Arq la how to#

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business? With these efforts, Arq is reigniting Jewish pride and positivity among Jews and the broader global community and shifting the institutional Jewish approach to innovation and engagement.

We meet people where they are, whatever their background, and help them learn about and incorporate Judaism into their lives in a way that feels accessible and fresh, helps them understand themselves and how they want to be in the world and makes them proud of their Jewish connection.Īrq’s elevated aesthetic, welcoming tone and language, progressive worldview, actionable content, meaningful experiences, and community-supported business model appeal to a diverse, intergenerational audience of Jews and non-Jews, from the British Muslim 20-something who is interested in Judaism because his Jewish friends honor his religious practice to the startup exec single mom in Brooklyn who wants to be recognized by the Jewish community for her whole self and not just her maternal status to the people living in non-coastal, liberal cities who are hungry for spiritual, progressive Jewish community, to the folks who desire more nuanced conversations about Israel in Jewish settings, to observant Jews whose communities are modernizing slowly and for whom Arq is refreshing and reinvigorating. Tell us more about the business.Īrq helps anyone connect to their spirituality and each other via Jewish traditions, rituals, and community. So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Arq story. What are my core values, what’s mine to do in the world right now, what do I want for myself professionally and personally now and in the near future? If I can answer those questions, then I know I’m ready to seek out and recognize the next best opportunity for me. Every time I’ve made a big jump, the key for me has been to know myself super duper well before I make a move. The common theme in my path is big, scary, juicy transitions – industry-wise, geographically, and more. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you? – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. I also host Mystery Prayer Gatherings, which offer an evening of learning, practice, and connection with a spiritual leader whose background is a mystery until guests arrive. Today, Arq’s weekly digest of all things Jew-ish, The Ish, is opened by 37% of its readers, our gatherings sell out in days, we’ve built a paying membership base that’s growing, we’ve partnered with brands ranging from Apartment Therapy to At The Well, and Arq and I have been featured on NPR, in Bloomberg Businessweek, on the stage at Wisdom 2.0, and more. Pop-Up Shabbat was gaining momentum, I was ready to move from Spark Capital, and I was sensing a macro shift around the future of spirituality and religion, so I took my biggest leap yet and left my job to focus full-time on building Arq. I knew I still wanted to join a team, so I created my own role at Spark Capital, one of the leading VC firms, and built their marketing and community functions while continuing to run my pop-up restaurant on the side. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the precursor to my current business, Arq, a media company and community that helps anyone connect with Judaism in a relevant, inclusive way. That’s when I started Pop-Up Shabbat, a pop-up restaurant inspired by all things Jewish and open to everyone. I left my job at Skillshare without another job and took a few months to recharge.

Arq la how to#

There, I learned how to build a business from the ground up, swiftly and nimbly.Īfter years working 90-hr work weeks, I was burnt out. That creative drive led me to the tech startup world where I was a founding employee and leader of culture and community at Skillshare, an online learning community. While I was there, I was often in a pilot role or on an experimental team, and that’s where I learned I was generative. I started my career fighting for educational equality as a Director of Recruitment at Teach For America, where I learned the value of a mission-driven organization with a rigorous commitment to diversity and inclusiveness and data-oriented results. I’ve transitioned professionally from non-profit to tech and venture capital to religion and spirituality, and I’m a glutton for big leaps. I revel in exploring new spiritual practices and believe that we are all more alike than we are different. I’m a connector at my core, and I love building things from scratch. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there. Thanks for sharing your story with us Danya. Today we’d like to introduce you to Danya Shults.