'Founders' Valley:' DW searches for next big thing in Asia
October 17, 2017
Detzner meets with young business founders, looking for visionary ideas as well as innovative and inspiring solutions. The first episode is being broadcast on October 23, 2017. "Founders' Valley" will be adapted in several Asian languages.
"Founders' Valley" wants to showcase unique characters and their stories, thereby highlighting solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues. The series pairs the UN’s ten most urgent global challenges with entrepreneurial ventures in countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
In Mongolia, the focus is on globalization as Detzner and the young Asian entrepreneurs try to span the gap between the traditional and the modern world. In Bangladesh, the urgent issue is employment and the future of work. And in Malaysia, German startup idol Detzner explores how Asian entrepreneurs try to work out options to provide enough energy without pushing the planet to the edge of the abyss.
A multimedia project
This summer, Deutsche Welle launched an English-language Facebook account to promote the series. DW - Founders' Valley has gained over 85,000 likes in the past three months. The channel has got a high interaction rate and provides an ideal platform for founders both in Asia and Germany. One of the recent highlights was a live exchange with Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Bangladesh’s minister for communication and information technology.
About host Fridtjof Detzner
After a decade building a successful tech company, German entrepreneur Detzner decided it was time for a new adventure. The 34-year-old business founder, sportsman, traveler and self-proclaimed idealist says that "it's an opportunity to do what I'm passionate about: learning about other countries, seeing different perspectives from other entrepreneurs and witnessing firsthand the progress and new technology that has occurred since I started."
Fridtjof's own entrepreneurial journey started in 2007 when he co-founded DIY website builder Jimdo. Over the subsequent decade, he has not only helped businesses and individuals around the world launch over 20 million websites, but also created a company with 200 employees and offices in Hamburg, Tokyo and San Francisco.