Benjamin Talin is the visionary CEO of MoreThanDigital, a global platform dedicated to driving digital transformation, innovation, and sustainable growth for organizations worldwide. With a deep commitment to making knowledge, data, and tools accessible to all, Benjamin is recognized as a thought leader in digital strategy and future-readiness. Under his leadership, MoreThanDigital has become a catalyst for change, empowering businesses, governments, and individuals to thrive in the digital age. Let us discover more about his journey, insights, and impact in this exclusive interview.

1. Can you tell me about yourself and your career journey so far?

I started my entrepreneurial journey at the age of 13, driven by a curiosity about technology and how it could solve real-world problems – and I loved playing with computers. Over the years, that curiosity evolved into a mission that led me on a journey of setting up agencies, consulting companies and eventually advising governments and ministries around the world. From that consulting, and from a small blog I started to explain the simplicity of the future, I built MoreThanDigital in response to a world that desperately needed more accessible, impartial and actionable insights for business.

What started as this little blog publishing platform is now turning into a global ecosystem that already helps over 2 million people every year, and is now expanding with tools like MoreThanDigital Insights – the world’s first true business diagnostics platform, and there will be many more to come. And let me tell you – the journey has been anything but linear or planned – it has been filled with sacrifice, learning and a relentless drive to make a lasting impact, as well as sweat, tears and really bad times.

2. What inspired you to pursue your current profession?

Frustration – and a bit of serendipity. But mostly I do things because they don’t work, they’re annoying, and when I’m frustrated, as I was with the lack of clarity and actionable insights available to decision makers, and even more so with how consulting and digital transformation were inaccessible or ineffective for so many. I wanted to create something that actually helped – not just a business, but a platform that could change the way we think about management, growth and economic development.

And I created tons of concepts for governments and ministries around the world for economic development, large scale systems change and education, but these concepts were always “too new” and so they didn’t implement them. This frustration turned into MoreThanDigital, for which I gave up all my other businesses and turned it all into my #bethechange mission to democratise knowledge and tools and give every business and person, regardless of size or budget, a fair chance to succeed in the future.

3. What have been the most significant challenges in your career, and how did you overcome them?

Building something new – if you’ve tried, you know how hard it is to build something that no one has done before – especially something that challenges established systems like the government world or the whole consulting industry – believe me, it comes with resistance and a lot of stories that aren’t nice. I’ve had people trying to sabotage my work, financial burdens and moments where I felt completely alone, fighting against a hidden machine that was more powerful.

But every challenge became fuel for me – I hate when people tell me I can’t do something, so all I have to do is prove it. I surrounded myself with people who believed in the mission, stayed true to the vision even when it was hard, and just kept going. Perseverance and a deep sense of purpose were key and the community was really necessary, especially in times when it felt dark and lonely, they gave me great feedback and support.

4. Can you share an example of a project or task that you’re particularly proud of?

Launching MoreThanDigital Insights after 6 years of development was a huge milestone – it was never meant to be this long or this expensive and I still managed to fund it all myself. It took over 3.5 years just to create a management model and a framework to really measure, analyse and compare companies and their health and we had nothing to compare to, so we started in the dark and had to create our own light.

So for me it’s not just a product; it’s the culmination of thousands of hours and everything I’ve learned and everything 120 people have learned in their lives, real sweat and sacrifice and the belief that we could build the world’s first complete diagnostic platform for businesses. To see it being used by governments, consultants and businesses to make better decisions – I was in tears when it finally spit out the first numbers, it felt surreal and deeply rewarding. Every emotion at once.

5. How do you balance personal and professional growth?

Honestly, for many years I didn’t. I put everything into the Vision – time, energy, even my savings. I literally gave up friends, family, etc. and dedicated up to 18 hours a day to working on Insights and somehow just making ends meet. But I’ve learnt that sustainable impact also means taking care of yourself – because at one point I was really drained.

Now I try to make space for reflection, learning, meaningful relationships and what is very important to me: travelling and exploring. I guess this is why people say that personal growth fuels professional clarity and especially traveling gives my brain new food for ideas.

6. What role has mentorship played in your career development?

I have always had mentors, but I have also learned from everyone – colleagues, books, even critics who have challenged me. I listened carefully, asked hard questions and thought deeply, and as I said before, I love being challenged and it makes me grow fast and it puts me in a “tunnel”.

Now I try to be that mentor for others. And of course, at MoreThanDigital, creating systems that scale mentorship – the upcoming AI at MoreThanDigital is something that will do just that – is my way of paying it forward.

7. How do you approach decision-making in high-pressure situations?

I rely a lot on structured thinking and data, but also slowly on my intuition from past experiences – which I’ve honed over time. In high-pressure moments, clarity is everything, and as a fact-guy, it helps not to be stressed by high-pressure situations.

I zoom out, assess the core issue and stay anchored to our mission. Pressure reveals your values. That’s when you need them most.

8. What values guide your professional and personal life?

Integrity, impact and innovation. I believe in doing the right thing even when it’s hard, building solutions that really help, and staying curious enough to keep pushing boundaries.

My work is about being part of something bigger than myself. This is why I have started so many initiatives and manifested our vision and mission as #bethechange.

9. Can you describe a turning point in your career that shaped your current trajectory?

I mentioned earlier that there was a moment when I was invited to influence decisions at government level and they paid me to create new things, but they didn’t want to do it. At the same time, I was surrounded by loudmouthed “experts” who were just selling buzzwords, and I got angry that everyone was using digitalisation, innovation, etc. as buzzwords to sell shiny new toys to unknowing people.

I realised that the work I was doing as a consultant wasn’t just about technology or business – it was about changing systems, and if I continued to do that on a case-by-case basis, company by company, I would never have a bigger impact. That was when I fully committed to building an ecosystem that could serve and grow not just individual companies, but entire economies and societies.

10. What advice would you give to someone starting in your field?

Don’t wait for permission – just do it. If you see a problem and you think you can solve it, do it. It won’t be easy. People will doubt you. But if your mission is clear and your heart is in the right place, it’s worth every setback. And you can only win, either you succeed or you learn.

I’ve screwed up so many businesses and projects and every one of those failures has taught me a lot and I wouldn’t be here with this rucksack full of experience and knowledge if I didn’t fail fast, hard and often.

11. How do you stay motivated when faced with setbacks?

Well, most of the time I don’t really care – I’ve started to just overlook the setbacks and carry on. And when it hits me harder, I remember why I started and then I focus on the future and solutions.

 

I think about the next steps and the future we’re building. And I use the doubts, the failures, the setbacks – as I said, as fuel. Every ‘no’ only makes the ‘yes’ more meaningful.

12. What are your long-term goals, both professionally and personally?

 Professionally, I want to build a trillion-dollar company – not for the valuation, but for the scale of impact. I want MoreThanDigital to be the “health system” for business, helping millions of people and businesses thrive and entire economies and ecosystems grow.

I also want to make a positive impact, which is why we also work on systemic issues like climate change and gender equality or access to education. Personally, I want to grow as a leader, stay grounded and create a life that’s about purpose, not just productivity. I want to look back and say I helped change 1% of the world.