My no. 1 productivity hack: arguing with strangers on the internet.

Hi, I’m Alan.   Maybe you have seen a few of my videos and posts of mine. But maybe you don’t really know that much about me. So let me introduce myself. 😄    I’m 44, originally from Baden in Switzerland, and I have been living in Zurich for around 25 years. I have also been a very unsuccessful entrepreneur for most of my life. I tried 51 startup ideas. None of them really worked. Number 52 was Amorana. An adult toys company. We built it for around 12 years with my co-founder Lukas and sold the company in 2022. That was the first time in my life I had real money. But there was one problem: I was overweight and very unhealthy. So naturally, I decided to try to qualify for the Olympics in curling with the Philippines. 🇵🇭🥌 Completely normal life decision. 😂 Curling became my whole life for a while. We became Asian champions on the way, but missed the Olympics on the very last day of qualification. Very painful. But we documented the whole journey. And now, somehow, I am also a film producer. Our movie Long Shot will premiere at the Zurich Film Festival very soon.  My next side project is poker. I want to play the World Series of Poker in 2027 and try to get into the money. Probably as one of the worst poker players in the world right now.  A few other random facts about me: - I lived in a hotel for three years. At one point, I owned only 72 things. I’m not really a minimalist anymore. Now I spend money on dumb things like Lego Crocs. 😀 - I love traveling. When I didn’t have much money, I visited every capital of every canton in Switzerland. Later, I visited every country in Europe. Today, I have been to around 72 countries. I don’t travel as much anymore because I’m focused on building again. - My favorite movie is Lord of the Rings. - My favorite series is Game of Thrones. - And one of my favorite songs is Till the End by Logic. Thanks for reading my posts and watching my videos 🙏

6 startups. 4 investors. A live audience. I’m testing a new startup pitch event. Early-stage founders pitch their businesses to investors. You can watch in person or live on YouTube. Friday, 4 December 2026 Breakfast from 08:30. Pitches from 09:30. Westhive, Hardturmstrasse 161, Zurich. Want to pitch your startup or join the audience? Get your ticket at alanfrei. com/events

@Roland Brack was one of our investors at Amorana. This was before he had made many investments and before he became known from Die Höhle der Löwen Switzerland. I got to know him because I simply reached out to him. For us, Roland was always an e-commerce role model. From the outside, I had seen what he had built with Brack, but I only really understood how strong he was as an entrepreneur when he became part of our board. What I appreciated most about Roland was that he always had a very clear opinion. But he never forced it on us as founders. He would say very clearly what he thought, but then also say: “In the end, it is your company and you have to make the decision.” That is exactly what you want from a board member. One example was when we were thinking about opening a physical store. Roland said he understood the idea, and he had tried similar things before, but in the end he believed we would create more revenue if we focused on doing online really well. We were not completely sure, so we tested it with a pop-up store. And he was right. 😄 Over the years, a friendship also developed, and I still have a lot of respect for Roland. For me, he is one of those entrepreneurs who really started from the ground up. Before online commerce was even a thing, he printed leaflets for students at the university and distributed them so people would order from him. Roland was a great board member, a very strong entrepreneur, and someone I learned a lot from.

That business idea didn’t work. The next one might. Start again. And again. And again.

Booking.com’s customer service was exceptional 👏 First, I was connected to AI. It understood me 100%. It even had fake typing sounds in the background, which felt surprisingly reassuring, even though I knew they were fake 😂 The AI prepared everything, then connected me to Ralph, a human agent. He changed my non-changeable hotel booking for free. AI is getting better by the day 🤯

Average @Porsche post 150k views. Porsche Mission S is at 20 million and counting.

Risky, but well played @porsche. And mindblowing @Tesla Porsche understands meme culture. Free marketing for them

I want to interview dead people. 😄  Sounds strange, but let me tell you how.   I have a podcast where I interview entrepreneurs, and I also have a series where I talk about historic entrepreneurs. But now I had a new idea:  What if I use AI to interview entrepreneurs who are no longer alive? For example Henry Ford. Or in Switzerland, Alfred Escher. The idea would be to let AI study everything that exists about them. Books, interviews, letters, speeches, stories, biographies. And then try to recreate how they might answer in an interview.  Not as a perfect replacement, obviously. But as a way to explore their thinking. I’m not sure yet if it will work. I’m currently testing it with AI tools like HeyGen and a few other things. (If you have done AI videos please write me) But I think it could be a very fun format.  Maybe soon you will see me doing a podcast with a dead person. 😄 Who should I interview first?

Become cool first, then rich. The other way around is much harder.

I finally won my first poker tournament. 😄♠️  I have been playing poker for around six months now. And so far, the results were not exactly amazing.  For the first time, I actually won the tournament. Yes, only with friends. But a win is a win.  And finally made some money with poker. 😂 What did I do differently?  1️⃣ I was more relaxed It was a group of friends, and I joked around more than usual. Normally, I can get quite focused and serious. But apparently being relaxed helps me play better. 2️⃣ I played fewer hands I was very tight. I didn’t try to be clever with every hand. But when I had good cards, I played them aggressively. That worked quite well. 3️⃣ I also got lucky  Let’s be honest. Poker is skill, but it is also luck. At one point, I had a straight flush. Very helpful. 😂 So yes, I’m very happy.    Still very far away from being good. But at least now I know how winning feels. Btw, we are also organizing the AFC x Swiss Casinos Zürich Poker Tournament for entrepreneurs. It will take place from March 4-6, 2027 at Swiss Casinos Zürich. You can choose your starting day: March 4 or March 5. I would love to see you there.  Link in the comments. ♠️

My feed has too much politics. It’s a) not productive and b) it decreases my happiness. I am looking for interesting content and travel hacks. Need to reprogram my algorithm. What are interesting accounts to follow?

Roger Schawinski invited me to Doppelpunkt. And then he uninvited me again. 😂 Doppelpunkt is one of those Swiss media formats I always wanted to be part of one day. Roger Schawinski has interviewed so many interesting people over the years, and what I always liked about him is that he asks very directly. He was also one of the reasons why I started podcasting and interviewing people myself. I even stole my first podcast question from him. But now the interview is not happening as planned. That is part of the journey. As an entrepreneur, you get rejected all the time. The question is how you deal with it. I think there are three ways: 1. You argue You can try to convince them, but usually it does not help because they already made their decision. And it is their show. They can do whatever the want. 2. You try to be stoic You can tell yourself you don’t care, but in this case, I was really looking forward to it. 3. You turn it into something positive You take the disappointment and use the energy to create content, promote the movie and build momentum. That is usually the best option for me. Not always easy, but productive. So no Doppelpunkt for now. Maybe we can make it work another time. Until then, I will use the energy to keep telling the story in my own way.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for 25 years, and here are 3 things I wish I had understood earlier. 👇 1️⃣ Good people make all the difference In the beginning, we didn’t always get hiring right. But over time I learned that the longer you keep great people, the more valuable they become for the company. They understand the culture, the customers, the mistakes, the systems and the small details that make everything work. 2️⃣ Brand matters more than ads You can optimize everything for SEO, Google Ads and performance marketing. And of course that matters. But if nobody remembers you, it becomes very expensive very quickly. Once people know your brand, trust your brand and come back without you paying for every click, the game changes. 3️⃣ It always takes longer than you think I thought we would sell my company after 3–4 years. In the end, it was an 11-year journey. 4️⃣ Relentless focus is underrated As an entrepreneur, you always see new opportunities. But the hard part is not seeing opportunities. It’s saying no and staying focused long enough to make one thing really work. Building something meaningful usually takes much longer than expected. And that is okay. Looking back, these lessons were not always fun to learn. But they were probably some of the most valuable ones. What do you wish you had known before starting your business?

In 2023, I made a plan: go to the 2026 Olympics. We came up one game short. Along the way, we became Asian champions. And somehow, our story became a movie. It turned out beautifully. Just different from what I had planned. But here’s what I realised while watching the movie on the big screen. I’m no longer disappointed that we didn’t make it to the Olympics. That feeling is long gone. What I miss is waking up in a shitty hotel in the middle of nowhere in Canada. Walking into the breakfast room as my teammates arrive, one after another, already cracking jokes. I miss the trips to Tim Hortons together to get bad coffee. Playing in small-town arenas, meeting the nicest local people you will probably never meet again. Having a beer in the evening and cracking some jokes again. Andy Bernard from The Office said it best: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

You can be nice and successful.

What a night 🤯. The movie's world premiere is done! 🎬🇵🇭 Still processing everything.  Yesterday, Long Shot had its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival. Green carpet. More than 700 people in the cinema. A lot of emotions. And a very special feeling to watch this whole journey on the big screen together with friends and family. A huge thank you to everyone who came, supported us along the way, followed our Olympic journey, and made this evening possible. And a big thank you to the Zurich Film Festival for making it happen.  Still feels a bit unreal. 😃