The Entrepreneurs

If you do one thing…

If only starting a business were as easy as signing a piece of paper. It would save you all the hassle of choosing a suitable typeface, finding the right people to ask for money and developing a tone of voice that distinguishes your brand from any other.

For those who might be lacking in enthusiasm for these details, we’ve rallied some of the sharpest minds in copywriting, design and investment to save you from figuring things out for yourself. And for those who actually enjoy learning about all the different acts of creation that go into founding a successful venture – well, perhaps this might even offer a little light entertainment. Whichever category you fall into, read on.

30 /100
Select your brand’s perfect font
Design

Long before Bruno Maag established his name designing fonts for The New Yorker, he was a typesetter for Switzerland’s biggest daily, Tages-Anzeiger. This skillset put him in good stead and his London-based type foundry Dalton Maag has sold custom fonts to everyone from the BBC to bmw. He tells us how to pick the best font for your brand.

“Finding the perfect font depends on its purpose. You need to look at it from three points of view. One is emotional: how the font expresses the personality of the brand. The second is functional: this considers whether the letters do what they’re supposed to; whether they are legible. And finally, there’s the logistical element: can you access and legally use the font?

Bigger corporations, such as banks, will seek fonts that express authority and security. A serif typeface would do this, as it’s more traditional. An architecture firm would be more likely to go with a simple sans-serif font, for its constructed appearance that doesn’t distract attention from the product. But for a small business such as a car mechanics, legibility is less crucial: the font can be fun or quirky to grab attention.

It’s common for people to choose from a purely aesthetic perspective but that is a mistake. It’s no use if a font is illegal or illegible. You should tailor every aspect; a quick conversation with a design professional will make all the difference.”

31 /100
Secure funding – here’s how
Investment

An investment from Camille Kriebitzsch could launch your concept from extracurricular activity to full-time business. As principal and co-founder of Eutopia, a venture-capital fund with offices in Paris and New York, Kriebitzsch oversaw €38m in investments for consumer start-ups last year. But getting a piece of the pie isn’t as easy as just asking.

“Bringing in an investor is a bit like getting married. You’ll be tied to them for five years, minimum. You don’t just want their money, you want a partner to help you grow. That’s why you need to know who you’re asking, why you’re asking them, exactly how much you need and when you’re going to need it.

Begin talking six months to a year before you need the money. This gives you a chance to get to know one another. It’s important that the investor knows you as a person because that’s what they’re investing in: your commitment, your charisma and the strength of your vision. In the long run, the team behind a product will make or break an investment.

Don’t ask for too much too early. A lot of new businesses request a lot for their first round of funding and push for high valuations. Once the second round comes along, though, it’s hard to repeat. Better to do it with no money or with a small loan from friends or family than launch an unsustainable business. Or else, it could end in an early divorce.”

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Find your voice
Copywriting

As head of copy for Monocle’s sister company, creative agency Winkreative, Ed Yeoman knows a thing or two about finding the appropriate tone of voice for your company. Read on as he spills the beans on how he does it.

“Writer Maya Angelou said that people will forget what you do and say but never how you make them feel. It’s good advice, especially for those building a brand. While most focus on design, colour, art and materiality, a more potent way to evoke a feeling is through language. A distinctive voice separates a brand from its competitors, helps build client relationships and – if done properly – can shape an organisation’s culture.

Once you’ve decided on your values, audience and what you want to say, you need to work out how you’re going to say it. You can be warm, brash, genial, irreverent, polite, witty or sincere; the key is to make sure it comes from an authentic place. Often, in newer businesses, the voice will be directed by a charismatic leader. As the firm grows, that style needs to be codified so that others understand how to use it. This is where a tone-of-voice guide with practical advice and examples is essential. If the guide is your bible, training is your sermon: get your staff well versed.

Every interaction is a chance to gain a fan for life. Consistency, whether in a tweet or a CEO’s email, is essential to build trust. And if you want your audience to remember a feeling, trust is a good one.”

How to get a job

25.
Use your education
School yourself

A fine way to land a job is through your alma mater. Many universities pair graduates and businesses but Switzerland’s ecal does it best, with in-person events and a digital job board. “It helps graduates to network,” says general secretary Yoo-Mi Steffen. “That’s the first step.”

26.
Do something different
Old-fashioned approach

Traditional methods can work wonders: a handbound portfolio or printed CV and cover letter show that time and care has been put into your expression of interest in the company. Just address it to the correct person: “To whom it may concern” won’t work digitally or in print.

27.
Find a headhunter
Let’s be professional

“We’re cheerleaders,” says Mike Radcliffe, founder of UK recruitment service Represent. “We give people confidence when we say, ‘You’d be good at that job and we’re going to introduce you.’” With such a connection, Radcliffe says, you’re far more likely to get a meeting.

28.
Start at the bottom
Foot in the door

Don’t dismiss a lowly rank at your favourite firm, as working your way up helps to fully understand a business. Inspirational moguls often begin at the bottom of the food chain: chefs Ferran Adrià, Iliana Regan and Alan Geaam all worked as dishwashers before earning their Michelin stars.

29.
You’re the boss
Do it yourself

When job prospects dried up, a group of Australian designers struck out alone. “In the 1992 recession we started Six Degrees Architects, then Melbourne’s first laneway bar, followed by the city’s first co-working space,” says architect Peter Malatt. “Just start something; make a difference.”

Business class

Photographer: Trisha Ward
Stylist: Kyoko Tamoto
Hair & Make-up: Sam Basham
Models: Lauren Borgers, Matthew Holt

Fair traders

24/100
The duo making designs for life
Goodee, Montréal

Montréal-based twins and serial entrepreneurs Byron and Dexter Peart are building a marketplace for the future. After successfully exiting their previous brand, Want Les Essentiels (an eco-conscious high-end accessories label that stood aside from the relentless churn of the fashion industry), their next start-up is focused on design. Good design, to be specific. Their online shop, Goodee, tells the stories behind (and sells) products of “very purposeful, intentional design”. Sixteen months in and working with a diverse list of labels – including Makaua, whose handcrafted baskets from Mexico support low-income families, and Frama in Copenhagen, which specialises in thoughtfully made furniture – the orders are flooding in. Here the pair explain why they do it.

Monocle: You use the expression ‘built for the future’ when you’re talking about the products that your shop is selling. What does this mean?
DEXTER PEART: Something we noticed when we were working in the fashion business was that a lot of production was about making things that just get used and disposed of. For us it started feeling very antiquated, not very modern, and it didn’t seem sustainable in any sense of the word. When we would travel we would find these amazing products with amazing stories behind them that were really built for the future. These were things that were made with care by people who were really focused on the materials and how things were to be made; how they were going to be used by the end consumer; and what their afterlife would be. There wasn’t really an environment for that conversation – so we created one.

Monocle: In North America, where you’re currently selling, is there an appetite for brands that focus on being ‘good’?
BYRON PEART: Five years ago, with our former business, the market was not that interested that we made products with organic cotton and recycled nylon. We actually had a major US retailer who said to us at the time, “We love that you guys are pushing the progressive nature of sustainable development in your products. But if we start telling that story about your brand then we have to tell it about all the other brands in the shop too, and we’re not able to do that today.” What is only just starting to happen here now is that there’s a retail landscape that’s shifting and changing to meet the consumer interests and we want to be a part of that. It needs to take an industry effort. And slowly but surely, that is happening in North America with consumer goods changing for the better and becoming closer to what we’ve been seeing in the food and transportation industries.

Monocle: And as you are direct to consumer, you’re educating them first hand with Goodee. How important is this?
DP: It’s extremely important for us, as is our direct relationship with the brands that we work with. We’re constantly thinking about new brands and the young makers and artists. These are people starting out and thinking about where they are going to be able to distribute their products and share their stories. We didn’t think that the old model supported these people so we built it to be this new environment and this new destination where those brands and stories can be highlighted. We took on that responsibility. We know it’s a big responsibility but we’re really excited about it and the reception has been fantastic.

The new business playbook

The business pages of most papers and periodicals have made for bleak reading lately and there’s scant advice for entrepreneurs who are seeking tangible tips. “The new normal” doesn’t mean anything when the goalposts keep shifting. Yet the fundamentals of running a business won’t change. You’ll need to be agile, circumspect and reactive – but wasn’t that always the case? Now is the time to be brave, stick to your guns and buck the trend. If the world is shutting up then get out a little; if everyone’s cutting jobs, think about acquiring some new talent; if others are cautious then maybe now’s the time to get that new business off the ground. Entrepreneurship has always been a game of risk and reward. Here are a few suggestions for keeping your company hale and your eyes open to opportunity.

1.
Get out more

Although it seems contrary to current practice, big deals aren’t easily won over a video call, local intelligence isn’t gathered in your bedroom or online, and trust isn’t cultivated while struggling with a crackly phone line. Clearly we’re not suggesting that you overlook a lockdown but we are saying that showing a little willingness to meet people again will put you first in the queue when business buoys and everything is open.

2.
Work as a team

You don’t need everyone to come into work every day but company culture is forged through shared experiences and camaraderie, so a better balance needs to be struck. It might be cheaper to outsource your technology solutions to the Baltics but the staff parties will be rubbish and the sense of purpose absent. Of course, this involves leading by example: managers and top brass must show that they’re willing to step up and come into the workplace too.

3.
Become a part of your community

Build a base and concentrate on your own neighbourhood first, as that’s where you’ll find supporters, customers and plenty to encourage you when the overseas investors have stopped answering your calls. One significant positive in a year that has (so far) been dominated by shortcomings is that we have rediscovered the communities that surround our homes and our offices. Don’t forget that just because the airports have reopened.

4.
Don’t forget that it’s a big world

Seek out inspiration in other markets, investigate how other companies succeed abroad and don’t be afraid to reach out, put down roots in other cities and court key countries. That way you’re also spreading your liability and assets if one market plummets. Could your clothing company have a product made in Portugal or Hungary? Is Como the only place where you can find that fabric? There’s a world of discoveries to be made out there.

5.
Dress the part

We’re not suggesting that you need to don a dicky bow or elaborate dress but do try tailored trousers and a jacket that won’t crumple between cabin, cab and boardroom. Online video chats enabled us to take a meeting in our smalls but dressing credibly shows that you mean business – and that you care. Much has been made of the slouchy Silicon Valley uniform but even the ceos of the US’s largest technology firms were suited and booted when they were questioned by Congress in July.

6.
Remember what’s important to you

Not every business will be (or should be) a unicorn. What about creating a company that makes your life better, gives you freedom and is something that you believe in? What about asking for funding from family and friends rather than the VC who’s desperate to squeeze you out and flip the business. Success is different for everyone. Making a modest profit that supports you through a firm that you can pass on and of which you’re proud seems closer to the goal than simply closing a big-money deal.

7.
Put positive principles into action

Truly progressive companies don’t get involved in PR hogwash or diatribes about just how much they care about an obscure issue. Nor do they post coloured squares on social media to show how ethically aware they are. Instead, a good business should actually strive to change things. Concentrate on yourself rather than calling out others. Try to make a genuine difference. In short, show people that you’re committed to improving and doing things better rather than just blathering on about it.

8.
Be more hands-on

You’ve been running your restaurant business for a lifetime but when was the last time that you actually oversaw a service, stepped into the kitchen or briefed the team in person? Do so and you’ll be amazed at what you learn, spot, experience and achieve. Time on the shop floor, factory floor or with the heavy lifters in your team is time well spent.

9.
Get lean if you have to

No one wants to prune their workforce and this year has been galling and gruesome for too many. Plenty of businesses have been forced to think about how they could do more with less and you might need to do likewise if your firm is going to pull through. What would your business look like with a less saggy line-up of middle managers?

10.
Remain entrepreneurial

This is the crux of the issue – literally in the case of the magazine that you’re holding. Being in business isn’t easy. If you’d wanted to take the easy path you’d have remained an employee or settled for a salary, right? But you took the hard road and – we’re hoping – gambled on a more fulfilling livelihood. So don’t stop there. The lessons that you’ve learned will come in handy when setting up again, refining your work and trying something new. Be brave.

Window of opportunity

21/100
Green revolution
Kremer, Germany

Coming into 2013, Alexander Kremer should have been feeling pretty good about himself. The garden centre-industry in Germany, in which his century-old family business operated in, was thriving. In spite of a global economic crash in the previous decade, 2011 and 2012 had been very successful years for his company, with the weather forming blissful growing conditions and setting the industry up to prosper. Yet for Kremer, fourth-generation owner of the North Rhine-Westphalia brand (which has four shops in the region), something wasn’t sitting right. “I started to feel very uncomfortable but I couldn’t figure out what it was,” he says. “Then in 2013 the weather became bad and everyone in the industry blamed it for bad sales. I realised that the world was changing but we weren’t. We needed to redefine our industry.”

Seven years on, we find ourselves walking through the splendid glasshouses of Kremer’s recently opened Lennestadt centre. It backs onto a pristine nature reserve and is filled with lush greenery, some of which is for sale, some simply there to be appreciated. Constructed by South Tyrolean glasshouse specialists RabenSteiner, the fine timber and glass structure is the type of place you might visit to find a palm tree but end up exploring its coffee, museum and leisure areas for a whole day. It’s an experience that’s very different to that which had defined Kremer in the past.

“After my realisation in 2013, I called up my brother, who runs a big advertising agency in Hamburg, and told him I need an advertising specialist for this big makeover,” says Kremer. “Thankfully, he disagreed with me and told me to get clear about my thinking, that change comes from within and that if I was to take this seriously then adding a marketing layer should be my very last step.”

Kremer’s brother connected him with Philipp Teufel, a Düsseldorf-based professor in graphic and conceptual design. What Kremer and Teufel, plus a hand-picked team of collaborators, achieved between 2013 and today is much more than just a handsome new centre; it’s been a complete overhaul in business principles, a process that has been at odds with a somewhat stubborn industry attitude.

With plants at their core, large garden centres across Europe might seem fairly green. But, in fact, this industry is a fiercely competitive one that often puts profit above the planet’s best interests. “We’re seeing fewer quality nurseries, less variety and a decrease in quality and sustainability. But the main problem is that the garden centres don’t know the gardeners any more,” says Kremer, noting that, because of industry consolidation and online ordering systems, those growing plants are completely isolated from those buying them at garden centres, while price wars on plants make things even worse. “When we actually meet our suppliers, we talk about sustainability and they say, ‘That is very nice, we should try it. But are you willing to pay much more per plant?’” Kremer’s answer is a resounding “yes”.

His aim to reconnect the growers and the garden centres is only growing in ambition. He says that, in the years to come, customers will come to Kremer sites such as Lennestadt to absorb nature, enjoy a day with their family and learn all about greenery and those growing it. And, if they want, they can leave with a plant too. Customers will pay more for products where they truly feel connected with their provenance and are ready to buy into the green experience, he believes. “We’re already seeing this in our newest shop,” he says. “We have the smallest range of products at our new centre but the highest average customer turnover because we have the right items on sale.”

While Kremer thinks big-picture, he remains busy cleaning up industry practices. He laments that there are not enough sustainably produced products to fill his centre and he also doesn’t want to isolate customers who’ve been coming to the company for decades by only offering expensive eco-products.

“There are no easy solutions but what I see in many garden centres is sustainability conversations ending up as greenwashing,” says Kremer. “But the consumer recognises that this is not a true message. Our approach is about creating an attitude; it has to be real, not marketing. And you have to really keep it in your heart and be honest about the things you are doing.”

Kremer believes that a customer is more likely to respond positively when they challenge a business about a problem and the business owner admits that they are working on it and are not simply addressing the issue superficially. “You can feel if a business is genuine or if it is artificial,” says Kremer. “It is more than the product; it’s the whole philosophy. It’s the atmosphere, the people, of course the product too. But it’s the effort that you can feel in a place – that is the thing that customers respect the most.”

22/100
Pearly whites
Selahatin, Stockholm

Simply put, Stockholm’s Selahatin is the world’s most sophisticated toothpaste brand. Launched by former magazine editor Kristoffer Vural in 2017, it was created to bring beauty to the oral-care industry and has since grown to offer artisanal toothpaste in high-end shops across 20 countries.

Combining elements of Nordic minimalism, exotic flavours and Swiss science, Vural has set about creating a smart business model. Oral hygiene has long been about intensive repair and fighting cavities rather than beauty routines. Vural explains why people are willing to pay a premium to make toothpaste a more enjoyable part of their daily rituals.

Why does oral care need a premium makeover?
While this is a category that has been solely focused on function, we see no real barriers to converging emotion with functionality. I’m interested in artistic expressions. With Selahatin you don’t have to choose between high-quality products or aesthetics, scent and taste; you can have them all.

Why now?
It’s one of the few personal-care products that hasn’t changed over the past 50 years. Take a peek in any cabinet and you’ll notice that there are brands that combine beauty and science everywhere except for oral care.

How do you turn a product as ubiquitous as toothpaste into something that people want to pay a premium for?
People won’t pay extra for a good product but they will if it’s a great product that leaves an impression. The feedback we have had is that it’s easy to swap out toothpaste for ethical, beautifully crafted products once they stay in our mind.

Who should be capitalising on this opportunity?
Thoughtful retailers know how to introduce ideas around new personal hygiene rituals but it will probably take general stores and multinational supermarket brands some time before they will start adding soft values to oral care. The hospitality industry should introduce unexpected ceremonial moments as part of the bathroom experience and airlines should include subtle memorable details, such as a minimalist, great-tasting toothpaste in their amenity kits.

23/100
Made to last
Emeco, USA

For many companies, planned obsolescence is a key strategy. But when Gregg Buchbinder took over chair-maker Emeco he went in the opposite direction, combining durability with cutting-edge technology and materials. The company was founded during the Second World War to make recycled aluminium chairs for the US navy. They were fireproof and salt-waterproof but, most importantly, “these big, burly sailors would destroy everything except these chairs,” he says.

When Buchbinder bought Emeco he made two big changes. First he turned it “into a design furniture company” off the back of a chair by Philippe Starck. Since then, the business has worked with the likes of Jasper Morrison and Barber & Osgerby. In more recent years Buchbinder has ramped up upcycling and sustainability. “Because our chairs are so strong they have lots of applications,” he says. “We supply universities: they like the environmental message but also the kids can’t destroy them.” The same is true for hospitality clients. “We sold 1,000 chairs to the Hudson Hotel in New York 20 years ago and every single one is still in use.”

Who’s open for business?

If you’re thinking of starting a new business quickly, Tbilisi might not be the first place that springs to mind. Nevertheless, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia is attracting entrepreneurs who appreciate the absence of red tape and the ease of doing business in a country that has worked hard to draw investment.

Georgia comes in at a surprising seventh place in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business ranking of 190 countries. And it comes in second place for the ease of starting a business. It scores in the top 10 in three of the ranking’s 10 categories, including registering property and protecting minority investors; it’s in the top 20 in three others. “Entrepreneurs in Georgia can, for example, transfer a property title within one day and at no cost,” says Valeria Perotti, the programme manager at the World Bank’s Doing Business unit. “Georgia started reforming in 2004 and went ahead of many of its peers.”

Its competition for the title of best nation for start-ups? That would be New Zealand, which came top in the overall rankings for the ease of doing business as well as number one for start-ups. It’s another country that might not top many conventional lists for aspiring entrepreneurs. There’s a good chance, however, that an English-speaking country roughly the size of the UK or Japan but with only five million inhabitants could have more appeal than some of the other top 10 countries in the World Bank ranking.

So what do these two countries have in common? “New Zealand and Georgia share sound business regulations and a high degree of transparency,” says Perotti. “New Zealand scores 15 of 15 on the building quality control index, for example.” Another promising metric? New Zealand is the easiest place in the world to get credit – a critical step for any budding business.

The World Bank warns that the ranking is not an investment guide. “The objective of Doing Business is to measure the simplicity, efficiency and accessibility of the regulatory environment,” says Perotti. Other entrepreneurship rankings are more conventional and take things such as access to a labour force and capital into account. London, for example, typically ranks highly for capital – and for the sheer number of entrepreneurs on the ground. Switzerland is a promising place to go for plentiful skilled labour at the heart of Europe.

The US News 2020 Best Countries ranking produces a sub-ranking for entrepreneurship that lists Germany, Japan and the US as the top three – many with experience of German bureaucracy will tell you a different story. New Zealand comes in only at 18th place while Georgia doesn’t even appear on the list of 73 countries.

The World Bank’s Perotti readily concedes the limitations of her institution’s ranking. “Doing Business does not, for example, capture aspects of macroeconomic stability, development of the financial system, market size, bribery and corruption, or the quality of the labour force,” she says. And yet, its ranking can serve as a powerful incentive, influencing not only investment decisions but also encouraging countries to improve their regulatory environment and rise up the list.

This is explicitly part of the bank’s goal, as it encourages countries to adapt regulation – really to deregulate – according to its benchmarks. Georgia, for instance, is getting a reward for ticking off the boxes in the World Bank categories. The bank’s economists count 51 reforms made by the country over the past 17 annual reports, including widespread use of electronic platforms for doing business. Georgia also sits at a geopolitical crossroads, which allows companies to export to Turkey, the EU and the former Soviet republics; it is seeking a similar free-trade accord with the US. These go beyond the scope of the World Bank ranking but are another plus for entrepreneurs seeking a good base.

New Zealand, by contrast, has remained consistently strong in the rankings over the years rather than requiring significant reforms; it’s a far-away country that nevertheless could be a promising place to launch your enterprise. However, it is probably a good idea for would-be entrepreneurs to take the World Bank at its word – and supplement the Doing Business ranking with research on other factors before plunking down an investment.

19 /100
Georgia
Why start your business here?

The rankings

1. Starting a business Second in the world in the ease of starting a business.
2. Doing business Seventh in the world in the overall ease of doing business in the country.
3. Best improver Three straight years in the top 10 list of countries improving the environment for business.

20 /100
New Zealand
Or would it be better here?

The rankings

1. Doing business First in the world in the overall ease of doing business in the country.
2. Starting a business First in the world in the ease of starting a business.
3. Getting credit First in the world when it comes to ease of getting access to bank loans.

Little by little

09 /100
Fourth city putting business first
Aalborg, Denmark

Copenhageners can sometimes be sniffy about Denmark’s fourth city. The capital is where much of the country’s design industry is based and where the New Nordic food movement started. But for many of Aalborg’s entrepreneurs, the north Jutland city’s small scale is one of its big attractions.

Home to almost 217,000 people, this was once a major centre for the country’s shipbuilding and heavy industry. That might have disappeared towards the end of the 1990s but, over the past decade, the harbour front has seen major redevelopment, including a Jørn Utzon-designed exhibition centre and concert hall Musikkens Hus. And entrepreneurs have found room to grow too.

Aalborg’s old industrial buildings have provided cheap premises for start-ups: designers Pia Würtz and Thomas Steffensen were among the first to make the most of it when they opened their practice in a former shipbuilder’s canteen in 2016. Today their clients range from Swiss bathroom company Fraefel to Danish kitchenware manufacturers Rosti.

As the city continues to expand its brownfield-site developments, some of the cheaper options for offices have been threatened – but Aalborg retains its relaxed air. Being within cycling distance of forests and the coast helps. “You never even hear people ring their bells,” says Würtz. “We like the slower tempo; people here are down to earth.”

Aalborggenser (as the locals are known) might be a no-nonsense crowd but they still get to enjoy the world-class produce purveyed by the city’s businesses, including new restaurant Alimentum, founded by chef Soren Birch and manager Simon Kvist Bjerre. “No bank would back us but we found an amazing business angel who owns this building,” says Bjerre. With dkk350,000 (€47,000) in backing to add to dkk150,000 (€20,000) of their own, they opened their venture in a former Chinese restaurant in 2019, serving a seafood-heavy menu and natural wines. Despite a tough year so far, Alimentum has flourished thanks to a devoted clientele and even expanded – opening a wine shop across the road and leasing a farm 20 minutes outside the city. “We were lucky because Aalborg was ready for something new,” says Birch, who adds that, despite everything, they expect to turn a profit this year.

Some entrepreneurs who set up shop in Aalborg are now looking to expand further afield. Friends Christoffer Bak, Kasper Ulrich and Christian Aachmann were born here and founded their line of smart-casual menswear in 2015. An appearance on a TV show helped rocket Shaping New Tomorrow to national awareness. “Afterwards, we were selling for dkk1m [€135,000] a day and it was chaos for a month or two,” says Bak. “As word spread, the sales continued.” Last year, turnover was dkk100m (€13.5m), via online sales and two shops in Denmark. The company is now venturing into the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Sweden, and has its long-term sights set on the US, with a goal of dkk1bn (€135m) in sales a year.

The ambitions of entrepreneurs such as Daniel Christensen and Mette Jakobsen might be less grand but their decision to start up in Aalborg still made a difference. They relocated from Aarhus in 2019, having started game-developing company Galdra Studios in 2017, because of the cheaper rents and help from the council. “I mentioned our idea at a meeting and within 24 hours they set us up at a workshop and put us in touch with their business consultants,” says Jakobsen. The advice and funding that they received from Vaeksthuset (The Growth House, part-funded the Danish unemployment service) has also been crucial.

A supportive environment extends to awards and grants: Henrik Bruse Skougaard opened his bakery, Surdejsbageren, in 2019 and a few months later bagged the dkk10,000 (€1,300) prize that came with the title of 2020 young entrepreneur of the year – a mark of his success in weathering the pandemic thanks to a nifty service hatch and baking kits. “After lockdown was announced we had one quiet day but then it took off again and kept going,” he says.

The former chef started his bakery with just dkk30,000 (€4,000) after being offered a space beneath a café. His organic wholemeal and rye loaves were turning a profit within five months; he now has eight employees and, thanks to investors, he’s moving to larger premises in October. “I’ve always been fascinated by good bread and just wanted to show people what it was like,” he says. “I’m so happy with all the support the neighbourhood has shown me.”

10 /100
Shore starter
Busan, South Korea

Busan is a mix of old and new, cityscape and seaside, container shipping and surfing. Global commerce and conventions are big business in this southeastern port city of 3.5 million but there are also pockets of creativity and charm, as well as cheap rents.

The once abandoned area of Haeridan-gil has seen a revival in recent years, with the opening of a flurry of shops. Start-ups have also been capitalising on national initiatives to reduce economic reliance on Seoul and mega-conglomerates. While these chaebols are too big to flail, they have been co-opted into supporting small and medium-sized businesses. Last year, conglomerate Lotte hosted its first accelerator programme in Busan and provided funding and office space to entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Busan also benefits from being home to Korea’s film industry and it pulls in a global audience every year for its international film festival. Getting here is a doddle: there are connecting flights to most major cities in the region and the high-speed train to Seoul takes less than three hours, making this seafront city an excellent port of call.

11 /100
Different cloth
St Gallen, Switzerland

St Gallen was once the hub of the Swiss textile industry, with a direct train line to Paris delivering fine laces and couture fabrics. The glory days led to the establishment of one of the leading business universities in the German-speaking part of the world. Some textile expertise remains but today the region’s industry also includes hi-tech companies and brands dealing in fine mechanics.

Through its proximity to Zürich Airport, St Gallen is well-connected and being close to Lake Constance makes it the ideal location for those who prefer a gentler pace of life. But despite its quaint appearance, it’s home to a thriving art scene, good restaurants (this is the home of St Gallen bratwurst) and affordable rents. Its manageable size makes it an ideal base for anyone starting a business that will benefit from skilled labour, excellent technological infrastructure and educated minds.

12 /100
Support network
Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin is perched low on New Zealand’s South Island but its remote location hasn’t deterred the creative technology companies that dominate its start-up sector. They often choose the city for its lower leases; many have popped up in the Warehouse Precinct. Despite being abandoned in the 1950s, the area has been revitalised in a way that honours its history.

Some entrepreneurs have moved from as far as the US, enticed by the city’s support for new business. “Dunedin hits a good balance: it’s small enough for people to support each other yet it has the diverse, educated population required to build a scalable business,” says Alex Dong, who relocated from San Francisco. Not-for-profit organisation Startup Dunedin offers services including programmes that help newbies. “In Dunedin, I’ve had more support than I can leverage,” says founder of software company CodeLingo, Jesse Meek.

13.
Upward trajectory
Salt Lake City, USA

“Salt Lake City has a business- friendly climate that’s bringing a lot of growth and economic development,” says Elle Griffin, editor in chief of Utah’s Business Magazine. With a recent airport expansion and the revival of its downtown centre, the city has become increasingly welcoming for new businesses. When technology entrepreneurs realised they could start their companies at a cheaper rate in Utah than in California, the so-called Silicon of the Slopes was born. Because of the lower cost of living, affordable housing and a plethora of mountainous outdoor activities on their doorstep, more are now making the transition.

The city has always invested in its arts, which makes it a good bet for start-ups in the culture sector, and the food scene is flourishing too. “Salt Lake City now offers businesses tax breaks to set up shop,” says Griffin. “Entrepreneurs are seeing the benefits of being a part of this growing economy.”

Photographers: ULF Svane, Alamy

Banking on it

6.
Goldbell Group
Singapore

Craig McMillan and his wife Juliana Mattar run a small communications agency in Singapore called Motion. They organise internal events for large multinational corporations, such as regional management conferences for Hilton’s Asia-Pacific operation. “We are essentially a projects-based business, so we are at the mercy of our clients’ plans,” says McMillan. In 2020 a strong pipeline of events was put on hold and they watched almost s$1m (€617,000) in expected revenue evaporate, followed by an agonising wait that will be familiar to entrepreneurs around the world. While Singapore’s government declared its intention to help small businesses, banks held back on lending until they could read the small print of any state support. It was during this time that the couple heard about the “Hope Fund” and quickly put in an application.

The s$5m (€3.1m) Hope Fund was created by six Singaporean friends in March to advance emergency loans, each worth s$50,000 (€31,000), to viable small businesses. Alex Chua, a former JP Morgan banker, is one of the key people behind the Hope Fund. “When the pandemic began we thought, ‘We don’t need a foolproof plan; we need a plaster for companies that are bleeding and just need to stem the blood while they find real help from banks and the government,’” says Chua, who heads up the financing arm of his father’s commercial vehicle-leasing business, Goldbell Group. Eight moonlighting Goldbell staff provided the expertise to administer the emergency loans, assessing and approving applications based on willingness over ability to pay them back.

Motion received money within two weeks, helping it to avoid redundancies until a full bank loan arrived two-and-a- half months later. “There was so much uncertainty but the Hope Fund gave us confidence and clarity in our decision-making,” says McMillan. Motion repaid its loan early.

The original idea was for borrowers to move on to a larger, longer-term loan from an established bank but that was shelved after only one out of their 25 referrals met the partner bank’s rigid lending criteria. So Chua decided to do it himself: acting under Goldbell’s banner, he was granted admission to a panel of banks approved by the government to make state-backed loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. It now sits alongside banks including dbs, hsbc and Standard Chartered, issuing unsecured loans of up to sg$300,000 (€185,000) at 5 per cent interest to applicants who have mostly been rejected by more established players. “They added us because they saw what we did with the Hope Fund,” says Chua, who approved loans worth sg$5m (€3.1m) in the first two months, with another sg$10m (€6.2m) to go.

Goldbell is now partnering with a food-delivery platform to offer tailored products to the hard-hit f&b industry. Chua says that the reluctance of major banks to make smaller loans isn’t just about risk, it’s because of the work put into each loan. “The entire credit process and due diligence are the same, so why bother?” he says. Best let McMillan and Mattar answer that one.

7.
Citizens Bank
USA

Bruce van Saun took the helm of Citizens Bank in Providence, Rhode Island, during its 2014 spin-off from the Royal Bank of Scotland. In doing so, the New Jersey native left behind his world of spreadsheets and boardrooms to visit homeless shelters and food banks to improve the regional bank’s community image.Now Van Saun is reaping the benefits: the bank, which operates nationwide with branches in 13 states, has regained its vitality, reporting $180bn (€152bn) in assets at the end of June, compared with its $122bn (€104bn) nadir in 2013 before the spin-off. Global Finance magazine named Citizens this year’s best regional bank, for both New England and the Mid Atlantic region. And industry bible American Banker selected Van Saun as its 2019 banker of the year.

Customer experience is a key focus: the bank conducted a national survey and found that while the pandemic was accelerating customer reliance on online services, large majorities still want face-to-face interaction at least some of the time. “It’s clear that personal interaction remains important to customers, so financial institutions must find ways to serve them seamlessly in their channel of choice,” says chief experience officer Beth Johnson; her job title is itself an innovation. Citizens also works with 20 financial-technology firms to support consumer, small business and commercial banking. That should help ensure that it can keep up with the big banks on technology while preserving the personal touch of a regional bank.

8.
GLS Bank
Germany

With a long tradition in recycling, organic agriculture and renewable energy, it shouldn’t be surprising that Germany is a leader in sustainable banking. “Ethical banks have shown the most resilience in these times of crisis, because we mostly finance bare necessities such as energy, housing and nutrition,” says Thomas Jorberg, CEO of Germany’s gls Bank. It’s this focus on the essentials that he says limits loan defaults in ethical banking, while traditional banks take riskier bets on more volatile industries.

While there are now dozens of socially responsible German banks, gls was the first of its kind when it was founded in 1974. Besides investing in areas such as organic farming, wind farms, free schools and affordable housing – and openly communicating the projects it funds – gls Bank extends its ethical credentials to creating a fair deal for the customer. The aim is not to get the maximum amount of money from the customer but to be as respectful of their needs as possible.

In response to the pandemic, gls Bank has been quick to help companies and individuals in precarious situations, for example by offering an emergency fund for artists who were struggling when cultural events were suddenly cancelled. “gls Bank does not only consider money as a means of payment but as a medium for shaping a future that we all desire,” says Jorberg. “Funding ethical practices is the future-proof solution.”

Images: Getty Images

Forward thinkers

1.
Jeremy King
Restaurateur

About the interviewee: King is a celebrated restaurateur and co-founder of hospitality group Corbin & King, the company behind grand cafés such as London’s The Wolseley and Fischer’s. An outspoken critic of the British government and its support for the hospitality industry during the pandemic, he talked to Monocle 24’s The Chiefs about the need for calm in all situations.

“I’m old enough that I’ve been through quite a few really serious downturns, where it’s worked out in the long run. As an industry, we’re better served now because there’s a body called UK Hospitality fighting on so many different fronts. Remember, hospitality employs close to three million people in the UK and contributes fantastic revenues but we have a home secretary who describes us all as unskilled workers and treats us with contempt. Top that up with the pandemic and problems with the furlough scheme – even though I am full of admiration for the government action – and a lot of people are disappearing.

I was delivering a talk just before the lockdown, addressing about 120 people, where I was being more positive than anybody else was about Brexit; even though I decried and hated it, I said ‘we’ll be fine’, because where the British are really interesting is this notion of not knowing where we stand. If we don’t have anything to fight, we start moaning. Some people just collapse in a puddle on the floor and say, ‘woe is me’. But most people work on the basis that we’ll make good of this. So I think the human capacity to take short-term pain, readjust and become positive, is there. I don’t think that everything is going to be so different. But what it will do is shake out a lot of restaurants – we were overserved – and people might even appreciate them that much more.

“My advice is to always remain in control, even if it means starting really small”

We’ve seen these polls where people are asked, ‘What did you miss most through lockdown?’ Number one tends to be family but normally number two is going to restaurants or the pub. We go to restaurants is for any number of reasons because the restaurants act as a catalyst; you can make of it whatever you want – dates, business meetings, reunions, seduction, divorce – all of these different things. But the other aspect, and what I’ve gleaned from people over the past few weeks, is that they miss what I like to call the conviviality of community. And I think that we all need that community.

For anybody coming into the restaurant business, my recommendation is to first treat your customers as though it’s your opening week, however busy you are. There is this danger for restaurateurs and restaurant staff where there’s a propensity to arrogance and complacency once they get busy. The second problem is that often restaurateurs don’t own their businesses; my advice is to always remain in control, even if it means starting really small. For me, the best restaurateurs are the ones who have control over their business – because otherwise they’re at the mercy of financially motivated people. I always say that too many restaurants are run from boardrooms and that’s an impossible way of doing it. The only way you can really run restaurants properly is from the floor, where you understand who the people are.”

2.
Hao Tran
C0-founder, Vietcetera

About the interviewee: Tran is one of many Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) returning to the country that their parents left because of the Vietnam War and founding companies that draw on their experiences of East and West. In four years, Tran has built one of the only sustainable private media businesses in the country. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietcetera employs 40 people and its lifestyle-focused news site – in Vietnamese and English – is read by millions in a country where much of the media is state-controlled. Tran told Monocle 24’s The Entrepreneurs why media will grow – and how expat entrepreneurs can best contribute to their native countries.

“The first time I returned to Vietnam was when I was 15 years old, with my parents. I was afraid to leave the hotel. At the time, my identity as a Vietnamese-American was more American than Vietnamese. It was quite foreign; it was my first time in Asia.

I visited again when I was 23. As a newly minted college graduate, Vietnam was fascinating. When I went back to San Francisco, I couldn’t stop thinking about the potential. But I left Vietnam thinking, how can I possibly work here? That’s still the overriding perception that people have of a third-world country like Vietnam: how can you have a career here, let alone start a company?

I found a Wall Street Journal article about a venture-capital firm opening an office in Vietnam. I decided to drop a note to the partner, a Vietnamese-American. We met six hours later, since we were both in San Francisco, and he offered me a job.

And that’s how it happened: I moved out here and, about a year later, I decided to go full time on Vietcetera. My motivation for starting it was to better understand Vietnam. At the time Vietcetera was a blog and a mechanism to meet people; my interest in media grew from discovery and learning more about the industry. Media is a double-edged sword: it’s a lot of fun and the personal career development is phenomenal but, at the same time, the industry has its challenges. I don’t see it as a back-against-the-wall challenge; it’s been incredibly enjoyable and we’re lucky to have investors backing us.

“We have a lot of brands looking to navigate or enter the Vietnamese market”

Before we even raised capital from investors, we were profitable. Last year we booked just under $500,000 [€425,000]in revenue as a three-year-old media company. This year we’re on track to hit about $1m [€850,000] in revenue. The market is ripe for new opportunities. You can run the gamut to see what can be improved in Vietnam. And we are doing our small part.

Advertising is 10 to 15 per cent of our revenue. The bulk comes from sponsored content, from Vietnamese and international companies. They’re all trying to reach this audience of millennials aged 22 to 35 that we’ve created. There are a lot of brands that happen to be attracted to this audience because it’s the fastest-growing demographic in Vietnam – and the second largest in Southeast Asia, just behind Indonesia.

Our Vietnamese audience represents 98 per cent of readers. You might ask why we invest in English, at only 2 per cent. Our monthly active user count is on track to hit one million this month; 2 per cent is 20,000. Those 20,000 people are international businesspeople, powerful thought leaders and advocates for the Vietnamese brand. We also have a lot of brands looking to navigate or enter the Vietnamese market, using our site to understand it.

We’re all trying to drive a better Vietnam and be advocates for the country. We are one of few private media companies here and we happen to operate in a space where we need to be sensitive. But, given the kind of content we’re creating, we’re promoting Vietnam. I think there’s enough negativity in the world today; we’ve always been very deliberate about promoting positive content.

I’m more comfortable speaking in English speaking than Vietnamese. We are definitely outsiders but we want to contribute. At our company we’re about 40 full-time staff; I’m the only one who doesn’t speak Vietnamese natively. That’s a sign of how, as a community and as a society, the Vietnamese are holding their own. As foreigners we add to that but we’re definitely not the foundation.”

3.
Roxanne Varza
Director, Station F

About the interviewee: Varza is the Iranian-American director of Station F, a start-up incubator in a 1920s former railway depot in Paris. She told Monocle 24’s The Entrepreneurs why working from home doesn’t work for budding enterprises.

How have the past few months been for Station F?
This was the first time we ever had to close Station F in its history. We reopened in May, obviously adjusting to the kind of new normal that everybody’s talking about, seeing a lot of companies continuing to work in a hybrid model; seeing spaces used differently, people taking new measures in organising how they meet and work together, adapting to a lot of these changes. But what’s also been fascinating to see is: I feel like we started the crisis saying that we’re all going to go fully remote. I feel like now the discourse has changed to say, “We’re sick of remote, we can’t stand our screens, we want to see each other.” At Station F we’ve come back to the numbers that we had prior to confinement.

What has the energy been like with people returning?
I think that now people just kind of want to get back to work. We’re seeing a lot of teams reorganise, a lot of teams are doing more remotely than before but they’re not fully remote. We conducted a study – not just with Station F but covering different kinds of start-ups in the US, the UK, France, Germany and Israel. We had more than 1,000 companies from different stages respond to us and discovered that less than 10 per cent of companies actually plan to go fully remote, which means getting rid of your office, putting your team on remote-working solutions and things like that. I think there is also this mentality that life will probably go back to normal more quickly than we had imagined.

Some companies are considering whether an office is worth the cost. What did respondents say about people being together?
There is definitely still this awareness that we need to see each other physically; that some connections and serendipity happen when we’re together that you just cannot replicate online.

For a start-up looking for the next idea or fundraising or for a mentor, how important is it to have a space like Station F for in-person meetings?
Even before the pandemic we saw all kinds of models; some people are comfortable meeting candidates in a coffee shop or not having an office. Young start-ups competing for talent and customers – particularly if they’re working in the b2b space – need the credibility of an office. There are also people out there who don’t have the right working conditions where they live. So the office will still serve a purpose in the long term. I’d encourage companies to consider some form of space. I don’t think everything can be done in someone’s living room.

4.
Bracken Darrell
CEO, Logitech

About the interviewee: Darrell became CEO at Logitech in 2013. The multinational technology firm’s HQ is nestled beside Lake Geneva in the city of Lausanne. Founded by Swiss and Italian Stanford alumni in 1981, today it is a maker of everything from webcams to headsets, keyboards to surround sound, gaming gear and video-conferencing systems. Worldwide lockdowns have played to the company’s strengths, reflected in an impressive revenue growth of 23 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Darrell talked to Monocle 24’s The Chiefs about what Logitech has in store for ensuring its growth beyond the current crisis.

We’ve seen the evolution of so many players in your sector. Describe where you were a year ago and where you expected to be.
A year ago today we were in our fifth year of near or double-digit growth. We were following four big trends: video; people working from anywhere; the rise of eSports-PC gaming and democratisation of content creation – the move to individuals creating all the content. Those four markets were 90 per cent of our business. We’re now in this spot where those trends are moving into what, without the pandemic, it probably would have looked like in 20 years.

When you look at those four focus areas, how much of that was external and how much was homespun?
It’s 100 per cent homegrown by virtue of the fact that we have a model that’s really fun and interesting. We’re extremely design-driven. We didn’t have a single designer when I joined. I hired the former head of design from Nokia, Alastair Curtis, who’s been my partner ever since. We have a process called “trees, plants and seeds.” The seeds are things that nobody knows about: very small teams trying to create new categories or enter categories as something different. That experimentation and entrepreneurship has been what’s driven us into these four areas. We want to be the big fish in small ponds, not the other way around.

What is the design process like?
We have a super-dynamic organisational structure. When Curtis started, we created a classic centralised design organisation; most of it either in Silicon Valley or Switzerland. After three or four years we felt that was getting stale. Alastair pushed the designers out into the businesses; now they’re all over the world. Now we’re changing it again: we’re pulling some of those people back in again to work on completely new and upstream things, while leaving others in dedicated teams.

Do you think there’s a power that you have as a brand with a base in Lausanne, as well as a base on the West Coast of the US?
We love being Swiss. We are a Swiss company at heart. Two of the three founders were Swiss. Our headquarters are in Lausanne and you can feel the “Swissness” running through us. We’ve had a big advantage where those same founders actually went to Stanford, earned a graduate degree in software engineering and started Logitech simultaneously in Palo Alto and Lausanne – or actually in Apples, Switzerland; you can’t make this up. That simultaneous start led to a company where we feel as though we are a combination of Swiss, American and Chinese. We have the high-quality orientation of Switzerland, the entrepreneurial spirit of the US and the speed of China.

Is there also a Swiss card to be played when it comes to premium?
It’s really remarkable how premium and competitive Switzerland can be as this small mountainous country. We definitely benefit from that mindset, whether it’s quality or premium innovation. From a branding standpoint, should we ensure that people understand we are a Swiss company? Probably. In China we have the Swiss flag on our packaging and we try to ensure that people understand we’re Swiss. We are also, proudly, partly Chinese, partly Taiwanese – but we’re Swiss by birth.

5.
Sarah McNally
Founder, McNally Jackson Books

About the interviewee: As the founder of one of New York’s leading independent bookshop businesses, Sarah McNally is responsible for inspiring a new generation of booksellers and consumers alike. Launched in the city’s Nolita neighbourhood in 2004, McNally Jackson now gives its name to four bookshops and a series of stationery outlets across the city. She told Monocle 24’s The Chiefs us why bookshops have a bright future.

“When I first opened the bookshop in 2004, the ecosystem of bookstores, as we knew it then, was dying. I opened as a lot of the old-guard bookstores were closing and then a lot of the Barnes & Nobles in New York closed too.

However, in the past five years or so there has been a real growth of independent shops across New York. In that time my company became large enough that we could look at expanding into neighbourhoods in New York that didn’t have bookshops in a serious way. And equally, the reputation of my business had grown to a point where, after years of me having to grovel to landlords, begging them to lend to me, I had proven myself as a viable tenant. So it has been possible to make real estate deals that were much more workable.

Two of my shops are on percentage rent deals with their landlords because they are with larger developers, so we’re partners and we are in this together; we take risks together and we do well together.

I’ve always looked at my shops as something laid out so that anybody who walks in could take thousands of different journeys through it. I do very deep backlists – I cram, I fit every book I can possibly fit in without making a mess. Nobody gets into bookselling unless they love people. You have to love people and you have to love books, and the intersection of those two things is where your job happens. When you remove people, as happened during the pandemic, it’s a very, very different job than living at the intersection of a conversation about books and reading books.

I’ve always believed that every person contains multitudes, so in my shops, I do all the buying – with the exception of children’s books and some university press books. I never buy cynically. Everything I bring in – even if it’s something I wouldn’t buy or if it’s a book I wouldn’t necessarily read – it has to appeal to me on some level. I think you should go into retail with that sort of honesty and that openness, and never buy cynically. Every time that I’m trying to train somebody to work with me and they say, ‘Well, I don’t like it but people will,’ I say, ‘That’s simply not good enough.’ You cannot think that way. I try to curate my stores, which have tens of thousands of items, in the same way that you would curate a magazine. You wouldn’t put something in a magazine that you thought was stupid or dumb, or for people who you don’t respect. So everything in there is something I respect and is for people who I respect. I think that if retail is done that way, it always adds intelligence and depth to the city and the neighbourhood in which it lives.”