Alexander Raiman

Here at UNYP, we are proud of our alumni, and we love to keep in touch with them. We last met with Alexander Raiman a couple of years ago, and we are pleased to say that we can now update his success story. In this article, Alexander talks about his start-up, his career to date, and his plans for the future.

Alexander, we interviewed you for Success Stories several years ago. Can you tell us what has changed, and where you work now?

Many things have changed from our last talk, I actually opened my own company and for the first time in my career that I made the switch from employee to entrepreneur. Covid time was challenging and I met with many circumstances that defended me from opening a company, however, the start-up is working and I am happy for that. At the beginning of 2020, I was working in a tech startup focused on the travel industry. I had built up a sales team, but then Covid came along, and for the startup to survive, they had to shut down most of the operations – including business development. Sometimes it is important to see the opportunities in difficult times, so I saw this as a great opportunity to set up my own business together with one of my colleagues.

Can you tell us more about the company and what you do there?

We identified the opportunity long ago. We saw how much innovation there is in the Czech Republic: there are many great tech companies, but they have trouble selling their ideas, so we created a sales training company called Saleshero. Saleshero is focused on early-stage start-ups – we help their founders and their salespeople to get their first clients, even at an international level. We are still very small: we have a couple of freelancers helping, but basically I do all the business administration tasks such as marketing, sales, delivery, IT, finance, and reporting. My typical tasks are selling, training and coaching clients. When we launched our business a year and a half ago, we decided to promote it with something fun – our own niche podcast! Saleshero is the first Czech-language podcast which is exclusively about sales, and you can find it on saleshero.cz or on Spotify.

Why did you choose sales?

There are two types of people in sales: the first type does not care for analysis, wants to make good money and learn about business, likes adrenalin, and therefore chooses sales. But I am in the second category: somehow, sales chose me. I was always selling something, even in high school. Sales is a great career, because if you can bring in revenue, you do not need anyone else. Sales is also a financially attractive field; salespeople are always well-paid!

What is your goal?

This year our goal is to train 160 people in the three-month Saleshero program. This will be a huge jump from last year, when we trained 50 people. In five years we would like to run an organization that can train 2,000 people across Europe, and maybe even branch out into Latin America.

What about your UNYP experience? How has your education helped you in your career?

There are some basics that I still remember from class, such as economics and accounting, but I think the most important thing I gained from UNYP is the network that I now have. The fact that I went to UNYP and met a lot of people there helps me to find clients, because the UNYP alumni have stayed in touch, and they all are in successful positions.

Is there anything you would like to say to current UNYP students or to young people who might want to apply?

Go for it! The Czech Republic is a country that produces great ideas, and while it is not the smallest country, it is also not the biggest – which means that it is dependent on international business. UNYP supports ambitious people who are interested in building an international career, and if you want to make money, a UNYP degree is definitely a great help. UNYP students have two big advantages: they know a lot of people, and they speak many languages – including perfect English!