1. Hi Arsham, you are one of the creators behind Nochba App and the continental winner from Europe in mPreneur, can you tell us more what motivated you to create this app and how this app is helping the communities?
Arsham: By the year 2050 70% of the world population will be living in the cities. Its 2023 and even now we are observing that the cultural differences and the language barriers are leading to the formation of isolated groups. This issue will only keep growing if it’s not addressed. Now is the time to act and therefore we as a team of three software developers decided to dedicate our thesis project to this idea and soon, we will start a business to bring our service to every citizen to change lives for a better future for all.
2. Hope you had great time in Graz, can you share with us and our audience what is your freshest memory that you will remember from the Gala event?
Arsham: As I think back to the amazing party in Graz, I remember a really interesting speech by Paul. He asked us a deep question: “What is the future that wants to be created through me?”. His words made us feel excited about coming up with new ideas and using our special abilities to make the world better.
3. During this event you met with many professionals, experts, did you gain helpful advices, guidance and insights on how you can maybe improve some elements from your product, on what to focus on more?
Arsham: I took a lot of notes as I got to discuss the idea of the Nochba App with a lot of people who are very experienced. But there is one peace of advice that stood out to me, which is: “Find out how people talk about your product, when you are not in the room!” The Nochba App is a neighborhood social media app. We stand for the community building and the sharing economy. Another example for an advice that we got from one of the coaches, which also stood out was this following feature: “An optional button, which when pressed requires the lender and the borrower to sign a risk management contract in case the shared material is returned damaged.”
4. You also participated on the mPreneur training in Ohrid in 2022, how this training and presentations from the professors and other professionals helped you?
Arsham: When I decided to attend the mPreneur event in Ohrid I was aware of the educational lectures, which were going to be hosted by the professors. I wanted to attend this event to compliment my skills in the domain of entrepreneurship. But when I got there, I realized that I learned just as much from the other participants as well as the professors holding the lectures. They all had a unique perspective on each topic from which I learned a lot. Overall, it was an awesome feeling to be a part of something bigger than myself.
5. What is your message or most important advice for the future aspiring young entrepreneurs and innovators?
Arsham: I have two answers which I got from very wise people who changed my perspective on the game. (Both of these answers are equally as important):
→“Don’t fear failure! Fail your way to success. Failure is the path to success. Especially when trying to implement innovative ideas into the world.”
This one is a bit harsh, and it is particularly aimed at software developers:
→” Talk to your f*#$%&ing customers! Before implementing a feature into the app ask yourself ‘Is this feature that you are implementing into your app actually going to be used?’ or even better; ask the customer themselves if they would ever use that one feature, ever? Or did you as a software engineer just waste valuable time implementing a feature that doesn’t solve any problem and which nobody would ever use. Unless they click on it accidentally!”