This Entrepreneur Is Building a Platform to Inspire the Next Elon Musk

在这个正在进行的系列中，我们将分享来自真正的企业家的建议，技巧和见解，他们每天都在那里进行商业斗争。(为了清楚起见，已对答案进行了编辑和浓缩。)

你是谁，你的生意是什么？

I’m Ali Albazaz, founder and CEO ofInkitt. Inkittleverages technology to systematically discover the most talented novelists worldwide and turns their stories into successful blockbusters. We want to build the Disney of the 21st Century, and create a legacy of talented authors from around the world.

是什么激励你创造了这个产品？你的 “啊哈时刻” 是什么？

When I found out that Harry potter had been rejected by 13 publishers, Twilight by 14, and Stephen King’s first novel Carrie by 30. I found that inefficient but also very unfair towards the authors. 我问自己： If these great talents were nearly passed by, what other amazing stories were currently sitting in someone's notebook or computer unread? How many talented authors had been wrongfully rejected, causing the writer to give up simply because an editor said “No” and crushed their dreams? I wanted to solve this problem with my perspective as a software engineer. I decided to create a fair model for publishing using objective data analysis to make decisions.

你最自豪的是什么？

I’m proud that we’re continuously discovering hidden talents around the world and turning them into globally successful authors. For example, we discovered Seemran Sahoo, a debut author living in Odisha, India, an area with 70% female literacy rate. She has crossed $1.5 million in sales with her novel The Arrangementand is a globally successful author now. OrSapir Englard, who was living in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel, and is the author of The Millennium Wolves. Itjust crossed $5 million in sales andshe’s now living in Boston and studying at Berklee College of Music. This is what makes us happy —giving authors all around the world an equal chance to succeed.

你会给寻找资金的企业家什么建议？

Build a great business and the best investors will come to you. I see many founders spending more time thinking about their funding rounds than actually working on building a great product and business.

When you’re on track to build a great business then finding investors is much easier. If you have no money to get started, p out how you can bootstrap your company.One example that I always remember is how the Airbnb founders sold cereal boxes to help fund their business.

What has been your biggest challenge during the pandemic and how did you pivot to overcome it?

product-wise we saw an increase of +100% growth in readership and writership activity since the first lockdown, resulting in a 3 million spike in users. Readers are spending a lot more time reading and writers have more time writing and we’re very happy to be able to offer them an escape from the pandemic to alternative fictional universes.

The challenge was on the people-side of the business. 58003 Our Vp of Operations, Gonzalo, had to come up with a swift plan:

We arranged to ship desks, chairs and office equipment to employees' homes.

Implemented a tool where employees receive a “pulse survey” on a weekly basis to see how they’re feeling.

Arranged virtual water cooler conversations with different online tools.

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Arranged a service for employees and their families, giving them access to speak with professionals about mental health-related matters.

Recently we also set out a company goal of walking 5 million steps as a team per month.

Where do you see this company in a year? In five years?

Today’s astronauts, doctors and entrepreneurs, who are changing the world for better found inspiration in stories like Harry potter or The Alchemist. We’re building the platform for the next Elon Musk to find his/her inspiration. In the upcoming decade, we hope to evolve storytelling from text to audio-drama, TV series, movies, games and theme parks.

“企业家” 这个词对你来说意味着什么？

I never actively intended to become an entrepreneur for entrepreneurship’s sake. Rather than having a definition for it, I think of the word more of a mentality and way of life —want to provide value to society, and the way that worked for me, was to create a product and build a team.

是否有特定的引用或说您用作个人动机？

"Nothing is impossible."— Walt Disney. 58003