First post

This is an attempt to make time pass as I'm recovering from acute bronchitis. Also +Jon Gjengset once told me that to blog is free advertising and a good way of getting your thoughts down on paper. +Olga Abilova makes her life sound ridiculously fun through her blog, so I thought I'd one up her as well.

What I am working on now is a project for short term rental of commercial real estate in the Oslo area, Top Pop Up. The website is in Norwegian and made using Launchrock, the easiest possible solution, which gives you what feels like the functionality of a TI-83. I want to make it into something similar to AirBnB but for storefronts. This is obviously easier said than done. 

I want to expand to the rest of Scandinavia, as I doubt I can make a lot of money of just Oslo. Oslo is not exactly the centre of the universe, but has potential as a recent student that's chosen to become an entrepreneur after university. 

So why move back from what feels like the centre of the universe (London) to an oil bloated hysterically expensive place filled with people who by and large are probably on their way to their cabins already (it's a Friday and it's past 1 pm)?

well....

1. Markets in need of a native solution - You are going to see that applying a formula that works in one place does not always translate to other places. In my own case, through talking to people doing similar things there's huge differences in the commercial real estate market across Europe. In the Netherlands, 30% of office space is free, while in Norway we are still building more (although I personally cannot see how much longer this can go on). In Athens someone told me something like 50% of store fronts are free (don't quote me on that number at all). In Oslo I'd empirically put the total number at 5-7%, depending on area. These different markets require different solutions, and a uniform AirBnB approach will not work in my field. 

2. Safety- I can live in my dads house and I get to eat food from his fridge. Easily 8000 kr saved a month, that I can spend on a billion other things. The lower the fixed costs the happier you'll be. No discussion there. 

3. Market understanding - Norwegians are habitually horrible at answering emails sent from people they don't know. I have no idea why, but if you didn't know and have to learn the hard way it will take you time. In this country you have to pick up the phone, to get something. On the other hand this leaves slightly socially awkward norwegians at a loss and you can sometimes use that to your advantage. 

4. The economy - Hey, it's the worlds second richest country per capita after Qatar. A big mac costs £10. If you can get these people to pay for your stuff you can make a lot of money. Get people in Sweden and Denmark interested as well and stuff's getting real.

5 Not a lot of other people are doing what you're doing - This is such a two edged sword. You won't have a lot of competition and when you talk to people about what you're doing they get impressed and really want to help, non of the blasé you get other places where you're the eight person they've met that day doing a start up. On the other hand people aren't used to dealing with entrepreneurs, and when they ask you how many employes you have, how long you've been doing what you're doing (or god forbid) how old you are they'll look at you and tell you to come back in fifteen years and leave it to the grown ups. That usually sparks this reaction in me.

That's all folks. I will be back to write more. I have a lot of stuff to write about everything that is wrong in commercial real estate. It's worth billions and billions and no one is doing anything to challenge the status quo. Absurd.