Episode 8 - Florian Christ

Florian Christ, a serial entrepreneur and tech investor, shares his journey and insights on success and building successful companies. He emphasises the importance of teamwork, creating value, and having a positive impact. Florian started his entrepreneurial journey at age 18, building IT companies and later transitioning to software companies. He believes in trusting his team and giving them the freedom to create their own stories within the startups. 

Florian's companies focus on making data usable and creating products that simplify processes and solve pain points for customers. He has expanded his businesses globally, working with partners in different countries. Florian believes in sharing his ideas with others and gauging their interest and feedback before pursuing them. He values the feedback and energy of people to determine if an idea is worth pursuing. He talks to anyone and everyone about his ideas, regardless of their background or expertise. 

Florian emphasises the importance of learning and continuously expanding one's knowledge. He has pursued various educational programs, including Harvard and Tony Robbins, to gain a broader understanding of international business and human behaviour. Florian's vision is to have a larger impact by helping more people become entrepreneurs and create products they love. He aims to connect companies and automate data flow between them to improve business processes. Florian values time, both his own and that of others, and believes in giving freedom and space to his team to grow and make decisions.

Resources we discuss:

1. The Almanac of Naval Ravikant: https://amzn.to/3ypkk7M
2. Jam is doing the CEO sleepout to raise money for Vinnies. To support him, donate here or share to your network!

Our Library - What we are currently reading:

Dylan - Stronger by Dinesh Palipana: https://amzn.to/4bUOnmr

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (01:09.934)
as you, many of you know, jam has been doing the Harvard OPM course for the past two years. And during this time he's had exposure to some of the world's greatest entrepreneurs. and one of these entrepreneurs, we, he was actually over in Sydney two weeks ago, I think, and we had the pleasure of spending an entire day with him, taking around some of, some of Sydney's greatest sites. And, and during that time, you know, we got to.

understand who he is and a bit about his story. And Jeremy and I both thought, man, this guy would be great to have on the podcast. He's so, you know, positive and bubbly and we'd love to share his energy. And so today we have on Mr. Florian. Florian, thanks for joining us. Thank you Florian. So we have Florian Christ from Germany joining us. He's one of my cohorts from Harvard Business School, the course that I'm doing OPM. And Florian.

Florian (01:56.181)
Hi.

Dylan Pathirana (02:08.27)
is a serial entrepreneur and tech enthusiast or tech investor. And he's been doing so many adventure stuff in entrepreneurship area. And he's also a great guy, willing to help anyone. While I was at Boston, I need to get some advice. And he was always willing to give support to anybody. And

all -around good guy and he also believes in the universe. So he believes there's a story for us, you know, created. So Florian, welcome, welcome joining us on today's discussion and lovely to have you.

Florian (02:57.749)
Thanks for having me, thanks for this wonderful introduction. I think it's way too big, but I really appreciate that you spent time with me. Thank you.

Dylan Pathirana (03:09.87)
No, no, we, we, I mean, that's a very high level introduction and we want to know more about you. And, so, the very first question that we asked from everyone. Yeah, we have an open opening tradition and you know, the whole idea of this podcast is to understand what success means to different people. And so I'd like to start on that point, Florian, what does success mean to you?

Florian (03:36.181)
that's a really good question and I try to keep it short, but I think it's not as easy because it changed over time. So I think for today, success means for me to have a bunch of people around me and we create something together as a team and we have a lot of fun in doing it. And the product we create should help

Dylan Pathirana (03:46.286)
Yeah. Yes.

Florian (04:06.645)
us and many, many people, as many as we can reach to improve, to simplify their life, to help them in their day -to -day life. So success means to have impact, a positive impact, something which generates value for people and helps people. But creating this success, we need passion, joy, fun.

Dylan Pathirana (04:28.846)
Absolutely.

Florian (04:36.277)
and enjoying doing something what is new for us. So I think for nowadays, today, that's my definition of success.

Dylan Pathirana (04:48.526)
Yeah, so what you're thinking, it's more like a moving thing, the success. You know, success today may not be the success tomorrow. And it's about creating that fulfillment for others, you know, like giving, again, achieving like something that positive impact to other people, right? So that's, is that a good way to look at it? Yeah. So, yeah.

Florian (05:08.149)
Yes.

Florian (05:11.701)
Yes. So success means, in my early life, success might be doing something which is on my checklist or achieving something, a tough goal, a stretch goal. But now they changed for me, in these different things, like it has to be a teamwork thing. I like to create something with people together and I like to see how people grow.

achieving the success. That's one thing which is really important for me. And on the other side, to strive for really tough things, which has an impact for many. So these two components make it even more enjoyable to have success. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (06:06.67)
Yeah, so you're talking about that early journey, you know, your success look different to now. This is what we are here today. You know, we wanted to really understand Florian, like, you know, how you started your journey. And yes, we've done some introduction, but we really like to know, we like to hear from you exactly what you do and give us a little bit of introduction to yourself, please.

Florian (06:32.629)
Sure. So I'm Florian, 47 years old, married two kids, living in Germany, lovely Germany. And I started my journey quite early when I was 18 and before I started my first company in serving all the companies around with IT. So it was in the 90s, IT is still not usable for many.

So, and I hope to introduce that and.

20 years later, I started my second company. So I had in the meanwhile, several jobs to explore different areas of the world. And with my latest company or bunch of companies, I try to build software which helps our partner companies to improve and especially improve with their end customers. So,

I started a handful or two of software companies always following the same pattern in creating, using technology and data, creating a great product which simplifies our life. So that's basically the background. And today, I think around 200 people are working on all these companies. And what I really love, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, is...

to trust all the people and to give them the freedom to create their own stories within our startups, within our companies, though that's really something which is driving me. So again, a 20 -year journey in a nutshell. I would love to dive into it, depending on your questions.

Dylan Pathirana (08:31.534)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's exactly right. We wanted to dive in a little bit more. Why Florian decided to go into technology? Is there any reason for you to get into more technology solutions?

Florian (08:45.173)
Yeah, yeah. So basically the cornerstone for the whole development is based on my parents. So my father started building software in the late 70s, early 80s. So when I was young, I already got in touch with all the computer stuff and I was passionate and curious, hey, what's going on there? So.

I dived into it. One of my first jobs next to school was assembling computers. And I recognized, hey, what seems to be easy for me isn't easy for all the existing companies. So that was a reason. During school, I decided, OK, I have to start my own company next to school.

to serve all the companies around me with IT. So assembling, building networks, introducing them, how to use a computer to automate and simplify day -to -day processes. But the inspiration was more or less my father, who opened me and Wold to understand how do company think, how do...

people in company think, what can I do with computers and software in my early childhood? Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (10:20.366)
Yeah, so this is Florian when you're 18, right? So you saw opportunity there, like, you know, you can solve a problem and you have that entrepreneurial spirit when you're in that young age. I guess that comes from your father, right?

Florian (10:29.685)
Yes.

Florian (10:38.309)
yes, both my parents. So my father was the engineer, but nevertheless my mother did all the back office administration and financials. So it was a teamwork thing, but both worked entrepreneurial, yes.

Dylan Pathirana (10:41.23)
yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (10:54.606)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (10:58.83)
It's probably good. You got the, the both sides, right? You got to see, you know, the engineering logical brain and then the, you know, the back office and you probably learned, from, from both, both of them. So, you know, you started this, this first company talk us through taking that leap. Cause you know, it's being 18, it's not an easy or normal thing to just go and start a company. How did that, how did that go?

Florian (11:10.389)
yes.

Florian (11:26.441)
Honestly spoken, it was way simpler at these days compared to sometimes thinking it through in two days life. So, real story, I was sitting in school in a class. It was not the most interesting class. So I draw a picture, I draw the logo of a company.

Dylan Pathirana (11:49.434)
You

Florian (11:55.957)
the logo of my first company and after I finished the logo I decided, now I have a logo so I should get a company. So after school I went to the city hall and asked, hey I want to have a company. So I had to fill one form and pay 35 Deutschmark at least time and I had my company. So done.

Dylan Pathirana (11:58.862)
Alright.

Dylan Pathirana (12:04.398)
Hahaha

Florian (12:25.653)
It was a matter of one day and afterwards I decided, okay, now I have a company, what can I do? I already worked in the environment of assembling computers and selling, so I just did the same what I did for others in my own name with my own company. And I did it always after school, so in the morning I went to school and in the afternoon I...

I sold computers and served companies and consulted them. So it was for me just a flow and diving into it. It was not a big topic in terms of I have to create something, I have to start something. It just happened. And I think I might have an easy start because my father did software. He had a bunch of companies.

Dylan Pathirana (13:12.526)
Yeah. Yeah.

Florian (13:21.749)
And many of them trusted me as 18 year old boy to serve them and help them with their computers. And that worked quite good.

Dylan Pathirana (13:32.11)
Yeah. Yeah. So this is a good lesson. I guess someone like Dylan, you know, he just started his own enterprise, you know, just the stage that he's in now, you know, he left work to start his business and it's early days. He's just discovering himself as we discussed Florian, when you're here in Australia. You know, sometimes it's not the idea of what matters, you know, it's actually you get out there and actually doing it.

Right? So you proven that, right? Yeah.

Florian (14:02.193)
Yes. yes. And you listen to... So my first company I had for nearly 10 years, nine and a half years, during school, during university, I did an MBA later. So I always tried to educate myself to learn more about how companies work. But I focused and I grew my companies. I had my first employees after a few years.

But as you mentioned, Cem, it was always a little planned and pushed by myself, but I listened to the market, where are the needs? So a few years later, in the first years, it was assembling and selling computers. Then it was setting up networks and introducing people how to automate processes. Again, a few years later, it was internet arriving,

how to use internet, email for new communication and how to expand company reach. So I helped the first companies to go to Brazil, for example, and how to establish internet connections and secure communications between two sites. And I learned and learned and learned together with my customers. And I couldn't plan this because,

Dylan Pathirana (15:29.262)
Yep.

Florian (15:31.733)
It's all these new things involved and I just followed.

Dylan Pathirana (15:37.678)
Yeah. So, so, so pretty much opportunities will come when you're listening to your customers and also understanding the trends, right? That's, that's the reason for your success, I guess. And, and do you think it's also, you know, as you said, the technology was kind of new and so the customers didn't really know and like you didn't really know as well. And so you were kind of, as you said, working together. And so, you know, you were kind of a...

Florian (16:04.309)
Yes.

Dylan Pathirana (16:06.83)
cutting edge as well. And so you kind of had an opportunity there because there wasn't many other people in the market who were doing a similar thing.

Florian (16:16.341)
yes, yes. And I had a huge benefit, Dylan, you have as well. I had nothing to lose. I could only grow and expand because I was in school. I didn't need really a lot of money to live, core basic living. So, and if I would make something wrong, which I luckily didn't,

I cannot fall deeply because it's still growing. So it was really an easy way of learning, of expanding myself because there was no risk to lose something.

Dylan Pathirana (17:03.758)
Yeah, yeah. Apart from you're listening to your customers and looking at the trends, any other thing that you've done kind of differently or done you think that helped you to kind of for your growth?

Florian (17:21.813)
yes, I think why did companies believe in an 18 or 20 year old after a while, 20 year old boy. So when I sometimes look around to friends, would I really trust them to build the core infrastructure of my technology, of my IT? And I'm not always sure about that. I think...

I wrote my commitment really figuring things out, making them suitable for my clients. So not standard IT. I made it personalized, customized for all the needs of my clients. And they really love the engagement and the partnership on eye level.

And they also taught, teached me in their businesses. So I learned really a lot about how these early on, these entrepreneurs, for me, old entrepreneurs are running their business. How do they care about their employees and so on and so forth. So it was a win -win giving relationship. And I think that's what...

They respected that I was not a standard company coming, delivering, leaving, not interested in what's going on. Yeah, and that's.

Dylan Pathirana (19:00.173)
Yeah, so we kind of identify their problems and trying to... So, I mean, you started as a hardware business and then you pivoted from hardware into more software, right? Is that part of the same discussion that we are talking about, learning from them, understanding their problems and what made you decided to pivot from hardware to software?

Florian (19:12.949)
Yes.

Florian (19:28.585)
Yes, so it was a two -step pivot. So I first pivoted in my first company, so still being a young man. And second, the biggest pivot when I started nine years ago, my new companies, which are only software. But the pivot was you can create more value.

Dylan Pathirana (19:53.742)
Okay.

Florian (19:56.533)
you can create more value with software compared to hardware these days. Hardware was the necessary infrastructure, but to improve a company, to make a company better, you need to go in the processes, you need to automate things, and therefore it was necessary to build software. And when I started my second company, it was a whole mind shift for myself.

Dylan Pathirana (20:02.67)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Florian (20:27.061)
I didn't think it through, but it happened luckily that I decided not to work hours anymore. I decided when we create software, I wanna be paid if someone is using my product and if I again generate or create value. What do I mean? So if I create value, I wanna have a fair share of this value I generate for.

for my customers and partners. And that changed the whole mindset of how I do business, how I expand and create new things.

Dylan Pathirana (21:09.838)
Yeah. See, that's a, it's a really interesting point and it's something that's, you know, becoming more and more popular people moving away from, you know, linking their time with their wealth. And it's something that, is talked about in the almanac of Naval Ravikant. And he talks through it a lot where, you know, he's, he urges people to kind of look at things which don't have a marginal cost of replication or production. And so, you know, whether it's.

content like this, you know, we might spend an hour recording this, but then, you know, people might listen to this for 50, a hundred hours. And so we've got a replication, a leverage effect on our time. And so I think that's a really great point that you've raised, trying to disconnect your time and your impact as well. Yeah. Yeah. Abilities scale. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Florian (22:02.773)
Yeah, and Dylan, it's perfect what you say. And you need to spend more time in advance to understand your customers and their needs to do this type of work. And that's what I loved in my first company already, to understand with whom do I work.

and what makes him successful. So I like the picture of the hero and the guide. So I am always the guide. I'm never the hero. And my customers are the heroes and I try to serve and support them to become better heroes while understanding what does it mean to be a hero.

And this is really driving all my efforts and all my success making other people successful. And having a... Yeah. Look good and...

Dylan Pathirana (23:09.294)
Other people look good, right?

Yeah, I mean you're facilitating that success for them pretty much. That's what you're doing. You're a facilitator, right? Yeah.

Florian (23:18.453)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah. And, Jem, what really helped me was our Harvard classes about willingness to pay, creating value. I did it in the past, but sometimes I was not aware about all the concepts. I just did it. So, but nowadays, what changed having the classes together with you is even more understand where do we create new value.

Dylan Pathirana (23:33.166)
Yep. Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (23:39.47)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (23:51.694)
Create the value. Absolutely. Yeah.

Florian (23:52.017)
and how to provide this value to our partners. And that changed even more my perspective, but also how I start new companies. Even more focusing on the value we create, not just automate things, not just simplify things, not just having a good impact.

Now let's create a new value, which was not there before.

Dylan Pathirana (24:27.79)
Yeah, yeah. So talking about new value Florian, so you, we like to understand a little bit more of the product that you're currently working on and selling in the market. And you're talking about also going globally as well, you know, so give us a bit more information to what kind of products. I know you're working on FinTech area and so like to know a bit more about your

Florian (24:57.305)
Sure, sure. So before I deep dive into single products, I will explain the general pattern we replicate. So the pattern is there's a lot of data out there which is not usable today because it's not available in a digital way, so not accessible.

Dylan Pathirana (24:57.646)
Solutions?

Florian (25:26.997)
So all my products like the FinTech where I started begin with making data usable, available that you can create value based on it. So my first company was a FinTech company and I was supporting this open banking trend in 2015. Open banking means making bank

transactions and bank data, bank accounts accessible for tools and products. Because before open banking, only the bank itself could work with the data. And so we, in Germany, we created some tools to make bank account data accessible. And we created an

learning algorithm on top of that. Nowadays you would say that's a K -E and AI and all that stuff, but we generated learning algorithms to solve problems and the first problem we solved is a bank account switch. So if you decide you want to go to a new bank and you have this

problem that you have to tell everybody I have a new bank account number to collect direct debits or to get your income, your direct deposits and so on and so forth. So that is a pain point for many people not switching their bank account. And we used the open banking data we just opened to automate the information flow.

to tell everybody who needs the information that you have a new bank account. Basically by reading your old bank account, getting to know who needs the information and then we build it an information flow. We told all the companies and your employer, hey, that Jam, for example, has a new bank account, please use the new bank account.

Dylan Pathirana (27:29.262)
Nice.

Florian (27:50.997)
It's a matter of five minutes instead of three, four hours manual work, writing many letters or emails. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (28:00.59)
Yeah, yeah, so you simplify that whole connectivity, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

Florian (28:06.485)
It seems really technical, sorry for the long explanation, but to put it in a bigger context, there was a pain point which prevented people from switching a bank account and we made this five hours effort, we put it into five minutes just using the data which is available and having the processes, the product on top of it.

So the customer can do it by himself, but he needs only a few minutes. And that solved his pain point, but also solves the pain point of a bank because they want to attract new customers, but they won't come if you don't solve this pain point. So it's a win -win situation where we could easily introduce a new product. And based on that, we introduced

many, many more products which use the data of your bank accounts in an intelligent way to solve more and more problems.

Dylan Pathirana (29:17.358)
So how did you actually come up? I mean, you're talking a few things here, like one, you kind of listen to your customers, identify their problems, and also you're talking about understanding trends and looking at the data and looking at the trends. So how did you actually came up with this idea? Did you see that problem through your analyzing the industry or customer?

Or how did you come up with this initial idea?

Florian (29:52.693)
The initial idea was quite easy. I was working in a bank at these times, or I was familiar with the banking trends overall. But nevertheless, I asked the board, hey, why do we spend so much money for marketing to get new customers? But in the moment of truth, when the customer opened the bank account,

Dylan Pathirana (29:59.118)
Okay.

Florian (30:22.581)
we don't activate him. Activate means for me, we don't help him using the new bank account as the core bank account where all his activity is done. And the reason was this pain point, the bank customer don't want to put all the efforts in switching his direct debit, switching his credit cards. So I just...

Dylan Pathirana (30:46.894)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Florian (30:52.277)
understood we are wasting money in marketing because we don't look the process to the end and therefore I introduced the puzzle piece which makes the whole value chain successful and that's also the pattern again which I applied for all the other products and companies I created.

many many times we have manual efforts or we don't create the value which is possible because we don't do the last steps in a process.

Dylan Pathirana (31:35.086)
Yeah, so kind of you build on the same formula to the other business. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. So, I mean, you're talking about now you're obviously you're in Germany and any other part of in Europe that you're doing your business.

Florian (31:39.445)
Yes. Yes.

Florian (31:55.237)
Yeah, basically. So if you look in detail, we are in way more companies than people know. So the fintech company is doing business in Europe, for example, but I have another company called Get My Invoices. And Get My Invoices is adding more value to the banking. So my mom always told me,

There's a German saying, keine Buchung ohne Beleg, which means you need for bank transactions, you need the invoice, the receipt for accounting. That's a usual thing. And these accounting supports we created in Get My Invoices by fetching and collecting automatically all the invoices you need for your accounting.

and you don't have to do manual work on that. And this product is a global product already. So we are in Australia, we are in all English speaking areas in Europe and North and South America already. Mostly partners are introducing our products. So it's not that we have subsidiaries in these countries.

but we love to work with partners with local knowledge to introduce our products in these areas. So that's what we have done in the past, but because of the Harvard network and the easy access to new countries to understand how companies, how people do business in...

several companies, I am on my way to explore where can we create subsidiaries. Like I really love Australia. The few days I have been able to spend with you and other friends really opened an amazing world to me where I see, hey, I can use my patterns and hey, we have already create products which are

Florian (34:20.533)
easily usable. We don't even have to adapt them. Easy usable in Australia, but also other parts of this world. Yes.

Dylan Pathirana (34:22.734)
Yep. Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (34:29.39)
Yeah. So you build a technology that you can easily scale any of these countries. And now you have the network as well to expand your set. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Excellent. I just had a question from my perspective, starting so young. I just want to know, did you ever have any doubt?

Florian (34:35.669)
Yes.

Florian (34:42.133)
Yes.

Florian (34:58.133)
No, yes and no. So when I started my company, Fino, my company group today, I had a major decision and I would love to share that. So when I grew up, and in my first company also, I was always responsible for the success. So...

I was more or less the driver who made sure that projects and products are successful. And I questioned myself when I started my company in 2015, do I want to be the responsible person or should I trust the people I work with and...

should I create a new way of working together. Losing everything I learned so far and it was the best decision I could ever make for myself and the team. So switching from a person who always knows what to do, who is really dedicated to all the efforts and the project goals.

Versus giving the freedom to the team to do the right things without controlling them. So really trusting them. That was, I can remember like it was yesterday, a phase in the starting weeks of the new company. And that changed myself, how I behave. And it really changed the way

Florian (36:58.325)
how we interact with in the companies because people love to take ownership and responsibility for their pieces in the whole setup and that's so great to see. That was where I doubt myself, is this the right way how I want to do business and from this point, it's not about me anymore.

Dylan Pathirana (37:18.158)
Yep.

Florian (37:27.189)
It's about the teamwork and the best people to solve a problem. And afterwards, I never have doubt to be able to do something.

Dylan Pathirana (37:39.566)
Yeah. Yeah. And in retrospect, looking back, did you make the right decision?

Florian (37:46.101)
Yes, yes. So I think that's a major differentiator in the beginning of the company, but also nowadays. If you have only people working together with you who are taking over responsibility, we are way faster in decision making because the person who is in charge,

and it's no hierarchy. So the person who is in charge for something is taking the decision. He knows best what to do. So he is the best decision maker. And though we are really fast and in today you need to be fast, you need to take fast decisions. And we have less or few people who are able to create things.

where you normally need many, many, many people and big teams, but because they are in charge and they work so close together, we are more efficient than many others. And the people love it because you trust them. So people can reach their full potential if you trust them, and they grow way faster and they have way more passion.

if they are allowed to do what they want to do. So it's a perfect, for me it's a perfect setup to create something big.

Dylan Pathirana (39:14.702)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (39:24.462)
Absolutely. That's probably the only way that you can actually grow your business, letting that power, because that control that we believe that as a startup, like a founder, that we always think, hey, this is my baby. I know best for this baby. If I let it go, it may not grow the way that I want. But that's a really old way of thinking. Right. So, I mean, because as you said,

Florian (39:51.477)
Yes.

Dylan Pathirana (39:54.766)
hiring the right people, or getting right people involved in your business, in your team, and empowering them and helping them to bring all their great ideas, right? Because you're not the smartest guy you realize soon. There are so many smart people around you, right? So how can you empower them, really open them up to create like a magic? I call it real magic in organization. When everyone...

Because one plus one is 11, right? It's not like two. So getting that combination, empowerment is such a magical thing. I mean, that's great that you discover that. I mean, we are all in the same journey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Florian (40:42.549)
Yeah. And coming back, thank you for mentioning that because it feels just good and feels right. But again, coming back to Dylan's initial question. So you can only doubt if you are capable of doing something if you are in charge alone. If you have a good team around you,

I believe you can achieve everything. If you have an open communication culture, if you know what you do and you have the general trust that it's capable in terms of technology is possible to solve it, I trust my team 100 % and resolve every issue. And that's...

such a good feeling to know that you are capable of achieving everything you want to do. That's mind blowing because there's no nothing holding you back.

Dylan Pathirana (41:51.758)
Yeah, absolutely. And I really loved how you put that. you know, I think for me, what separates the growth of, you know, big incumbents and startups is exactly what you said, you know, by removing that bureaucracy, you allow people to have the freedom to express themselves and make decisions quickly. And it's something that, the Amazon founder, talks about a lot, Jeff Bezos, he,

He splits decisions into two types, type one and type two decisions. And he says, type one decisions are things you can't come back from and type two decisions are, you know, you can make a decision, but it's reversible. And he said, any type two decision, I let basically anyone make those decisions. And so that way he's pushing the decision making down the chain. And so these smaller teams can do a lot more. Otherwise there's too much red tape and you kind of.

you plateau that growth curve. So I really like what you mentioned there. Yeah. So, you know, just additional question, what Dylan was asking about, you know, you have doubts, right? So obviously you're a entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur, I would call it, you started multiple business and at a very early age, you started your entrepreneurial career.

And have you had any business that you thought, well, it's not working for me and kind of move away? Like, I don't want to call that word failure because every failure is actually a, I call it, it's a learning thing. It's a great thing. Right. So have you had any kind of opportunities to learn from some of the business that you thought, maybe that's not the one for me right now.

Florian (43:49.205)
yes, yes. And again, totally honest, I do it every day. So what I learned as a really good TED talk, I'm not sure which university made the analysis, but that helped me to see it not as failure, but as good try, as good learning. It's all about timing.

So in the first three years, I think we came up every quarter with a new product because I had a team which really loved to create new things, new products. But what we recognized is that many times we created this product, we have been too early. So the environment, the people, the companies,

have not been ready to adapt and introduce our products. So I think a really simple example is, remember early 2000s, I've been in university and I had classes about mobile commerce. But mobile commerce, five years before the iPhone, I can't.

Dylan Pathirana (44:54.126)
Yep. Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (45:07.79)
Okay, yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (45:14.382)
Yep. Yep.

Florian (45:16.021)
I'm not sure if you can remember these times, but it was not good, it was not fun. And therefore, mobile commerce was not existing and not possible. And it needed time and the iPhone to be easy accessible and easy usable. And I made so many mistakes.

Dylan Pathirana (45:38.094)
Smartphone. Yeah.

Florian (45:45.172)
Mistakes Phages where we build it created products where the world is not ready to use it at the moment but I I changed this pattern because I still do it and Maybe I share the story with you if I have a new idea today I have an easy test if I'm ready or not because I

Dylan Pathirana (46:03.118)
Please.

Florian (46:11.861)
I still have an idea every single day and I tell the idea of the next ten people I meet and if the first person is not having great eyes and smiling and want to have the product I'm talking about I don't even tell the second person about the product but if I get yeah if the first one is not happy

Dylan Pathirana (46:21.582)
Okay.

Dylan Pathirana (46:35.758)
You don't tell the second person.

Florian (46:40.917)
I don't tell the second one. But if I'm able to tell 10 people, and everybody is enjoying what he's hearing, if I tell 10 people and I get 10 times of good feedback, I create the product. If I don't get the feedback, the energy of the people back, I provide with telling them the journey, I don't build the product because it seems...

Dylan Pathirana (46:41.71)
Yeah. Okay.

Florian (47:09.013)
that the world is not ready for the idea I have in mind.

Dylan Pathirana (47:13.166)
But do you have those 10 people, set 10 people you go always or you talk to anybody those 10 people?

Florian (47:19.957)
I talk to anybody. If I have an idea in Australia, I will tell you. So I will tell you first and Dylan second. And if you both like the idea, I will tell it to your wife and the next person I meet. And so it's random people. But getting the feedback, what they think about it, and if they like it.

I will build it.

Dylan Pathirana (47:49.838)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting, right? Because sometimes I realize I agree to a certain level because it's about sometimes people don't get it. And some people are that's the reason I ask, do you talk to the same people? Because some people are always negative, right? Their glass is always other way round, right? So they don't want to. Everything is so negative. And also the other side, some people are very positive and they don't want to.

I don't want to tell Florian, you know, it's a bad idea, right? you know, I want him to try. you know, I mean, yeah. You know what I mean? I also would add like, I want to get your, your opinion because at Stanford, we spoke about this idea that a lot of the game changes are actually non -consensus ideas. So ideas, which most people think are bad ideas.

you know, let's take Airbnb as an example. Most people, when the founders of that talk to them and said, you know, strangers are going to come and sleep on your lounge. People, you know, laughed at them and, you know, now look at it. It's a booming business. And so I want to get your, your thought on that.

Florian (49:08.437)
that's perfect because I did so many failures in the beginning because I didn't listen carefully. So one example, when I created this account switching business, after four weeks, we had the first prototype. I went to the university here in town and just asked everybody passing.

Dylan Pathirana (49:11.534)
Hehehe.

Dylan Pathirana (49:22.446)
Yeah.

Florian (49:38.293)
do you want to try it? And I got out of maybe 50, 100 conversations, I get nobody, nobody who wants to try it. But nevertheless, at that moment I changed my attitude and I told everybody, okay, no one want to try the iPad in the beginning as well, so sometimes you have just to create what you believe in.

my camera will come back in a second, I think. And so just by asking the people, that wouldn't help me. So I had to decide to build it nevertheless, what happens, and that made me successful. I'm working on my camera, by the way.

Dylan Pathirana (50:34.734)
Okay, we'll get the camera, huh? Yeah, just maybe wait until the camera comes back and we'll continue on.

Florian (50:39.829)
Yeah, okay, give me a second. I just recognize that it's too raw.

Dylan Pathirana (50:44.418)
By the way, we can audit all this stuff Florian, so we'll make it look better.

Florian (50:52.181)
Very good. I think...

Dylan Pathirana (50:54.638)
Dylan is a good editor.

Florian (50:59.413)
Yeah, editing is so valuable. I have to give me just one second. The issue is if the camera gets too warm, I have to change the menu that it can be warm and it doesn't, I didn't do that beforehand.

Dylan Pathirana (51:08.462)
That's all.

Dylan Pathirana (51:14.605)
Yeah. How long we can go?

Dylan Pathirana (51:21.038)
I have to pivot.

Dylan Pathirana (51:26.51)
yeah, we can see you now.

Florian (51:29.621)
Yeah, yeah, I just change the settings that it will ignore the temperature.

Give me one second. Sorry, I should have tried that in bill beforehand.

Dylan Pathirana (51:41.198)
I'm all right.

Florian (51:49.173)
How do you like it so far while I'm...

Dylan Pathirana (51:51.982)
It's awesome. No, it's good. Really good. Yeah.

Florian (51:56.053)
If I'm too long, too small, too long, here we go.

Dylan Pathirana (52:05.806)
No, no, it's perfect so far. We'll, we'll probably aim for about an hour 15. So we might kind of via the conversation towards, I can't believe that we already spent nearly about 45 minutes or more. We might via the conversation now towards like you, you know, your, your learnings, cause you've done a lot of other courses and things like that. So get some of your key takeaways on that. Yeah. Yeah. You want me to do it? Yeah. So,

Florian (52:19.797)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (52:35.182)
Florian, I know you're a lifelong learner, right? So obviously, that's the reason that we met at Harvard doing this course. So we met about two years ago, and we continue to doing this course. End of the year, we're both going to graduate. Can't wait to that moment. And I know.

Florian (52:58.005)
Should I, sorry, give me one second. I just take another camera which is cold.

Dylan Pathirana (53:03.758)
Go to the next one.

Yeah. Okay, I want to take your time. I just go to box.

Florian (53:12.405)
So the lucky thing is I have two of them. But the stupid thing is I have to keep in mind that they are not capable of doing one hour.

Dylan Pathirana (53:15.79)
Perfect.

Florian (53:28.949)
I bought the wrong ones.

Dylan Pathirana (53:31.182)
Yeah, we just got a cheap one off of Amazon and it's, it's doing all right so far.

Florian (53:33.269)
Thank you.

Florian (53:39.189)
Yeah, I thought you have the Sony as well. Maybe I have seen it from someone else. I have to get another one.

So stupid.

Florian (53:58.069)
should be working now. one second, here we go.

Can you see it?

Dylan Pathirana (54:09.518)
yeah, it's back on now.

Florian (54:13.845)
good. So, luckily I bought two.

Dylan Pathirana (54:18.826)
That's it. You're well planned. So start that. Okay. Let's start again. So Florian, we know that you are a lifelong learner, you know, and that's where we met at Harvard Business School doing OPM two years ago. And we continue to doing this education at Harvard. And then we are both graduating end of the year in October.

Looking forward to that moment. And also, we know that you're also learning many, many other things and very exciting stuff. You know, you mentioned we talked about some of the stuff. Are you able to share some of your other learnings and, you know, leave us with some insight to your continuous learning? Please.

Florian (55:13.045)
yes, sure. So learning, as I mentioned a little earlier, getting more insights, getting a broader view, have the chance to continuously learn is really something which is important to me. So when I started my first company, it was university and MBA and nowadays it's...

the going to Harvard and I joined a few other things like Tony Robbins or YPO programs. And for me today, the biggest learning curve is on the one side to understand how international business is working. So how do...

People, companies work in different countries and therefore Harvard and Tony Robbins is amazing because you have folks all over the world. And the other insight I really deep dive is our behavior as humans and how do we feel doing all these work? How can I support my team?

customers even more understanding them deeply how they interact, how they behave. So that are the two aspects for now that I'm really interested in, besides opening up new trends. So the arbitrage of identifying in one country where they are ahead and

bringing these ideas and adapt them to my home country or any other country in the world. These are the three topics overall. And to go a little in detail if you like. So in Harvard, as you mentioned, we discussed a little earlier, I learned so much about the

Dylan Pathirana (57:28.014)
Yes, please. Yep.

Florian (57:38.549)
topic of value, how we generate value and values perceived differently in different countries. So the Germans are really process oriented and looking a lot of value in processes. Other countries are totally different here. And I really, when I've seen what you do in Australia and how you work and...

what is different in the way business is done in Australia because you have to import, export everything. So totally different behavior. That's so great to see how you can adapt products on a global basis without efforts, but using the same technology you generated in one country and you can solve totally different problems in other countries.

That's a large learning curve for me. And looking back what I learned, for example, with Tony, he's teaching proximity is power. And what does proximity is power? How does it reflect to what I mentioned just a second ago? You need to live in these countries to understand really their problems.

and you need the proximity to people who are ahead in trends and imagination about what will be the next thing, what we might adapt as humans. And building this network of amazing people who inspire you, who you can learn from and connect these peoples also, so be the connector for all of them, that's...

something I learned in the last two, three years, starting with Harvard, starting with Tony Robbins. This proximity is power thing. And...

Florian (59:53.462)
The other thing what I mentioned is looking more into your own companies and into your teams. What really was a big learning for myself having the first company now again for 10 years, nearly nine, we are nine years young with Swissfino. You see a development over the time. Your company is evolving and the people, we are all getting older.

I'm nine years older compared to starting the company. So we need to remind ourselves what was the reason for starting, what was the differentiator for us being successful on day one and how can we repeat, Jeff Bezos is saying that, how can we repeat the story of day one.

continuously reminding ourselves. And the really strong saying again of Tony Robbins was, you get what you tolerate. And over the time as leader, you got lazy. I am getting lazy with details. And reminding myself, you get what you tolerate.

Dylan Pathirana (01:00:50.382)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (01:01:03.534)
-huh.

Florian (01:01:18.357)
If I'm lazy with myself, the whole organization will become lazy over time. And that was a really strong learning, which I have from many peers to see how they are role models every single day, how they create their habits every single day to be these role models and to catch up with.

what made you successful and what habits should you keep versus learning new things. I'm really into learning new things and developing myself. But that's a really a big learning topic for me. How can I develop myself, not becoming lazy and still be a role model for all the others? Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:11.118)
Yeah. Keep that hunger. Yeah. Fire in the belly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you, you, you just like as you, as you describe, you know, you know, the very first day you start the business, you, you had that hunger, right? In you, right? You want to change the world or change something that you saw opportunity. If we lose that hunger, you actually, you know, you lose that. Yeah.

Florian (01:02:15.989)
Yes.

Florian (01:02:36.341)
I like the point, Jem, you make. It's not just about the hunger. I think we are, as I know you, Jem, you are hungry, like, unbelievable, and I really love it. And when I met Dylan, I recognized, hey, there's so much hunger as well.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:55.15)
I've always had great.

You

Florian (01:03:06.165)
But remember what is really important to me is to enable my team to be in charge for themselves. And if you provide the space to others, sometimes they believe you are not as interested anymore because you provided space. If I'm as deep into the topic,

I take the space away from them. So, but again, you have to give them the space and in the same second to you have to explain, you get what you tolerate, how you normally would operate it, that they are able to crow, if they are not there to crow in the same position, doing it their way, but not tolerating,

certain things becoming lazy, for example. And that's really a learning curve which was important for me. I'm still learning it. How can I keep our expectation level, our ambition high without pushing by myself?

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:09.87)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:17.23)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:21.326)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:29.454)
Yeah. How do you do that? You know, Florian, it's a, it's a really good question. I'm in a similar kind of situation, right? So I won't give that empowerment to my team. And so, I, I don't want to be there always micromanaging people and just tell them what to do, because I know these are my team are capable, very capable and they are experts in that industry or the area that what they do. So rather than I tell them.

because no point hiring someone smart and telling them what to do. You're hiring someone very good smart because they are really capable of doing that stuff better than you. That's the reason you hire most of the team. So how do you manage to have that balance? It's a really good opener for me as well because what I do, I go to work maybe...

two, three days a week rather than going every day because I want to create that empowerment, let them feel like they're running the show, not me getting involved. But again, I don't want them to see me as, I lost interest. So how do you get that fine balance?

Florian (01:05:48.465)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that there are two things. Yeah, I start and we dive into it. So in the last two years, I changed my way of leading, helping them to basically first, I create a common picture together with them.

picture with what is our ambition, what do we want to achieve, because what I recognize it's a failure, the fear for failure that people set too low ambitions to themselves. And Cem, you and I, I assume we have high ambitions to ourselves and to help others to have

Dylan Pathirana (01:06:43.182)
I hope so.

Florian (01:06:46.933)
ambitions as well and for me it's not just a different word it's a total different feeling to have a goal and an ambition because a goal is something someone else is giving you a goal so you have to fulfill the goal of someone else but for me what I recognized if we have if we share the ambition what do we want to achieve how do you want to feel

if someone is using your product, how do you want to be seen if someone is using your product or service? That's a totally different thing. So I set the ambition together with the team, the whole team, not just the leadership team. And that helps really to increase what we deliver.

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:29.902)
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Florian (01:07:40.533)
So we over deliver. Our ambition is to over deliver the expectation of the customers to us. And that's step number one. And afterwards, it's just helping them fulfilling that. So removing the fear of being not able to fulfill and helping them fulfilling it.

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:50.158)
Yeah, okay.

Florian (01:08:10.005)
and one step I missed the ambition has to be really high. It's not, yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:08:16.494)
Yeah, yeah, not easy to read. Like it's a big, hairy, audacious goal kind of. Yeah.

Florian (01:08:23.061)
Yeah. And the higher the ambition, the more proud the team will be for achieving it. And yeah, therefore it's really, if the team understands why it is so much fun to over deliver and to create this high ambition and to deliver this high ambition.

Dylan Pathirana (01:08:34.926)
Yeah. Yeah.

Florian (01:08:52.661)
most of the time it's working automatically. But what happens if it's not done as easy, if the team is struggling or the team is doubting, I then work together with the team. So I'm not diving into it and show them that I can do it better. No, I'm as part of the team, I go back and work together with...

them on the really tough things to show them, hey, you are capable, we as team are capable doing it together. That's not quite often, but if there are really big struggles, I'm still part of the team, that's the idea behind it, and I'm not far away just measuring them on their success. No, it's always me as part of the team.

And that helps me to run several companies where the companies themselves are in charge, but I never lose the touch, the feeling for what's going on because I'm part of the team.

Dylan Pathirana (01:10:08.526)
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. That's really valuable information. Yeah. for anybody listening to this podcast to take away. so Florian, I know we talked many things and kind of we've gone through different directions as well. but knowing you for last two years, I know you're very, easygoing guy. You're pretty much, open to other people. You know, someone, very easy to talk to.

and help. If you ask someone for me, like while I was in Boston, I reach out to you, ask for advice. And even actually, I asked few other people before, similar my idea, I was sharing that idea. And many people said, hey, talk to Florian. He will be a good guy to talk to. So you build a reputation as well, as a good person to talk to and share. And...

Also, something that we shared when you're here in Australia, you kind of believe in the universe has a plan for you, right? So I don't know, that's a vision or so what's the real plan for Florian? I mean, I don't know, you know that plan, but what's your vision? You know what I mean? What's the Florian's going to look like? What?

what you're aiming maybe next five to ten years. We just wanted to understand your thinking.

Florian (01:11:42.101)
Wow, that's for me a tough question because I...

I already live the perfect life I can imagine because I work with amazing people, I have the possibility to not just learn and work in Europe, I have the possibility to be everywhere. So the plan you are talking about is in this way not existing because I believe in the flow, it will happen. So...

I joined Harvard because of a recommendation of a friend I really trust and love. He was an OPM beforehand. I joined Tony because I recommendation of an OPM friend. I've been in Australia just because I met you. So it's the flow is bringing me in the right points. But nevertheless, what is the idea? I wanna...

to have more impact and impact means for me to help more and more people to live the same life I do in terms of having the possibility to be an entrepreneur, to create product they love. I want to replicate and repeat that in a larger scale. Larger scale doesn't mean that the company has to have 1000 people.

I don't care about having many people working in a company, but I want to have even bigger impact. So today, my companies always solve one problem, one small piece, a puzzle piece. But if you look all companies I created, they are all solving a piece in the value chain between companies. And the long term goal is,

Dylan Pathirana (01:13:51.758)
Yep. Yep.

Florian (01:13:53.173)
put the value chain together. So to really strive, go for the big big things. How my companies work together in 10 years and that's a big ambition I have. I want to automate and I want to build the infrastructure, the backbone.

how data is flowing between customers back and forth between end customers and the creators, the product producers of the products. And I have many ideas in mind, but it's a matter of timing. When can you introduce something? But all the companies I created so far are puzzle pieces.

which over the time I can create together. To give you some examples, if you look onto a big company nowadays, all the departments in these companies are not working together. So the financial department is not talking to the marketing department. The marketing department is not talking to sales a lot.

the field force and customer service is not really talking to the marketing department. And when you look on data flowing, so the knowledge, the data knowledge of the company, it's not transferred. So the marketing knows the leads, but the accounting has to recreate the database of all customers.

So they are not talking to each other. That's a big problem, but I cannot solve this problem because that's within one company. Too much effort because I had to go to every single company. But what I can solve is how companies interact between companies. So I call it the cross -company flow. If I make...

Florian (01:16:14.869)
accounting data flow between two companies. If I make offering data flow, financial data flow, we can really automate the way we do business between all the companies we are working with. And that's a big picture I'm working on. How can we automate the data flow? So let data work for us and not let people capture data.

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:32.43)
Sure, sure.

Florian (01:16:44.085)
which is available at another place, but nobody knows. So that's a big picture to create some of the infrastructure for doing business in the future. And not just in Europe. I would love to connect many places in the world because...

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:53.582)
Nothing.

Florian (01:17:08.373)
Again, here it's about learning. I love to spend time in Australia. I love to spend time in different areas of this world and learn how can we connect all these pieces and the people.

Dylan Pathirana (01:17:20.366)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:17:24.814)
Yeah, and also that technology give you the opportunity to travel around the world and understand, as you said, the people, different demographics, culture, all that stuff. So, yeah, fantastic. But as a person, what's your vision? I mean, that's more your professional vision, right? How do you see Florian as a human being?

Florian (01:17:52.437)
Wow, again a really tough question.

Dylan Pathirana (01:17:55.106)
It's a tough question.

Florian (01:17:59.669)
I would love to... So, I'm happy already. So, if you would ask me to summarize, have I achieved everything I want to achieve, I would say check mark, hey, I'm quite happy. What is the next step? The next step would be giving the possibility to run companies to create products to even more people.

So I would love, last year I came up with a plan, I want to have 100 companies, small companies, within the next 10 years. Just to have the possibility to work with more and more amazing people. I love to work and learn from these people. When I look in the next generation, though my kids are 16, my son is 16, my daughter is 13.

I would love to see how they build companies, how they think about business and sustainability and what is in their mind. So for me, I'm in the phase having high ambitions, but also giving back in terms of giving people the room and the space to grow and to create. That's...

my focus, so learning, crowing, and giving the space for others to go crow as more active part of giving back. I'm too young, I feel too young for only switching in a giving back mode. So it's more the giving back by enabling and providing the space and the room to.

Dylan Pathirana (01:19:33.038)
give him back and yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:19:44.846)
Absolutely.

Florian (01:19:56.405)
and create what they believe they would love to do.

Dylan Pathirana (01:20:00.142)
Yep. That's fantastic. And you know, you're, you're talking about empowering the younger generation. And so, you know, I kind of want to want to get your opinion, you know, looking back on your journey, is there anything you would do differently or any advice that you would give to your younger self? If you were to go on this journey again.

Florian (01:20:23.381)
that's that's again a good one. So.

Florian (01:20:29.973)
In general, I am really proud of every single step I learned. There are many steps which I did which might not be necessary or I did things too long instead of moving ahead. But being in a rush on the other side, just rushing from one learning to the next would not be enjoyable at all.

Dylan Pathirana (01:20:58.958)
Yeah.

Florian (01:20:59.253)
So I think doing waves and cycles is really helpful. What changed, Dylan, what changed from the early Florian to today is I value time, not just my time, especially the time of people I talk to.

Dylan Pathirana (01:21:21.774)
Yep. Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (01:21:26.222)
on this. Yeah.

Florian (01:21:27.893)
I value that time way higher than I did before. So what do I mean? When I started my Pheno, so nine years ago, I still struggled to give direct personal feedback because I always tried to be polite and not to hold back.

but to be polite and respectful for the other. What I learned over the years is that is being polite and spending a lot of time in making the point is not fair for the both of us. So speaking out what you think and believe and what you expect is so valuable, but...

most people nowadays don't do it. So I would give myself the advice, be more on the point. But again, now I'm older, I have my experience, I know what I can do and what I can't do. So it's easier to bring things on the point. The young Florian only

Dylan Pathirana (01:22:56.398)
Yeah.

Florian (01:22:57.397)
He had to learn and learn and learn. So sometimes it's difficult if you are young and if you are directly on the point because people think, hey, you should have more respect. So it's a hard recommendation, but value time of others and push things forward is what I would recommend to myself.

be even more pushy and a little less polite.

Dylan Pathirana (01:23:33.198)
That's fantastic Florian. You know, we've been talking for nearly an hour and a half. So we'll wrap it up now. And I suppose I just, in a very short sentence, I just want your answer. You know, we've talked about your journey. Do you feel successful now?

Florian (01:23:52.881)
yes, I feel successful because, especially because I see the people around myself who are successful and happy and I get the feedback of the people using our product so I feel the impact, I see the impact, yes I feel successful.

Dylan Pathirana (01:24:16.014)
That's amazing. That's perfect. And I suppose, you know, as part of this, this journey that we're on this quest for success, we also want to identify some of the key ingredients that build a successful life. So I've been taking some notes, on, on the key things that you've been talking about, and I want to run through them. So I think the first one that I took down was, you know, for you, success is really about how can you make impact for as many people as possible and, and having fun while you're.

on that journey. And so I think, you know, it kind of comes down to leverage as well in trying to impact as many people as possible. And I think I totally agree with that. And then the next thing I have, which we spoke about at so many times during this conversation was giving freedom to your employees, your staff, and giving them the ability to make decisions and, and explore. And I think, you know, sharing that vision with them and letting them.

Florian (01:24:53.109)
Yes.

Dylan Pathirana (01:25:14.894)
execute and do things the way that they want to, I think is also really powerful because you're empowering your team and it's not just you anymore. You're, you're removing yourself from the equation and letting things exponentially scale. And I think the other one is, you know, you go with the flow. You know, you, you said something when you were talking early on, you know, don't try so hard to pick an idea or find an idea.

Florian (01:25:29.877)
Yes.

Dylan Pathirana (01:25:44.462)
Just kind of go with the flow. And as you said, problems pop up and then that kind of ties into the next one of being really customer centric. Listen to your customers, listen to their problems and go that way rather than trying to, trying to hear this is what I want to do. And then now trying to find customers instead go to customers, look at their problems and build on their problems to, to, you know, build a successful business.

And I think the final one, is, you know, continuous learning always, always being on this, this journey to learn more because, you know, where no one can have all the knowledge, but I think the pursuit of knowledge is, is something which is so refreshing and, and keeps you, keeps you going. And the last one that, you know, you just spoke about is, is valuing people's time. And I think that's really important, especially in building relationships and.

creating success. Yeah. So something I really like about you Florian, you know, that your hunger that you have for continuous learning, you know, because you're very special when you think of, you know, a lot of business people, successful entrepreneurs, they have a bit of an ego, right? Like, you know, saying, hey, I know everything. I'm very successful. I've done this. You know, I'm the best kind of thing, but you're kind of a total opposite. Even you achieve...

such great things in your life and you're very happy in terms of what you achieved, you still have that willingness to learn. You always have that humbleness. One thing when we were driving around, you said the other day, I really learned a lot from Dylan. It's interesting to see that

You know, you didn't see him as a young kid that trying to learn from you, you saw the opportunity to learn from him. So that's a real special skills that you have. You know, so again, talking about time, thank you so much for taking amazing time with us. You know, we value your time, you know, and not just for us for learn, you know, wherever we share this podcast, who watch this podcast, because so much to learn from your

Dylan Pathirana (01:28:11.694)
experience, your journey and much appreciated, you know, giving us so much of your time, your busy work schedule of your busy work schedule and giving us this time. And this will be very useful for, I'm sure this will be very useful for many people. Absolutely. And if you aren't already following us, follow us at the quest for success pod and give us a five star review on this episode. And on that note, Florian, thank you so much and we'll see you guys later.

And thank you so much again for your thanks a lot

Florian (01:28:44.725)
Thank you for having me.