ASSIGNMENT

Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship

on topic

Academic analysis of articles in relation to an Interview with an Entrepreneur

Student: Professor:
Marija Stojanchevska Zhivkovikj Emilija Dina

Skopje, 11.04.2023
 Academic analysis of articles in relation to an Interview with an
Entrepreneur

Martin Arsic is a serial internet entrepreneur, known for starting his career at the age of 16,
and experiencing the first acquisition of his company at the age of 21. In the last ten years, Rade
has actively used his influence and media appearances to encourage technological
entrepreneurship in Serbia. In the process, he pro bono mentored more than 100 startup teams
through companies such as Google, Startit, Pioneers, ICT Hub, Impact Hub, Seedstars and
others.He started his career as a self-taught programmer, working as a freelancer for
companies from Canada, USA, Romania and Serbia. Already at the age of 17, he worked on the
development of online stores for large global retail companies. In that company, he recognized
the potential of development and global marketing of digital products from Serbia, which led
him to his own entrepreneurial path in the IT industry.

The company MGNTO, which he founded at the age of 19, developed a distribution network
that numbered more than 400 distributors in 43 countries on four continents, before he sold it.
He then founded the private hedge fund Cilvo, which used its own technical analysis tools for its
investment strategy and designed a model for algorithmic evaluation of investment
opportunities. The algorithm tracked 32 parameters for 1.8 billion transactions on the US
NASDAQ stock exchange and achieved 89 percent accuracy with its prediction model.

From 2013 to 2016, Joksimović reinvested profits in new business ventures and launched
several startup companies with a focus on the US market, such as: Recruit Folder, a software
solution for automating the process of evaluating new candidates to save the HR department
12 hours per newly opened working day place; Earn Coupon, a software solution to encourage
word-of-mouth marketing by offering rewards to customers who write a review on their
personal Facebook and Twitter accounts; Loyalis, software solution for loyalty program through
partnership with American companies BigCommerce and Shopify.Last year, he returned to
Serbia as part of the New Startegy team in charge of leading digital innovations and laying the
foundation for a unique investment fund model with a focus on Southeast Asia. After a
successful one-year cooperation and achieved goals, Rade informs us that he is leaving New
Startegy in order to devote himself to new business challenges in 2023.
 1. What constitutes a good entrepreneur?

As you can guess yourself, a good entrepreneur must be a skilled planner. It is necessary to
make a good business plan, devise a suitable business strategy, set medium and long-term
goals, but also plan and organize business on a daily basis. You may work independently at first,
but if the business is successful, you will need to expand the number of people involved - then
people management skills, leadership skills and skills of delegating tasks will be of great
importance. Of course, there are also teamwork skills, of which communication skills are
inseparable. A successful entrepreneur must be a good negotiator as well as a good presenter -
you must know how to present your business well and convince others to invest in it or use
your services. In addition to all this, it is also very important that you know how to analyze and
evaluate both external threats and opportunities, as well as your own strengths and
weaknesses.

2. What is the one thing that seems completely logical, but most people forget to do when
starting a business?

In the last 13 years, I had the opportunity to mentor more than 100 brilliant startup teams
where the same situation was repeated over and over again. Entrepreneurs would recognize a
problem or a need of some target group for which they would design a phenomenal solution,
and then the desire to create would lead them to dive into the development of the solution to
prove its feasibility.However, this is building a business "blindly".Popular methods in the startup
world today such as design thinking, lean methodology and tools such as the business model
canvas have taught us that every business idea is based on three key assumptions:

-The assumption that it is possible to make a product that really solves a problem or fulfills a
specific need of the target group is called feasibility.

-The assumption that there is a demand for what we want to offer to the market, or rather that
the market has a need or a problem that we think they have, which we call desirability.

-The assumption that we can communicate value through sales channels, charge and deliver
the solution to the target group in a cost-effective way, which is of course cost-effectiveness.

Based on the sample of successful and failed entrepreneurial ventures available today, we can
conclude that businesses rarely fail because the team would realize during development that
the solution is not feasible.It is definitely a prerequisite that there is desirability on the part of
the target group, and it is a step that is often skipped, because it requires facing the market and
potentially shattering dreams, so optimism leads entrepreneurs to see this step as a waste of
time, or as an opportunity for someone to find out about their idea and copies it and thus skips
it.Today, it is so easy to create a single page on the Internet that presents your solution as if it
had already been implemented and to create an advertisement that you will market to your
target group very favorably through digital channels.

By tracking parameters such as (i) the percentage of people who click on such advertisement;
(ii) the percentage of those who add your product to the cart; and after receiving notification
that the product is not yet available (iii) the percentage of them who fill in their personal
information to inform them when the product will become available; we can prove desirability
very easily.I used this kind of experiment in all my ventures, but also when working with many
organizations that wanted to launch an innovative product on the market, in order to confirm
hypotheses and pivot if necessary in time.I would like more entrepreneurs to understand that
optimism is necessary, but that one should also be realistic in the earliest stages of business
development and not skip key steps.

3. Imagine that you didn't have a single dinar when starting your business, nothing to
sustain you until the business succeeds. What would you have to do differently?

I started my first company without any savings of my own and without external capital. The IT
industry is specific in that by investing your own effort and using open source tools, you can
develop a commercially viable product and bring it to market with practically no capital.

However, it is definitely not an optimal scenario and something I would recommend. In my first
case, I was quite lucky that my first assumptions were correct, otherwise it could easily have
been a failed attempt.

We talked a little bit about proper hypothesis testing — that's very hard to do completely
without capital, although that's what I did in that first case. Then experiments take much longer
and you have to be extremely creative to find effective free ways to communicate the value you
offer to your target group.

I had another fortunate circumstance that I was only 19 and had no family of my own to
depend on my income, in which case I doubt the process would have been so simple. Then I
probably wouldn't have left my workplace, but I would have juggled work, business and private
life at the same time, and it would have taken much longer and been much more difficult.

Today there are many more potential sources of capital, we have the Innovation Fund which is
a source of grants, numerous startup accelerators and seed funds in the region, but if you are
lucky enough to base your business on a digital solution, I would sincerely recommend you to
postpone thinking about it until you start to generate income independently.

4. How did you get your first client?

I got my first freelance client at the age of 16 when I talked one afternoon in the family home
with the then owner of a micro business for the installation of gas boilers from Železnik who
came to collect the work that his employees did that day.Through the conversation, we came to
the conclusion that he doesn't have a website, and that the reason for that is that he doesn't
know anything about it. Like most of my peers at that time, I knew and decided to tell him what
it takes to make a website, even though I didn't even know how to make a website, but I used
the information from a half-read article on Computer World and IT shows.

That was enough for the man to think I was doing it and ask me if I would do a website for his
company. I realized it was an opportunity not to be missed, postponed the meeting under the
pretext of school and projects for a month that I used to learn everything I could about building
and hosting sites on the Internet.A month later I made an appointment, I left in a shirt from a
small prom that was completely wet from jitters even before the meeting started, but I
managed to arrange the creation of the website, soon it was finished and my first client and I
were extremely satisfied results.Believing that good returns good, when I started my first real
business three years later I used the same principle to reach my first customers — helping my
target audience on Internet forums with a subtle signature with each message that explained
what my company was selling.

5. What is the most significant problem you have overcome in business?

When I started my first company 13 years ago, I had a big problem not to interfere in the work
and micromanage my team members, which stemmed from a great desire to make my vision
come true.Over time, I learned to entrust myself to team members whom I believed would do
their part conscientiously and on time, which led to the fact that I delegated more and more of
my own responsibilities and was able to deal more with the company's strategic directions.

I think this is the most common problem of ambitious and inexperienced entrepreneurs who
are afraid that everything will fall apart if they don't keep their fingers in everything. As the
entrepreneur gains more experience and more trust in his team, this problem is naturally
overcome, and in subsequent business ventures it becomes the norm from the very beginning.

A company, or in English company, means a group of people who are a community. It is

necessary that we, as entrepreneurs, behave in this way and enable the members of our teams
to realize their full potential knowing that we are there for them, but that we give them full
trust and freedom in the performance of what they are responsible for.

Conclusion

It is generally accepted that potential entrepreneurs are born with certain specific
characteristics, but also that they are created primarily through education and environmental
support.Some are eccentric, others are conformists, some are fat and others are slim. Some are
worried and others are relaxed; somethey drink often, others are abstinent; some have a
magnificent charm and warmth, and some are like an ice pike. It is estimated that 3-5% of
people in the world have a talent for entrepreneurship, regardless of their owneducation.
Therefore, those who do not have talent must study and acquire additional knowledge. But
those with talent also need to learn. You can't just get into business and be successful.
Intuition, acquired knowledge or a degree, previous work experience or love for a job may be
enough to start, but they are certainly not enough to successfully run a business.Entrepreneurs
are optimists by nature and look for something positive in every failure, and interpret failure as
a new challenge, as an opportunity. Failure is part of the learning process in modern economies
and he can serve to learn everything necessary to achieve successful results in the future. A
successful entrepreneur should have the following characteristics: be a motivator, know how to
listen, have confidence in his team, know how to say thank you, be polite, listen carefully, be
flexible, remain calm despite pressure, be an example to others, be an expert, be humble , has
a sense of humor, knows how to celebrate success, nurtures business and social contacts,
because no one can be successful if he is alone.

The right measure of innate skills, along with the permanent acquisition of the necessary
knowledge and experience, along with an abundance of new ideas, optimism and motivation,
along with a tendency to take risks are the traits that depict the personality of a successful
entrepreneur.

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