Fatih Kazim Duymaz: [London] Is a World Leader Not Only in Entrepreneurship but Also in Areas Such as E-commerce, Production and Technology

Fatih Kazim Duymaz of Co Print 3D.

Tell us about yourself?

I am 23 years old, the last 7 years of my life have been spent in entrepreneurship and 3d printers. I have been working with passion for 4 years in our Co Print initiative.

I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was a kid, every day a business idea would come to my mind. I have always had social and intimate relationships. Everyone around me saw this light in me.

What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?

I think the greatest teaching of being an entrepreneur is this: the entrepreneur will always face difficulties, when he overcomes these difficulties, he can become a real entrepreneur.

If there is no difficulty, something may be wrong. As Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your determination.”

If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Take time for your social life too 🙂 You should spare your most precious asset, your time, for people who care about you. You need to be a workaholic, but never neglect to strike that balance. Travel more, trust less.

A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?

Like every entrepreneur, I have had difficulties in this field, and the most important solution to overcome this is to know the value of time.

Our time is precious and we must share it with the people we love. We come into the world once, and the value of that is determined by the bonds we form with the people we love.

Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?

Behind our company lies our passion for 3d printer technology, our teammates are very passionate in this field. As we work to develop this ecosystem, we get rewarded. This is our most important pillar.

What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?

Our relationship with our users makes us very different, we have transparently shared all our processes with our customers in the global market we entered through Kickstarter, in return, users became very connected to us and our brand. This set us apart in the market.

How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?

We entered the market through crowdfunding platforms and achieved great sales in a short time. I advise entrepreneurs who develop hardware to research this channel well, there are great opportunities here.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?

Developing hardware is a big challenge in itself, you do R&D for a prototype for months at the first stage, then you finish it and sell it, but the real challenge is in the transition to mass production.

We worked with different suppliers from various parts of the world for each part for mass production, which was a very challenging process.

What do you find are the advantages of operating your business in London?

England is a great region especially for the London entrepreneurship ecosystem. It is a world leader not only in entrepreneurship but also in areas such as e-commerce, production and technology. We take advantage of these advantages.

Are there any issues with having a London based business? Have you experienced these?

We did not have any problems, we easily dealt with the minor problems we experienced. I do not think that entrepreneurs will have great difficulties in this area.

How has the higher than UK average cost of living impacted your ability to work and live in London and how has this also impacted your ability as an employer?

Since it is difficult to meet the extra living costs of England in the production area, we have realized most of our production in Turkey, which is developing in the production area in the European region. In this way, our costs have decreased while we can send better quality products to users.

If you had to relocate your business to another city in the UK, which one would it be and why?

We could go to Manchester, one of the world’s first industrializing cities. It would have improved us if it was the city with the highest number of companies after London.

How has BREXIT impacted your business (if at all)?

Since we are a global company, it did not affect much.

What is your vision for your company in the next 5 years?

We want to turn the multi-filament printing technology we developed at Co Print into a compact 3d printer. Apart from that, we have different R&D projects in the field of 3d printers. We want to be one of the most frequently used companies in the world in the 3D printer vertical.

And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?

They can reach us through our website and social media channels. Our team will be happy to answer. We are happy to include our teammates who want to work in the field of entrepreneurship, hardware entrepreneurship and 3d printing.

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