BUILDING BRIDGES IN DUBAI

Skillionaires Podcast Episode 3

Buildiung Bridges in Dubai

How Mitch Bittermann turns structure into connection and builds Dubai’s next digital ecosystem

[Angela Thomas]

Hello and welcome to a new episode of The Skillionaires and today I have a wonderful guest Mitch Bitterman and in case you don't know who is Mitch Bitterman, he is the CEO of Commerce City and in case you don't know what is Commerce City, it's a free zone in Dubai that has actually some specific directions into a digital ecosystem. Let's actually get to know Mitch Bitterman.

[Mitch Bittermann]

Thank you Angela, thank you so much for having me today.

[Angela Thomas]

Mitch, you have the same home country as I am from Germany, we have the same roots and you left 20 years ago I heard around Germany and went to many countries. I'm interested to actually find out why you left so long ago and went to many countries and on top of that what was the biggest outtake that actually you took towards to come to Germany? To come to Dubai, yeah.

[Mitch Bittermann]

Didn't know I'm going back. So I think the way how it started was when I was a student, I studied abroad, I studied in India and in Indonesia and it was not really that it was part of my studies but I just wanted to explore the countries and I was always a little bit focused on Asia so I wanted to see what these countries have to offer. Once I finished my studies, came back to Germany, started working very regularly for Bertelsmann, Avato Bertelsmann, very the old traditional German book club but I was working in the services industry which is Avato so we were doing a lot of the supply chain for Microsoft, business process outsourcing, Microsoft, Apple for a lot of the big tech clients and there was an opportunity to basically move to the US and build up call centers.

[Angela Thomas]

What do you do in US?

[Mitch Bittermann]

Build up call centers in Canada, in Kitchener, a very nice place in Canada and I started building up call center because there was an opportunity to get abroad and back then I was young obviously, hopefully still I am in a way but it was just, it just excited me to go somewhere else and just see what the other countries are about. So I did that for around two years and then I had an opportunity with Microsoft, one of my clients, to relocate to Singapore and to run the supply chain and to run some part of their PPO business for Asia and I spent around nine years in Singapore, four years in Thailand, two years in Hong Kong and Singapore and Thailand and Singapore and Hong Kong was still with Avato so it was in different positions and then I left the mothership Bertelsmann after many years and I moved to Thailand and I joined a startup and I was always like the supply chain and PPO guy and but more and more the world went into e-commerce and I started with the first client in Avato but then every time when I wanted to do something else and maybe take the next step in my career, I was like hey Mitch, why don't you come home to Gütersloh to the headquarter and we see what we do and that was not my agenda to be frank right and this is how I basically started working for a company called e-commerce in Thailand.

We were helping brands to go online and one of my clients which I brought in, one of the brands I brought in was Adidas and after four years they ended up hiring me so I was taking care of all the e-commerce for Adidas in the region based out of Singapore and then during COVID we got a little COVID baby and it was quite far away obviously, thank you, it was quite far away from Germany and parents are getting older, flying 13 hours was quite a challenge.

My wife and I, we looked at each other and we said like what to do next. We discussed Germany, we decided not to, not that we don't like it, we love going there for holidays and stuff and visiting family but we're just too comfortable outside of Germany and we always heard about the Middle East and opportunities over there and there was an opening for the Dubai government that was around three years ago and we said that's like halfway so it's like five, six hours from Germany, five, six hours from Asia what we love and we said like you know what let's try it out and since then that's almost four years back I'm working now for the Dubai government.

[Angela Thomas]

Wow, I mean that's breathtaking, breathtaking this way actually when you as a guy who is always for the structure and the supply chain responsible, you are structured and you're looking into processes and out of these activities that you had in your backpack as an experience, what is actually the main one that you think hit actually to get you to the next level in this government situation and maybe you can explain us why it is so important for this free zone.

[Mitch Bittermann]

Yeah, I think one thing which is definitely not bad is saying like I am a German because there is just certain attributes which you just see typical as a German, punctuality, you're just on time and it's like I'm German of course. I'm telling you and the other thing is like structure you know having like excel files and stuff right so we're very structured so that's something I actually think that a lot of the people appreciate on German people wherever they work in the world they're just known for quality, they're known for being punctual, they're known for being structured right so that's definitely one. The background of supply chain e-commerce obviously helped because that's a lot of what I'm building right now but I think the biggest asset what I can bring to the team and how the why the team grew quite a lot and we're working we have around almost 200 nationalities now more than 100 nationalities in Dubai commerce city.

I'm very open with cultures and that's maybe because I did not live in Germany for the past 20 years. I traveled a lot, I worked with a lot of different cultures and even when I said I worked in Thailand but I also worked in Indonesia, in Philippines, in Malaysia, in a lot of these markets you meet a lot of different cultures and applying this today because half of my team here is our locals yeah and a lot of people they will come to the UAE they never met an Emirati I see them every day because I work together with them we are government. The other part is foreigners, expats from every walks of life and I have around 510 companies now in Dubai commerce city. There is the big MNCs, the big multinational companies like the Coca-Cola's, Maseratis but a lot of startups and they can come from any country and I think my role is not so much about hey Mitch is very good in supply chains, very good in e-commerce, no I'm very good in connecting people, building this ecosystem and bringing the people together, being like the clue for what we are building and I think that's the main role. So a lot of people say Mitch I always see you drinking coffee, that's my job.

I actually I meet people all day and I just discuss about business opportunities, what can we do together and this is what drives me and this is what I really like doing and I think that helped me a lot to get to where I am right now.

[Angela Thomas]

Very good. I remember that we met in exactly one of these events. You have actually a founder event for founders who want to scale basically bring investors and founders together to find each other to have actually brilliant ideas not to die because of they are not supported somehow and yeah I was very astonished actually when you told me and when I even drove the first time into Commerce City so myself I'm coming here since 2016 and permanently I'm here since 2022 to be honest I have not heard about Commerce City in the first place and I was like where I am here.

[Mitch Bittermann]

And it turned out it's quite nice.

[Angela Thomas]

It is, it is. I was like kind of wow if I should have known this before I found it somewhere else and yeah I was very eagerly to know what is Commerce City about. Maybe you can line this out a little bit.

[Mitch Bittermann]

So it was basically it was around I mean a couple of years before obviously it was planned the whole thing but we are operational for around four years and it's a free zone. A free zone for anyone who doesn't know what a free zone is it's in different countries you have free zone it's a special economic zone where certain rules apply in terms of taxes in terms of freedom to do business ownership of companies all that right. So the first question was okay let's bring in Dubai Commerce City and I'm not sure where but in the UAE there's more than 40 free zones yes more than 40 yeah and the world might say it's like oh do we really need another one right and the first thing what I did when I came and so taking on the role the the spirit of the free zone the slogan of the free zone and that fits to actually what you said because you have never heard about it so we were no one four years ago we had to build up this whole brand awareness you know going out there meeting people make people aware that we are someone and obviously also resulting in a lot of nice events like the founders and investors event which we're doing now in October again hopefully you're joining.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes I am.

[Mitch Bittermann]

And so the first thing what they said is like you know what the slogan of the free zone was putting the e into commerce when I came and it was one year we were operational there were 30 companies it's a 1 billion US dollar investment we will have 12 buildings space for 22,000 people we are putting the e into commerce we have 30 companies and I was like okay the UAE on average less than 10 percent of the companies are doing e-commerce so I'm telling the other 90 percent I don't want you here looking at my 30 companies I have I don't have the luxury so the first thing was like okay this doesn't seem to work not the investment paired with the audience what you have so that's why we broadened the scope a little bit and said let's do digital because digital every company has a digital process or whatever.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes it does.

[Mitch Bittermann]

The other thing which I realized and that goes back to my own experience and I hope you can relate to that is when I came to Dubai you know even I started for the government there were so many things I have to figure out yeah it's not the first time I'm buying a car getting a driving license and all but to do it in the UAE exactly it is exactly so it was the first time here not everyone is super helpful a lot of things you're paying a lot of Lehrgeld like we say in German. So one of the things where I said it's like you know what okay now imagine you come as a private person you need a visa you need housing you need a car you need a driving license you need schooling for your kids your health insurance whatever it is okay now imagine you have a company what happens then you not only need a lease and a license no you will need so many other things you probably need a warehouse to store your products or someone who does the fulfillment for you as a company you need to do financial auditing once a year so there's so many more things and you know what if you just go somewhere you have no idea where to go because you're new to the country right yeah and what we said what I discussed with the team where we said like you know what we want to be an ecosystem we want Angela who has a business come to our free zone and say you know what give me lease give me license but we don't stop there the next thing what we do we say like you know what okay explain to me a little bit of what you are doing what's your nature of business what is your club who are your clients right are there any suppliers you're working with so with with all the tenants what we have we are we are doing this exercise and we're basically coming up um for not being a landlord but being a partner and I think that's that's the key actually because um the most challenging part is in our free zone maybe 10 less than 10 percent of the companies are not renewing which is super low compared to I don't want to name any other free zones here but a lot of them are just about numbers numbers numbers we incorporate 20 companies a month and I know other free zones or free business setup organizations they do a thousand licenses but this is not what we want I'd rather do lesser companies and I work with them because the biggest challenge you will have even for your business when you come to the UAE is not about setting up a business it's great you set up a business you go home meet your friends and whatnot hey I have a company in Dubai now and everyone's like woo and then after two years you close down but you don't tell anyone it didn't work so our feeling was you know what we need to help people to build sustainable revenues we need to help them to get to their clients we need to help them to find partners we need to help them to get all kind of services so that's the ecosystem we build and that's why I said most of the time I'm just not that I don't work it's work actually I'm meeting people and I'm discussing I'm understanding I'm most of the time I spend with my tenants and then I say like you know what okay um how can we help what are the challenges oh I'm looking for this I'm looking for that right we do every three months I'm inviting all the CEOs from all the different companies and I'm just introducing them to each other the new ones and whatnot in order to create business opportunities alone in 2024 we created around 300 business opportunities which will result in revenue being generated this revenue being generated now everyone said why would you do that I mean it does not like it helps you it does actually because if they build more revenue they create more workspaces I get more visa revenue they need bigger space I get more office revenue so it's just you know it's just in waves where it comes in yes the ripple effect is exactly yeah great and and I'm thinking is this is something you know where we said now we started now we have 500 companies 500 companies great but now we start and say like you know what I have a lot of automotive I have a lot of technology I have a lot of logistics companies now we can go into actually segments we can go into sectors and say you know what what are the things all the mobility the car manufacturers whatever I have BYD I have Maserati a lot of these what do they have in common how can they work with each other what are the logistics guys have in common what about technology right so now we're even facing that and German companies big topic obviously as well here um we have around 23 German companies now in Dubai Commercity my team members even say like Mitch when are we putting up the German flag next to the flag there is a lot of Germans but I think this has to do we're next to the airport it's it's prime space right but we're also creating the community also for them we have a bakery a German bakery Sven Becker's kitchen so Germans get their pretzels if they want we have a gym a holistic gym with physiotherapy with nutritionist ice bars everything right so for us it's really like how do we build a nice community where people like working yeah and not just come there for work and then take off immediately we want to build something which is more sustainable and it's almost like more livable space than a free zone very good and and just one last thing I want to add I know I have a long monologue but um one of the things and this is where um a lot of people ask me and say like Mitch why are you doing this I mean why why this route right but for me it's also when people say like yeah but your government and but and I was like you know what sorry but I never worked for the government before I was always a service provider and a service provider I try to help my clients and this is the mindset in a way which which which which I celebrate where I said team you need to look into this you should help and whatever you have you need to be relatable you need to try to solve issues and I think my team is amazing they really adapt to this and I think

[Angela Thomas]

that makes a huge difference it does it does and and then you guys I just wanted to line this up because I'm bringing this to the audience all the time in all my content is not always about going viral and driving numbers numbers numbers and scaling is also the part of sustainability to scale that you can keep your client client retention is very good and I'm very happy to hear your your scaling mindset actually that you put so much dignity into exactly that and have this as a part of your scaling strategy to keep the clients not only to drive them but retain them

[Mitch Bittermann]

as well yeah exactly yeah and I think that's that is actually the whole scaling part is actually super interesting because a lot of companies they think about scaling they think about more sales but this is more sales sorry to say but in the world we're living today especially when you're in e-commerce space or whatever social a lot of things can go viral overnight right but one thing you have to consider is everything what you are now triggering on the sales process perspective 10 times more sales results in 10 times more orders that means from a fulfillment perspective you have to fulfill 10 times of it exactly you need it has an effect on manpower right yeah you have a lot of services which a lot of people don't even see whether it's HR whether it's finance everything needs to be scaled not just the sale piece no no everything will not just follow suit and I think if you're a startup and I worked for startup in Bangkok and brought them to many countries the biggest challenge we had was really like building a management which is scalable building building a team which is strong and then start scaling it because if the foundation is not strong you're generating more and more sales but at the back the other stuff is just falling apart yeah and and this is this always needs to be in I would I wouldn't say in harmony but you know what I mean right it needs to follow suit in a way because if not I always think like about three phases of a startup it's startup smart up and scale up so startup means like you have a great idea you have a proof of business whatever you start the next thing is smart up and this is what a lot of people they think they go directly into the scale up phase but it's not that no they need to understand what are my cost drivers yes what is the competition out there how can I drive my sales if they don't smarten up they will never scale up this is exactly where the exit point

[Angela Thomas]

will happen or they scale actually the bad parts with it yeah if they're scaling the mistakes with it then if they have not smartened up yeah Mitch you told me something very interesting now that you're meeting every time for coffee with your attendants yeah and with the founders in within commerce city so tell me a little bit about what you think everybody has in common what actually either is relevant for scaling or holds them back to scale what is actually on both of the sides the one problem that they have and the solution that you give them to actually guide them as also a mentor as you are then in that coffee drinking position yeah yeah no no absolutely

[Mitch Bittermann]

I think the everything what a lot of them need to have in common and this is for me a baseline and and to be frank you would be shocked sometimes people are setting up a business and they did not do any due diligence there is no proper business plan in place they're literally saying like you know what yeah I'm Dubai it's tax-free that's amazing let's just come over here business is gonna fly they don't even know how long they can sustain without business coming in right so I think the the biggest problem why a lot of companies are failing is because they don't have a plan they did not even put together a small business plan in excel this is my living cost this is what I need for this this is car whatever right even this one is not there and then they're all surprised and then if they come to you and they have an issue then it's already too late then you can't help them anymore so for us and this is one why we do also the founders event we have an investment we see under the government which is called oracea capital they're funding startups but they're not only funding they have something called a sandbox concept so they basically take startups by the hand look at their business model and said you need a cfo you need someone to look at your numbers right so it's more like it's more like a program it is a program anyways and then yes they give financial injection but at the same time they give guidance and I think this is this is the key you need money but you also need guidance because I worked in in startups before I'm working with a lot of founders today there is certain people who can scale the business to a certain level there is founders who are amazing of setting a business up but they're not maybe not the one you want them to scale right because the mindset is different exactly if you also think about a founder a lot of the founders they're like short-lived they do it for one two years but now scaling a company can take 10 15 years the mindset of the person you have in there is someone maybe with a more corporate background maybe someone who was sticking in there and saw the crows over years and not just had a great idea and said now let's do it so that I think is is really having a plan of what you're doing and and I'm giving a lot of I wouldn't say advice I we even helped some companies to do a business plan but really just to to give them point them in the right direction and said you know what just don't go there a lot of people coming and say like well I need a warehouse of 5,000 square meter the first thing what I'm asking is what can I please see your calculation how you came up with the 5,000 because why would you pay for 4,000 square meter of air if you don't need it right yeah so a lot of people and even if they say you know what office space the best one we have 10 square meter all the way to 5,000 square meter why would you rent 100 square meter if you only need 10 now we give you the option to scale but now occurring all these costs and then later on maybe the crows is not coming and then you have a problem so this is a lot of things where I'm always saying to people don't overspend Dubai we all know yeah tax-free but also not the cheapest right so when people come over here rather in in Australia they say horses for courses you should not over invest right so you come in do that what you need right now everything else we discuss later yeah but first to the proof of concept

[Angela Thomas]

and grow accordingly I find a lot of founders they don't have the capacity of thinking actually in the way of what is money creating and they have a lot of things to do with the ego and they want to have this big warehouse they want to have this big office but they do not see how they actually park their revenue in those activities and that leads me actually to the next question that I have this is in most of my content actually that I find founders in my training courses in my mentorings that they cannot even receive the scaling idea because their mindset is not able or capable to actually receive this sort of number this sort of revenue did you even see this

[Mitch Bittermann]

I saw it firsthand because I also work for startups and stuff but I think the the thing is I was brought into a startup because I have that growth mindset and I have the commercial aspect of it so I love numbers you need to love numbers if you don't love numbers then it will be very tricky but I love it I love sales I love seeing revenue growth I like looking at cost P&L I love looking at that stuff not everyone does though right so but the thing I like to do but I don't

[Angela Thomas]

like to create the extra sheet I'm even I'm even doing that one that's even I I wouldn't say as a

[Mitch Bittermann]

hobby but I like doing that and no but the thing is you need to understand what your cost drivers are you need to understand what kind of your decision what kind of effect it will have on your business that's what I meant with a lot of founders maybe they are in the starting point they're amazing they have that idea but it is great if you get a person in who has only a business mindset because sorry to say but this person doesn't care about the product and about the service and maybe that's a good thing because this person just looks at how much sale how much cost what is below what is on the bottom line top line bottom line and and can give you that and you know what this is the information I'm giving you right now now use that information needs to be translated needs to be collaborated and whatnot and say like okay if you keep on doing what you're doing this is how it's going to look like if we can increase the top line or if you can reduce the cost this is where we're gonna go but there needs to be this dialogue I was in in Bangkok when I when I joined that startup and these there were two brothers who found a startup amazing people and they brought me in but they also said Mitch that's why I hired you because even when they did not get it they said like that's why we brought you in we want you to help us to scale they were amazing and they're still amazing this company they're planning to go IPO next year so they are an amazing company but they got it they said you know what let's get someone in I think you said earlier one thing is this one thing is the founders don't have the mindset the other thing is also too proud when they say like you know what I don't want anyone I'm the one who brought it to

[Angela Thomas]

a hundred don't tell me how to get it to a thousand attached emotionally to their product or their

[Mitch Bittermann]

service or their story itself exactly and these guys they had it figured and they said you know what no we need help and we need someone to bring us there and I think then if you have that balance

[Angela Thomas]

it's amazing yeah often founders don't see and don't commit even to see they don't realize that they can't see their own shadows and they need somebody to reflect and that's where mentors people like you come in people that have a service of a growth plan or support for a startup so that's something very good and I think that is so essential for a founder to actually go beyond that plateau that you bring your startup or business at such an uncertain space that you have in the first steps that you do but in one place certainly you hit the plateau and you need to have help from outside I correct hundred percent you will you will need tell us a little bit about where is actually the goal in the commerce city free zone where you wanted to be in maybe 10 years what is your forecast yeah I know that's what I always say in in Dubai you can actually achieve in one year what you're working on somewhere else in three years but yeah let's make it make it maybe five to ten years what is your idea about the commerce city where you wanted to be so I sometimes

[Mitch Bittermann]

have to be a little bit careful because I'm forgetting that we are free zone right because in my mindset we are an ecosystem I want people to join us not yeah we are an ecosystem but we have

[Angela Thomas]

free zone capabilities you know what I mean what do you think explain a little bit about this

[Mitch Bittermann]

ecosystem so I want people exactly I want people to come to Dubai commerce city not because we are free zone and we have because this is for me commoditized you have 40 free zones who can do that it's not it's not like a value yeah it is still a value add but it's not like a differentiator let's call it that way if you are an ecosystem I want people ecosystems like a family Angela if I ask you you don't like to have a family no of course I want to be part of a family wants to be part of an ecosystem it's the same like a family so they want to belong to something especially in a place like Dubai where tons of people coming going we've seen it every day yeah and you we are building this community community ecosystem where people come and they join us and I want them to join us because we are a nice place to work we are carrying people we are connecting people they have a very good just a very good surroundings they like going to work and everything all the other stuff they get yeah the tax-free and whatever and maybe corporate tax maybe not whatever but I want them to come because they have the feeling hey I want to be here because I like the environment I love the people I want to come here this is this is what we need to achieve if you say now we are building so we it's a 1 billion US dollar investment we have now four buildings ready the next two they've just been handed over to us we have another six coming 22,000 people it will be finished by 2028 knowing my government I'm part of DS which is a bigger group Dubai integrated economic zone they have a lot of other ventures so it won't be stopped there we all know the airport is moving towards DWC the new airport there is also some stuff we could do over there so I think there is still plenty of stuff to do my personal vision if you ask me I would franchise the concept of Dubai commerce city and build franchises all over the world I would of course I would go to I would volunteer to go to Bangkok and do Bangkok commerce city but jokes aside but we had requests from Indonesia we had from Kenya from the UK we had so many requests already where companies say you know what three zones actually came to this is a very interesting concept a very nice concept now imagine Angela if we could build satellite sites of Dubai commerce city globally we're all running on one instance you have the same perks in all the free zones you can seamlessly set up your business and use the licenses in other countries and whatnot it could be amazing right yes yes whether this is buildable in one day or it probably takes a little bit of time because we still have a lot of focus on what's happening in our free zone but long term that's something which which I think would be would be amazing

[Angela Thomas]

but a commerce city is based in Dubai but you have already departances in some other countries

[Mitch Bittermann]

we don't we don't we don't but there is an interest yeah that's what I'm saying right so we have trade on we have a lot of trade organizations foreign governments coming to us scouting Dubai Dubai is a massive scouting place globally for governments and businesses alike to see let's see what's happening in Dubai we have every other week I have delegation visits trade organizations coming in and whatnot right these guys coming and looking for ideas and all I'm saying is yeah it is is it could be a JV between us and and a foreign entity and we could build something in Kazakhstan wherever it is and we could build a similar free zone as well who has the same heart as what we do the same plans and everything and and build based on the role model of DCC build it in another country and I think this would be like growing it here building this massive beautiful community and then spreading it out to the world I have spring in my head

[Angela Thomas]

for getting all these outlinings I think this is this to franchise I'm a big fan of franchises and I think this is something because with the franchise you actually meet a lot of people that are capable of bringing their passion to whatever business or franchise it is might it might be small or might it be something as big as a commerce city a free zone you have somebody which actually utilize a structure that's been given and that's been proved to work and that is something so beautiful and I think that leaves a track in one's person's doing actually in such a big dimension and I I feel this is something really I would love to be ever a part of a

[Mitch Bittermann]

franchise somehow a successful one exactly I think even when you look at the most I think the most well-known franchise in the world McDonald's right I love I can watch the founders movie back exactly yeah but the thing is is really I mean how did they become so successful right and it was I think the McDonald's brothers they had this coffee shop I read the book or

[Angela Thomas]

that is a brilliant example just to let me bring this in where the founders were too much actually emotionally attached to the business and got it taken over by somebody who dived deeper into the

[Mitch Bittermann]

strategy isn't it yeah absolutely and the other thing is what this guy perfectionated as well he was looking into the processes because he knew if you want to do a global franchisee concept out of it the processes the quality this is the biggest challenge you have if you are now building a global franchise a concept yeah and starbucks mcdonald's whatever something which is everywhere how do you make sure you have the same quality not even the same price because it's country specific but you know you have the same food quality you have the same process quality same friendliness the same look and feel when you go inside alone this one is the most challenging part I feel but if you get this one right it's amazing it is and I think everyone had it I remember when I studied in India in 2001 that's a long time ago obviously I studied in India and I remember they had in I think it was in Delhi they had a mcdonald's and after being in India for three four months I went to mcdonald's and I think I had a mac maharajah or something like some some burger but it just felt like almost like home right where you said like you know what now here I'm sitting munching a burger and saying like you know what and it just feels so good because you're in a foreign country and everything is like was the foreign the whole time and then out of a sudden you get I wouldn't say because McDonald's not my culture but in a way it is because it's also part of growing up going you know when there was a birthday party being invited to McDonald's so a lot of the the memories you get from what you did and it was just at that moment I was like and it's so amazing you're eating this burger here and it tastes like

[Angela Thomas]

almost you could be anywhere in the world right and imagine this feeling uh copied to a feeling of uh free zone imagine a person who wants to expand or has been founding his business here and wants to expand to somewhere as they know already yeah and feel the same way as you felt in mcdonald's I think this is something that you would do as a founder feels so good about leaving

[Mitch Bittermann]

a trace isn't it yes yes that I think that's one one of the biggest thing but one thing which I'm thinking is because there's one part is obviously what we're we're achieving with Dubai Coma City and then there's Mitch right and for my perspective because I was employed for startups service providers brands now the government I was always employed I was always had my my study on and

[Angela Thomas]

everything how can it be you have such an entrepreneurship mindset how can you know

[Mitch Bittermann]

maybe play it safe as a German right no but so I was really doing that for the past for the past I don't know 25 years whatever how long I'm working I haven't even calculated but so one of the things is what I am said now as well is like after all this experience and helping to build an e-commerce enabler in Thailand right back then and having so much knowledge about e-commerce about setting up a business over here and everything I set up a business together with a friend of mine here in the UAE and we started just four months back and for the people who want to know it's smart.ai okay it's essentially an e-commerce enabler we're helping brands to come to the UAE and to sell on the marketplace that itself is not rocket science but a lot of brands why would they not come they don't have a merchant on record they don't have an importer on records they don't know how to register their products we do all of this for them okay and we help them to sell online and we started this four months back the business went through the roof it's really doubling tripling every month our sales when we have a very clear timeline we take a percentage of sales right and it's very everything else we pass through so it's a very clean and very honest model I would say you know we have the back end outsourced to a cheaper country where they also speak Arabic and now it's taking off like crazy but for me it was like at a stage where I'm in my life with two kids and working for the government that's a safe thing to do right but at the same time this is super exciting because it is just moving so fast it is unknown it grows we have this hyper growth we will have exactly the things which we discussed earlier how do you scale that whole thing how do you finance it now I'm talking to our investment fund about the company we are building on the site I have some of my tenants who want to sell on my platform now their product I have warehouse logistics provider who want to do fulfillment from us right that only speaks for you exactly whole ecosystem right comes together again and this is something where I'm very excited about because for me to be honest I'm an entrepreneur light in this case because it's it's I'm giving a lot of the expertise and and you know I'm a board advisor to the company because I built in the past but I'm not quitting my job and I don't want I just I'm just very excited to see where this one goes right and other than that I think DCC Dubai Commerce City will keep me busy for the next years to come because there's just so many things we want to do still and to give you a glimpse we have now AI is a very big obviously so we we have now we will have an so not an investment fund but we have an investment fund from the US they're coming in they want to bring in 20 AI companies in one year we want to build a workbench for AI right to to really get that started if you ask me what the future will bring AI we all know yes so that's one right the investor and founder event now we're building an app because I have 500 companies under this 500 companies 6 000 employees yeah how do we connect all of them so now we're developing an app with tiktok function and all the tenants and all the employees can speak to each other so we will come up with with an app and that also means all our our German bakery our gym and everything they can promote their services to these 6 000 people then we started now to partner and to offer partnership program for external companies who want to get access to our tenant base who want to promote they want to be invited to our events like the gulf founders event so we are now building this and and there's so many other ways what we can do we are four years old there's still the start there's still a lot of things we haven't even started yet basically

[Angela Thomas]

I'm actually blown away because this is a something that you line out that you are an employee per se by the government but you are having so much entrepreneur mindset and one of the few people that I know that are actually scaling being employed having your entrepreneurship and your own business next to it and scaling this in the same and similar way and you guys this is something that's really a scaling mindset and Mitch let me know what you would think actually to give people who are starting to scale or trying actually to scale but reaching a plateau what is the most important thing that they have to look after and what is it about the scaling process

[Mitch Bittermann]

basically I think I think one of the most important part is first of all you have to admit to yourself that you need someone externally to help you so put the ego aside you say exactly put the ego aside and say like you know what okay we say the same now with our business when it grows the first thing what we're saying like you know what before it was okay when Mitch does the calculation now let's get the finance guy in someone who has learned it right you just need to admit it and to be frank a very good example is if you look at Microsoft if you look at Apple yeah if you call any Microsoft call center in the world there is never Microsoft picking up the phone never if you ever receive a mobile phone from Apple it never comes from an Apple warehouse this is all outsourced why because the most successful companies in this world they focus on their product and on the marketing piece of it they don't focus on the commodity commoditized services such as fulfillment last mile whatever no the outsource because there are people in that industry who are trying to solve it for 100 years why would you start now becoming a logistics company as a Microsoft or as an Apple right I think the same applies to you if you are setting up a company and you go to the next level I see so many companies they have a product and I don't know why and I'm okay do the fulfillment out of your second bedroom or whatever or out of your garage until a certain level but don't go now all in and said you know what now I need to rent a warehouse I need to hire my own people and whatnot there are so many players out there once you start scaling it makes sense unless you want to become a logistics company but don't you know don't lose focus of what's important exactly and I think especially when we talk about scaling scaling is all about focusing on the core what you want to do making sure you have the best product and service you can offer to the market have a look what the competition is doing how do you position your product and everything all the other stuff outsource if you can right and I know it's sometimes it's tricky and you pay a little bit more but you know what the supply chain piece for instance you probably end up paying a little bit more in the beginning but you know what you will not go through the pain you will not spend hours and hours looking at logistics processes because someone else got recovered and you focus on your product you focus on selling more right exactly so I think this is something where people just need to maybe distinguish what is core and what is a value add what is what is something which is an auxiliary service or whatever this is something which can be outsourced yeah and this is a mindset I think the americans they have it very well done over the years also they make quick decisions on it exactly they are the kings of outsourcing they do that since many years and I think europe as well but here even in the middle east and in asia it took a while to change the mindset and I still believe a lot of people think I know I start now I can do that myself and yes they probably can do it up to 10 orders maybe 50 orders but once you get 100 orders out of your bedroom it becomes tricky right so then you need to look at the next level of growth and don't think about hey I'm smart I know I've seen a warehouse before I know how to do it no you don't just go there and say you know what look look for professional help and do it and I think especially the financial because a lot of scaling has to do with your with your run rate how much are you burning money and I think this is also come up I would come up with different scenarios because it's never a straight line there will always be you know what we all know the biggest disruptor globally for e-commerce was COVID yeah when COVID hit right all e-commerce globally and COVID was what two years but it accelerated e-commerce globally by 10 years so 10 years just a jump by 10 years in terms of volume

[Angela Thomas]

yeah you have to digest as a first stage exactly so first of all amazing for e-commerce players

[Mitch Bittermann]

tons of fulfillment and everything I worked with adidas don't ask it was havoc in the warehouse because we out of a sudden out of our b2b warehouses where we used to deliver to the retail stores we had out of a sudden gazillions of e-commerce orders and we did not have people to do the peace picks right so that was in but in the other thing is other industries will suffer from that so I think coming up with the best case worst case and medium case scenario makes more sense and based on this having some discussion and say like okay how can I actually how can I support each and every phase of this because it could go into different ways right and I think once you a lot of companies once they reach out to investors not all of them but a lot of them they they're trying to do it themselves and then when they go to the investors they're already so short with money it's about you know what either I get money tomorrow I can shut down and this puts

[Angela Thomas]

in a very weak position for negotiations as well that's what I see all the time that that founders are going to search for investors when they are really low in cash flow and where they are in such a needy position that you will not get anything actually in a fulfilled or abundant situation you cannot negotiate anything like that to come out of a position of contraction is just just not good to do yeah absolutely with the back to the wall now I mean what are

[Mitch Bittermann]

you gonna do you can just be happy if someone throws you a bone and you can still survive

[Angela Thomas]

so yeah I agree yeah well thank you for being here thank you for sharing so much insights where where we do find you where the audience finds you actually just give us some hints and how they can get in contact we certainly put everything in the show notes and yeah in the info box so you

[Mitch Bittermann]

obviously have my whatsapp number they can get to you to get to me yeah no please not not everyone it's funny enough yeah it's sometimes I even have a rule when I look at my phone if I don't know the number I'm not gonna pick up because there's just too many people who have my number I mean I have a lot of tenants and whatnot so I think the best way is really like via email which you can distribute to them no problem I'm very active on LinkedIn I have a very big followership because I'm doing a lot of things if people want to know what's happening in Dubai commerce city go on LinkedIn go to Mitch follow me I'll post at least guaranteed twice yeah more like five times a week yeah just about everything that happens and where you find us in general there's terminal three where where Emirates Airlines is landing and in Dubai airport and we are five minutes walk away from that and it's an amazing place whoever wants to come they can join me for coffee good I definitely take this

[Angela Thomas]

invitation good I know you will so thank you and have a good time and wait until the next episode comes from the skillionaire with stories that stick and strategies that scale