The Story Behind the Name "introDus"
Like any other international company in the tech industry, the idea behind introDus wasn't developed from a spreadsheet in a boardroom. The great lines behind the service were not crafted in a garage either, like known from Silicon Valley companies like Apple. Not because that would not be a cool story, but because we Scandinavians aren't that big on garages.
The idea of introDus literately came out of the clear blue sky. Anders Thorup, one of the founders, sat in a canoe in Sweden. Surrounded by water and trees his mind gazed back to various employments he had experienced through his career. Like every other young(er) professional he had never been employed one place for more than five years - so a 25-year anniversary was out of reach in the foreseeable future. Back in Denmark, he established some sort of office in the tiny walk-in closet he "shared" with his girlfriend at that time. It might be a stretch to call it an office. It was a small table with just enough room for his laptop. The business model was crafted and later polished in a shelter at the fjord outside the Danish city Roskilde.
After gathering all the details, finding an investor for the project and having the basic idea of functionalities and design ready, the time was right. But for what?
Gr?ften in Tivoli, Simon and the bicep curls of the century! "Ideas are great but only action creates change" as Elon Musk said and having sold franking machines to actual businesses just over four years ago, Anders still knew where his limitations were. Said in another way: He knew nothing about building a website or programming computer programs. Following the good advice from the late Steve Jobs, Anders knew he had to surround himself which much more competent people. So, he tracked down Simon Dragsb?k, a like-minded young professional. Simon had worked for a company where he developed and maintained, well, whatever it is IT-guys do, their site and the 20 million users they serviced.
Anders and Simon met at a restaurant called Gr?ften. A very Danish place in the oldest amusement park in Copenhagen called Tivoli. Serving Simon a cold beer and trying to have a conversation about something Simon knew absolutely nothing about was, well, difficult at first. Telling more about what integration of employees actually means for a company and what his plans for the company were, Anders succeeded in making Simon interested. One cold beer got replaced by another and after several biceps curls during the hours they spend together that day, Simon was in!
The Singapore experience
Fast forward to October 2017. The first international trip together. The first editions of the platform had been live for some time and the two founders arrived in Singapore. Excited, a bit nervous and ready to show the fine C-suite from a larger Singaporean company how the platform worked. But before disclosing how that went, let's have a brief talk about the name. It's not that Anders and Simon cannot spell introduce correctly. IntroDus comes from two Danish words.
Intro comes from the Danish 'introduktion' which means the same as the English 'introduction'.The Dus part is a bit trickier. In earlier times in Denmark, when you did not know the person you met you used a formal tone. In English, you have 'you' for both the formal and informal, but Danes used to have 'De' when addressing a person, one didn't know very well. Then when your relationship develops to an informal relationship, the 'De' changed to 'du'. So, getting to know a person was called being 'dus'.
But back to Singapore, where Anders and Simon were to meet with the first potential client outside of the comfort zone, they called Denmark. They've had a long trip, landed in a climate that Danes will describe as too hot and a bit chaotic. The mood was skyrocketing and bulletproof though and they hit the bar to get a glass of water first thing when arriving at the hotel. Everything was planned, and they were on top and ready for the upcoming meeting one hour later. Transport would take approximately half an hour from the hotel. This would give them half an hour to calm down, get some fluid and prepare mentally.
That was their plan anyway! Reality hit them like a bus in high speed: the phone rang!It was the client calling to check in on their expected time of arrival. The meeting was set to begin at that moment. The reality, in this case, was called Daylight Saving Time! Storming out of the hotel, getting a cab both pondering about how the other could not have taken daylight saving time in the account, getting off the taxi and running - in suits an dress shoes and not anywhere near being acclimated to the heat in Singapore - they finally arrived at the office. Being excited, ready to show the platform and even more important:
Telling the story about and the Why behind introDus.Remember the story about the name? That story works like a charm in Denmark. One in three times it's almost with standing ovation. But in Singapore? Not so much! Here, much later Anders and Simon actually sometimes describe that part as textbook terrible.
?IntroDus Today
We are founded on building relationships in every new beginning. All we want is to help others get the best out of their new adventures, wherever we can. It is a work in progress but given that every development, every new beginning, every new thing to learn, is a progress, then it is actually a good thing for us.