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This is a post by danish entrepreneur Dan Nielsen. Dan is one of the founders of NEST Copenhagen, the first co-living space in Denmark, and here is his notes from a visit from one of Denmark’s most active entrepreneur turned angel investor.
Recently I had the fortune of joining about 15-20 other people in an intimate fireside chat with Entrepreneur and Angel Investor Thomas Madsen-Mygdal.
The event took place in Nest Copenhagen, one of the worlds largest co-living spaces for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t already check them out: http://nestcopenhagen.dk/.
Amongst a lot of other things, Thomas was or still is an active part of Podio, 23 Video, Holvi, Opbeat and a bunch of other startups. He is one of the leading voices on all things internet related in Denmark, and has more experience in online startups than most. You can guess that he not only had a lot of great stories, but also some great insights.
The event took just around 3 hours (no breaks). I’ve boiled down my take-aways to four points, that really stuck with me.
1. You need to fight for something!
You often hear that you need ambitious dreams to become an entrepreneur – or at least to become successful! And this often translates into changing the world – an idea that didn’t always settle with me. What does changing the world mean anyways?
However, Thomas had a point that I really took to heart.
Basically you just need to fight for SOMETHING. That something can just as well be a strictly personal thing – something you want to prove towards others or yourself. Whatever your reason is, just work of that energy and make that your driver for success!
2. Finding the others
When you build a product go find the people that are the very best at what you are trying to do and talk to them. Thomas made the example of an online marketplace. Go talk to the founders of Jobindex, Trendssales or another huge marketplace (insert your regional equivalent).
The basic idea is that these guys have spent a large part of their life thinking about how products like this work, and you can feed of that! Basically you can either spend 15 years thinking about how a marketplace works yourself or talk to someone that already spend 15 years thinking about it to begin with.
If I ever do something in collaborative software, I know I’ll talk to Thomas first!
4. Kill of your disbelievers
This is more a motivational trick than anything else, but I loved it!
There will always be people that doesn’t believe in your product. Make a blacklist or print out their faces and put them on the wall. Find motivation in making sure these guys will get behind your product. Taking a disbeliever down from the wall is an amazing feeling!
5. Boards can be f#*% awesome!
This was a big point throughout Thomas’ stories – however something that might split the waters.
Although way to many boards and boardmeetings are mind numbingly boring and stupid, a board can in fact be amazingly valuable.
A board should work for you, give you connections, challenge your assumptions, and lead the way to new investment rounds. With the right people and the right attitude a board is an extremely valuable thing.
Like Thomas said – he enters the board as a working board member and part of the team!
