Carsten Nygaard BroeggerLeading YOU to Choose a Better Future

Carsten Nygaard Broegger

Leading YOU to Choose a Better Future

Innovative ideas are the predicament of the leaders that took a different approach and took valid actions to make them a reality. It makes them unique, and a sought-out leader keen on driving change can inspire, cultivate, and ignite meaningful changes in the world. Akin to such innovative leadership skills is CarstenNygaard Broegger.

As the Founder and CEO of CasusGrill, Carsten aims to become a role model for the market in disposable barbecue and inspire others to become healthier and environmentally conscious about the products they may encounter. CasusGrill™ is an award-winning Danish innovation company with a green DNA and passion for making a difference for the planet earth. It aims to combine sustainability and smart, functional design to re-design and make a green transformation of existing products, which we use every day.

A Persistent Journey

Born and raised in a family that has a long history in the furniture industry, Carsten's upbringing was highly influenced by life lessons and challenges that came with it. He reminisced that the conversations at dinner were often about how they could change and innovate while perceiving how new tomorrow will be!

Creativity and development have always been the essential things in Carsten's life that helped him shape to become what he is today. He says, "My wife often expresses her dissatisfaction when we shop because I do not look at the products, but more how things change. It can be anything from store decor, customer behavior, trends, and compositions or how things are simply made!”

Carsten knows that being an entrepreneur is not just rosy! Getting a good idea presents many challenges and

pondering questions. How should your new idea be made? How do you fund your idea? How to create success with the idea? How do you protect your idea? Speaking from experience, Carsten asserts, "I have made my mistakes and fallen into many "stupid" fall groups. One thing is for sure if you do not dare to think differently and change things, the road to success is much longer.”

Carsten states that everything may sound extremely simple, but persistence is one of the essential cornerstones of success. He knows that most people give up just before the finish line! Carsten's mottos is when a door closes, three new doors open – it is always a matter of finding them in time!

If you are not constantly evolving, then you are in liquidation.

The Inception

Carsten asserts that the idea behind CasusGrill arose on an RV trip in the French mountains back in 2009, where he had the experience of using disposable aluminum grills. The first did not start, and the second took a long time before it got hot, and the heat was uneven and tough to cook on. He says, "Our son was eight years old and very curious. By accident, he touched the aluminum tray and got a small blister. But it was not just that - the discarded aluminum trays from the disposable grills lay left around in fields, in bushes with burn marks after use. A really bad experience!”

Thus, CASUSGRILL was born!

The DNA of CasusGrill is to combine sustainability and smart, functional design in re-design and green transformation of existing products people use in daily life at an affordable price.

CasusGrill is an innovative and green company. It wants to become a role model for the market for sustainable products and inspire others to become healthier and environmentally conscious about their products.

Effective Impact

Carsten expresses that the barbecue and accessories market has always been conservative. The lack of focus on sustainability and green transformation has been a hallmark

of the industry. The bigger and more masculine the grill can get - the better!

CasusGrill has an entirely different approach and point of view, where sustainability plays a crucial role in the product being convenient and solving the challenges of the existing disposable aluminum grill. It has made a green transformation of one of the essential things in human existence - cooking, however, with a minimum footprint in nature compared to the existing product on the market!

Sustaining Environment

In Carsten's view, technology is many things. However, CasusGrill is only made of sustainable materials like cardboard, bamboo, lava stone, and bamboo briquettes. All biodegradable materials, except the lava stone insulation, are inorganic and neutral products, without any risk of rotting or transforming. It can be recycled, and there is no need for a landfill; it can easily be returned to nature or even used as soil improvement and 100% pure cultivation for plants.

To do this, you'll need fire and cardboard. The key is to use and put together different materials in a new way - in a specific relationship and a particular design.

Carsten notes, "What may not be possible today will be possible tomorrow - the sky is the limit, or you set the limit!”

The Preparation for META Universe

According to Carsten, Virtual Shopping will be the next big thing in the META universe combined with artificial intelligence. One can virtually walk around a local supermarket, hardware store, or shop. He notes that one can talk to the clerk and receive guidance in the buying process, demonstration of products if desired.

Carsten says, "CasusGrill will be ready and a part of this META universe when it becomes a reality. CasusGrill must be able to be bought, experienced, and enjoyed with family or friends in a virtual way anywhere in the world.”

“CasusGrill is here to make its green print on our planet.

A Long Way Ahead

In Carsten's view, CasusGrill is just the beginning of a long journey that never ends. "There will always be products where green transformation will be relevant. One day it will be relevant to make a green transformation of green products that already exist - due to technology evolving at a rapid pace and making the impossible possible today." CasusGrill will always strive to be one of the leaders in its segment.

Ideas to Reality

Carsten advises budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the consumer goods sector to take even the most impossible dreams and make them come true. He believes that this is where the best ideas emerge! He continues, "Never take a NO for an answer, even if it looks bad and you thought all options are exhausted. There is always a solution to everything - it's just about finding the right solution. Never be greedy as it can end your days as an entrepreneur.”

Carsten adds that going to a store and getting inspired - the task is simple - just do it better than your competitors and keep it as simple as possible.

Always choose the path to a better future!

David Wachs

Building Lasting Bonds with Customers through Power of Handwritten Notes

In an age where everyone is drowning in electronic communication, handwritten notes really stand out. They go a long way in building lasting relationships with people, and companies that send notes are set apart from the competition. To help its clients leverage this untapped form of outreach, Handwrytten automates handwritten notes on behalf of companies large and small.

Handwrytten was founded to fill an unmet need of sending handwritten notes as easily as sending an email. To solve this problem, the company invested heavily in robotics to build a machine unmatched in handwriting quality and scalability. The mind behind the company is David Wachs, CEO, Founder and Chief Robot Mechanic. A serial entrepreneur, David is bringing back the lost art of letter writing through scalable, robot-based solutions that write one's notes in pen.

The Challenge of Educating People about the Unique Service

Handwrytten was founded in 2014. The first challenge that Handwrytten faced and is still facing is making its target audience aware of its service. Handwrytten is very unique and has truly defined the space of automated handwritten notes. It has been successful in doing this primarily through Facebook and LinkedIn advertising, but also through earned and paid media placement.

Delivering Realistic Handwriting

As Handwrytten has grown, it needed better robots to write the notes for its clients. Its initial vendor's technology was antiquated, and the results were not in line with its expectations. Four years ago, Handwrytten began a journey to design, program and build robots itself. Now, it has 115 custom built, pen-wielding robots. These robots deliver the most realistic handwriting available. Handwrytten builds these robots for much less than its old robots used to cost, allowing it to scale up faster. As it has full control of the software and firmware, it designs fonts and signatures quicker than it could have otherwise, and makes additional improvements to increase realism as well. Handwrytten's robots are now its point of difference and no other company comes close to its capabilities.

Learning from the Greats

David states that he was fortunate to meet Conan O'Brien while he was in college over twenty years ago. Conan told David and his classmates to “always get in over one's head”. David has never forgotten these words of advice. He

lives by this mantra daily. The book “E-Myth” by Michael Gerber has also made an impact on David. This easy-toread book talks about setting up one's business as a franchise, even if one never plans on operating it as one. By going through this process, one is forced to create a manual, define jobs, create processes, and as Michael explains, “work on the business instead of work in the business”.

Reaching out Using Handwritten Notes

The pandemic has created terrible isolation for a good percentage of the population. People are forced to work from home, abstain from in-person meetings and gettogethers and are separated physically from their loved ones. This is painful and scary for many people. David says that as a business, it is important to reach out to one's clients and customers just to tell them you care. Of course, Handwrytten recommends reaching out using its service, as it knows that handwritten notes generate impactful and personal results. As a company Handwrytten used handwritten notes throughout the pandemic, but its team also picked up the phone, called its clients and asked if there was anything they could do to help.

Handwrytten is uniquely qualified to overcome this challenge due to the nature of its business. By the end of 2020, Handwrytten's business was hitting sales records as people began using its service to send well-wishes to their prospects and clients.

Ensuring Happiness and Productivity of Employees

David has built and sold a company before. In this process, he has learned what is truly important. It turns out, happy, productive employees are the key! As such, he works every

day to ensure his employees are happy and excited to come to work. While he certainly makes his employees work hard, David wants them to stick around for the long-haul. He states that employee turnover is one of the most expensive factors in running a business.

To improve work culture, David advises to hold weekly meetings on the financial and operational state of the company. This creates a sense of transparency and instils ownership by the entire team. He suggests praising publicly and criticizing privately. He advises giving “shout outs” to team members during the weekly meeting but giving criticism to employees only in private. He also suggests having frequent fun events.

Supporting Inclusiveness

Handwrytten has put a “Handwrytten Cares” section on its web site, with cards for equal rights and Black Lives Matter causes. 100% of the profits from these cards go to aligned causes.

The Road Ahead for Handwrytten

Handwrytten will continue iterating its robots and creating more integrations into other platforms. In addition to its plugins for Salesforce, Zapier, Integromat and SyncSpider, it is releasing a plugin for Shopify shortly, and it hopes to revisit its HubSpot integration. It is currently revamping its web site and is excited to release the new version in Q3 of this year. Longer-term, Handwrytten plans to roll out additional facilities around the world. It will also partner with 3PL and other forms of partners to incorporate its offering into their service.

David Wachs

CEO, Founder and Chief Robot Mechanic

Handwrytten's technology allows customers to scale their handwritten outreach, creating positive impressions and long-lasting bonds.

Being Considerate of Emotions of People

When everybody else is pivoting towards digital, David advises future leaders to realize the consumer is analog and emotional. He recommends the leaders of tomorrow to come up with solutions to grab the emotions behind their target audience, and don't just recreate a familiar marketing offering done by dozens of other software firms. David says that in the last 5 years so much of marketing and advertising has gone online, and this has created huge opportunities to improve the offline experience as well.

Innovation- The Key

very day there is a new product that brings Edisruption to the market and becomes innovative. In the business world, innovators are the ones who look at problems differently and find solutions others may not see. Not following traditional methods and looking for new ways is the way to success.

Being innovative is the most crucial aspect to thrive in today’s competitive business world, and without it, one may survive but will not get successful.

What Numbers Say?

In 2015, the Deloitte Innovation Survey found out that many companies approx. sixty-six percent believed that innovation is the key to business growth. Innovation allows businesses to increase their reach, merge with new partners, and scale up to more human force. Adding innovation also puts the organization at a positive front end and attracts more investors towards it.

Why Innovation Matters?

When an organization comes up with innovation, no matter its size, growth is guaranteed. Top leading companies in the world with different sectors like Tesla, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are known for their innovation. Apple is the leading smartphone company but it generates 1/3 revenue from its accessories; Apple’s AirPods' revenue is more than Adobe, Spotify, and Twitter. The reason behind this enormous success is the innovation and the focus towards the problems which can only be solved by making an innovative approach.

What’s the Catch?

We all have encountered people in our life who are different than others and even being alone is not becoming a hurdle to their success. The logic is simple, thinking different or out of the box is also a part of innovation where one wants to explore new things beyond its declared boundaries. Thinking EV cars as the future of automation looked like a dream but Tesla made this possible. The company did not choose the easy path, but explore the possibilities with futuristic batteries, and enhance the durability. Now, this is what any company can do which is what we call advancement. What Tesla did differently is they just did not advance their EV cars but transform them into futuristic ones by adding automation. They introduced the concept of cars without human interaction. It was combining the idea of renewable energy and making driving safer than ever before. Today, Tesla is one of the leading Fortune 500 companies that has doubled its revenue in a very short period.

Understand the Market

Innovation is also the key to ruling the market. The modern world is not waiting for anyone, as the customers' demands bar have risen very high. From advanced communication, digital platforms to globalization, everything from anywhere is reachable now without any boundaries. We already have seen that if anything that has the capacity to bring global impact can be monitored by the whole world in few seconds. An idea that has the potential to transform people’s lives to some extent or can fill the consumers' demand that has not noticed before, is innovation. People constantly change their choices and want something amazing, and new with upgrades, and that makes the market unpredictable. Innovators have to predict change and understand the demand of consumers, so that there will be a solution even before the customer needs it. Determination and appetite for constant growth is the real quality of innovators and successful business leaders.

Idea Check, Market Availability Check, Then What is Next?

Transforming an innovative idea into a successful venture is a long journey. If you are capable enough, you can finance the idea, but if you are not then there you need stockholders (angel investors) who will provide the fund. But arranging the funds and establishing the operations is only half success. It is people who brings an idea into reality, and then lead it to success: people with the same mindset, people who are able to see and modify the perspective. Finding and adding talented people to the team is essential. And people with talent and vision also love to work with innovative ideas and in a vision that comprises success. For an innovator, the challenge is the thrill they are starving for and is the way to keep them encouraged. So lead with talent, align vision with investors, and most significantly innovate; an idea, a dream, or something that can bring change.

INNOVATION DEFINES SUCCESS