Trailblazers 30 Under 30 take the Inspire Stage: What is the secret to their success?

Four young entrepreneurs who ranked on the Forbes Under 30 list took to the Inspire 2024 stage to share their experiences and challenges in being taken seriously in the world of business. “Get started”, “Show up” and “Make the sacrifice” are just a few of the tips they shared for anyone thinking of taking that big step into entrepreneurship.

Leanne Leaver, Co-Founder, Signet Consulting

Leanne Leaver was asked, “What’s the best advice you can give to an entrepreneur starting out today?” And she said, “Just start. It sounds really simple, but just do it. There’s this fear, ‘What if I don’t have the right qualifications?’ or ‘What if my parents aren’t happy with me doing that?’, ‘What if I’m too young?’. But really all of these ‘what ifs’ are just stopping you from doing it. if today you have ideas or things you want to develop, just start them now and if you fail it’s ok, just pick yourself back up. The best entrepreneurs have had failures. But they started. They took the risk. And be prepared to sacrifice. Because when you do, great things happen. You could be sacrificing cash, it could be your living situation, friendships. But if you want to get to where your dreams are, just do it, make the sacrifice, take the risk.”

When discussing challenges, Leaver said the fact that she doesn’t have a fintech background (she has a degree in dance) sometimes throws people off. “I didn’t come from a business background, so I feel like kind of having to prove myself to people. Are they going to take me seriously? Because they should do.”

Joanna Patsalis, Co-Founder and COO, Direct Kinetic Solutions Inc.

During a discussion of the challenges faced when starting up a business at a young age, Joanna Patsalis stressed: “You do need a lot of money to stay afloat.” As she pointed out, statistics show that 98% of startups fail, 50% because of lack of money. And more importantly, she added, “You have to show up to bring money in. you have to talk about your subject. If people are not paying attention to what you are talking about, then you’re not talking to the right people.”

Patsalis added: “With investors, you might hear a thousand ‘no’s’, but you only need one ‘yes’. So show up.”

Jack Bennet, Founder & CEO, Coddies

Asked what sparked his spirit of entrepreneurship, Jack Bennet said it all started at the tender age of 13 when he and his parents went to a farm that had chickens, which he was fascinated by. He convinced his parents to get him three chickens, but in the process, realised that they were hard to come by in his area and were also quite expensive. So he bought some hatching eggs on eBay and hatched them under his three chickens. Long story short, he set up incubators at his parents’ home and ended up with around 100 chickens, whose eggs he’d sell on a website he created called Bennet’s Birds.

Bennet also ran successful social media pages and eventually started up his business Coddies, selling unusual footwear.

But in February this year his business suffered a massive setback when fraudsters managed to clear out his business’ entire bank account – including a six-figure sum and 137 payments to brand new accounts. “This all happened via Revolut which didn’t really have many procedures in place to stop it. I actually told them when it was happening that it was going on, but it took them 23 minutes to freeze the account. In that time, half of it was actually lost. I was hopeful it would all be fine and they would cancel the transactions and I will get it back, but now, we’re still missing all that cash.”

The case is now with the UK’s Financial Ombudsman, but Bennet has had to accept that the case is probably going to take a long timer to resolve.

And so he urges business owners to be careful where they deposit their cash. “Hold your cash between a bunch of different accounts, hold it in banks that have an actual banking licence. Place spending caps so if anyone gets into your accounts there’s a cap on the amounts that can be spent. I assumed that I was just going to get it back. But it doesn’t always work that way.”

Alexander Naydenov, Head of Global Enablement, Hygraph

Asked what the biggest misconception is that people have about young entrepreneurs, Alexander Naydenov said: “That you need to be either the smartest person; or an engineer or another sort of expert. It helps and it is definitely an advantage; but I see the most successful entrepreneurs, both in my personal circle and globally, are people that are just extremely energetic and pushing through obstacles. You don’t need to be the smartest one in the room to be a great entrepreneur.”

The second misconception, he said, is that you need a lot of money to get the business off the ground. “Sure, if you’ve got a million, it’s much easier to start a business. But usually this is not what’s blocking you in the first couple of months of your venture.”

Information

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• Supporters: Eurosuccess Consulting, Gravity Ventures Incubator, Jinius, Robura Limited, UMAR | WSR, Alpha Mega
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• With the Support of: CITEA, Cyprus Employers and Industrial Federation, The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Cyprus Computer Society, CSR Cyprus, Junior Achievement Cyprus, Karaiskakio Foundation, The Yianis Christodoulou Foundation, The Youthboard of Cyprus
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• Organised by: Municipality of Nicosia, IMH