Bjarke Mikkelsen faced a dilemma after six years working for Goldman. He said he wasn't feeling like he had a purpose in life.
You are an advisor in banking. I wanted to run a business, but I also wanted to build things.
The then-34-year-old moved to Pakistan to build an e- commerce marketplace.
The idea was to build something that was inspired by the two companies. There is an e- commerce marketplace.
One of the things that I love the most about e-commerce is that it’s fair, it’s a fantastic equalizer.
Three years after the business was founded, it was bought by the Chinese e-commerce giant.
40 million active customers are served by the company in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Arabia, Nepal and Myanmar.
One of the things that I like the most about e- commerce is that it is fair and equal.
It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, if you live in a big city or a rural area, you have access to the same kind of quality service.
Not everyone has the same access to retail infrastructure in South Asia.
The equalizing factor inspired me to do something about it.
This 41-year-old turned his startup into one of South Asia's e- commerce players. CNBC made it, and Mikkelsen shared his top tips.
There was a time when there was a lot of hype around tech startup.
Funding to start something was very easy.
He said it was important to do his due diligence in assessing opportunities.
Mikkelsen spent a lot of time studying the markets.
South Asia was a major part of the world at that time, but there was no online shopping. It is a large opportunity that is often overlooked.
He lived in Pakistan for three years and traveled to the rural areas of the country to understand the people and their needs.
He said that if he tried to build an e- commerce business that looked the same as Amazon's, it wouldn't work.
Adding value will allow us to build a profitable business.
Being able to take your business from 10% to 100% is what magic happens to.
It takes a lot of effort to launch a great product and build a great service.
He learned that lesson the hard way, since he had no experience in building an e- commerce website.
What I really practice a lot is to just slow things down, pause and know that everything is as good as it can be [even] when everybody else thinks that we’re done.
I didn't know what I was doing and it was very difficult.
It's important to slow down to achieve excellence.
People are under a lot of pressure to get to the next project or the next campaign in e- commerce.
I practice slowing things down, pausing and knowing that everything is as good as it can be, even if everyone else thinks we are done.
The work isn't done despite the fact that Daraz is on a path to profitability.
I used to think that once we reach a billion-dollar business, we will have stable processes. He said that it was a mechanism that would always evolve.
The business model will not be changed. We need to change and improve for the markets and new trends.
Is Mikkelsen's next goal? It's important that Daraz scales well.
In order to get the right customers on board and build the customer value proposition for each of the business categories, we are slowing down this year.
There is a person named Daraz.
We are slowing down a bit to focus on getting the right customers on board and building the customer value proposition for each of the business categories.
Mikkelsen is content with the sense of purpose that he found.
There are more than 40 million active customers on the app every month and more than 100,000 sellers on the platform.
The final piece of advice for entrepreneurs is to approach their journey with a "sink or swim" mentality.
I would encourage people to not be afraid of failure. He said that sometimes you fail and that is ok.
The development process is much quicker if you learn how to swim along the way.
It was very, very scary to move from banking to being a tech entrepreneur, but Mikkelsen doesn't regret it.
It was the best thing I've ever done for myself.
He had two of his startup fail. He got $32 million for his company.
Don't forget to like this story on CNBC.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
