Welcome to the first Episode of Open Up Europe Podcast!
In this episode I am by myself and I am talking about the need to look at Entrepreneurship with a European viewpoint. After that I explain the format of the show and at the last part I give background information on myself.
Should you have any feedbacks or ideas please don't hesitate to submit it through the contact form or the email address mentioned in the podcast.
Below, you will find the show notes.
Peace out!
- OK
Here is the transcript of the show:
Hey fellow European Entrepreneurs! Welcome to the Episode 0 of Open Up Europe podcast. My name is Sidar Ok, and I am your host for the show. This episode is gonna last for about 10 minutes and it is only you and me. I'll talk a little about what the show is about, and then give a background info about myself.
Open Up Europe is a European Infused Business show brought to your doorsteps every Tuesday morning. Every week I'll interview the most inspiring and interesting entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders of European start up scene and will happen to record it on the fly so you can listen.
So why do this? Why Europe? Well, There are lots of awesome business shows out there about entrepreneurship - but they are mostly about the US of A and in Europe we kinda have our own way of doing things and our own perspective so why not have our own show!
Every week on Tuesday morning at 09:00 A.M Brussels time, on your podcast feed you will find a new freshly baked episode with an incredibly successful business person from Europe. In the interviews I will try to get them to slice and dice their ways of working, tips, tricks and tools. And at times we will dive into their remarkable life stories.
After all, they have been through the problems that we all face in the continental europe: such as Difficulty to access funds, difficulty to access skilled labor, lack of cost effective marketing channels, tons of redtape, cultural aversions, language and border differences to count a few.
On the other hand we also have a plethora of successful Enterprises stemmed from the very same European soil - relatively new companies like Skype, Soundcloud and established ones: Redbull, Continental, BMW, Loreal.
These successful businesses also had the same roots and the environment yet they managed to flourish - but how? And more importantly, how can we learn from them? Are there any repeatable patterns? In every episode I'll keep exploring these and hopefully you will join in!
I will strive for every episode to be around 20 or 25 minutes so you can listen easily while doing something else, like driving or working out. Within the show I will mainly ask questions to my guest and it will be a conversation based and spontaneous show - so no fixed structure or boring, clichee questions.
Last, I’d like to talk a little about myself. I am Sidar Ok. I was born in the Kurdish part of Turkey: right in the middle of a war zone to a middle-class family.
I WILL spare you the horrible details of the war, but let me tell you that at times just to survive you have to take big risks and gamble.
As you can tell from my accent that English is not my native tongue, actually it is the 3rd one! My mother tongue is Kurdish, I also speak Turkish, French, Dutch and Spanish. So I apologize in advance for any invoncenience about my accent.
As a kid and teenager I had to sell all kinds of things like chewing gums on the streets,I sold water purification systems to door to door , I have done theater and performed at rich kid's parties as a clown. This was also how I was able to pay for my costs of school which led me to to study computer science in Izmir.
Boy, was I a TERRIBLE student ! I always got just enough to pass and spent time being social while not failing in any class. I have never been able to get any peace with traditional academical mindset.
