Iceland review - 2013, Qupperneq 16

14 ICELAND REVIEW
THE
FISHMONgER
Next generation businessman 15-year-old Starri Steindórsson
talks his Hong Kong-based fish-delivery company WILD-C.
I
schedule the appointment at 16:21 at Penninn-
Eymundsson, the big bookstore in the heart of
Akureyri. Twenty seconds too early, I notice a young
man entering the store, looking for someone, glancing
at his watch. “You must be the fishmonger,” I say. “I’m curious:
how can you sell Icelandic fish in Hong Kong, while living here in
Akureyri in North Iceland?
“I just saw a business opportunity and grabbed it,” says Starri
Steindórsson, a 15-year old businessman and student, who is a year
ahead at the Akureyri junior college, MA. “I grew up in Hong
Kong where my father sells fish from Iceland to fine-dine restau-
rants and I saw an opportunity to sell Icelandic fish to individuals,
specially-packed and home-delivered. My father’s company sells
fish in big quantities but I sell it in small sizes, tailor-made for
families for cooking at home, and I do it from my computer in the
high school dorm.
“It takes 48 hours from the order to the time of delivery. I’m
working hard on shortening the time span and hiring more people
to my company, WILD-C—business is growing.
“I reach my targeted Hong Kong customers through direct
advertising on Facebook where they order the fish of the day,
mainly cod and salmon. The Facebook advertising costs me 15
Hong Kong dollars a day, while my daily sales total 3,500 HK
dollars.
“Do your customers know where you’re based?” I ask.
“No, my customers have no clue that I’m working in a differ-
ent time zone, on a different continent in a small town in North
Iceland. It doesn’t matter. The time difference gives me the chance
to concentrate on school work during the day, while I communi-
cate with my Hong Kong customers before and after school so they
will get their special order on time as promised.
“As I grew up in Hong Kong, I can communicate in English but
I can also manage Cantonese, german and of course I converse in
Icelandic with my family.
“Why did you leave the former British colony for Akureyri?” I
wonder.
“Of course I could have been in high school back home. But
I’m Icelandic, my father is from the fishing town Patreksfjörður in
the West Fjords and my mother from Kópasker in rural Northeast
Iceland, and I wanted to come here and study. I chose MA because
of the dorm and it’s a small school in a small town. Also, some of
my family members have studied here. I’m very happy with my
decision. I have met so many great people and made new friends
from all over Iceland. It’s good to experience a completely differ-
ent culture from that in Hong Kong. Icelanders are more loose
and funnier, especially my schoolmates from Dalvík. They are all so
funny… I’m not sure if I should say that, but it’s true.”
Asking Starri what he plans to study after graduating from MA,
he responds, “People go to university to work for others. I’m
founding another company soon—the concept is still a secret—so
I don’t think I’ll ever go to university.
“You learn more through running your own business, through
the failures and successes you’ve made. That will be my university,”
says the young man as he puts on his headphones, heading back to
school while listening to Fun playing ‘We Are Young.’
WORDS AND PHOTO BY PÁll STEfÁnSSon