SMARTEAST #30: East is a heartthrob, but West surprised last year

Every time I'm in Dubai, I remember this.

I feel so fine here.

I love the technology, the progress, the craziness.

And I get a lot of it here.

It's never the same as last time.

New hotels have sprung up. The old ones are being renovated (and retrofits and care for their long-term sustainability are now a pillar of our local business).

I enjoy measuring it against the world. There are Americans, Europeans, Asians, Africans. Everyone is presenting the best of their own markets and hoping that it will be enough locally.

The Middle East for me is just a world where things are changing at the pace I like.

Dynamic, fast-paced, where new limits and new technologies are constantly being tested.

It's more attractive to me than America - and I'm much more likely to head here.

Wow! 550% per year

But I was all the more pleased by last year's news from across the 'big pond'.

Our turnover here grew by 550%. Year on year.

Of course, that sounds a lot more fantastic than it actually is.

It's a tribute to the first proper year we decided to set foot in the US.

And when you're starting from almost zero, first-year growth always looks amazing in the stats curves.

On the other hand, I don't underestimate it, because behind it is the great effort of Jan Pa?ovsky , who in the first six months of the year has traveled all over America. He drove over a hundred thousand kilometres, often staying overnight in his car so that he could personally take the handle at the big distributors.

Today, we have ten signed and are working with more manufacturing reps. All this in a market where we can't afford major marketing investment in the brand itself. It's simply too huge and complex a space for us.

America First, Europe Second

Cities are very different from the countryside, West from East, North from South.

If there is one thing that unites all places, it is the protectionism of their own products and the slogan America first. And then there is the conservative approach to sockets, switches and relays. I've always been amazed that there are only a few types of outlets in the American Standard model. People don't change them even after fifty years, even though the whole of Europe or the Middle East is constantly trying new and new design lines.They are even in modern apartments or offices.

Well, this protectionism and patriotism is the reason why we hesitated for a long time over the new branch. Honestly, where would you start in America? The East Coast because it's closer? The west coast because it's more technological? Crazy Vegas? The quiet Midlands?

Jan took it from Seattle, to Chicago, to Boston, to Miami.

Today, he sells this personal story as part of our business story. And it's probably a combination that's working well, because the list of distributors we've partnered with looks really good.

Consider for yourselves: Arrow Electonics, Burns Controls, DigiKey, Electro Sonic, FactoryMation, GALCO Industrial Electroncis, Kimball Electronics, Master Electronics, OnlineComponents.com, Relay Specialties.

Will it be time for a smart home after the relay?

It's not billions of dollars, or even hundreds of millions, but it's not hundreds of thousands anymore either. We've become relevant through a combination of in-house development, technology level, favorable pricing and five-year service.

While for me personally, Abu Dhabi will probably be more than Washington, Dubai than Las Vegas, and Doha more than Boston, this success and story is very exciting to me.

Yet it started with an unassuming beer in Prague, where we baked this collaboration.

I didn't expect too little or too much from it, not knowing what to expect in the United States.

Today, I know we have figured out how to open the door to the market with our standard ELKO EP relay lines. The multifunction time relay or auxiliary relay has already found a place in the market.

The next goal may not only be economic and further increase in sales, but perhaps also to expand the business with our smart home series iNELS.