In this episode of Founders, Future, host Ammar Elm sits down with Lavinia Iosub, Managing Partner of Livit International, to explore how she transformed a small co-living space in Bali into a thriving startup ecosystem and innovation hub. Lavinia shares the organic evolution of Livit—from supporting early-stage founders with workspace to offering full-scale business-building services like HR, legal, and strategic advisory across 15+ countries. She reveals why trust and long-term partnerships (some lasting 10+ years) are at the core of their client relationships, and how they’ve upskilled 20,000 Indonesians in remote work through their education platform.

Lavinia dives into the challenges of scaling a location-based business globally, the pitfalls of traditional digital marketing for high-trust services, and her vision for the future of work (hint: it’s about pairing humans with AI, not replacing them). She also shares hard-won advice for new entrepreneurs: niching down, validating ideas fast, and avoiding “business porn” that distracts from real customer needs. For anyone curious about building resilient businesses in emerging markets or navigating the Bali startup scene, this episode is a goldmine.