The last Inspirer of the Week before the summer break is the self-taught system developer Ida Johansson who, at the age of 21, has already built up, established and scaled the software company Hyred, which uses AI to enable digital matching between candidate and customer. Nowadays, we can read about Ida Johansson in the world's largest business magazines Fortune Magazine and Bloomberg.
Ida, what advice would you give to young entrepreneurs who are about to start a business?
Born in the 2000s, I and my peers have grown up with mobile phones, which are also our greatest asset. Start small and think about what you can learn today that will take you one step closer to realizing your business idea. It was through YouTube tutorials that I learned to program myself.
What has been most challenging in recent years?
Starting a business is always challenging, and doing so in a pandemic and times of crisis has made a slightly tougher business climate my "normal mode". Concerns in the market and thus a reluctance for customers to replace existing solutions has been one of our biggest challenges.
What qualities of an entrepreneur do you think are most important to succeed in their business?
Curiosity to learn, perseverance and an ability to think and act quickly. Entering a traditional industry at the age of 18 with the hope of changing outdated patterns of behavior has been challenging. But as my favorite quote goes:
"In the new world, it is not the big fish that eats the small fish, it's the fast fish that eats the slow fish."