That One Thing

Today I talk with Kai. Someone that I believe can give us a realistic perspective on a business model that seems all the hype: being a youtuber. With his background in a stable corporate job, Kai decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur. He started providing Powerapps and VBA training online - first as a freelancer, while building a business on the side. What he believes is the difference between those two (freelancing and building a business) is something we will discuss today. Of course I want to know more about his realistic take is on being a youtuber. He tells us how the unglamorous truth is that his first video’s got only 6 or 7 views, and what it took for him to get to 20.000 subscribers AND we talk money. Can you live off your Youtube channel with 20.000 followers? Today in That One Thing: a realistic Youtuber.

Today in That One Thing, Mark Hadfield. A seasoned marketing professional, he spent a big part of his career as the regional head of planning for global advertising agency Iris. He led some of the largest marketing campaigns in the region for companies such as Shell, Philips, Samsung and Guinness and managed teams in multiple Asian markets. After he and his wife decided to move back to the UK,  in yet another agency role, he realized: this is not it.

He started working on an idea around an issue that he saw many of his clients had: he strongly believed they did not really understand the realities of their customer. His approach to customer research is to really dive into people’s lives.  During face to face interviews that last for several hours to a day, Mark gets into every detail of a person’s live: asking them about their concerns, joining them in daily routines and finding out how they perceive the brand he is researching. Surprise: they might not think about brands as often as the owners hope. Today we learn how he embraced his own new reality as an entrepreneur AND his approach for brands to better understand customer realities. Welcome to That One Thing: Embracing your customer’s reality.

Today we have 2 founders that walked similar paths - both with roots in the Netherlands, strong business backgrounds from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and both with extensive experience building startups across South East Asia. Together they built 6 ventures, across 9 countries in Asia raising several millions of funding. The problem? They always did this for other people, and were ready to take the step to become founders. They built their business on a realization they had during their jobs: every founder has 10 things they want to work on, and only time to execute 3 (if so much). One thing Lion and Koen became excellent at over the years, was executing at high speed with a strong understanding of the local market. Recently they started their company Bold Ventures. They support founders in South East Asia to have clear market understanding and execute fast. They do this from a place that is almost synonym to digital nomads - Bali. I want to check with Koen and Lion if maybe some of the social media entrepreneurship stereotypes are true - AND we dive deep into the nuances of expanding a business into South-East Asia. Today in That One Thing: Entrepreneurs in Bali - The Real Story.

Today, we are talking about something many entrepreneurs dream of: expanding your business internationally. What better way to learn than from someone that has done this twice, in 2 very different ways: once heavily funded, and once bootstrapped. Today we talk to Erwin Sikma, entrepreneur, interim CEO and management consultant. During his experience leave at McKinsey, he joined the heavily funded Rocket Internet, where he built four online classifieds businesses in more than 10 countries. Erwin caught the entrepreneurial bug and started his own Agriculture Tech business: Impact Terra. Once he had found product market fit, it was time for international expansion again: only this time as a founder, and this time, he needed to bootstrap. 

Welcome to That One Thing! The anti-bullshit entrepreneurship podcast. Learn from the best of the best how they nailed that one thing - and I am taking you along for the ride.