You are never the boss of your business

Ange Dove (00:01)
Welcome to You're the Boss podcast show. Today I have Laurent Cohen with me. Laurent, welcome to the show.

Laurent Cohen (00:08)
Thank you, Ange. Thank you for having me, and hello to everyone listening.

Ange Dove (00:14)
Really glad to have you here. Laurent, tell us a little bit about your background—who you are, what you do, and where you are—and we’ll go from there.

Laurent Cohen (00:28)
I’m 54. I was born and raised in France. I moved to the US back in 2002, and right now I split my time between the US—where our headquarters is—and Tel Aviv, Israel, where I’m currently located.

Ange Dove (00:50)
Alright. So tell me about your journey into entrepreneurship. How did it all start?

Laurent Cohen (01:04)
It started back in 1993. At a young age, I felt the urge to find independence. At the time, I thought that meant freedom—but entrepreneurship is not exactly freedom. That’s something we can explore further.

Ange Dove (01:29)
You create your own little cage, right?

Laurent Cohen (01:34)
It depends on how you define freedom. I wouldn’t trade entrepreneurship for employment, but calling it “freedom” isn’t entirely accurate. No matter how successful you are, you always work for someone else—your customers, platforms, or partners.

Ange Dove (02:57)
You mentioned earlier that you’re not the boss, even though this podcast is called You’re the Boss. Can you explain that?

Laurent Cohen (03:19)
I’m not the boss—my customers are. Many entrepreneurs start with assumptions about what people want. If you stick to those assumptions, you’ll fail. You must constantly listen to your customers and adapt.

Laurent Cohen (05:44)
Every morning, I check metrics and customer engagement. I do the same at the end of the day—and even a few times in between. Some people take breaks by walking—I take breaks by listening to my customers.

Ange Dove (05:55)
So it’s not about big pivots, but constant adjustment?

Laurent Cohen (05:44)
Exactly. Adjusting every minute, every hour.

Ange Dove (06:35)
The business journey isn’t linear. You have to get comfortable with uncertainty.

Laurent Cohen (06:35)
It’s very humbling. If you’re not constantly being challenged, you’re probably in a bubble—and that’s dangerous.

Ange Dove (08:10)
Tell us about the volcano incident you mentioned.

Laurent Cohen (08:40)
In 2010, I ran an e-commerce business shipping globally. Everything was going great—until an Icelandic volcano erupted. Flights across Europe were grounded. I was shipping around 1,200 packages per day, and most got stuck.

Laurent Cohen (11:06)
Customers were understanding, but delays caused chargebacks. Our rate hit 1.4%, and banks canceled our merchant account. We couldn’t process payments anymore.

Ange Dove (12:53)
That’s devastating.

Laurent Cohen (13:04)
It set me back three years. But in hindsight, it was one of the best things that happened to me.

Ange Dove (13:58)
Why?

Laurent Cohen (14:03)
Because I learned. I realized I had all my eggs in one basket—100% of my business relied on international shipping. So I built a Plan B, diversified, and created a second business that eventually outperformed the first.

Ange Dove (17:47)
That’s such an important lesson.

Laurent Cohen (17:47)
Also, don’t let business setbacks affect your mental and physical health. Over time, you learn to stay calm and resilient.

Ange Dove (18:12)
Were you affected by the 2008 recession?

Laurent Cohen (18:19)
Ironically, it helped me. While the US economy struggled, my international business thrived—which contributed to my overconfidence later.

Ange Dove (19:13)
What about COVID?

Laurent Cohen (19:13)
COVID hurt my business—but by then, my mindset was stronger.

Ange Dove (19:24)
How did you develop that mindset?

Laurent Cohen (19:53)
First, know yourself. I’m a hands-on entrepreneur. At one point, I tried to delegate too much—it didn’t work because it wasn’t aligned with who I am.

Laurent Cohen (22:38)
I also started using tools to manage stress—apps, meditation, and routines. These help you stay grounded.

Ange Dove (23:53)
Going back to the bank issue—how did you recover?

Laurent Cohen (24:10)
I found alternative payment processors—but at a high cost, up to 12% fees. It took years to fully recover financially.

Ange Dove (25:28)
So how did you transition into what you’re doing now?

Laurent Cohen (25:51)
I became fascinated with AI—especially voice AI. I realized the technology was strong, but small businesses weren’t using it due to lack of trust.

Laurent Cohen (28:39)
So we built a company focused on trust, not just technology. We now have 1.8 million business listings, each with a voice AI agent trained on real data.

Ange Dove (32:10)
How do you ensure accuracy?

Laurent Cohen (32:10)
Two layers: business-provided data and crowdsourced learning from millions of interactions. Plus, guardrails and fallback systems to ensure reliability.

Ange Dove (35:33)
Where can people find your platform?

Laurent Cohen (35:33)
Visit getablick.com, search for your business, or create a listing. It takes about five minutes, and you can start using voice AI immediately.

Ange Dove (37:33)
Thank you so much, Laurent. Any final thoughts?

Laurent Cohen (37:56)
Don’t be afraid of AI. It won’t replace humans—it will free us to focus on what we do best.

Ange Dove (39:45)
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Laurent. It’s been fascinating.

Laurent Cohen (39:56)
Thank you, Ange. All the best.

Ange Dove (39:58)
Thank you.