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E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

Released Thursday, 24th October 2019
 2 people rated this episode
E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

E63: Polina Montano, Job Today Co-Founder – 2 of 3 – Luxembourg – Doyenne of Retail leaves her Shell

Thursday, 24th October 2019
 2 people rated this episode
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Episode 2 of 3 in the mini – series (episode 63 of 14 Minutes of SaaS)In Luxembourg by now - A multiple prize winning doyenne of Retail leaves her prized fashion store and works in an all conuming hard core retail position for Shell managing 6 petrol stations with accompanying mini-supermarket stores. Then leaves to do a masters in entrepreneurship and tech - and uses that as a springboard to apply her new knowledge and great idea to make the traditional world of hiring much more immediate, more local and much faster for companies and people looking for service and casual positions.TranscriptPolina MontanoI won Golden retailer - like being the best in the country twice. And after that I decided … ‘okay, what else I can do?’ So while I was still running my petrol station business, I just said well … let's just go and find something about learning about technology, because I was very much in the traditional sector of operations … of retail .. and going back to university was so good for me. It really like made a difference in making the world of technology accessible and exciting … really like opening my eyes on opportunities, on how much technology actually allows you to do nowadays. And already practically instantly I was excited about the possibility. How we can leverage such beautiful technology and innovation to improve the day to day lives of people and businesses maybe in traditional industries. And then the idea actually came along pretty fast.Stephen CumminsWelcome to 14 minutes of SaaS, the show where you can listen to the stories and opinions of founders of the world's most remarkable SaaS ScaleUps.In this, the second part of a 3-part mini-series recorded with Polina Montano in the WebSummit in Lisbom, she tells us how she left a very successful career in traditional retail industries to become an almost overnight success in the tech world.The first notable one was V&J or the Stefanel boutique in Luxembourg? 1. What brought you to Luxembourg?  And 2. What was your interest in Luxemburg? Fashion? ..Polina MontanoOh, you make it sound so serious. I mean just for record …  Let's just remember I was like 24. I wasn’t thinking so deeply. I went to Luxembourg for the best reason ever …  I followed my husband who got relocated, for some work .. because he worked in finance .. and I just followed him to the country. I already knew I wanted to do something for myself.Franchising structures seemed like a great compromise  - you can still get the support of existing brands – the brand also gives you like a few procedures - kind of helps you set the business up - in the same time you experience a great degree of freedom in how exactly you run this location - and fashion obviously – young Russian girl 25 years old. I mean a fashion boutique was like a dream coming through … right? Like all of a sudden you have this beautiful shop – beautiful clothes. I mean what more could you possibly want? But guess what… it didn't last too long?Small Talk endsStephen CumminsYeah. It lasted less than four years?Polina MontanoIt lasted about two years - after two years of me running this shop, I got an offer from Shell - you know, the core company for gas stations etc back then - show or revisiting their retail management structures. And they decided to offer franchising as a formula and they decided that it would work very well for the group. And they actually at that moment offered me the opportunity - which once again took me way out of my comfort zone. Like I mentioned me being super happy with my little fashion store - like my little baby. It's like a lifestyle business. Starting all over again. Southern you actually go over the contract or finding a chain of selling points which essentially is much more than just selling gas. It's like having this little 24 hours supermarkets next to it. So it was quite an impressive structure - over more than 50 people staff - six locati...
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14 Minutes of SaaS - founder stories on business, tech and life

Listen to wisdom from the true champions of SaaS. Stephen Cummins interviews founders of hyper-growth SaaS ScaleUps. Interviews are conducted face to face at major tech events in Dublin, Lisbon, Berlin, Hong Kong & New Orleans (no remote calls). We examine the personal histories, learnings & opinions of the world’s most successful SaaS StartUp entrepreneurs. And because they speak at these major events, they have strong communication skills. Stephen ensures that the core topic is the founder he's interviewing, and not just the current rocket ship the founder is helping scale.We cover most of these in each episode; short life history, the WHY, day in the life, personal motivations (many are financially secure), personal attributes leading to success, weaknesses, what makes the current SaaS company special & successful, advice for entrepreneurs, opinion on the future of work & future tech, what they’d do if they walked away, work-life balance, the city they work in, distributed or remote teams v co-located or in-office teams. Lend us your ears for less than 1% of one day in your week to gain a deeper understanding of the cutting edge of SaaS, as well as insights into the human stories behind it all. We’re interviewing the true champions of SaaS – from giants to exciting scale-ups. They will share their ups and downs, their vision of the future of human experience, how they approach innovation and sales execution, and how they stay grounded while driving extraordinary success in the cloud. If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur (or if you are on that road already), join us!“To dare is to loose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” Soren Kierkegaard

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