“Startups are a marathon, not a sprint.”
This often-used analogy may have become a cliché but it isn’t far from the truth. For most entrepreneurs, the first challenge is to start and that challenge gets exacerbated if you are a solopreneur. After working for over 16 years in IT businesses, Avo Alender, Erik Mell, Erko Hansar, and Urmo Pärg decided to start on their own.
While they had a combined knowledge of the Estonian IT market and a deep passion for entrepreneurship, they also saw how difficult it was for entrepreneurs to run their own freelancing businesses. This led them to launch Xolo, formerly known as LeapIn, to help solopreneurs and since 2015, the startup has helped over 130,000 solopreneurs in more than 150 countries.
Having successfully delivered localised services in Estonia, Spain, and Italy, the startup has now launched its localised services in the Netherlands. With its Dutch launch, Xolo aims to help Netherlands-based expats and it might be what freelancers, solopreneurs, eenmanszaaken (sole proprietors) need in their truly digital world.
Solo to Xolo
While being a solopreneur is an exciting journey, it is also stacked with challenges. The main one is financial uncertainty or inconsistent income, but managing expenses is also a common hurdle. As a result, solopreneurs are forced to juggle multiple roles and end up struggling with time management as well as the burden of taxes, invoicing, and compliance.
Ariel Cervantes Quintana, Expansion and Partnerships Manager at Xolo, sees three hurdles before solopreneurs or freelancers. The first is the need to build a client base and credibility in a competitive market while working alone. The second is finding access to affordable tools, professional resources and growth opportunities. “These can be difficult to find, and balancing stability with expansion requires careful planning,” he elaborates.
The third hurdle is networking and securing consistent projects and these hurdles can often feel overwhelming without strong industry connections. Xolo offers comprehensive services, including company formation, banking integration, invoicing, expense management, accounting, and tax compliance to help freelancers overcome these hurdles.
“By automating these tasks, Xolo enables solopreneurs to focus on their core business activities, effectively reducing the time spent on administrative duties to near zero,” argues Cervantes Quintana.
The Estonia-based tech company has helped over 130,000 solopreneurs in more than 150 countries through its global solutions Xolo Go and Xolo Leap. With localised services, Xolo simplifies business administration for solopreneurs and enables them to focus on growing their business.
Leading e-Residency provider
Apart from being known for its quality of life, education, and digitalisation, Estonia is also widely known for its e-Residency program. Think of e-Residency as a digital passport that gives entrepreneurs and individuals access to the digital infrastructure of Estonia. While the e-Residency is seen as the silver bullet for Estonia’s recent growth, Cervantes Quintana explains how Estonia was a growing market even before the launch of the e-Residency program.
This growth led the founders of Xolo to seeing the Northern European country as a global leader in freelancing and solopreneurship. Today, the company is arguably the leading e-Residency provider and it has experienced significant growth and strong user feedback.
“Today it’s the #1 e-Residency service provider. User satisfaction is notably high, with platforms like FinancesOnline reporting a 90 per cent positive social media mention rate for Xolo Go, underlining its effectiveness in addressing user needs,” says Cervantes Quintana.
He adds, “We also have a Google review score of 4.8 highlighting Xolo’s exceptional customer service and user-friendly platform.”
The Dutch odyssey
Though it is a de facto leader in Estonia, the company expanded to Spain with its localisation services and has significantly impacted the local Spanish freelancing community. Xolo enables Spanish freelancers to efficiently manage invoicing, expenses, and tax filings by combining expert accountants with an intuitive online platform.
It is now launching its services in the Netherlands as a testament to its success in Spain. In the Netherlands, the service is primarily aimed at sole proprietorships (eenmanszaak) and self-employed professionals without employees (ZZP’ers). The Dutch platform will offer comprehensive tools for business management, including expert accounting support for tax reporting, invoicing, and expense management.
“Our strategic expansion into the Netherlands aims to replicate the positive impact we’ve seen in Spain, offering Dutch freelancers a streamlined solution to administrative burdens and enhancing their operational efficiency,” Cervantes Quintana explains.
While the Dutch reporting system is straightforward, both expatriates and local solopreneurs find managing various aspects of running a business like invoicing, bookkeeping, and compliance to be time-consuming and confusing. It is particularly challenging for expats since they also have to navigate a new language. Xolo is designed to take that burden away.
It is an all-in-one platform that provides professional invoicing, automated bookkeeping, and seamless compliance with Dutch regulations. The best part is that all this is accessible in English and tailored to meet the needs of local professionals. “Whether you’re filing VAT (BTW) returns or tracking your expenses, Xolo streamlines the process so you can focus on growing your business,” Cervantes Quintana quips.
Go-to platform
It is a well-known fact that solopreneurs often juggle between multiple services to manage their businesses. With its entry into the Dutch market, Xolo is positioning itself as the go-to platform for expats and Dutch solopreneurs looking for a platform that makes managing their business seamless. “The focus is on simplifying administration by making VAT (BTW) returns, tax filings, and compliance easy with English at first and Dutch support added later,” explains Cervantes Quintana.
He adds by integrating all these services in one place, Xolo eliminates the need for multiple service providers. With Xolo, solopreneurs and freelancers can “hire” an accounting professional or a business admin without actually hiring one. “Additionally, Xolo will emphasize its role as a gateway to a thriving entrepreneurial community, helping users connect, collaborate and discover new business opportunities.”
With €11.1M in funding so far, Xolo has set ambitious targets for its Dutch expansion including establishing itself as the most trusted name for solopreneurs in the Dutch market. Cervantes Quintana says the goal is to achieve a 90 per cent satisfaction rate on platforms like Trustpilot and Google and as the Dutch freelance community joins the network, he says revenue will also grow exponentially.
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