Sound Hub Denmark helps AVAtronics take the leap

The sound start-up AVAtronics is “in good shape” despite travel restrictions and other obstacles, but they would still be hesitant to hire people in Denmark, if they had to do it without the help of Sound Hub Denmark.

The Swiss sound company AVAtronics is working hard to expand the business beyond country borders in a time where simply travelling internationally is a challenge.

Hardworking is also the impression that Jeyran Hezaveh, CEO of AVAtronics, leaves when she enters or rather leaves, the room. Her business trip to Denmark has been extended so it would better fit the schedules of her Danish business partners. This means that she has to cancel a doctor’s appointment in her home city of Lausanne because she is still in Struer.

AVAtronics was one of the first companies to join the startup accelerator program in Sound Hub Denmark – a program designed to help the startups take their businesses to the next step.

We have received a lot of support and information, we have an employee here, and we are using the facilities,

she says before leaving the room with her phone to her ear, trying yet another time to cancel the appointment

Doing business in Danish

Earlier this year AVAtronics hired their first employee – a step that was necessary in order to continue expanding. This makes the company the first from the Sound Hub accelerator program to hire a local employee.

We have always wanted to hire. Not necessarily in Denmark, but also in Switzerland because we are growing in both places,

she says and explains that the profiles they are looking for are hard to come by and very sought after in the industry, which doesn’t make it easier to expand. But a Danish employee also brings an added responsibility of understanding the Danish employment system and following the law.

You can’t just stop

I have to keep asking to make sure that I’m not extrapolating what I know from other countries to here,

Jeyran Hezaveh says. She has previously worked in the US, Iran, Switzerland, and now Denmark. The four countries each come with their own set of rules and obstacles. Especially the Danish language can be a challenge if some of the documentation is not translated into English. And then there is the difference in mentality between the countries.

There are places where you are supposed to keep calling and asking if things are going well, and there are other places where you should never do that,

she says with a smile before finally getting through to a receptionist on the phone.

Right now it is in navigating the different rules and mentalities that Sound Hub Denmark is proving worth to AVAtronics.

Without Sound Hub we wouldn’t have done it. We have relied very much on the advice they have given and it is very much appreciated,

she says while at the same time being aware that running a start-up company in a new country will always bring its fair share of challenges:

You can’t just stop. Problem solving is part of the DNA of a start-up.

Learn more about AVAtronics in this film made by Scale-Up Denmark and about they vacant job positions here.

About AVAtronics

• Founded in Switzerland in 2016.
• They make wide-band noise-cancelling software. This is a technology that cancels out more noise on the frequency spectrum than regular active noise cancelling.
• The technology can be used in products such as elevators, cars, and headphones.
• Jeyran Hezaveh got the motivation to start the company after a flight from China next to a crying baby.