Born in Bethlehem, Palestine, Butrus Said spent a major part of his childhood in Beit Sahour. However, as he grew up, he had to pursue better opportunities and explore the world for places that offer the best to him, which is why he soon moved to Germany, at the age of 17. On his arrival to Frankfurt in 2002, $117 and a suitcase was all of his possessions. He started right from the bottom and made a point to never return there for long.
During his stay in Germany, Butrus Said picked up several side hustles, and selling handmade wooden knickknacks at the local market was one of them. “I remember feeling extremely cold during the winters in Germany. Palestine was never like this and it was as if the bitter winter cold had seeped into my bones. I could not take it any longer and want to return back to my Homeland but at the same time I needed to keep on supplying the handmade knick-knacks and grow the business that I had started in Germany”, Butrus Said recollects.
In 2004, Butrus Said found eBay; he began researching not only about E-Commerce in general but also eBay as a platform and read through several stories of other sellers and buyers. By the end of 2016, along with the help of classmate August Krol, the company was at a level where it would make 20 million euros in annual sales. But, by small mismanagement in funds for restoration, the entire business found itself bankrupt, and Butrus Said was once again left at square one.
Facing failures and hardships was nothing new for Butrus Said and once again he was ready to fight his way to the top. Instead of accepting defeat, Butrus Said decided to learn from his failures and implement them into a more successful business model. Butrus Said raised a new company from the ground up and carried out all tasks himself. With only 2 other employees and departments of customer service, logistics and merchandise management outsourced to external companies, Butrus Said was able to make a bigger and better business- which the earlier one never had an option of being. “Within only one and half years I was able to withdraw operationally from the company again and led it only strategically.”, he explains.
Today, Butrus Said is a successful entrepreneur, exalted around the world and considered a mentor and advisor to many. To know more about Butrus Said, follow him on:
