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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