Denis Vehovec Pondelak was already reaching for entrepreneurship books at the age of 15, because the school system lacked the feeling that he was creating something good and useful. He was more attracted to creativity, to finding solutions and ways to improve something than to learning data. Without really realising it at the time, he had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Maybe it was the influence of an entrepreneurial family, maybe it was just an inner passion that could not be ignored, or a fire to create that would not be extinguished.
He enrolled in Business International in Rotterdam, but at the same time he thought: 'You don't need businessschools to do business." He packed his rucksack and hitchhiked across Europe. He saw this as a response to some inner strong desire, some need to go. To overcome fear. To venture into the unknown, not knowing where it would lead him. To take risks and not turn back. An acrobat.
He lived and worked in Porto for three months, in Switzerland for a year... "What an invaluable school for life... Just getting to know so many different lifestyles opens up endless new possibilities. After such an experience, you can't resign yourself to living an expected average life in a small Slovenian village and never going further than Ljubljana."
But he started. First he tried Ecommerc online, set up a few online shops, started Facebook marketing, developed an idea custom made Uniques shoes ... Whereupon he just joined what his father had urged him to do years ago: 'Join the family business'. At first, he defended everything his father had already created, because he wanted to do it all himself.
Once, when he looked over his father's shoulder at the screen and said, "Well, it's not as terribly boring as I thought...", my father got quite a complexion. So positive. Moved.
"I realised that - if someone brings a thing from 0 to 1 and you bring it from 1 to 2, it's even better. So I don't need to start from 0. I can take over at 1 and move on."
They set up a start-up DDD Invoices. Denis took over the management and sales, while his father stayed on for technical support. After two years of active development, they realised that the opportunity was much bigger than it first seemed. Today they are a team of 11 and present in 15 countries around the world.
"Business and financial software providers (ERP, CRM, POS, PMS, Billing/subscription systems ...) with a single integration, they can add local tax-compliant invoicing (e-invoicing, fiscalisation and PDF) in a few days, according to the law of any country in the world. So their end customers no longer need to look for a software solution in each country separately, but can use one system globally.
Or to put it simply: We enable tax compliance of invoices worldwide. Our system saves them months of development time and money."
More and more countries and governments around the world require invoices to be sent in machine-readable electronic format, in a structured format (.xml) - like our e-invoices. This means that the invoicing software provider must be able to create and send invoices in a format that is adapted to the requirements of the government authorities in a given country.
What are the best moments of entrepreneurship? "Every day is beautiful and interesting. Every day we are all learning and developing. When you stay in the office late into the evening and well into the night because you and your team are looking for solutions to a problem, we are all confused and desperate... Then we have the enlightenment of finding a solution - "wow, that's it!" - that's what nice moments."
But not everything is sweet and pleasant: "On the other hand, you have emotional rollercoaster. Once you have the feeling that everything you do is in vain. The next moment, it feels like you're doing the best thing in the world. Then it's down again... It changes on a daily basis." Yes, entrepreneurial rollercoaster.
What remains the same is his decision to follow an entrepreneurial path. "Yes, that's it."
What advice can you give to those who have an entrepreneurial idea in mind but are not yet committed to it? "Get as much experience as you can. Try different fields and see what you're really interested in. Try what you are afraid of. Then find a good mentor, because that's a useful shortcut."
What are your goals for the future? "To cover all the countries of Europe, to be the first to cover all the countries of Europe and then the world."
They are well on their way, given the current steps and software solutions. See more about DDD Invoices e-invoicing infrastructure >>
