Pindify

Please welcome Christoffer today – he is the founder of Pindify – a creators’ market for art, text, film and music.

Can you share a little about yourself- where you are from, where you went to school?

I’m an artist, economist, developer/designer and entrepreneur from Skärhamn on the west cost of Sweden. I received a BS in Economics from the University of Utah and a Minor BA in Business from the David Eccles School of Business.
By following the advice by Mark Twain I never let school interfere with my education. I started to work in Stockholm as a developer/designer/strategist for 6 years and have made several platforms and too many websites.
My passion is humanity and its general communication and especially social interactions (read: economics and red wine) as well as music.

What is your current business?

My business or my cause as I call it, is to assist the creative class with an online marketplace to publish, distribute and earn on their digital content.

What got you into it?

Being 99% an artist who didn’t fit the industry and made no money on the anarchy of social media, I simply started to create my own market.

Can you share a little bit about your philosophy of entrepreneurship and explain how it affected you?

I believe there are three types of entrepreneurs; The Merchant (hustler), The Business man, The Creator. There are mostly setbacks unless you’re a Merchant entrepreneur that buys and sells for profit or builds an “App” for a simple need and sells it to the highest bidder. The Business entrepreneur engages others to build a long-term organization around his/her vision, usually involving high cost and high stress. The Creator operates very small but is dedicated towards a cause/product or service for the long run.

I’ve always worked as a Creator and after a total of 8 years I’ve learned many rules along the way.
For example at one point in early 2013, I had just moved to San Diego with $68 to my name. I had hopes that my previous project Jamclouds.com would get investors. It did not. My wife and I were newlyweds and our daughter was on her way. Being from Sweden I wasn’t allowed to work until I had acquired a green card, which I received 10 months later. So I decided to focus on my new project; Pindify. After 1.5 years of designing a blueprint and creating the business strategy, I teamed up with an amazing production company, rubygarage.org, to truly start forming the market online.

To list the most important aspects for the Creator Entrepreneur to focus on:

Administration:
– Find your routine and walk every morning for an hour, without headphones.
– Create a Business plan witch clear Attraction, Interaction and Transaction.
– Involve many and have a clear message to potential investors
– Never approach VC’s unless you have a patent, are making money or can show supreme traction.
– Develop and Register the brand to fall in love with.

Production:
– Research, a lot.
– Be done with detailed spreadsheets of the business logic and have a clear blueprint of the story, structural, functional and social design, before production.
– Never lose sight of the movements on the market, what clients and competitors in order to shape your production into perfection
Be Agile. Work international. Select many offers and ask the correct questions.
– Let the graphic design be done by the graphical designer
– Prioritize quality over time. Let the cost be as efficient as possible.

Commercialization:
– Don’t even think about starting it before you’re done with production.
– MVP is only the start. It’s only when you have a proven concept from your beta version you should start commercialize.
– Find your cause, position, message, bridge, target and impact.
– Have fun, you only live once.

What is your view of success?

I don’t value success, it’s like looking for happiness – it’s short and sweet. I value balance on the process towards perfection.

What would you want your audience to learn from you?

That evolving ideas, research, awareness, execution, perseverance, humor and timing are essential to your new life as an entrepreneur.

What is your best piece of entrepreneurial advice for our audience?

Know that it will take time, so don’t celebrate too fast. Always know that after every dark day comes a new morning of opportunity. If you’re really down, go to sleep and take new steps in the morning.
Do you have a takeaway for our audience today?
Everything always takes 3 times your estimation, and the last 10% to completion will always take 90% of the time.

How can our audience get involved with what you do?
No matter if you’re a professional creator or if you socially share content, go to Pindify.com sign up and start adding cards to your portfolio.