andrewlb notes

A twice monthly newsletter on design, theory, and other things.

Fog, Friction, and the Dark Forest

September 13, 2024

Looking at the dark forest through the lens of Clausewitz, and exploring whether we can get ahead of the super predators that lurk in the dark of the internet.

Week Notes

2024-37

Loud

Solo parenting most of the week
Newsletter out
New client discussions
GPT foundations course

Quiet

Coaching
RFP

Social

Game night with Kevin, Alex, and Luke
Catchup with Marc
Catchup with Tayna

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Site Notes

Day 1: Understand the danish market

Iværksætter-denmark sponsor,
Sissi Bak - CEO of Aalborg Inst for Development
- Advisor Startup Club network
- Marketing and sales expert
12hr course divided into 4x 3h modules
- 2hr homework per session
Business Boost -> apply
Objectives
- Undertand the Danish market and bíz culture
- Validate the business idea
- Turn idea into plan
- Start ops within business
- Sell/market on the danish
- Registration
Day one agenda
- Intro to biz landscape
- Cultural foundations and worklife balance
- communication styles, networking, and relationship building
- business etiquette
- Product service adaptation to the danish market
Breakout room
- Megafauna aps, consulting and software
- Running workshops
Danish biz landscape
- Population is 5.9mil
- Economy characterized by styability, innovation, high standard of living
- GDP is 2.5tril DKK
- GDP per capita exceeds 430000 dk
Main sectors
- Wind Energy
- Manufacturing(Novo)
- Food processing
- Software dev
- Maersk
Community
- TechBBQ
- Copenhagen Fintech
- Danish startup group
- startup village
- founders house
- iværksætterdanmark
- Beyond Beta
- Female Founders
- Nordic Mentor Network
- Startup Planet
Easy to start a business here
- Pros: Strong economy, skilled workforce, transparent regulations, well functioning infra
Downsides: Very high tax rates, high cost of living, relative small domestic market size, cultural nuance, Danish preference for consensus drive decision requires adoption
Cultural Foundations
- Janteloven
- Humility, modesty, equality
  - Adopt a humble and egalitarian approach in interactions
  - Demonstrate respect for their opinions and contributions, regardless of rank or status
    - "I could never have done this without my team"
  - self promotion is frowned upon
  - hierarchies are often flattened, and decision making processes are inclusive
Work Life balance
- Environments where indv can thrive in their personal life
- Flexibility and autonomy in the workplace
  - Generous vacations, flexible hours, options for remote work
  - Quality over quantity
    - Priorize efficieny and productivity, shorter working hours
Communication styles, networking, relationship
- Jantelovn, collaborative culture
- Communication
  - Direct
  - Transparent
  - Inclusive
  - Trust based
- Verbal Comms
  - Generally informal
    - Use of first names, use of humor
  - Gratitude and thanks
  - Last name and title only for initial greeting and very formal
  - Small talk is common, but light topics
  - Phone calls, use a police greeting, state name and company
  - Emails: Start with a curteous greeting, address recipient by last name, professional and sign off with fuill name and co
Business Etiquette
- Gift giving is uncommon -> only for a very specific occasion
- Punctuality -> Arrive on time for meetings, and notify if delayed
- Decisions -> Collaborative with input from many stakeholders. Be prepared for thorough discussion and strive to reach consensus
- Calling potential customers and partners -> Introduce yourself and yout company briefly. Respect the other persons time and inquire if they are available to speak or prefer to schedule a call
- Listening -> Be an active listener and ask additional questions
- Follow up -> Thank the person for their time and offer to provide additoial information and schedule a follow up
- Politeness and gartitude -> always wrap up with gratitude and a clear call to action
Non verbal
- Firm handshake and direct eye contact, but avoid excessive physical contact
- Men don't stand when women enter the room (no non equal treatment)
- Dress casually
- Eye contact -> avoid eye contact may be interpreted as a lack of confidence or interest
- Modesty is a virtue -> leave luxury at home
- Personal space -> maintain a respectful distance during business ionteractinos
Networking
- Why: Providing access to a wide range of ops
- Language skills are critical
- Lots of knowledge sharing and partnership building
- Finding the person who can introduce you tyo the person you need
- Denmark is a small coubntry, so lots of people are connected
- Relatively small domestic network
- ALWAYS create a win-win situation, foster collaboration
- Benefits of networking
  - Opps for collab
  - access to resources and expertise
  - Bussiness growth and expertise
  - Business growth and expansion
  - Insights and learning opportunities
  - building a support system
  - building trust and credibility
Practical tips for successful networking
- Know who you need -> don't be random, do the homework on who will be there
- Who is connected to them?
- Research (what do you like, who do htey follow, where they are from)
- Be grateful to clients and connections
- Be direct, transparent, brave
- Be visible and proactive
- Be helpful, be positive
- cultivate genuine connections
- create Win Win situations
600k internationals in the Danish market
Product/Service adaptation in the Danish market
- Understand the cultural context
  - Purchasing power and market opportunity
  - Unique traits of the Danish consumers
    - High loyalty
      - Multi decade
    - Extended decision making -> takes time to acquire and research
    - Preference for native language
      - Target social media and language in Danish
    - Quality -> high income and willingness to pay higher price
    - Authenticity
    - Simplicity -> not just design, but processes
    - Short search queries
    - Don't ignore SEO and PPC
      - Main keywords for cleaning: make social media optimized to keyword
    - Country specific domains
      - Use the .dk extension
      - Tied to the trust side of things -> actual Danish business
    - Value recommendations
      - Need to see that others have used it
      - Do free give aways
      - Trust pilot is critical
    - Work Life Balance
      - Dig into the worklife balance side, understand how it focuses that in their industry
  - Nordic Market op
    - 10th largest in the world
    - combined gdp over 1.5tril
    - high GDP per capita compared to EU
    - Digitalization is at the forefront
- tailor your marketing in the Nordic market
  - Leading social media platforms in Denmark are Facebook!
  - Messenger, insta, then snapchat
  - Each network has its own target audience and focus
    - Different topics and approach
    - See slides
  - Marketing
    - Focus on qual and sustainability
    - emphasize transparency and trust
    - use direct and honest comms
    - incorp Danish cultural values
    - use Dansk
    - Leverage local influencers and ambassadors
    - Optimize for local searhc engines and socials
  - Exercise: Product localization challenge
    - Ident 3 unique traits of the Danish consumer
    - consider how to adapt your product marketing to cater o these characters
    - consider aspects like brand, colours, focus on functionality, simplicity, work life, online search
      - Ambiguity offerings for a "throw me in and I figure it out" approach
      - Design thinking and coaching
      - Looking at the international pool
- payment and price strategies
  - Mobilepay, Klarna, etc
  - Pricing is key
    - Transparent pricing
    - Value for money
    - Competitive
    - Sustainable
    - Local currency
    - Discounts and promos
      - Discounts need to be justified
      - Laws tied to discounts:
    - Subscription models
    - Bundle pricing
    - Price localization
    - Trust signals
    - Trial periods
- Shipping and logistics
  - Efficient and reliable
  - Transparent pricing
  - Eco friendly
  - Custom and import regs
  - Local warehouse
  - Customer comms
- Customer support
  - Multilingual support is critical
  - Prompt and responsive
  - Proactive order updates
  - Social media responsiveness
  - Local knowledge
- Local partnerships
  - Partnering with the giants
  - Partner with other Danish startups
  - Leverage retail networks
  - Use local distributors
  - Leverage influencer marketing
  - Establish local warehosues
- Product adaptation
  - Functional, minimalist, high quality
  - Hygge elements
  - Data privacy and security
  - Regulatory and compliance
  - Healtyhj and wellness
- Customer feedback
- Corpo social responsibility
Check out the Product Adaptation Blueprint
- i18n

Day 2 - From Idea to Business Model

Business people in gated communities
- wine clubs, fraternities, etc
- Larger businesses, thery tend to be insular in those spaces
- Meet once a month, etc
- These groups are exclusive, raise prestige of this club
- Wine club - 100k kr, inaccessible to internationals
- Need to start looking at those clubs, fraternities, etc
  - House
Business model canvas
- Value Prop
  - Sticky
  - Work with professional designers and researchers to map your customer journey, and continuously observe it over
  - Devleoping singhts on the client: Understand the customer focus to ultimately do the sale
  - The more you know about the customer, the greater the advantage
- Customers
  - Enterprise team lead, 10ish direct report, budget control or directly under budget control