Strong Vision, Perseverance and Founding Team are an Entrepreneur's Key Asset - David L. Papp (Founder & CEO)

David L. Papp



When you walk through hell, keep walking. Go ahead, plan, take additional risks and if necessary try to overcome the difficulties by all means. Then all of a sudden the sun shines.


1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Agents Republic uses an enthusiastic global workforce of 2500 customer service professionals to provide next-generation contact centre services. 

The company uses native speaking agents and state of the art technologies -- including cloud automation and artificial intelligence -- to deliver exceptional customer support, technical support and AI training data services. 

This is my 6th company and second in the home-based contact centre outsourcing space.


2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

The idea was born about 12 years ago. After completing my tech and business studies in Europe, I was working one of the largest contact centres as a director, in my spare time, I was an active member non-profit organizations such as AIESEC and JCI. 

In my evenings and weekends, I was working on global projects with young entrepreneurs and professionals full of passion to change the world. Every morning, when I went to work to call centre, I faced the opposite; hundreds of unhappy and demotivated employees, working in cubical sweatshops. 

I wanted to change the way they work, using my NGO leadership experience, technology background and ideas for remote solutions. As soon as the Voice over IP technology became available for professional purposes, I decided to start my own company which was later sold to strategic investors.


3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?

My biggest challenge was myself to be better in what I'm actually doing. It's challenging for everyone to learn how to lead, how to be a better listener and inspire others on a daily basis, as these are essential leadership skills you can't learn at school. 

Even though your business card read ‘Chief Executive Officer’, you still have lots to learn about becoming a leader. 


4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

I think vision and perseverance. The rest is to be learned along the way. Besides these two top qualities, entrepreneurship also requires self-confidence, willingness to take risks, willpower, a will to learn constantly, and some humour to help you get through the difficult times.


5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

Planning and delegation. You don't want to do everything by yourself but you want to know where you are heading. It's hard to figure out the monthly revenue you're about to make years ahead, but as soon as you've done the napkin-math, you've got your goals. 

For yourself and for your team. The next step is to make your team believe in these goals,  planning ahead together and to manage their roles and contributions on a daily basis by keeping your goals and vision in mind.


6. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

If you have an idea, just start right away and gain validation as soon as possible. If the concept works and you have paying customers, keep going and never give up. It's like sailing on the high seas. 

The sooner you start, the better, but if you go back to the safe harbour for each problem (eg. you quit and go back to be an employee), you’ll never be an experienced sailor.

Of course, you need a lot to get started, itinerary (business plan), enough food (capital), sailors (a team of experts), a navigator (controlling), etc., but the point is you have to do it all the way through. 

It won’t be easy, even sometimes hellishly difficult but as Churchill said, When you walk through hell, keep walking. Go ahead, plan, take additional risks and if necessary try to overcome the difficulties by all means. Then all of a sudden the sun shines.


7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

It's sometimes better to have no funds at the beginning, as it's super easy to spend endless amounts of money on unnecessary services, that also cost you time. This gives you creativity and that's all you need to find your way towards your goals. 

There will be a lot of iterations along the way in how to sell and how to deliver better results, but money alone doesn't help - your motivated team does. 

The entrepreneur's key asset is its founding team and it shouldn't cost anything, but great agreements and a strong vision that makes this teamwork better than anything. As soon as value has created and you make customers or subscribers, the revenue of funding comes naturally.

- David L. Papp (Founder and CEO, Agents Republic Inc.)