International Entrepreneurs

This month I had a chat with Nadiia Dvoinos, co-founder and managing partner at Q28. Nadiia spends her time between Kiev and Dubai and is just the right person to give us some intel on how to market effectively in an era of short attention spams! Click play.

How much should a founder pay themselves? That's the big question that I'll be ending the year with, here on International Entrepreneurs. Click play!

This month I chatted to Dasha Runic, a Serbian entrepreneur who completed her studies across different continents and went on to found her own digital marketing agency, The Social Formula, after getting rejected from a corporate job. Click play to find out why sometimes rejection is a blessing in disguise!

In this month's podcast I give you my personal experience on managing investors: how to assure transparency with them and a beneficial relationship to both parties. Click play!

This month I chatted to Elena Nikolova, co-founder of Escreo! Her startup produces a special paint which can turn any old wall into a whiteboard, allowing startups to easily and spontaneously jot down their ideas and plan their tasks. Click the image above to hear about Elena's struggle with perfectionism and also her thoughts on startup success.

Operating a business is hard enough on its own, but it's damn near impossible if you can't manage your own life as a founder, first! There's a huge variety of factors when it comes to your well-being: from sleep, to diet and exercise, to socialization, to self-reflection, to organization... the list is a rather long one. But thankfully I've made a summary of it! Click the image above to listen to it.

This month I got to chat with Simon Litvinov, co-founder and CEO at Precision Navigation Systems. All the way from Siberia, Simon runs the startup that's bringing us GPS navigating and positioning with up to 1cm precision. Click play to find out what it's like!

This month I gave my take on how a startup should operate at an early stage -you know, the basics: perfecting your product, establishing company culture, staying solvent and financed... I also talk about the E.O. framework, the key to having quick, effective team meetings! Click play to listen to all this and more.

This month I spoke with Nina Nikolikj, an Eco-System Facilitator at Swisscontact. Born and raised in Macedonia, Nina is a rather busy bee: from startup community developer, to startup storyteller, to "superconnector" and "intrapreneur" - Nina has done (and is doing) it all! Learn all about her tight schedule and her dream of visiting America on a business trip by clicking play.

This month I approached the topic of fundraising. Having gone through several financing rounds of business angels (though never venture capitalists) myself, I know a thing or two about talking to investors.

This month I spoke to Nikoloz Gogochuri, CEO at VRex Immersive, a platform that connects people to places through virtual reality. After having worked in the computer graphics, animation and technology business for a long time, Nikoloz decided to start his own company together with a co-founder with a web development background. Though the market was at first far more old-fashioned than he'd expected, sticking to his team really payed out and sailed him through some hard times .

This month I went over Alan Frei's advice on B2C Sales Funnels on the Swisspreneur podcast. Since I've never really done it myself (at least not on a big scale), it's nice to rely on the expertise of a B2C veteran! "Website traffic", "conversion rate", "lifetime value"... these are all terms that should become part of your daily vocabulary if you really want to kick off your customer retention rate.

In June I got to chat with Olga Royenko, CEO at Royenko Marketing Agency! Olga told me all about her hesitation to leave her steady job, how she thinks creative people can put their talent to better use, and what she has learned along her entrepreneurial journey. Click play!

This month I tackled the challenge of creating a B2B sales funnel - which is basically an entrepreneur's ticket to acquiring his or her first clients and building a steady stream of income. Click play!

This month I interviewed Brian Kennedy, who I met through the YTILI program! Despite having majored in social work, Brian went on to work for the Pittsburgh Technology Council - though he will tell you that the transition made quite a lot of sense! Click play to hear about Brian's passion for helping people, in whatever way that ends happening.

This month I give you some introductory advice on how to snatch those tricky first clients. I also tell the story of how Gymhopper got started, and what we had to do to mold that business idea into its proper shape. Click play!

This month I got to talk to Tinatin Babakishvili, who left her 9 to 6 job to start her own business: Post Red Audio. Tina talks about how hard it was at first, even for a sociable person such as herself, to take her initial steps in the business world - and how she managed to get from that to having dinner with Netflix! Check it out.

On the month of April I talked a bit on how to secure an accurate evaluation of your business idea. I go over a number of topics: the right motivation to start a company, the importance of bootstrapping, attracting the right customers, managing margins, achieving a good return for investments... Basically, all of the ingredients that make up success, and that should determine your decision of pursuing a business idea or leaving it behind. Check it out!

On the month of March I got to chat with Elena Shkarubo, founder and CEO of MeetnGreetMe. After being fired from an international banking group, Elena decided it was time for her to start her own business - so she created MeetnGreetMe, a data-driven marketplace for personal assistance and concierge services for business travelers. And she's been incredibly successful! Listen to the full episode to find out how.

This month I come to you with some freshly-baked, incredibly useful entrepreneurship advice that I was lucky enough to receive at the SaaStr Annual 2019 Conference! On investment, hiring, bootstrapping and more.

On the month of February I interviewed Arthur Gopak, CEO of AlphaGammaHQ. We got to chat about the twists and turns his career has taken, about the great opportunities that being able to work with influencers has brought him and about his view on the importance of hiring young professionals - among many other topics! Click play to listen to the full episode.

February was officially the co-founder-hunting month! By which I mean, it was during this month that I explored this topic on my podcast. I shared some advice, gathered from my personal startup experience, on which criteria must be met when choosing a co-founder. For instance: you shouldn't pick a family member, and you should pick someone who has worked in a crappy student job. Want to know why? Then click play!

Emigrating is always a daunting task - but especially if you're an entrepreneur! This month I had a chat with Baiba Soika, CEO of ExportScene and several other companies. Originally from Latvia, Baiba emigrated to Germany and successfully established herself there as a young, up-and-coming entrepreneur. Have a listen to find out how she did it, and how you might do it as well!

Personal finance is a touchy subject if there ever was one. But the fact of the matter is, everyone needs to keep their head in the game if they're gonna build a comfortable life for themselves in the future - and this is especially the case for young entrepreneurs, who constantly put their own money on the line. Listen in for a complete, Swiss-focused guide on how to manage your finances in a way that is smart, easy and balanced.

This month I interviewed Russ Yelton, president and CEO of the Northern Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology! From kindergarten to the business world, Russ has always been a true entrepreneur at heart. I got to hear him speak about his favorite mistakes, his biggest successes and the general entrepreneurial wisdom he's gathered through the years!

Come the month of December, I thought I should tackle the issue of setting and tracking goals - especially considering that my coworkers and I have been so hugely helped by this system called EOS! It stands for "Entrepreneurial Operating System" and it has been a life-saver. In this month's podcast, I give you a detailed and easy-to-follow explanation of exactly how this system can be adapted to any startup - and help you reach your goals at a steady but effective pace!

On the month of November, I interviewed Morteza Ghorbani Eftekhar, founder of PurCity, a Danish-based company aiming to improve quality of life by purifying air and water in urban centers. Click to listen to Morteza's incredible background story, as well as to his experiences in the startup world!

This month, my focus was on company structure. Everyone basically knows that no matter how great your business idea is, no matter how many investors you've got, if you don't have the right people on your team, your startup will most likely fail. But what type of person really is "the right person"? And what kind of roles are essential in every company? More importantly, perhaps - what values should a startup team promote? All this in and more on my podcast!

I got to know Stefano through the YTILI program in summer 2018. He graduated in Management and is madly in love with his job. Stefano is really passionate about numbers, photography, cooking and poetry. And as he tells me in our quick chat his objective is to find and defend ikigai, the Japanese word for “a reason for being”. He is a remarkable person and I had the pleasure to meet him for a quick chat.

I got to know Oana through the YTILI program in summer 2018. She is a real kick-ass entrepreneur and describes herself as a community builder with a focus on tech and innovation. Oana has been developing communities of Romanian entrepreneurs and tech professionals worldwide and is connecting them into a global network called Romanian IT. She enabled the creation of a culture based on peer to peer learning and collaboration that aims to generate personal and professional growth opportunities for the members. Enjoy the new episode of the international entrepreneurs podcast.

In today's episode I talk about the 5 pros and cons of Silicon Valley and when it makes sense to bring your startup there and when it doesn't. I spoke to several local entrepreneurs in SV to learn from them and pick their brain on this topic.

I got to know Jenny through the YTILI program in summer 2018 where she is a mentor. Jenny is a fascinating entrepreneur. She founded CO+HOOTS, a co-working space in Arizona, Ranked #4 in the nation by Inc.com. CO+HOOTS currently houses 280+ scaling entrepreneurs and small businesses and has been an integral role in creating hundreds of jobs locally.

In today's episode I share my entrepreneurial journey: How and why I started a company, what went wrong and what went well plus I'll add my key learning at the end of the episode.

This month I tackle the topic of health and productivity for entrepreneurs! The way to success is paved both with discipline and with self-care. What do you guys think of the tips I mentioned? Are you already using them in your own life? Let me know in the comments below.

This month I got to interview Berat Kjamili, the founder of Migport! It was quite interesting to learn about how his personal experience shaped his entrepreneurial vision, as well as about the importance of social entrepreneurship. Check it out!