The Germany Expat Business Show
A podcast that shares knowledge, stories and inspiration for anyone starting, running or growing a business as a non-German in Germany.
The Germany Expat Business Show
From Syrian Refugee to Successful Co-founder with Tarek Abousamra of Co-Tasker
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In this episode I talk to Tarek Abousamra, an inspiring entrepreneur who journeyed from Syria to Germany. Tarek's story is one of resilience and determination, culminating in the founding of Co-Tasker, a platform that connects people with service providers for various tasks.
Tarek fled Syria due to the war, eventually making a home in Germany. Despite starting from scratch, his entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-found Co-tasker, a platform designed to make finding help for tasks easy and safe. His story highlights the power of resilience and community support.
Episode Highlights
- 🌍 Resilient Journey: Tarek's path from Syria to Germany, overcoming challenges to start from scratch.
- 🏢 Co-tasker's origin story: The creation of a platform connecting users with service providers for diverse tasks.
- 🤝 Co-Founder Dynamics: The importance of complementary skills and mental support in a business partnership.
- 📈 Funding Strategies: Insights into securing funding and the role of accelerator programs.
- 🗣️ Language and AI: How AI tools have transformed communication across language barriers.
More about Co-Tasker here: http://bit.ly/Co-Tasker_
You can find this episode and all episodes as well as show notes for each at https://thegermanylist.de/the-germany-expat-business-show-podcast/
Starting or running a business in Germany as a foreigner? Already running an online business in Germany as an expat? Wanting to grow your German-based business? Working as a freelancer in Germany? You'll love my guide with over 30 resources for expat business owners in Germany.
Hi, I'm Eleanor Meyerhofer, a native Californian designer and digital strategist. In October of 1999, a few years after graduating from design school, I flew from San Francisco to Munich with a fistful of Deutschmarks, a dial-up connection and an extremely vague plan. Twenty-plus years later, after a 10-year stint at a global agency agency freelancing and launching two online businesses, I'm still here. Now I'm talking to other expat business owners to share knowledge, stories and inspiration for other non-Germans running businesses in Germany. I am here with Tarek Abu Samra. I am here with Tarek Abu Samra and I am going to start with the same question I ask everybody, which is can you tell me the two-minute story of how you ended up in Germany?
Speaker 2:So hi, thank you for having me. I appreciate the introduction and really glad to be here. So the story of me coming to Germany is a bit different of the typical coming to Germany stories. I came here as a refugee. I had a beautiful life in Syria, so Syria is my hometown. I'm originally from Palestine, born and raised in Syria, and I had a really nice life. I was having good things, I was studying in university life. I was having good things and I was studying in university. Um, unfortunately, suddenly the the war has started in syria and, yeah, suddenly we just found ourselves, uh, having the somehow being forced to leave because of there's nothing to be done at that point. It was dangerous.
Speaker 2:A lot of things happened back then and we decided to leave and at first I went to multiple countries in order to find where I need to be in life, and first I started with going to Lebanon and then I wanted to finish my university because, unfortunately, I couldn't finish in Syria, so I went to London. I was able to have a visa back in Syria, so I went to London. I was able to have visa back then and I went to London. I studied, finished my university there and then I came back because the situation got a bit better. So the situation improved, it was. We were promised that things gonna get better. I came back there.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, after I came back there, it got way worse. The war became even more intense and more dangerous, and so I needed to leave again. I tried to apply for visa again all around the world. I tried the UK again, where I had a visa. Didn't work. Nothing worked, unfortunately. So the only way for me was is to run as a refugee. So I I came to germany literally running trains, buses, cars. I had to leave. I think many of the syrians too, also came this way and yeah, it's another story how I came here, yeah, yeah this is how I came.
Speaker 2:I arrived here. I I started my life from scratch because I lost everything, everything I had left actually, I actually spent it on the way so I started here from scratch and, yeah, that's how I came to Germany.
Speaker 1:Well, that is obviously an incredible story. Was this when Merkel said that people from Syria could come here? Was?
Speaker 2:that in 2015?
Speaker 1:When was that or when was this?
Speaker 2:2016. So, unfortunately, when I came, it was still not open the same way it was after. So I had to do a bit more hustle than and others later, because after that they it was. It became it was still always for everyone. It was really hard and you know it's not, it's never an easy way, but they opened some, some ways and some cities and it became a bit easier. But yeah, I was two months before that I came, unfortunately, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, that's like that is an entire podcast series in itself. But I really want to focus because I mean it's one thing to like come here, like me as an American, and you know I came on a tourist visa and then I fooled around and then I got a job, whatever. It's another thing to like have your whole life like. You know I came on a tourist visa and then I fooled around and then I got a job, whatever. It's another thing to like have your whole life like destroyed, basically, and come with nothing and then start from scratch. So can you tell me and you're a co-founder of a company now so presumably obviously you got settled and everything and what happened, what was the process Like? If you can tell us a little bit like how you went from that to founding a company?
Speaker 2:Definitely so. You know, first of all, in the beginning I arrived here I wanted to start my life. I wanted to. It was very important that I have this positive mindset and I have this mindset of I want to live, I want to survive, I want to to also give back. I don't want just to be here, just to. I was kind of forced to leave my home. I didn't want to leave my home. It comes to me I would stay in my home because it's the best thing for me. But as I'm here, I want to take in my mind, I want to take the best out of it. So I want to to do good things and to to give back to the community, also because the community was very welcoming to me.
Speaker 2:I am very thankful to Germany because Germany welcomed me and gave me shelter and gave me money. It was little money but I was always thankful to it and I had this entrepreneurial mind that I always want to like to start business. I like to do things. I like to do my own thing, but in the beginning I couldn't do it directly because I needed to understand the culture, I needed to understand how things work. I need to learn German, because it's really hard with that and as soon as I started I took the fast smartest decision is to start learning German. I went to a very intense course. I studied until B2. I was almost reaching C1, but I stopped there. I directly after a few months, I decided that I want to start my first company. So Kotasker is not my first company.
Speaker 2:It's my second my brother was here, is here still. We together found a problem in the shipping industry between Middle East and Europe, specifically between Syria and Germany, and we had a way to be able to make it easier, faster and cheaper. And so we started a company and we started from scratch, from nothing. It went very well, it was successful and, honestly, back then I got the idea of Co-Tasker. So I wanted to offer my services as a freelancer, because the money I used to receive it was really little and it was not enough for me to live the life that I want to live, and I went online. I wanted to look for a platform to offer services fast, but everything was very hard. There's unprofessional platforms. I even got scanned in one very I don't know famous platform in Germany because I went to the location and to help someone or something and they stopped answering and I wasted half of my day, unfortunately. And then this is where I got the idea of Code Tasker, that one day I'm going to create a platform to make offering services fast, easy and safe most importantly.
Speaker 2:But then, as I told you, I started my first company and life went and things grew and I don't know. I'm very positive. I'm very happy, I'm very I'm a survival. I always like just make friends and very social. I built a beautiful life in here and I made a really amazing friends and I called them family and that helped me a lot along the way.
Speaker 2:And then so reaching cotasca I I was still in my first company and I met someone amazing. Her name is Emilia. She's my co-founder now. I met her. She has this entrepreneurial mind. She was working as a CMO in a tech company in Berlin. She's very smart, entrepreneurial mind and I was waiting to meet someone like that to actually because you know, co-founder is so important in starting a business and I was okay, that's the one. I told her about my idea with Code Tasker. Okay, I have this idea and I really want to solve problem from the contractor side of our services.
Speaker 2:She was like you know what? I had even bigger problem for me as a client to book services. I needed help with few things around my house and I couldn't find the help because I couldn't speak German. I tried to call companies, the companies. I was unable to explain. I found one company. The appointment was after four weeks and then one company came. They couldn't fix it and they took around 100 euros from me. I got really frustrated. I didn't do my thing at all and you know what I love this. I would love to quit and join you. So she quit her job and we together started Kotasker. Yeah, that was an amazing moment because you know, when you find the right partner, you know that you, you know you made it. Even if you're not going to make this, I know in my mind that maybe, let's say, kotasker never worked, which I always believe is going to work it works. But even if not, I'm going to do something with her again. And yeah, we started Kotasker and that's how it started.
Speaker 1:So I want to go back a little bit to your first business. So you started that with your brother. I mean, starting a business in Germany is not easy. Did you guys have to learn everything by your and then on top of it, in German? Did you like start from scratch, or did you have any support, or like, did you have a game behind? Like what, what? Did you learn a lot from that experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you know, I studied business administration, I learned German and, in my opinion, starting a company, you have to learn a lot on the way. You cannot say, oh, I learned in school or I read 200 books and I'm going to start a company, now I'm ready. It's never like that. When you start a company, you will learn on the way. You just have to be ready to learn. You have to be flexible, you have to be take it easy on yourself and just keep doing and have like passion and hope. Passion is so important and that's that's the thing. So we learned everything on the way. So we just okay. When I start a company now, what to do? We make calls, we research online. There was no ai back then, unfortunately. Now it's things way easier. I believe I also had some friends who are germans, so they speak german and they they help us a lot along the way. So I have letter, I call them, sometimes even german people. I give them a letter from the finance or something. They say, oh, I don't understand this, it's like too hard, but yeah, so yeah, we learned everything along the way.
Speaker 2:It was really hard. It was hard to create a bank account. It was almost it was about not to lose hope, but I was okay. No bank account accepted me in the beginning because of my status. Like, what do I do? I need a bank account. You cannot do it without. Until my beloved sparkase agreed and honestly, they they do not regret. They made the best decision because I already have multiple companies with them now and I'm one of their great clients. So I think they did the right thing. I love sparkase. I recommend it. If someone in my situation they need to do it. Spark, say, I think, is the only one who approved actually wow and yeah, or like an online thing, but of course you need a local bank and yeah, that's yeah, it was hard, but it's possible, everything possible everything's possible.
Speaker 1:Yes, tell me like how ai has made it easier than before. I mean oh way, but oh way more.
Speaker 2:So you know, like before I used, even when I speak really good German, Okay, yeah, I needed to, I need. When I get to get, sometimes you get letters like 20 pages or something, yeah, and you really need to I don't know. Like, even if I understand it, I need to ask someone because what if I miss something really important? You know what if something could destroy my company if I missed it? So I used to ask people. Now, chatgpt, I just share the whole document and I get all the answers I want. I'm building, so now it's like building a new company too, not ready to talk about it yet, but I also started to. I needed to submit this finance arm and this Elster thing, which is really hard. Sometimes you need tax advisor to help you. Actually, I was able to do it alone through with Chargivity, also responding to emails, everything. My productivity is way, way higher because of Chargivity and other ai tools. So, yeah, I think it's great.
Speaker 1:It helps a lot yeah, deep l and all that stuff. I mean I I didn't make it to b2, but I made it to b1. But this was like 20 years ago and I work in english all day and I have mixed feelings because I feel like it's made me so lazy, because I just like, let me just run this through here. But it is such a game changer, especially with like language stuff, definitely.
Speaker 2:Also, you know, there is something. Yes, it makes you a bit easier indeed.
Speaker 2:Sorry, lazier, I would say, but it's still way better, because, also for me, I don't I write, I like to write emails in my way I like to respond in my way, because I have a special way which I think helped me to become where I am now and but just at least checking the grammars and making sure everything looks better. Or sometimes I'm traveling or doing something else and I don't have the brain capacity to actually check my with myself, so ai helps a lot in these situations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, it's great yeah, my husband is a huge chat gpt guy and sometimes I ask him he's pretty technical and finally he just goes like just ask chat gpt. And I'm doing a workshop at the end of this month like a website in a day workshop in Berlin and I'm going to do it in German. Most of the people like have a make out zone center room but they might not speak English. So I have like this spreadsheet that's a cheat sheet to like go to Squarespace tutorials and I was like, oh man, I really need to change this to English, but I don't want to like copy paste. But I don't want to like copy paste and my husband's like ask ChatGPT.
Speaker 1:And it gave me the formula and the whole little sheet was like okay, I believe I see the magic now.
Speaker 2:Definitely 100%. And you know, it's not only that for me, like not only just ask things. When I'm sitting here, like, let's say, when I'm driving, I have the CarPlay connected to Siri and now Siri, this Apple Intelligence, so it's connected to ChargeBT, so while I'm driving I can ask any question I want. You can do a lot now with this Apple Intelligence. Yeah, so it's amazing. Also, anything about life. I ask for it, ask about it through ChargeBT, the voice thing I love it.
Speaker 1:I'll give you a trick, I'll give you a nice trick also, if you want to write an email that is long or very important to you.
Speaker 2:On the app of ChargeBT there is a way that you record, record your voice to turn it to text. Text to speech.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you can record and say the email it could be a five-minute thing, I don't know and then it will all be put in ChargeBT and then ChargeBT will fix it for you and make a nice email. This is a really good trick, which I recommend.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll give it a try. I don't want all my humanity to go away, but for some things it is pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, it won't go away, because you have two ways you can ask ChatGPT to fix it and you can ask ChatGPT to fix it without changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you tell ChatGPT fix it without changing, then it will just fix, make it look good and in your way yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's what I could do. Okay, thanks for boosting my productivity.
Speaker 2:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Kotasker. So you want to talk a bit about how exactly the platform works?
Speaker 2:Definitely so. Kotasker is a platform where you can find help with anything Really fast, really easy, really safe. Basically, if you need help with something, I I mean our main categories are home improvements, moving house, like person with ban cleaning, home painting, etc. You can just go to the app. What's the task? Ad takes you less than a minute. Describe what you need.
Speaker 2:Then, after you post quickly, in less than five minutes you will start getting offers from multiple people, different pricing, and you can then communicate with them so you can check the person that you like their profile, you can check their reviews and you can discuss with them. Hey, I like your profile, let's talk about it. You can discuss, negotiate, plan and then book safely via the app. You book, the person comes to you, they do the job. If you're happy, you can release the money. If not, the money will come back to you. It's like reserved with help for safety for both parties. Yeah, you get everything done fast. So that's Code Tasker. We have tasks. As I told you, our main categories are the home improvements and painting and moving and cleaning, but also we have a lot of other tasks Like, for example, a very interesting task, someone, but also we have a lot of other tasks, like, for example a very interesting task, someone booked someone to stand on the queue for.
Speaker 2:Berghain on their behalf. Yeah, someone booked someone to kill a spider at home Not kill, I think, remove, we don't like killing and someone they had gum stuck on their hair or something they needed to remove it. There are a lot of, for example, captains for a boat driver, and that's an amazing community. So basically this also separates Kodaska from the competitors, so you cannot find such tasks on other competitors that we have, because the other competitors it's a listing of people, seat price, seat availability you can just come and book. You cannot communicate in restricted categories In Kodaskar. You can find help with anything.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Also the pricing. Our pricing are very competitive so you could find help with, I don't know, let's say, painting. Usually it's like 4,000 euros for the company In Kodaskar you can find it with 1,000 or 800. So the pricing are really revolutionizing the industry.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's great. So, and the business model? Do you get a transaction fee or is it? Do you pay? Do you have to pay to like list your task? How does it work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, transaction fee. So we only take fee in a fair manner. So when task is completed, we take our service fee from the transaction okay commission, basically okay and just create.
Speaker 1:Did you have to build the platform from scratch, or did it exist and you white labeled?
Speaker 2:it no, no, or like a white label you from scratch back end, and I understand all the structure so I could be CTO. But also back then I learned how to prototype in a few months and I prototyped the first version, which is what got us the first pre-seed round of investment. Because of this prototype and that's something I find amazing. I don't know how I had the. I don't know how I did that, like I just thought, okay, I want prototype. I don't. I don't know how I did that. Like I just thought, okay, I want prototype. I don't have the possibility to ask anyone to do it, I'm gonna do it by myself. I went ahead and I learned fast and I did it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, show, don't tell. Sometimes that's more powerful than explaining an idea when you have them. So let's talk about the funding process a little bit. How did that work?
Speaker 2:Funding is very hard, one of the hardest things a founder can do.
Speaker 1:I hope it's okay that I'm drinking. I'm drinking a Diet.
Speaker 2:Coke. So, yeah, funding is one of the hardest things a founder can do. It's really, really hard, but I think it's very, very important, important. Yet it has to be done in the right way, in the right time, the right moment. If you do it in the wrong moment, it's just a waste of time and energy and could destroy your business. The fundraising so we had multiple successful rounds, I would say, and from very prolific some angel investors we've been through Techstars and Vision Lab, like very prolific.
Speaker 2:Also, accelerator programs yeah, I think I mean talking about founders and just starting. I highly recommend accelerator programs because it's the right way to go, Because you don't only need help with funding, could get funding, but you could spend it just a few months and you know it's like literally eight months can pass really fast when you are like running the company, you need to do it right and spend it right. So that's why I highly recommend accelerator program. Okay, not just money, okay, but yeah, I mean, if you have specific question about it, I'm happy to talk about it no, I just I don't, but I know people listening probably will so, but that helps.
Speaker 1:So it was like you got involved in accelerators and when you said it's it's not a good idea to get funded at the wrong moment, do you mean like getting too much money at some point? Like what do you mean?
Speaker 2:by that no, no, I didn't mean get funded. If you get funded anytime, it's great okay I mean don't look, don't try.
Speaker 2:So fundraising around it's, it's a process itself. It's like um, it's like it's not just simply I'm gonna go, okay, I'm gonna fundraise around tomorrow. It you have to dedicate a specific way. You have to prepare your material. You you have to prepare pitch, deck, data room, kbi, et cetera. You have to prepare financial model. You have to prepare everything. You have to prepare which investors you want to reach out. You have also specific approaches, like a marathon. You have to prepare.
Speaker 2:Okay, this few months of my life, depending, could be three months, could be up to sometimes eight months. Some companies need one year to fundraise around, but be three months, could be up to sometimes eight months. Some companies need one year to fundraise around, but you have to dedicate this time especially for fundraising. So, for example, the CEO or if someone else in the company is interested, they will literally dedicate all the time to do this and to fundraise. And so if you approach it wrong and you don't have all the materials ready or you have something not 100% ready, you will be ending up wasting six months of your life trying to fundraise and it's not going to work, because fundraising is not that simple, like so many companies.
Speaker 2:You see in the news that companies oh, we fundraise, there is this company you think, oh, wow, is that easy? They are fundraising millions. You see one company of thousands that you know what I mean. So it's really hard to fundraise, it's really hard to go. You have it says about the storytelling and how to convince investors, how to approach it right, and that's why in my, I always recommend, if you want to fundraise, really fundraise Understand how it works, read about it, have advice from someone, understand how it's done, fully about it, have advice from someone. Understand how it's done fully. Prepare a list of investors you want to reach out. Always reaching out, also through warm introductions, is way better than just reaching out.
Speaker 2:You have to prepare everything, all the materials. Also, let's say you found an investor and the investor okay, they want to talk to you. You have another stage where you have due diligence. Due diligence, if the due diligence one thing is wrong or small, you could lose the whole thing. So it's also that's why I meant that you have to be fully ready to do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, not premature. I want to go back a little bit and talk about your co-founder. What's her name again?
Speaker 2:Amelia Bryant.
Speaker 1:And so how do you split up Like what do you do and what does she do?
Speaker 2:So I am the CEO and she's COO, CMO.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:She has two roles. So she's a powerful woman, amazing, very smart, very proud to be her partner. She's basically I am doing I love products. Brought to be her partner, she's basically I am doing I love products. I'm the CEO, so I do the CEO tasks, the admin tasks about the company fundraising she helped me sometimes with the fundraising. I do team leadership, communicating with the team and other tasks for products, mostly in the product. So I work in the product user experience strategy. She does the other side side which is showing the idea to the world, basically.
Speaker 2:So she's she's leading the marketing. She's leading the design. She's leading she doesn't design but she's, she has like design eyes, so she, she's leading it. She's also operations. So she helped with operating the company, organization planning with team, with the teams, et cetera. So, yeah, that's how we split. So the good thing about, I think, in a successful partnership is that we both have completely different skills that complement each other. The things that she do I don't know how to do and the things that I do she don't know how I do, and that makes it successful relationship okay, yeah, it sounds like I have a the germany list, which is where I moved this podcast into.
Speaker 1:I decided to get a co-founder. I knew I would have to and it's been so great it's so. It's a lot nicer than doing everything on your own and Definitely and I feel the same way, like we really complement each other.
Speaker 2:Congrats. I'm happy for you, that's amazing. You know, I'll tell you just one thing really important I realized Having a co-founder is not only about it's 50%, I think is so important about skills and complement each other 50% for mental health, really.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you need someone to talk to?
Speaker 2:Yes, because you need someone to talk to yes, not like therapy, because, honestly, we go through really rough times, it's really hard and you really need someone to talk to, and you need someone also, not anyone to talk to. You need someone who's with you, to understand you, and that's why I think it's great, so I'm happy for you.
Speaker 1:That's is great, so I'm happy. Yeah, that's 100, true, yeah, thanks, I'm. I'm happy for me too. Um, okay, I want to talk about language, because I I haven't downloaded the app. I will. Uh, I need some painting in our apartment, um, and I noticed it's in english and german right and I have, like, some self-interested questions around this.
Speaker 1:Because, okay, obviously German, we're in Germany, english is a second language for a lot of people here, but we wrestle with this because our product is like we're trying to reach out to Auslanders, expats, immigrants, migrants, whatever however you want to put it, and there's other languages. Yes, like why did you start with English as the second language?
Speaker 2:Sure. So our you know, in starting a company okay, as you can imagine always you have to find a small niche and target market to start with, and that's the way to success. This is also another advice. Someone is listening. If you want to start a company, you have to do that, and our niche was the expats, especially english-speaking ones. We had access because we are english-speaking experts. We had access to a big community through our friends, our relationships, our events we go to, and so everything was around us being connected with this type of people. That's how we started. And then we evolved to reach to german, because german, because it's we are in germany, so even we start in english of course we have an aim to, to start to do more languages, so, if possible, all the languages.
Speaker 2:Just need the right time, the right moment, the right capacity, but yeah well, and that's interesting because what we were talking about with ai.
Speaker 1:So even if you had, you know, it can be two-way. So maybe you need a painting and I and I'm working with somebody from I don't know serbia who's pretty new and doesn't speak much English or German. They could, I'm assuming we can still communicate just using the app, even if we can't speak the same language.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have a translation feature. So if you post a task in different language of the person language, they can translate to that language of the person language, they can translate to that language. And if you're communicating in chat and they got a message in different language, they have automatically offered them the possibility to translate. This was active for a long time. Just to be clear, it's not active at the moment. It's under maintenance. We might bring it back in a different way because the approach of it was it didn't work how we planned. It helped a lot of people, but we're changing the approach, so it's not. But we had this for a long time and it was really helpful. So people from all works of life in different languages they can find they get translation in their language so it was, yeah, it was great yeah but still now you can communicate with ai.
Speaker 1:Sorry, yeah, yeah, no, it's okay. It's just one of those things that it just it has been so it has made things, so it's been a game changer, especially around I was just talking to.
Speaker 1:I was at dinner with some lady friends and one had just gotten back from china and they were talking about how like, oh the vendors, they just talk in this into their thing and they talk, and they like talking about how like, oh the vendors, they just talk in this into their thing and they talk, and they like totally communicate, everything's just like it's just been such a change with communicating in different languages.
Speaker 1:One question I have and this is like a kind of a administrative question but Germany, like how is everybody like? Like how is everybody like Einzelunternehmer, like when you get the money, like how you know Germany is so strict with like many jobs and this and that, like how does all that work? Or do you not have to worry about it? And that's the person's responsibility?
Speaker 2:So then, it has multiple ways. First of all, every contractor who offers services. As per our legal terms and conditions, they are legally obligated to be able to offer services through being a freelancer, through being, I don't know, einstein Entertainment, or they have a company, gamebehard UG, doesn't matter, but it is not our responsibility. So, legally, every person is obligated to to do it themselves. We definitely have legal wise. No one can earn black money, I assume, because of the possibility, because we have something called the tax transparency act, so we have to report every income done on the platform, every year once and and to the government. So, yeah, they are aware of it, of course, everyone is aware of it.
Speaker 2:So we realized that some people they don't have a company, but they start, they want to earn money and then they find there are many people who actually built a business behind the platform. We're very honored and proud and happy for them. And so they start to okay, I'm going to create a company. I'm going to create, I'm going to become a freelancer, I'm going to become and it's a good thing. In Germany it's like when you're just starting the first year, things are easy, so there is a specific amount that you don't have to pay taxes for.
Speaker 1:Oh right, flying entrepreneur or whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2:You could also. I'm not sure actually. Yeah, I shouldn't give advice here because I'm not a tax advisor.
Speaker 1:This is not tax advice everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want to be. I like to say something that I'm sure about, otherwise, I just but yeah, that's how it works, yeah, yeah. So every person is responsible. There's something beautiful we do we offer them invoicing. So we offer invoicing to both parties. So even if they're like, let's say, a contractor is not ready to make an invoice, now we anyway create an invoice Clients can use. The invoice can be used for insurance, for everything. So really great invoicing.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:A lot of businesses actually use CodeAsker because imagine that you need help, let's say, for your office to have cleaning. Or instead of hiring a cleaning company to pay maybe each clean 200 euros you can pay 60 euros in CodeAsker and you get invoicing from us and you can do it with business expense. So that's why it's so great for companies.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, and I know Amelia does the marketing, but can you tell us, like, how you built a customer base, audience building, got the word out how long, how long have you guys been around?
Speaker 2:Since March 2020. Okay, so a good long time, Okay so fine, yeah, yeah, it's been a long time.
Speaker 1:So how did you start in those initial days?
Speaker 2:So we started first with focus. So we started only in Berlin. Now we are available nationwide 23 of the key cities around Germany, 23 of the key cities around Germany we started in. So there are many ways to reach customers, but you have to do it right so you don't spend the money for nothing. We started in Berlin and, as I told you, we had our community. So we have a big community and this was our first start. So we started campaigns pre-marketing campaigns, pre-launch campaigns, sorry and we did all the marketing. So through Facebook ads, which is meta ads, now Instagram, et cetera, everything. There was no TikTok back then, I think not.
Speaker 2:We also something very important when we starting, we ourselves hustled really hard to spread the word out. We went to every meetup, every event. We participated in many events where we go bitch. I bitch so many times now I don't even remember how many times I bitched on stage to spread the word about Kotaska, and that's very important because this helped a lot to spread the word. And Kotaska is a platform that when someone use it once they had a good experience, they would recommend it. Because I'll tell you how it happened Because so many now, when someone need help with something. First thing, they do this human instinct to ask their community friends or oh, I need does need. Does someone know blama? Someone know an electrician? This is where it comes here. Okay, I used cotasca and I found someone really good and I had good experience and it's built like that. Yeah, that's how it's built, like it's hard to pinpoint where. But I think the starting is very important. So you have to start doing all the events, all the meet, meetups, everything is really important and yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's helpful and offering good sorry.
Speaker 2:I think it's very important is offering high quality customer support.
Speaker 2:It's very important especially in a marketplace, because issues will happen everywhere. So when you book someone, go to Asker or find their number on the street, it's the same thing it's like. But if we offer extra safety by verifying the identity of the contractor, background check et cetera all this stuff, still issues can happen, Something could damage happen, et cetera. It's part of the process. What matters is that we interact and help a lot, so we offer really great quality customer support. Hopefully, if you use it, I hope you won't have any issue, but if it happens, our team is there for you really fast.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that's really helpful a lot in such services industry.
Speaker 1:Okay, but so after that initial push of marketing then does it kind of like we always have to do some marketing, I assume, but then it just kind of word of mouth and good experience and it kind of grows.
Speaker 2:I mean. So we have multiple ways or channels people come. There is the organic, of course it's really big, but also we always have campaigns running in multiple places. We have also influencers in multiple locations. Influencer marketing now works very well and also we keep posting on social media etc. All helps, but you have to stay constant. I don't think it's ever like okay, we just stop now.
Speaker 1:We have to keep going. Yeah, wrapping it up. I will ask what. I ask a lot of people, like any lessons learned that you could share with people, or anything you would do differently, or any advice you would give to other people launching businesses starting a new company very, very important.
Speaker 2:Make sure that you're passionate about this business, not just look for something to make money, because it can get really hard, get really tiring, and if you're not passionate about it, you will lose hope and you will stop and it will be a fail. If you're not passionate, it will be a fail, but if you're passionate about it, you will stay and you will keep trying until it works. Another thing very important you need to know when to stop. So starting a company is not also it shouldn't take all of your life. You should try something, enter fast, do everything fast and either continue or stop fast. You shouldn't just waste all of your life trying to do something that's maybe working, maybe not, you don't know. You shouldn't just waste all of your life trying to do something that's maybe working, maybe not, you don't know. And last but not least, I think when you start a company and it doesn't work, it's never a fail. It's another step to success.
Speaker 2:Because, in my opinion, failing or being a failure is when you lose hope and stop trying, and that's what I would say always. Also, seek advice from people, because people know like something that's really like. Just learn from people who have been through it. It's really helpful and, yeah, that's it all the best for anyone starting a business all right, tarek, thanks so much for coming on it.
Speaker 1:It's been fascinating talking with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the conversation. I really appreciate me being here. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1:You too. Thanks for listening. You can find this and all other Germany Expat Business Show podcasts at thegermanylistde Bye.