Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 19

Business
JAKOB’S TIPS ON
ENTREPRENEURIALISM
What does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur?
Being a successful entrepreneur is a matter of
understanding that everything around you is created by
someone, and you can actually change how things work
for the better, no matter what industry.
How should someone choose which industry
to enter?
For every company that I’ve started,
the basics have been similar, but
each time I had to learn new
technology and a new market.
The best possible industry
you can get into is one about
which you understand
the basics but not the full
picture. This allows you to
tackle one thing at a time.
If you knew the whole
picture, before starting a
business, you might not
ever get into it to begin with.
Are there general
basics that you think all
entrepreneurs need?
I believe in expertise of the basics,
and those basics are leadership skills and
understanding of how business deals work.
You can get into any business with those skills, and,
over the years you’ll learn how to be a better leader and
how to do better deals. Remember that you can always
hire people who are much smarter than you in any field
you go into to help. All you really need are the basics.
What kind of signs indicate a person should not start
his or her own business?
If you’re not willing to lose everything, don’t be an
entrepreneur.
How do you stay in shape while running a company?
I wasn’t always this fit. I was actually over 100 kilos not
too long ago. I started to lose weight, though, and what
drove that forward were two things: One, I started getting
attention from girls. (In Denmark, I was a fat computer-
type guy.) And the second thing was feeling how much
more energy I had by working out.
I lost 25 kilos in about a year or a year and a half. And
now I have a personal trainer three times a week.
Staying fit makes you so much more productive. I have
less jet lag. I wake up earlier. I can work more hours in
the day. I should almost expense my personal training
to the company!
What other tips do you have for those thinking of
starting a business?
There’s nothing worse than keeping quiet about your
ideas. I have a great group of friends, and our primary
conversations are about killing each other’s ideas. If they
can’t kill your idea, then you get a lot more confidence.
What changes have you noticed in Thailand when it
comes to doing business?
When I first came to Thailand eight years ago, the
ecosystem for starting businesses was non-existent.
Thailand has now turned into a haven for entrepreneurs.
There are a lot more co-working spaces, investment
groups, and business meet-ups and events. There is a
start-up spirit here that wasn’t there before.
For someone thinking of founding a
digital-based business in Thailand,
what is your best piece of advice?
Spend your time understanding
the skills that are easy or hard
to hire here for, and adjust
your business model and
set up to it. Thailand has an
amazing history in art and
creativity, so it is relatively
easy to hire all types of
amazing designers and
creative people. However,
there are unfortunately still
very few big digital or online-
based businesses here, so when
it comes to scaling your servers
or analyzing huge amounts of data,
then you often have to train locally or
hire from overseas.
What do you consider your biggest mistake
about operating a business in Thailand?
When I started my first company here, I didn’t fully
look into the possibilities for how to properly set the
structure up. I ended up in the usual foreign 49 percent
ownership model. When a big American corporation
then wanted to acquire the company, I had to fight a
long time with American lawyers to explain to them
that this is just how it works in Thailand. It cost a lot of
time and almost killed the acquisition not to have spent
time and good lawyers on a proper company setup.
That is why we quickly at Playlab ensured to have a
solid foundation through BOI and very detailed tracking
of all papers and accounts.
What was your best decision?
There are two things I’m very happy that I did quickly
here. The first was to learn Thai. I do not use Thai at
the office, since our official language is English, but
it makes my life a lot easier to be much more locally
integrated. Plus it helps me to better understand
people’s behaviors and feelings.
The second good choice was to focus on creating
a company culture focused on creativity and
ownership, meaning that I run the studio the exact
same way I would in Copenhagen or San Francisco.
It can take some time for new people coming from a
very old-fashioned, rigid Thai cooperation to get used
to that empowerment, but it really worked out great
in the long term.
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