Three Top Tips For Startup Success

well hello there and welcome to another episode of the curiosity podcast with me
your host Matt Edmondson it's great to have you along and as you in season two
we are broadcasting live on Facebook at the time we're recording this this
podcast we've got an amazing guest on today's show so if you are on facebook do stop by come by say hello
add your comments educate into our conversations about all things to do
with the e-commerce how to grow and drive your e-commerce business we've got
a great guest in today's show but before I get into who our amazing guest is
gonna be I just want to be grateful and just do a big shout out to our two
sponsors of the show that guys that make this all possible I love doing this let
me tell you I love doing the old podcast he's great phone but it is only possible because two companies let me do it one
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said hello now for those of you have joined us on Facebook it is great to see you it's great that you're here do give
us a shout out and say say hi because we have a great guest on the show now we
have hey key I need to pronounce it right hey key Hydra who is the founder
of four companies a man after my own heart he has four companies a bit like me why why just set up with one when you
can have four right is a fashion tech company fit stop me and that has been
acquired by Rakuten yes one of the world's largest e-commerce players so
he's going to give us some great advice in terms of building a business and getting acquired by the big boys which
is I know something interesting too a bunch of you out there hey key mentor
startups on strategy had to build and finance their ideas to scale and how to ensure they'll become a commercial
success story he is currently the chairman of the future of retail organization and we were actually just
chatting off air before before we were obviously offer before I hit the like go
like button in the press today and if you saw it into the massive resale
consortium has current debts of five billion pounds and is struggling because
retailer Dean's retail is collapsing so the fact that he chairs the future of retail is going to be fascinating he's
also the founder of find dot fashion the exit Academy is named topped most
influential now he's named one of the top most influential in the digital
fashion world by Vogue's online fashion that's not a bad endorsement even though I messed it up reading it out he's got
some credentials so without further ado I think I big him up enough Heikki let's get you on to the show thanks for being
here and welcome it's great to have you thank you for inviting me nice clam at
the introduction I would I would blush
yeah it's funny isn't it when you when you read these things out you're like man alive I've been on other people's
podcasts I've been on shows and when they read these intros out you come onstage and go I really hope I can live up to what you have just read out
because almost saying to myself I I hope
I'm gonna live up to how you introduce me it's it's with its other founders
it's always this there's kind of fear and with any entrepreneur this kind of
this see every single day is about sheep serving home but you still think I'm kind of pretending someone's gonna find
it's funny isn't it you're right a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with that I mean you obviously mentor a lot of
people let's let's start off there you you mentor a lot of entrepreneurs do you find they call it the imposter syndrome
don't they do you find that this is quite a common thing amongst the entrepreneurs at your at your mentoring
well there's now that we get to this topic this is certainly a common common
topic how would a week the company how would a successful they have built it
however big the team is almost always they have that yeah it's it's partly
it's partly because that's that's the the kind of the soul of the startup you
build it because you build something that nobody else has been before and therefore you don't really know what
tomorrow brings these nobody has those answers and you have to have those answers describe everyone are gonna look
at you say you you know the answer yep you don't yeah you have an answer because you're the leader so let's just
now such a good answer is such a good and I I've noticed it myself in me and in people that I mentor and stuff the
imposter syndrome is such a big deal and yeah we're all just we're all we're all
feeling the same and it doesn't matter how successful you get ultimately you get home at the end of the day and you can't go I hope I know enough for tomorrow
right just just the way it works okay there's only one thing that gets you
over the impostor syndrome and that applies to to me to any other intrapreneur listening to this
it's who do you have on your team okay I third meeting that I don't have the
answers but that I know and I can rely on this amazing team that supports that
that helps to lead it together with me I'm not the only leader yeah that's such a great answer such a great
answer and you're right it's you know the the whole thing about being an entrepreneur isn't it one of the things
that you have to do quite quickly is build a good team and get a good team around you that don't compensate for
where you're actually not really that good you know what the good thing
important is is just how would have put it letting it go I'm trusting that the
people that you have are actually good people I I certainly when I was building my first couple of companies I had this
my chrome and I had Xin tendency I'm not really trusting but then when you say to
yourself I actually have the good team you'll be surprised how good they are
yep yep so if you got any well you
understand we're now completely off script already just started the show but
no no it's totally my fault I'm just
curious what would your advice be to somebody then who is starting out that is going yeah it sounds great I need to
build team and what would be a tip a top tip for someone
what would your advice be for wanted people looking to build a team um when
you introduced me you said I have four companies I've had actually six
companies in the past out of those six four we acquired two however I I don't
like the word failure I'd like to call them the opportunity to you learn and
and today I'm a founding partner exit academy where we teach the list our
founders how do you become more successful and this is certainly one of those one of those questions now for
early-stage companies whether it's a startup or whether it's it's something you you build as a as a long-term
business I'm always saying get up get the co-founder and if the co-founder is
so important because there's those troubles there's those things that you don't know how to solve and there's
somebody with vested interest not just your employee with whom you can go through those moments in your in your
company's life where things go really really badly and there's somebody who can support you
yeah but this something even more important when your company goes really
really well that's the moment where you have to celebrate you you have to
amplify this moment you have to make it more successful and if you are alone you forget to do this right you just
struggling to get through the day because that success actually puts more pressure and more stress and having a
co-founder these moments is really what makes the company take off yeah
co-founder is almost like a merit rate so yes that person is hard to find they're hard to find in their heart set
to work within keep well is mike is my experience I mean some some of my business partners have been absolutely
amazing phenomenal people and some of my business partners well as
I say it's not ended as well as I wanted it to and they say it's a trick to this
though um oftentimes when co-founders get together and and they start the first type of argument is how shall we
share the company I'm gonna get % but now you're gonna get some other person
that's I always recommend the stock options investing for your audience they
should I should I explain a little bit how it yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah so normally um you you agree on big one
that let's say these two folders that both of us will have normally I wouldn't
recommend /I always recommend because if there's a disagreement somebody has to decide yes when I step
on the final sign but let's now say you have a friend to be in somebody forty nine percent to thirty percent whatever
the percentage would be and you say well don't actually know each other really well yet to do agree to the wedding and
Mary yeah I want that we agree that we are going to do our best to try so what
I'm gonna do I'm gonna give you let's say three percent but you are not going to get it right away you are going to
get it over next three years divided into equal parts ten ten percent each
year and there's going to be one year cliff so if after twelve months you
decide to stay then the options best yeah however if within these twelve
months decide to leave and it wouldn't work out you will not get the shares you
will get the fair payment no but at least the shares will stay with the
company and I can go and find another co-founder yeah yeah and that's worked well for you has it Danish today they
call them share options donate that's work well for you yeah exactly right what is it there's a little gold nugget
that we'd not planned on let's talk about the equal most and repay yeah
let's get back to this so you're you've you've had six
companies you've sold four to have been opportunities for learner like I like that phrase I'm definitely going to use
that and you seem to be like a serial entrepreneur is there a common theme of
e-commerce and technology around the companies that you're starting at the moment so at the moment Academy which is
a non-profit which is teach give workshops to startups to become more successful and then they find fashion
which is a continuation of the fashion tech company that I sold to Rakuten yeah
and that's own visual message space at rotten rotten cells what about three
million products in fashion vertical allowed our people I mean they do sell
amazing things but if you cannot find then you cannot buy confession is such
visual thing that people don't really have the words to type into the search bar honestly people don't even know
often what they what they are looking for they kind of have the preference of style in the head but they you know you
walk to the shop and you end up buying a pair of shoes or a handbag because you
discover it right sure so at Rakuten we discovered a way how to how to build a
technology that for simplicity sake i'm gonna call it read your mind and
understand what what you really like and it's now i'm just super proud my my AI
team which is in estonia they just accomplished a huge breakthrough they demonstrated that it
actually can read people's mind oh wow well so i mean this the AI is is a
phenomenal thing and it's one of those things that really intrigues me where ecommerce is concerned you know where is
where is it all going in terms of what are some of the things you're gonna be able to do with AI any
Commerce analyst and I guess in some respects it sounds exciting and in some
respects it sounds like expensive and complicated Jeremy Lin and so if I was
and scary when it comes to from very good angle exactly very very scary it's like how do
I keep her how do I engage with that sort of stuff so you I mean when we
originally met and talked one of the things I wrote down was actually you like to think of like to years in
the future don't you you'd what I call a futurist you kind of understand where it's all going so how can we how can we
sort of get some of this stuff that's coming into our e-commerce businesses
now I'm lucky and part of the future of
retail organizations forward and I think think think there is is thinking well on
my behalf and then just telling me what's the future is gonna be like hopefully they are right but but there's
I think this there's a few really super interesting things coming along and and
one of them is the obviously everybody's controlled about the same as an effect
and how Amazon either takes over the businesses are comparatively ruins the businesses and they are scary big and if
you look at how they have grown um in in the UK percent of all online retail
is Amazon yeah in the u.s. is percent own online retailers Amazon and then you
have the new property at the retail as a whole and you think well we all know that that increments growth right yeah
and if Amazon keeps that leading position then they not gonna just be the
leaders of e-commerce they're gonna be the retail yeah
however I would I would actually think differently I think let me define now
I'm talking about Amazon as the destination site for customers to go and
buy stuff doesn't matter obviously as many other things yeah but as a destination site for customers
to buy stuff I don't think Amazon will remain the leader that's interesting
it's slightly controversial go why would you say that um
let me use an example of purse I get from from offline shopping in creativity
how every day would and the way Brigade weren't really is is we we walk down the
street and we walk past Samsung store window and we spot something interesting
and we decide to walk in and we have never been to that shop at all and then
we walked on down another Street that we watch TV and then we see some amazing
products somewhere and we decide that influences what we what we like to buy
and it used to be that that our where our decisions where actually let me use
just fashion here's an example our decisions were often influenced most by
the brands the catwalks we boots when we see a product we would automatically we
know that this is this must be from this brand yeah but is from this proper
brands however what what's happening today is and as we keep seeing those
products that surround us um we don't know anymore which brands supplies it it
could be an instrument influence and Instagram sometimes they say the parent sometimes they don't and you end up on
on on some online platform trying to find it but
lacks the connection between the item bfriend and item we can actually actually
buy so we come to the findability problem yeah the online the choice is too big and dimension is certainly the
biggest weakness is actually the largest selection that's an interesting you saying say let
me clarify amazon's biggest weakness is the amount of choice that they offer
paradox of choice right yeah yeah it's really the paradox of choice is really interesting psychological
experiments done in this whole arena and I'm you've bridged two gaps there and I like it you carry on sorry I just wanted
to clarify let me let me ask you something that so let's imagine you want to buy a toaster where would you go
online and as an Aliexpress where would you go to buy a toaster I would giggle
and type in the brand of the toaster that I would want probably alright go and find out what's the best toaster I can buy and then goop brand I have to be
honest with you this is this isn't maybe not a topic for today I've recently been
challenged on the ethics of buying products from Amazon so I try not to just default go to Amazon if you know
asked me a year ago that very question out of gone I would've gone to Amazon's app and out of type team poster and I'd
have seen what came up I share I share the sentiment however using this example
most people would go to any of those other platforms whether it's Amazon something else and then the next
question is how would you choose and they normally there's there's two ways you sort them by reviews yep or you stop
them by price yeah now reveals these apply to toasters you
can actually find a pretty good toaster however when you look at shoes or
tableware reviews wouldn't help you a lot okay
instead people would go and sort by price and here's one of the biggest weaknesses if you solve by price then
why would you go to page or to look at more expensive shoes they end up
looking pretty similar yeah so what happens here is is all those suppliers
using Amazon as the platform are competing based on price we are not
competing run based on the quality of the product but quality of the photography yeah now it's a dangerous
thing to do isn't it not a single supplier can survive long term like if
they if they complete by price only the when it comes to sustainability look at
again using fashion as an example fast fashion is is blamed how they tried down
the price is how they how they mate we supply it somewhere Bangladesh cut the
corners and and I'm just not the attention to any of the environmental issues a worker worker protection and
then you look at the very similar items done on Amazon and they are to %
cheaper than any of your past fashion brands and how did I do that so there's
always somebody selling something cheaper in the world right and one selling some machines that's right as
always so in law that type of business model cannot survive right that's very short
termism isn't it's very short-term gains it's it's how were a fantastic unit for
for the smaller smaller retailers smaller designers who come up with those
quirky really interesting products yeah as on Amazon eventually the suppliers
start having VDP costs designing more generic items even pick a trend which
start start privatizing the basic silver be more interesting products and that's when
there was in the designers the cool items going up that's really interesting
so do you see that there's gonna be a move away from Amazon by some of the
suppliers with their some of their more interesting products do you think do you saying that Amazon's gonna be quite what
sort homogenized quite you know say me say me everything's gonna be the same
absolutely absolutely not but if you sort by price then obviously everything on page to page yeah well quite
similar yeah um it will be more interesting products on page happy then to do page a to hundreds but
frankly nobody ever goes hey just like no one ever goes past page on Google
people are no longer are they on Amazon they're exactly and in fact Amazon they have their whole
marketing strategies to get people who sell on Amazon to do paid AdWords like
Google's you can you can pay to come up higher Amazon search engines which is
just yet more money to Amazon which is coming out of your profit margin and it's it's quite fast yeah I have this
love/hate relationship with events and obviously my client obviously share the sentiment yet I'm I'm I will be client
again one of the companies that I invested into in the past as an angel
investor they used Amundsen as one of the platforms to sell the products there
were a marketplace for Indonesian artisans to go go to Western market and
and Amazon is just fascinating if you pay Germans and regardless whether you
get the product sold or not yeah yep and the annoying thing right at the
end of all of that transaction is you don't know who the customer is because it's amazon's customer it's not your
customer it's a real it is a real fast Network I mean full disclosure we also
sell some of our product ranges on Amazon and it and it's there the stories
that we have from dealing with them are quite fascinating and so I show you sentiment actually that ethically I have
questions about it but also the future I'd like you say the first four pages
how how do you differentiate how do you separate yourself and I suppose in some
respects that's where you're going isn't it is for the small business guy the independent producer is actually doing
something interesting that's not fast fashion with the equivalent of fast fashion for your industry is it is a
good way to move forward is that what I'm hearing it's new trade you let me
think through how to phrase it dates let me let me give an example from Al
again from the from the physical stores and and again from the fashion fashion it's it's the brand's the might be
brands that I that you like today I personally like for some banana republic
whenever I walk in I like it you know pretty much I get what I expect yeah um at the price point I already
know and then as as they will become more and more on the price pressure they
will start choosing products which are more and more average that they know
that will sell well and a couple of years from today I would walk into
another Publix store and and I look around and everything is boring
they have cut the costs on sales assistants and they have cut the costs and the locations and and and storage
areas and I look around and I'm like why am I even here yeah and that that forces me to to go
and see the products online yeah so suddenly you will will we are talking of
this retail apocalypse happening now right
another keep coming yeah because of because of this kind of spiral of death that that was those
brands will be going through not all of them but certain in some and the current
economy wouldn't wouldn't help here either obviously yeah yeah no it's great
so how if you're starting out and you're a startup in your you're listening to
all this sounds all very exciting because you see actually there is possibility and there is opportunity beyond the borders of Amazon and
so what if it says here you know in my
notes that price discounting is the spiral of death we talked about that before and so starting out and avoiding
this price discounted being the spiral death just explain why why you think price discounting is as far as after
people that maybe don't understand that or just starting out and thinking actually I'm just gonna sell products cheaper than the next guys to try and
get customers um let's see that's the
magic internet that's a magic ecommerce um whoever's obviously the prices are even
relatively easy to compare at the same time they are also perfectly hard to
compare when it comes to more unique products sure um when you sell the toasters and the toasters have the the
product I wouldn't then obviously can compare and get it from a cheaper place
I'm assuming many of those small retailers they don't sell generic coats
they sell something unique and and and close close to their hearts that's why
they started the business often and these these products often not as as as comparable yeah so as as soon as you
start talking at the competition and looking for my card the videos price therefore I had to reduce price imagines
will become so thin and you're addicted learning cash flow planning becomes the only focus you have to do how were they
people the business around the great story about why you built it that's
where the magical internet kicks in I'm internet in every online short
you're just like a big business yeah yeah and so actually I like what you
said they um you tell your story and it's just stories that people connect
with isn't it that's got an interest in products and the reason why you've created that product and the story behind it that's where the internet
really is enabled people to do stuff that otherwise ordinarily wouldn't and
so story well I think is such a good thing Matt do you miss this just walking
walking through some markets and some small cities Main Street and all those
funky little shots where you step in and they're full of those amazing things that you didn't even know existed no no
Charlie yeah I mean I'm not gonna lie I was I was the reason we've not been on air for the last few weeks as I've been
in New Zealand working working you know a bit of a bit of work a bit of pleasure
and I I did exactly that Hagee I walk down some of the roads and down some of the streets and I was our my overriding
feeling was disappointment because all of the stores down the Main Street in
Auckland are the same stores as the ones down the Main Street in which I mean
there I've got a gap they will go they've all got Nando's I don't know about what it is about Nando chicken
restaurants they're everywhere and you just like oh I don't want to be in a local deli especially food and I wanted
to and trying to find gifts for my kids my wife was I had to get in a cab and go
to a specific area which was plasters the artsy area but that's where the
interest in shops were and that's where actually I I quite enjoy myself so I'm totally with you on that one
just going in and finding stuff that is usual Drudge High Street is and that is
the cool thing cos obviously a smaller company cannot compete with the efficiency that Nando's has or
efficiency or innovation investments that amazon has that's not going to be
but they can compete with with uniqueness and there's always there's actually I
would be forecasting the search of customers just like you who will go with
distance to seek out those experiences that's really fascinating that is really
really fascinating I I'm thoroughly enjoying the conversation because I think you and I think so alike one of
the questions I get asked a lot by e-commerce entrepreneurs you know people
wanting to start out is you know what do I sell on my website and the answer is something that not everybody else is
selling you know do not go to Aliexpress and buy a watch that is bucks and
sell it on your site for $because there's people doing that around the world right and they're much better
at facebook advertising than you are so it's it's not the way forward it's not
the way the future you've you've got to have a uniqueness about human about your products about your story
it makes people on a bike people say like we have a company called Jersey Beauty company which retails beauty
products online and it's a bit like it's a bit like an Amazon it's like you come to our site there are hundreds of brands
hundreds of products and one of the big strategic shifts we're making in that is
actually to reduce the amount of products that we sell to actually sell much more targeted products and be much
more informative about the products that we are selling to create this unique experience right and almost like it's
almost like going into the Delhi Delhi rather than going into the supermarket where they they both sell ham but
actually the ham in the deli you've got some butcher making some quality choice somewhere having units the same kind of
thing so I love what you're saying is a long way of saying I love what you're saying
whenever I you said before that you often get asked so what kind of products
you need to sell online to become successful and I do something else I
whenever I mentor that startup founders I always ask them why did you start this
company I do believe that that those who will be successful are those who solve
their own problem for most so if you're
choosing what you sell online and naturally the products that you love if you like do it yourself it's gonna be
doing yourself stuff if you love tea it should be key because only if you love
doing what you do you will have so much passion into this that well that it
won't have any work-life balance unfortunately love doing that work like
to do and then you will be successful at that that's when you know you're successful is when there's no work like
that about what you're doing you're just you're just in it and you love it and you go for it you feel like it is your
it it's totally and that's where you're gonna beat Amazon because they've not got your passion they're just like you
say they're just they just a display is like a search engine now isn't amazon's and honestly they know nothing about the
products they sell no but you do yeah yeah and you can you can do it in such a
way that really really connects with people and they really connect with you so I mean this is all fantastic stuff
and one of the questions that is that I have for you is is around technology cuz I know you know technology and
innovation is it's something close to your heart how do how do we get you on
one hand we can't compete with a tech that say Amazon has but is there
something that we can do all that we could do to bring some technology into our business that is going to help us
and you know at least keep us going forward a little bit further
Amazon obviously has some amazing technology however there's there's thousands of
retail technology startups out there all hungry too well some will go as far as
saying we're gonna we're gonna compete against them and send and some some will
just say we're building three best retail experiences all those you know it
take from science fiction five years and some startup is doing this you take the
ideas that maybe you've had one senior on your head which are really debate shopping and some startup is probably
doing this and as small companies we can afford to
innovate ourselves however those that startups they are looking for an outlet
to test and try and make sure the technology is on the right trade path
those among among the listeners who are retailers you have something of its
startup Stone tab not you have a store that which can be act as a platform for
those startups to try out the garage at therefore you have access to thousands
of those futuristic ideas so thank you to be tried out yeah um it doesn't come
without a risk though that's the problem
with early-stage startups is is they are free often they're great engineers they
are great visionaries they have this fantastic idea but we haven't actually
really tried it out and thousands of millions of people so there's gonna be
parks there's problems they they they might not even know anything about
retail which by the way is often a benefit because then they can really go crazy about you know doing something
really differently um so what I'm but I
guess I'm getting is is even a small company can afford you outsource innovation to startups just simply
because so many of them but you have to be careful you have to make sure you work well together with that startups
team you trust in when they they are
honest if that you a mistake they will fix it quickly and you don't bring your
own clients as victims to that trial and error process this Pitino Sam
try to sandbox the experience so let's imagine that I knew my previous company
needs me we did a virtual fitting room which where you entered your body but it data
in the beginning the body measurements then afterwards we we made it much simpler for people to enter the body
data but then you would see a model uncon screen the same size and shape as
itself and you can see how different the sizes or dresses or shirts would fit on
you literally see how tonight extra small it's all mostly the buttons off like an Incredible Hulk
we we our mother was probably do how else where we brought down whenever
client sites luckily that was during the update and we scheduled the update lowest there was traffic
we shouldn't have done that we which had planning much better but also that's a
risk of what you have to face when you work with early-stage startups yeah it's
worth it though yeah as otherwise we'd never just get access to this that but they managed we fits me got invested
million into developing it well no small business can afford to do this no but
there were small businesses that could take advantage of the fact that you were developing it and they worked alongside you him with you that whole thing our
first clients were with quite small retailers only only a couple of years
after we had gotten into business we got the retailers like QVC and Dubois these
would not do tests with small small startups because of the the same risks
that I was talking about sure but those early if you tell us that we had our clients they were freed on I think we
ended up charging one like hundred hundred pounds a month isn't like this um whereas a normal ticket sizes would
go seventy thousand a year and more yeah afterwards so it worked well for the
small businesses because they got access to the technology very little but they
also got to influence the technology and how it grows and it worked well for you because you got a sandbox in which to
test and debug that then at some point the bigger companies do become interested in it so I recommend
retailers in the audience have a look at those start up retail tech news start up
retail tech events there's plenty of them I'm assuming for the next few
months they're cancelled at least the news are still coming out and they they
provide a slice of vision what the future of retail will look like well it
can hold and it's worth getting hold of them that's really interesting so that's one way I suppose the smaller guys can
actually get some quite interesting tag which they wouldn't be able to afford to develop themselves in value their
business that's really good I mean my story is similar in the sense that and a
lot of the tech we now use we wrote and developed on our own businesses as we
went through because no one else was out there doing it but we could do that you
know you just it was straightforward it was cost effective to do it now it wouldn't be have to be honest at the
time it was and you're right it gives you access to some stuff that you never thought we could get access to so if I'm
if I'm a retailer and specifically you know looking for these kind of startups
who you mentioned look for events how would you find these sort of businesses to connect with what would be some of
the things that you'd want to look out for or make sure in place is it Academy
we provide the teaching post to the founders for the startups but we also
teach the corporations how do you work with startups and now I'm great advice
which is a bit which I actually I wouldn't want to give access pass for
startups is obviously as a retailer I would like this startup to have at least
some other retailer as the client already that it's that it's tested in
live iteration yeah it's the first for
innovative tech startups the first they will most probably mess up with
something so just just you know there's so many
exciting things and and you might get starry-eyed yourself looking and speaking to them but just make make sure
that it should launch something launch it separately from your site I'm just providing a link from your site to today
technology apparently integrate fully as it might I said no it's true
make sure you know very first one somebody has to be perfectly yeah I
think it depends on how well you protect it from that and negotiates a really good deal I mean certainly don't pay
anything for this you can't assume the startup to pay anything but to you but there's other benefits so an example
from hits me was when we went like we obviously needed to see how the
customers are exactly using our technology but because we had dedicated
analysts looking at the user traffic we saw many other things how the retailer
would be able to increase the conversions and we gave this information back to Larry Ellison and many our
clients even when we messed up on our site they were they were still
successful because suddenly they had almost like dedicated in-house analyst which motivated as normally don't have
yeah yeah you had that had that data which is great yeah yeah yeah yeah do
you think that AI is gonna play a big
part in e-commerce moving forward I appreciate that's a really stupid question in some respects but I'm just
kind of curious to get your general impression on it yes it is
and is that is a and and I didn't mean the answer was was was was it's a lot of
stuff stutter pounders come to me and say hey you know I'm getting gold and
when it comes to economic the years that right is not old you know and in
technology innovation years right and they say well if I would have only started my startup when you know jet
pieces were starting diamonds oh no oh no they started Apple any of those companies all of this relation is you
know not yet done actually the opposite is true it's this accelerating pace with
innovation and anything we see today and if I would have to put any number where
where retail yesterday very tell I mean online offline in all of those channels
it's perhaps % a way it's going to be
the next years it isn't early stages yeah yes what
comes to a yeah it's in its early stages today
there's going to be fascinating stuff coming out which makes um which makes
our life much easier however there is always the super constant I have to keep trying the only thing you know for sure
is that you have to keep up with that pace of change you have to keep trying
yeah you have to keep trying you have to keep keep on top of things as best she can know you're totally right and I I
always said they I've always heard that you know I wish I'd started um when Jeff
Bezos started Amazon maybe I could have been Jeff Bezos well no you wouldn't have been because you're not as clever as he is but that's that's another story
but somebody said to me when psyche remember where I heard it maybe was on a
podcast or something you know the best time to have started a business was ten years ago the second best time started
business is today right because you've got hindsight for what happened ten years ago but you know the second best
time mistake is in years time you're gonna be good I would say the best best time is today second best time was ten
years ago ah I like you and also also you're wrong about that that Jeff pieces you can
picture pieces because you're not as clever as he's this is sorta wrong I'm sure this is what every time and I think
like this podcast is between the conference it makes me feel so proud knowing that in this audience right now
there will be heroes like him will be there will be disruptors there will be
millionaires and billionaires the in the future yeah they might be trying
something small today and then learning from this and growing they might be already thinking something big they
might not even be people who right now think well I'm just doing my everyday job and tomorrow they figure out
something car disruptive they'll figure it out and it's just having the courage to step out and have a go at that idea
isn't it and do you think we give them this coverage they did not perhaps yes
gosh will will will will do this I'm
sure it will I'm sure it will inspire somebody somewhere because these things always doing you always you know I can I
can back now when I can attribute reading a book or listening to somebody say
something as some of the key pivotal points in my life and and so you're
right there's going to be somebody out there that it changes something and I like that I love that actually that it
helps while we do these things isn't it so no all good points all very good
points and well received and well taken and if you were gonna start you've got
what four companies now let's say you wake up tomorrow you think you know what I'm gonna start an online company would
you stick with fashion or would you do something else what G what was just thinking being well I have started a
fashion tech company and B the other one is not in fashion so early business it's
an educational platform Joe and I have invested into a a sports tech company
which is a platform for personal trainers and honestly I did it because
of my very own personal need I'm a happy happy client advocate expert it's I used
to well be fifteen kilos bigger so do
you do you think then yeah I'm just sort of bringing it back to what you said earlier I'm just you
know if you're gonna start a business what would you start your e-commerce business in I'm gonna bring it back to
that work fashion so you actually you know about the fashion industry you have a passion for tech and innovation you
had a reason to invest in the fitness company because you wanted to you know lose a little bit of excess baggage
let's put it that way we've all been there to be fetched and so these are
things which are dear to your heart these are things which you actually care about and I think I guess I'm just
trying to tease this out of you a little bit more in terms of start a business that maybe
you care about I do have a process for this actually okay I fought for many
many many years I keep I used to keep this paper notebook next to my bed now
obviously I used the phone for this and I might be in conversation with you or
having a sleepless night and suddenly I have this silly thought
and I think maybe you're not a silly thought change something so I write it
down and then I will have this list has actually become really long by now but
then I had those structured conversations with my friends about
those thoughts and regardless whether they're silly or not there's actually a
just a few days ago a I thought that I had about making sculptures out of water
my father was a professor of hydraulics and he showed me how you can make water
behave in ways where it starts making shapes oh wow any kind of thing yeah I
was thinking yeah well that would be really cool if we can have sculptures in the middle of room there's a pool of
water kind of there magically yeah yeah and I'm going to have a conversation
with about this with my friend and we're going to go through some structured questions how big is the market yeah as
it is it physical is it is it science fiction or is it just fiction can it actually be approached at all we
would be those people who we know we can ask can it be done who would be those
people we can ask would they like to be the co-founders and I often see from
startup founders that they are afraid of talking about the idea maybe somebody is going to steal it maybe somebody is
going to tell them how silly this idea is no just use everyone you can to tell
them about your idea I'm going to use this word victim again victimize them because
sometimes your idea is indeed silly make them suffer yes but then they will they
will tell you yeah something that makes you think huh it is silly because of
this and if I solve this is not gonna be silly anymore yeah not a single great idea in this
world started out the same idea every single idea that changed the world
started out it out as a crazy idea yeah impossible idea yeah that's a very very
good point that's a very good point and so doesn't matter how silly it is write it down in
your notebook you mentioned actually everything's digital for you now I have to be honest I'm still a bit of a and
then paper kind of go for writing ideas down I still like to do that the old-fashioned way in journal but no journal in those thoughts and getting
them down and processing them interesting and I I often say to Peter
header and young lad came to see me yesterday or the day before is
years old and I know his parents really well and they said listen he's got this entrepreneurial Flair can you have a
conversation when he's got a whole bunch of questions we can't answer so short love to talk to you know the teenagers
because man can they fly with these things they've got I've got no sense of impossibility in some respects I love
that it's great right it's great you only get that in your twenties in your thirties but when you're in your teenagers everything is possible right
because the world revolves around you my boys are not possible and he was one of
the things that he said was he didn't have a an idea for a business and I said to him well I think by the end of the
day you could probably generate at least and I said for example let's just
think about the room that we're in and this is what I would call the entrepreneurial mindset look at
everything in this room and think is there a problem that I can solve related to this product that I am looking at
right how can I go away and research that so we worked out we were looking at
a log burner you know the stoves and which we had I'm like well how do you clean the glass on those things and so
we looked on Amazon for stove glass cleaner and we just looked down all the reviews that people have been putting and all the questions that people add
those on my market research right there how could I do nothing differently what would be interesting about that is that
something that I could do well and be passionate about fourteen-year-old kid is not gonna be passionate about glass
cleaner but the point of the matter is and it's just looking out there what's in front of you and that's going how can
I solve a problem how can i something she was you can use you can use any other feelings whenever you feel angry
about something that if the world doesn't operate as you wish it does it's a problem right there whenever you feel
passionate about something you feel happy about something you can say how can I think is that I'm happy about and
scale it up make it repeat wouldn't build it into something that everybody else would be able to enjoy around me
that's a that's a good point any kind of emotion any kind of passion anger upset
and this is part of the reason why I would agree with you you know that this idea that Amazon's not going to be maybe
the market giant consistently in
continually one because history is proven that no one is ever the market giant consistently or continually but to
I think I think people are actually starting to get quite angry about Amazon
and there is there is now the ethics of Amazon being brought to people's
attention rightly or wrongly you know but it is having an impact on people's buying decisions and and I don't think
that you can run away from that or hide from that I think you know it's soliciting this emotion isn't it people
are starting to get angry and so people get angry they have the crazy ideas and like you said no no
world-changing idea ever started out life as a sane idea and none of those ideas came from a place of you know zero
emotion there was always some kind of emotion behind driving that idea wasn't there so very very fascinating stuff
hey listen time and we could carry on
talking all afternoon it's a fascinating conversation is there anything else specifically that
you wanted to say that maybe we've not covered that maybe would be helpful for
folks as we were talking so much about
starting the company and starting a business you know we didn't touch a lot how to make your existing retail
business more successful and I don't think we'll have enough time to use that
bit to wrap it up so I'm going to use how to start the business to wrap it up and and you said repeat it is that no
great idea started out as a sane idea in you have to have this courage to believe
it is a great idea and and yes in in Silicon Valley you might sit in a in a
cafe in Palo Alto San Francisco and talk about your crazy idea of building a rocket ship to Mars and somebody next
stable is is as eavesdropping and and saying hey I'm so sorry I overheard but
it's this guy who builds life support systems and I'd be happy to introduce and then somebody else is going to ask
you so what kind of engineer when I use on your rocket ship yeah and and I'm
originally from Estonia in Estonia but also in the UK you might have had the same conversation with somebody and
instead of asking what kind of rocket engine you're gonna use they you're gonna look at you and say this is really
silly idea so you have to have enough passion and
what did you to say hey thanks for this feedback and tell me more why why is
that select explain this to me so I can find a way to make it not so yeah very
good very good I like that tell me why and how I can make it not say don't get
hampered and don't don't give up too soon like it yeah I like it
hey keep listen really appreciate your time with us but and your insight and
I've really enjoyed the conversation where I can or how can people get hold
of you if they want to reach out and connect what's the best way of people to do that so I think LinkedIn is is always
a good place you can touch up a message there for those companies that that have
already paid something and thinking of how to strategize how to think few years
ahead and think of acquisitions that's the exit Academy to talk these I
think are the best best places wonderful and we'll have links to your LinkedIn and to the exit' Khadem e in the show
notes when this is released as a podcast you'll be able to get those show notes from the website but Haiti listen and
you've got such an unusual name I reckon if you just go to Lincoln and just typed your name you're gonna come up right
although I noticed your LinkedIn profile picture the one somebody sent me you were without a beard and for those of
you are watching on Facebook can actually see you you've got a really quite a nice beard right now going very
good people will be rushing there to see what you look like with that before and after but now listen go connect with
Heikki he's a great guy go connect with him on LinkedIn and hey keep once more thank you so so much for joining us on
the show it's been a real privilege and a real treat thank you thank you okay well I hope you got a lot
out of that today guys wasn't Heikki fantastic with what he was sharing just
amazing amazing stories and some really top insight for you guys so do connect
with him do reach out to him on LinkedIn like I say all the links to everything that he talked about will be in the show
notes we will make sure that they're there and you can connect with him this show like I said is being broadcast live
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more amazing podcast stuff so until then I will bid you adieu and farewell