Alexander Suess is disrupting the print industry with his venture, Gogoprint, currently based in Bangkok with plans to roll out across SE Asia.
What’s your story?
Alexander is passionate about creating innovation and shaking up industries. While building Thailand’s largest e-commerce venture for air conditioning, Alexander had many painful experiences ordering print products (relatively high price, slow production speed, limited reliability). He felt the printing industry in South-East Asia is ready for disruption. Alexander is very driven and likes to push things forward. This helps him to drive Gogoprint’s growth and run the sales & marketing team of the Gogoprint Group. Alexander graduated from Germany’s leading university for business administration, the University of Mannheim, and is fluent in Thai. His vision is to shift the power to SMEs and individuals, which are today underserved by the traditional printing industry, characterized by high and intransparent prices, as well as long lead times.
What excites you most about your industry?
The printing industry in its current state is very traditional and slow-moving. The printing houses that lead the market have been relying on recurring revenue from large companies which are not so price sensitive, while underserving smaller customers that are forced to buy at high prices. This leaves a lot of room for innovation in the areas of production, sales, and customer service. Gogoprint stands out through its user-friendly, complete, and high performance website that is constantly being improved and further developed. Further, Gogoprint relies on technology to efficiently bundle orders from multiple customers in order to save paper waste, cost, and offer lower-priced printing products. Overall, Gogoprint’s efforts are all aimed towards meeting the customer’s needs.
What’s your connection to Asia?
The internet industry in SEA is a still in it’s early stages and many consumer problems still are to be solved. This makes SEA the perfect place to be right now.
Favourite city in Asia for business and why?
We chose to launch our business in Bangkok for a couple of reasons. First, Bangkok is developing fast in general, with a lot of new businesses popping up every week. It is a hub for entrepreneurship and SMEs, which represent a large portion of our target group. Second, Thailand is a very large market, with decent infrastructure, growing internet and e-commerce penetration. In combination with reliable partners from the logistics side, this means that Gogoprint can cater to a vast population. Third, Bangkok and Thailand are centrally located in SEA, and is therefore a great hub for further expansion into other SEA countries. Lastly, Bangkok is an awesome city to live in, and that’s just the truth.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Have the courage to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect of you.
Who inspires you?
My dad who taught me among many virtues the virtue of hard work.
What have you just learnt recently that blew you away?
How much headspace 10 minutes of daily medication can give you.
If you had your time again, what would you do differently?
A millions things – but definitely to get mentors on-board early on when you start a company.
How do you unwind?
Close my laptop, take a book and read.
Favourite Asian destination for relaxation? Why?
Any (rain)forest for trekking. Most preferably during the cold season. Taking long walks are my favourite way to clear my head, and take some time to relax and think. Trekking can also be quite physically challenging, and push you to redefine your limits. For instance, Cameron Highlands in Malaysia are a beautiful and awesome place to do this.
Everyone in business should read this book:
It’s a classic but extremely inspiring: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Shameless plug for your business:
Disrupting the printing industry in South East Asia and making Gogoprint the worry-free destination for fast and reliable high-quality printing at affordable prices.
How can people connect with you?
Website: https://www.gogoprint.co.th/
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://th.linkedin.com/in/adsuess
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This interview was part of the Callum Connect’s column found on The Asian Entrepreneur:
Callum Laing invests and buys small businesses in a range of industries around Asia. He has previously started, built and sold half a dozen businesses and is the founder & owner of Fitness-Buffet a company delivering employee wellness solutions in 12 countries. He is a Director of, amongst others, Key Person of Influence. A 40 week training program for business owners and executives.
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