Ben Hughes is a serial entrepreneur and author who, after a couple lackluster ventures, found his home in the startup world as employee #1 of learning app Blinkist.com. Listen to JJRR 64 as Ben shares how after adventures in Australia and Berlin, he ended up back in his hometown of Helsinki, Finland managing remotely Blinkist’s content creation team (in Berlin). Recently co-authoring the Loop Approach, Ben shares his thoughts on decentralized organizational management and his practice of meditation.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/L/bo52824093.html
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Inside-Yourself-Unexpected-Achieving/dp/0062116932
http://handbookofawesome.com/intro/
05:02s Is Finland the happiest country on Earth?
07:04s Finland and invention of the suana
09:14s Learning and apps, Blinkist.com, and content curation
11:59s Not a book summary company, offering key insights instead
15:47s Typical Blinkist customers / use cases
18:12s 2 minutes with Seth Godin audio blink from Blinkist
18:49s Joining Blinkist in 2012 as the first full time employee
21:38s Starting out as a management consultant and crashing into a kangaroo
25:17s Quitting the dayjob and moving to Berlin to start businesses with Sebastian Klein
30:40s Pivoting from first business Penguin Hug to wellness blogging
32:55s The genesis of Blinkist in Berlin, while Ben is in Helsinki
38:03s Creating content and tackling scalability in Berlin from Helsinki
45:02s The Loop Approach, Ben and Sebastian’s new management book
49:0s Pace of change driving distributed / decentralized management structure
53:49s Broader technology changes / opportunities / challenges
57:30s Staying curious to keep your mind open and honoring the finite time we all have
01:01:38s Opening up a new dimension with meditation and mindfulness
“Our purpose is basically just to inspire people to keep learning. We try to give them content that you know fits into this kind of modern, busy lifestyle that we’re all leading today.”
“I think it was confidence bordering on arrogance. I’m smart, you’re smart, how could we possibly fail to create a like million dollar business in a matter of months.”
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https://www.mgshlachter.com/ Reinventing architectural services.