What does it take to build a nearly $100 million company - completely bootstrapped - in one of the world's most old-fashioned industries? And then be unanimously chosen by a 12-judge panel as Chile's World Entrepreneur of the Year?
In the Season 2 premiere of Advancio Talks, host Carlos Ponce sits down with Janan Knust, CEO of Klog.co and EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 (Chile), for a conversation that's equal parts startup story, leadership philosophy, and honest reflection on what success really means.
Janan's path was anything but conventional. Born in Israel to a Moroccan mother and German father, trained in hotel management in Switzerland, and having lived in 13 countries, he arrived in Chile and spotted something most people overlooked: the freight forwarding industry was stuck in pen and paper — and ripe for transformation. From that insight, he built Klog.co, a logistics and supply chain technology company that now moves cargo for hundreds of clients, employs 200+ people, and earned a Harvard Business School case study — all without raising a single dollar from outside investors.
In this episode, Janan opens up about the phone call that changed everything, the wave of fear ("What did I do wrong?") that preceded learning he'd been recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year, and what it was actually like to walk into a room in Monaco alongside 50 of the world's most accomplished founders. He also shares the guiding principle that judges said set Klog apart: measuring success not by what you take, but by what you give.
You'll also hear Janan's take on:
- Why resilience means living in the discomfort zone, not just pushing through it
- His framework for technology adoption: "Systematize the predictable to humanize the exceptional"
- What surprised him most about the world-class entrepreneurs he met at EY
- The future of AI and automation in logistics — and why people still matter more than ever
- How to hold humility and ambition in the same hand
Whether you're building a company, rethinking your industry, or just looking for a dose of genuine purpose-driven leadership, this episode delivers.