6 months into one post while actually making it readable, will be difficult. So I’m going to be very very concise.
If your new here, welcome! I started this blog to make it easier for people to get to know me and to open up more conversations. Subscribe to join the ride, and if you’ve got questions (or just want to talk), drop me a line at pointone@barbaros.ca
Coffee’s on me if I take more than 24 hours to reply.
If you want to learn a bit more about me — check out this intro to both me and this blog:
From where I left things off in March, here’s everything you’ve missed on since:
Shut down CoVenture:
If you don’t remember, at the time I was very very passionate about building the first ever social network for Gen Z — the most entrepreneurial generation out there.
I hated LinkedIn — every connection felt like an empty handshake, so I built a better one revolved around building projects not fake connections. I had some really exciting ups and downs building CoVenture. Met with some awesome people, got some amazing mentors through it, and got some opportunities to expand to the states, and UWaterloo! However I ultimately decided to shut it down because I felt like I had created the issue in my head rather than actually experiencing it… among with a list of other things.
Launched Antifragility Labs:
If I’m shutting something down it means I’m starting something new up haha. I love work, and I love being busy with work even more.
For the past 5 months now (since May), I’ve been running Antifragility Labs — an agency (turning) startup that helps businesses rank in both AI and search engines alike. More formerly known as GEO (generative engine optimization) and SEO (search engine optimization). I first started off as an agency acquiring clients like YC-backed startups, e-commerce businesses, well-known podcasts, and pretty big VC firms.
I’ve now been working on internal software — it’s not that I can’t speak too much on this, it’s more that I don’t want to. However I’ve been “dogfooding” it to my clients and I’ll GTM very very soon. More recently (as in a few days ago) I pitched this at a pitch competition at Waterloo Tech Week and won!
I first got into GEO when I did SEO for Armilla AI (YC-backed AI insurance startup w/ $5M+ raised). Released a few articles about it to both showcase and further my understanding in the industry.
I also had the chance to present about Antifragility Labs in-front of 400+ people in Toronto’s Bluma Appel Theatre at the TKS showcase event — heres’s a pic of me presenting:
Samsung Pitch Competition:
At that time I was pitching a project to Samsung in a competition with TKS. My team competed against 1,000+ participants to rethink how Samsung could use AI to make accessibility more inclusive.
We won! Came first place.
My role in this project was to research, develop a prototype, and pitch on behalf of my team.
If you want to check out our final deck, feel free to check it out here:
And feel free to check out the interactive prototype I made here (open it on your phone!):
The prototype followed One UI 6 Guidelines design principles—toast stack, spacing, and all — the current design guideline from Samsung at the time.
Overall was such an amazing experience — being able to work with Nitya, Aydin, and Naman again — absolute blast.
School Soccer Varsity Finals
Made it to the finals with my school varsity team!
Unfortunate rough ending but man did I love this team. Grateful for my time here. Truly.
Graduated High School!
Super crazy time. Probably some of the most fun I’ve ever had. So many moments that I lived in thinking “wow this is gonna be an awesome memory” — sure was. Pretty surreal to think I’m done with high school. Of course, I know I'm still young, and have much more school ahead, but I've gotten so used to growing up with the same people and seeing them every day — and now, come September, most of us will all be in different places — it's pretty wild to think about. Exciting but scary.
🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
Recently started really getting into running — ran a half marathon couple months ago and a 10k just a month ago. Training for an upcoming marathon! Ironmans the goal.
Taking a gap year to intern @ Wealthsimple
Ya… pretty self explanatory. Only thing I can say about this is both Rachel Zimmer + Lyn Chen absolutely rock!
Wrapped up internship @ Armilla AI
Armilla AI is a YC-backed startup with $5M+ raised tackling AI insurance. This is bittersweet — they really took a bet on me and I will always owe them one for that.
I’m very fortunate to say that not only did I leave with amazing new skills learnt, but I leave with new friendships with some of the most brilliant, and kind people I’ve ever met.
I remember when I first called the founder I told him that he could throw anything at me and I’d figure it out. He told me that they weren’t getting optimized Google and needed help with SEO! It was pretty ironic cause I was searching up what it meant on call — but nonetheless I had to take it on. So I learnt quick, and learnt well.
Got them awesome results in < 4 months without spending any money on SEO tools — just making a ton of alternate email accounts signing up for free trials.
My results carried in a 4x increase on clicks, nearly 20x increase in impressions, and ranked them on page 1 for all relevant and competitive KWs where they were previously unindexed.
Before:
After:
After I optimized their SEO I wondered how SEO would work for AI search — which led me to GEO, where I then got them cited on Google’s AI Overviews and all relevant LLMs like GPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.
Some Reflections on These Past Few Months
Over these past few months I’ve met some incredible people and have truly felt what it is to be grateful.
From graduating high school, finishing TKS, and wrapping up my internship at Armilla AI, to making the choice to take a gap year while many of my friends head off to university — I’ve found myself pausing often, reflecting on gratitude, learning how to truly savour the moment, and figuring out how to make difficult decisions when many people are involved.
I’ll likely write about these reflections in some upcoming essays — but two of my favourite reflections have been:
The two types of wealth — wealth in money, and wealth in people. the kind of wealth where their love fills a room and leaves a mark on everyone they meet. both equally matter, but it’s easy to forget the second kind.
there's a true beauty + advantage to being a beginner -- almost a kind of ignorance to not knowing what's ahead and taking it on head first anyways.
More on these in the near future for sure.
Thank You.
This is what I’ve been up to! If you took the time to read all of this, I want to say thank you for your time — I’m sure your a very busy person, so your time means so much to me. I’ve had an amazing past few months and I couldn’t be more grateful for where I’m at, and the people I’m friends with.
I want to use this blog experiment as a way for people to learn more about me and, hopefully, connect with more people. If you have any questions about what I’ve done, or would just like the chat — hit me up at pointone@barbaros.ca — if I don’t get back within 24 hours, coffee’s on me.
Thank you for an excellent and inspiring read, Noah! Keep on sharing your experience and insights. :)
Loved this read 💜