Entrepreneurship stories: some frogs
We are truly happy to present first episode of “Entrepreneurship stories” for this fall with amazing Mona Ismail and some frogs!
For our entrepreneurship series we will share inspiring stories from young business minded entrepreneurs with courage to pursue their dreams!
We are a year apart with Amiira (on the left). Without her I'd probably still be struggling with the alphabets.
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Mona Ismail, I recently changed my major to Computer Science at Aalto University and on a break to focus entirely on building my own company.
My tech background started when I was 8. We had only one person in our neighborhood that knew how to fix computers in the early 2000s. He was planning to move with his family to London, which led many families to worry how they could get help if their computers collapsed. Back then, computers were the only way to stay in touch with families that remained behind after the civil war in Somalia. Talking with family back home to check on them was regular, and having a functional computer was a necessity. So my mom was thinking about who could be the right fit to learn from our neighborhood engineer and chose me because I was good at memorizing. I learned how to fix bugs and I used to make rounds through our neighborhood to fix their computers pretty much every week after school for some years. What I enjoyed most was challenging myself how fast am I able to fix the bugs, and the smiles of our neighborhood aunties were the best reward! I learned essential entrepreneurial qualities through the community I grew up in. It’s great to revisit those memories; it has had a great influence on my growth!
Trying to get bored through art - Mona
Introduce your company, what is some frogs all about?
On average we spend almost up to 5 hours on platforms daily. Majority of the time browsing through content that doesn’t excite us. It’s almost impossible to filter value because in current platforms you are only able to follow the entire person instead of the option to choose the parts that interest you.
Through some frogs you will be able to take control of what you want to consume by content aggregation from your favourite creators – saving time and mindless scrolling between platforms.
Can you remember the moment when you first came up with the idea?
I have always been interested in consumer social. I had a few exciting ideas around the space, and I already knew which audience I wanted to target, so I wanted to narrow the directions to explore.
We had a great opportunity to launch an MVP version at Flow Festival with over 30 000 attendees to get a better understanding of our target audience. We conducted a few hundred qualitative interviews with my friends, which led us to what we are building today.
How did you find the courage to build your own business? Did you have any previous experience with entrepreneurship?
I learned many entrepreneurial trades through the neighbourhood I grew up in. We had quite an extraordinary childhood where we had to figure things out continuously. You had to be resilient and learn fast to keep up. And you also had to be optimistic and believe that regardless of your starting point, you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. It’s quite surreal to reflect on those thoughts - those attributes have taken me to where I am today.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey?
I’d say mainly around time management between building a company and allocating time for the people that matter the most to me. I have improved a lot from before by optimizing my weekly schedules and learning to prioritize. Still much to learn but grateful for having understanding family and friends!
Can you describe your typical day? How many hours a day do you work on average?
I don’t have an hourly deadline throughout my work days; I set my weekly goals and aim to get them done. My daily routine is quite set and consists of early morning training, offloading the tasks & sleeping 7-8 hours. Some days I work longer hours and sometimes I compensate for it if I feel like I need off-time. I have learned how I work the best throughout the years which helped a lot when I started to build my company. When I travel and get off my routine, I instantly see its effects, so I try to stick to it as best as possible.
Seoul 2022
How do you generate new ideas for your business?
It might sound weird but the best new ideas come to me when I’m slightly bored. Since I optimize my schedule, it’s also not that often that I’m bored but I take out time intentionally when I feel stuck and don’t plan anything for the day or two. No meetings, don’t check my socials or emails. It works every time!
Share one or few tips you would give someone starting her own business? Maybe something you would have liked to know in advance?
The main question to ask yourself is why do you want to become an entrepreneur. I was asked this for the very first time a few months ago. Never before. I revisit that conversation often. There are so many outside influences that you can’t control when you are building a business, but knowing why you are building it will remind you why it’s worth pushing forward.
