L’électron libre

Yesterday was the 13th of the month. I have decided that the 13th of each month would be a particular day for me. This has been done in the same convention that people used to decide that a year contains 365.25 days and is composed of 12 months and that a week is seven days, thus making your birthday a very important day. In lunar calendars you would have birthdays and holidays more often, so it’s really a matter of choice, and I prefer the monthly version.

Anyway, on each 13th of the month, I will :

• Take a day off, wake up late and have a very intentionally unproductive day.
• Get on a scale to figure out my weight, and see a doctor if needed because I would have told my self during the month before that I do not have time for that.
• Get a haircut, shave, and look handsome.
• Do something that will make me happier: i.e. buy a nice shirt or some nice pants.
• Do something special with friends or family, just to get out of the passionate work and activities routine to try to have fun in another way.
• annnnnd….POST A NEW EPISODE OF THE INTRAVIEWS!
  

Which overall makes it a very productive day since I would wake up late and get all that done…but let’s suppose it’s all consistent…

Oh my journalist has just arrived, I am thus pleased to inform that it’s time for the intraview of march/april 2008.

Journalist: So hey Youcef, how is it going in Singapore?

Youcef: Marvelous! Life is sweet.

Journalist: Is it?

Youcef: Well not completely, I still have 2 exams to prepare so it’s quite a lot of work but other than this things are going pretty well.

Journalist: Like?

Youcef: Yeah! Oh I didn’t tell you the big news. My friend Erwin and I, along with a friend if his, have launched a startup company called Linkova.

Journalist: Oh great! Congratulations, what does it do?

Youcef: Haha, please don’t congratulate us for this, anyone can start a company. Congratulations should come when there is results, which we are working for so far but don’t have yet since it’s very new. Now to answer you question, it basically does e-business. We buy and sell stuff, mostly softwares to start with.

Journalist: E-business, I don’t know what that is, it sounds like Ebay to me…

Youcef: You’re right. We actually use Ebay as a means to reach a large public.

Journalist: Tell me more about how you came to this.

Youcef: Briefly, Erwin studied last summer online selling of softwares and figured it can generate interesting profits. I had a look at it, and confirmed. Since we were both using marketplaces like Ebay, more and more of our NIBs (New Ideas of Businesses) were marketplace-oriented. At a certain point, we decided to start things for real and stop dreaming with our perfect Business Plans. So we met in Paris (at a Chiche-Kebab until 2:30am!), for just the time it takes to figure out the right business plans and short-term missions. In the summer, we worked on developing a key software for our business to start, and accidentally discovered it already existed. So instead of being pissed of that our seemingly innovative idea was not so innovative, we decided to look at it positively: from that day on, we were able to use that software, without having to wait until we develop it. It made everything go a lot faster.

One problem that came on that road was how to make this legal. Maybe surprisingly for you, we didn’t want to be the CEO of the company, because as students and with tons of other projects in mind we did not want to get too busy with this.
So Erwin felt an opportunity when one of his friends with great business skills, told him that he was looking forward to start a company but had no specific idea in mind. He has had the motivation to be an entrepreneur, with no specific idea, we had the idea without the motivated CEO…so we got lucky and so did he. He’s now the CEO, while Erwin and I are associates. The company was official in early March 2008 and is now operational since we sold our first item two days previous to this post.

Journalist: Wah! That’s a lot in very little time, you didn’t tell us! So what are your plans with this company?

Youcef: To take over the world! (Journalist smiles). More seriously, we plan on 150K Euros of sales (in French: Chiffre d’Affaires) for the first year. I think it is achievable due to the type of business model that was though in a way to reduce running costs to the max for a start, while providing an excellent service to our customers.

Journalist: 150K Euros?! It’s nothing!

Youcef: You got to start with something! To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how much we can potentially make, probably more I don’t know. But yes it’s not a lot of money at the beginning, but making profits right at the beginning is quite uncommon in the e-business world, you know. Another very important thing is that it’s not only about the money, we all enjoy this experience and learn a lot of out it.

Journalist: Okay, any idea how to dope the success of the company?

Youcef: Hey Journalist, are interested in me or what? All those questions about money and success…Okay. More seriously, Yes. We do intend to sell other stuff, it doesn’t matter if it’s pink socks or high-tech toilet paper, as long as it is profitable. Then we intend to automatize, have more general bulk vendors, and of course reach a much larger public, i.e. international.

Journalist: But you don’t spend all your time working on this, do you?

Youcef: Of course not! I have other passions than entrepreneurship. OH OH OH !!!! I FINALLY OFFICIALLY started salsa lessons at Attitude Dance Studio, the best studio in Singapore they say. It’s awesome, got 3 classes so far at intermediate level, it gets more and more technical, but I need to go out more often to salsa bars to get more practice. But it’s great, our instructor is the most professional salsa instructor (Gupson Pierre) I have ever met. Probably also the most entertaining/loony one too. He knows the little details of every single step, woman or man, it’s quite impressive even for a perfectionist like me. Well, he expects a lot from us and that makes the class very hard, but the counterpart is that those cases usually release the best results. I remain hopeful.

Journalist: How about Capoiera?

Youcef: Argh…don’t talk to me about it, I still haven’t joined that class. Maybe next semester…

Journalist: And you mentioned the workout last month I guess?

Youcef: I gained weight and strength, it feels healthier and is an excellent preparation for Capoeira. My posture is also slightly corrected, I thank my former chorale head for pushing me into doing something about my back/shoulders posture.

Journalist: Remember to show us some videos some day of either salsa or Capoeira, okay?

Youcef: Sure baby, I will.

Journalist: What are you planning to do this summer? France?

Youcef: I will only take only one month off my academic research. There is that pile of personal projects I need to make real and using that month off may be a good idea. So, basically I don’t think I’ll consider going back to France.

Journalist: Any other news?

Youcef: Oh Yes. I am moving soon and only the idea makes me very happy. I will move from a disgusting building with the most uncomfortable bed in the world (provided by NUS, I thank a lot the Student Service and the people in charge of deciding where the NUS budget goes) where I am currently sharing a tiny room with furniture 10 times cheaper than IKEA [...] to a nice single room in a condominium apartment that comes with full facilities and I will share that with a French friend from Orsay, France and another guy from Mauritius. I can’t wait, it is going to be SUCH a relief. I will post pictures as soon as I move in. Of course certified members of the fanclub are invited to pay us a visit at anytime provided that they let me know in advance.

—-Okay guys, in the next episode, Youcef will be freshly done with his exams and will keep you posted on how the startup Linkova is growing.

By the way, if you have any idea of a free Project Management System online, please let us know.

Also, if you think or any product that should be sold in a country but that is not currently, let us know too! We find it interesting.