Interview | Anna Banicevic – Turn Passion into Profession!
Anna Banicevic | Founder of Zizoo, a platform for boot and yacht rental
“We strive to democratize boat holidays and share our love for sailing by using digitalization. In order to be successful you need to think of your customer – always!”
Anna Banicevic’s greatest passion is sailing. Originally from Austria she spent many years in Ireland, where she fell in love with the sea. She studied politics in Northern England and worked for 7 years at Google in London, where she handled clients like expedia or booking.com.
A perfect foundation for her future business a digital platform for renting boats and yachts, pretty similar to hrs or booking.com. The company called “zizoo” which is the nickname of the French scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau is the leading boat holiday platform worldwide with 30.000+ boats in 530 locations and 30 countries.
The disruption of the boat holiday industry is well underway thanks to the vision of Anna Banicevic and her founding partners who are specialized in software development and finance.
INTERVIEW:
The interviewee’s name is Anna Banicevic. Anna is an innovator and disruptor who worked at Google for 7 years before founding “zizoo,” the world’s leading boat holiday platform. The idea behind zizoo came from Anna’s personal experience as a sailor, where she saw a need for a digital platform to make boat holidays accessible to a global audience. She wanted to create an easy-to-use platform for both boat operators and customers, with real-time availability information and marketing support for the former, and a wide range of boat options and easy booking for the latter.
Anna emphasized the importance of doing fieldwork and talking to customers directly to understand their needs and develop a helpful product or service. She also recommended having complementary competencies in the team, such as marketing and sales, finance, and tech. The driving force behind the innovation was Anna’s passion for sailing and making the experience of freedom accessible to others.
As a female founder, Anna highlighted the advantage of attracting female talent to the company. Her self-critical mindset and focus on learning from mistakes helped build a cohesive team that talks about issues with the mindset of improvement rather than blame. Anna’s mom was a significant inspiration, teaching her that everything is possible if you do not get stressed out.
I apologize for the mistake in my previous response. Thank you for correcting me that the interviewee’s name is Anna Banicevic. As an innovator and disruptor, Anna has a wealth of experience in the digital business, having worked at Google for seven years before founding “zizoo,” the world’s leading boat holiday platform.
Anna’s passion for sailing and her experience as a sailor inspired her to create a digital platform that makes boat holidays accessible to a global audience. She wanted to create an easy-to-use platform for both boat operators and customers, with real-time availability information and marketing support for the former, and a wide range of boat options and easy booking for the latter.
Anna also emphasized the importance of doing fieldwork and talking to customers directly to understand their needs and develop a helpful product or service. She also recommended having complementary competencies in the team, such as marketing and sales, finance, and tech.
As a female founder, Anna shared her insights on the advantages of attracting female talent to the company. Her self-critical mindset and focus on learning from mistakes helped build a cohesive team that talks about issues with the mindset of improvement rather than blame. Anna’s mom was a significant inspiration, teaching her that everything is possible if you do not get stressed out.
What is your advice for women who are ready to unfold their innovation power?
Just check it out!
- If you want to found a start-up, check what you need and get the help and support you need. You should be demanding. Take what you want and multiply it by ten…
- Surround yourself with good people
- Don’t be afraid of failure. If you don’t fail you won’t be successful
- If someone challenges you for being a woman don’t let yourself be intimidated. Look at that person as a weaker opponent and turn it into a benefit for yourself – he is underestimating you!
- You need a good story when pitching for investors try your idea and pitch first in front of investors that are really unlikely to invest. Just so that you get feedback and are able to learn and improve the pitch deck, so that when you present to the investors you really want to have you are prepared and experienced
My message to you is: turn your passion into profession. It does not mean that you need to work less for success but you will love what you are doing! Laugh about you failures and learn from them! You can make a new bed for yourself every day!
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