You have a finance background, yet Virtido is an IT outsourcing company. How did that happen?
We stumbled upon this. My business partner and I used to work as Investment Directors for a Family Office in Zurich which had assets in Ukraine. We got to know the country, the people and the potential based on some IT projects we had. Switzerland has a lack of IT developers and we have a network to a large pool of IT resources. We said let’s give it a try, let’s see how we can find customers.
I have to admit at the beginning we really had to climb up the IT learning curve, so it took us a bit longer to define the services we could offer and test the market. Eventually, we found the first customer and developed our service offering. We just had to allow ourselves a bit more ramp-up time compared to someone who has always been in IT.
Did you always know you would be an entrepreneur?
As a kid, I was always selling something on our street. When I started working in consulting, I always wanted to be independent. When I was 30, I said to myself that my biggest happiness when I am 40 would be to have my own company that can generate some cash.
I just turned 40 and I have to say, I am a very lucky person.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced to date?
The biggest challenge is always finding new clients, scaling the business, selling. In the beginning you have no revenue, but you have costs with new employees, etc. It is always a challenge to find new revenue streams and new clients.
My son was born in the same month as when our legal entity was established. I love being an entrepreneur but with it comes pressure on your shoulders. You need to have a flexible environment.
You have to lower your fixed costs, your life becomes a little simpler, a little less materialistic, and you think more about the long-term. It’s private cash management. Your business cash management is the biggest challenge. It’s about balancing the two. We never asked for external money, so we bootstrapped ourselves. We took on freelance work at the beginning to keep ourselves afloat.
Money restriction is always the biggest challenge but also the biggest driver as it puts you under pressure and usually under pressure, you perform your best.
There is a blur between private and professional life. My brain doesn’t stop thinking, ideas keep evolving.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I wake up and we have breakfast together as a family. Twice or 3 times a week, I accompany my oldest child to kindergarten. I work from 8.30am. I travel and visit our clients across Switzerland and beyond. I have a lot of online meetings. I get home, we have dinner together and once the kids are in bed, every now and then I will work again in the evening.
But in my head, I am thinking 24/7. There is a blur between private and professional life. On the weekends, my brain doesn’t stop thinking, ideas keep evolving. It is all about business development – how to grow, how to get new clients. I work less than when I did as a Business Consultant where I worked 12-14-hour days.
However, I can now really focus on strategy and client acquisition as I have more people to support me on the manual tasks. Previously in consulting, I had to do everything on my own.
Do you enjoy doing Business Development?
If you are a Founder and you don’t do sales, something is wrong. You never delegate sales to anyone else. Of course, we have hired salespeople in Switzerland to generate leads. But in meetings, it’s got to be you. You have to love sales. Otherwise it wouldn’t work.
What is your view on failure? Can you share some experiences on failure?
Accepting failure as part of your journey is very important. It’s risky to start your business in Switzerland in that sense as failure is not accepted in the society.
If I failed now and had to find a job in the corporate world, adding 5 years of entrepreneurial experience in my CV, I don’t think that would be appreciated by corporates. Most HR professionals would dwell on these 5 years and internally tag it as a failure.
However, I think this is quickly changing and that is great. It is important to be a bit stubborn and have your own view as people will keep telling you that you will fail.
Every day if I speak to 20 clients, 19 will decline and one would be interested. You get hit every time and you need to have the vision that regardless of what happens, there will be success. So, you have to be a positive person.
In the beginning we wanted to sell German speaking Personal Assistants who work remotely, wanting to enter the B2C market. There were some business models in the US where you essentially have a private PA sitting in India. We wanted to do the same for the German speaking market.
We had a web shop on our website. Clients were able to purchase it online, but we had no idea about online marketing and how to sell that service. That was a complete failure. We removed that.
What I like most is seeing people grow
What has been some highlights on the journey thus far?
What I like most is seeing people grow, how they develop and contribute to our firm, how they take on responsibilities and seeing how I can delegate more to them. I also enjoy hiring people who are smarter than me because that is always a satisfaction as you know they really add value in that particular field. It is a privilege to hire such people.
From a financial point of view, seeing your business grow is very satisfying. We reached break even after 2 years. Being able to pay yourself a salary that covers all your bills is very satisfying.
Any lowlights?
Every now and then, regardless of the maturity of the company, I have sleepless nights because a big client might be shaky. If we lose the client, I might have to slightly restructure the business or can’t grow at the expected pace. That is very tough. That can happen in the first day or tomorrow. You are never safe.
Also, a personal tragedy occurred. We hired a 19-year-old intern whose 42-year-old father passed away because of Covid-19. We are more than 100 people in the team now. We try to support the families when some things happen.
Your hope for Virtido?
That we will conquer the world (with a big smile on his face). That we will scale this up. I want to turn this into something big. But that is the ambition. Even if I don’t achieve the ambition, I will be a happy person. I just need a big vision and try to achieve it. Without a big ambition, why do you continue working?
Just do it. Give it a try. Get market feedback. Improve it. Do the lean management approach.
Any advice for other budding entrepreneurs out there?
People think too much. We never had a business plan. I did a lot of business plans when I was a consultant and I know how to do it by heart.
Just do it. Give it a try. Get market feedback. Improve it. Do the lean management approach. Don’t think too much. Just do it.
Sometimes people spend two years developing an application without having tested it and later realise no one wants to buy it. You have a hypothesis that something can work and there is the market. You need to bring it together as soon as possible to see if it works or not, fine tune it or reject it. Adopt a pragmatic approach, test it, get feedback and just do it.