From Montreal to Frankfurt (and an E-Residency Hack) with Afshan Shamani

I met Afshan at a small conference in Munich. She was sitting at a table next to me during a break. I could tell a conversation I was having with someone about e-Commerce (I think) caught her attention and she joined in.

It was one of those great experiences where you meet someone and immediately feel like you can talk for hours. And we had a lot of subjects in common! Life in Germany as a foreigner, entreprenurial drive and e-Commerce (I used to run an online shop and an Etsy store).

Of course I invited her on to the podcast!

In our conversation Afshan shares her global journey from Canada to Germany, sharing her living experiences in various countries, including Sweden and the Middle East, and how they shaped her entrepreneurial drive.

She discusses the challenges of starting a business in Germany, the importance of building a strong network, and her innovative approach to helping micro-businesses thrive in the digital space with her company, PinoSell.

A little about Afshan

Afshan is a corporate executive turned entrepreneur, driven by a passion to create meaningful impact. With over 16 years of experience and a PhD in computer engineering, she has founded two startups and held leadership roles such as CTO and CPO at Rocket Internet ventures, as well as Senior Director of Product Management at SSENSE.

After working in the luxury space, Afshan shifted her focus to support small businesses struggling to compete in the digital world. Her first startup in the Middle East pioneered the region’s social commerce landscape, serving over 70,000 social sellers.

Her journey then brought her to Germany, where she wanted to found her second startup, Pinosell. As a non german she had to unlock many obstacles. Yet, Despite the challenges of being a non-German entrepreneur, she successfully navigated the complexities of starting a business and now operates across the EU and US. Pinosell is an e-commerce platform tailored for social sellers, offering an intuitive ecommerce solution that transforms Instagram feeds into shoppable sites for physical, digital, and service-based products.

Empowering Small Businesses with PinoSell: A Social Media Selling Solution

PinoSell is revolutionizing the way small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs sell their products and services via social media. It offers an Instant Shop feature, that users canuse to transform their social media content into a shoppable storefront in under three minutes.

The tool also offers a Digital Mentor module, which provides tailored guidance on social media strategies, helping users optimize their sales efforts and engage effectively with their communities.

By bridging the gap between social media and e-commerce, PinoSell empowers sellers to thrive in the digital marketplace without the complexities of traditional e-commerce platforms.

Estonian E-Residency Hack: How to avoid German Bureacracy

A topic I found particularly fascinating was Afshan’s experience with Estonia’s e-residency program. This allowed her to establish a business without the bureaucratic hurdles often faced in Germany. Some of the benefits of going this route include auick and efficient company registration and banking services. Not to mention favorable tax conditions for new businesses.

Find Afshan and PinoSell here:

www.pinosell.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pinosell/
https://www.instagram.com/pinosell_shop/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-afshan-samani-60302510/