James Aschehoug

James Aschehoug: Co-founder @UrijiJami, tech addict, sports junky, art lover, globe trotter, passionate husband & dad. Uriji Jami is a network where we share our dreams and projects, our stories and experiences, it’s the social-media-meets-e-commerce start-up that brings meaning and purpose to social media.

Presentation Title-
Creating a Start-up in One of the Worst Countries to Run a Business
Presenatation Synopsis-
Venezuela is the fourth worst country in the world in which to try to run a company, according to the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business report.
Why would anyone do such a thing?
My co-founder and brother in law is French and Venezuelan and was living in Caracas at the time
The currency devaluation has driven down labour costs significantly, making Venezuela one of the cheapest places in the world to hire skilled people
To combine the essence of the social enterprise movement with the hacker spirit of high-growth technology start-ups while creating sustainable value for society at-large
Uriji Story
In April 2015, we created the company in VenezuelaWe also have an office in London
July 2015, our first employee We now have 20 employees
November 2016 go-live of Uriji iOS App We launched the also a web app on 23/02/2017
How did we do it?
Turning the garage into an office space
Making the most of the local opportunitiessuch getting second-hand equipment from fleeing entrepreneurs
And dealing with local issues such as iOS developers by sending our IT developers to Barcelona to train them
Conclusion: If it had not been for Venezuela I do not think we would have created Uriji Jami.