Insight

I am a big believer that CEOs, and other relevant people in a company, should keep an open dialogue with potential investors — all part of investing in lines and not dots. Many of these informal conversations will be one-on-one. However, in a recent Board Meeting, we discussed a company’s plan to accelerate a funding round and go on a ‘roadshow’ in …

It’s not about eating. It’s not even about cooking. It’s about socializing. Students from University of Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts have created Cook With a Local to enable people all over the world to connect with each other by cooking and eating a meal together. It all started out in 2013, as a part of …

“Ever since I can remember, I have known that I wanted to become an entrepreneur,” shares Jakob Breddam of WeLoveStartups. WeLoveStartups is an organization located in Copenhagen, Denmark that focuses on assisting startups with funding to help entrepreneurs and their companies reach their full potential. Jakob Breddom, together with Daniel Laursen, founded and came up with the concept of WeLoveStartups …

Business angel Thomas Berglund has set his eyes on a mission. As lead investor in the premier edition of Angel Challenge, an initiative hosted by Startup Norway, he hopes to unleash a new wave of capital to young Norwegian startups. Last year Norwegian tech startups only raised 3.2% of the total investments in the Nordic region, according to the Nordic …

Although there has been much discussion in Norway about cooperation between large corporations and small startups, or “small-big” cooperation, there has been little action taken, and few success stories. This week, BI Norwegian Business School and EdTech Foundry are kicking off their cooperation, and hoping to encourage others to do the same. The collaboration between BI Norwegian Business School and …

Netflix has become one of the biggest online movie and TV show platforms – but what about a platform for readers? Norwegian startup Vio Media is creating a “Netflix” for Magazines. Articles from your favorite magazines gathered in one place. That is the basic idea behind VIO – a digital magazine platform. Vio Media wants to offer readers unlimited digital …

Programming of living organisms, super intelligent algorithms and sensors in human bodies. Although this sounds like the distant future, it can soon become a reality.  Jakob Svagin, Project Manager at the hardware accelerator of the Danish Tech Challenge, identifies 3 rapidly developing technologies to keep on eye on. According to Jacob Svagin, what is common to all three technologies is …

How is the Icelandic startup scene doing?  Here is an overview of what has happened over the last year, using the entrepreneurial ecosystem model developed by Nicolas Collin. This article was originally posted on Startup Iceland. It has been an interesting and inspiring to see what Ken Bautista and Cam Linke with their team have done through Startup Edmonton in …

It isn’t only entrepreneurs who sabotage great business ideas by making stupid mistakes. Investors are just as guilty. Last week at Oslo Innovation Week, we talked with Jeanne Sullivan of Starvest Partners, about the 5 stupid mistakes entrepreneurs make over and over again. Of course, as an entrepreneur, “You have to know what to do and how to do it, …

It is inevitable that you have to use lawyers at some stage if you run a company. At Oslo Innovation Week, Martin B. Rove and Remi Christoffer Dramstad, two lawyers with experience in corporate law and finance, imparted some lessons learned from law for entrepreneurs Avoid the mess Don’t let a giant backlog of paperwork build up – you’ll live …

Entrepreneurs do the same stupid things over and over again. So says Jeanne Sullivan, venture capitalist, New Yorker, and cheerleader of women in business at Oslo Innovation Week. Jeanne knows what she’s talking about when it comes to startups.  With over 25 years of experience as a VC, she has seen “1000 times 1000 companies”. As a cofounder of Starvest …

With experience as both a doctor and entrepreneur, Dr. Imran Rashid from Aleris-Hamlet Hospitals has unique insight on how to perform on a high level while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. As an entrepreneur, you need to perform at your very best in order to establish your business and make it a success. However, the process can be stressful and adversely …

This video was originally posted on HYBE. Finnish biohacking expert Teemu Arina talks about the many ways you can track and measure your life to stay on top.

With over 1.6 million apps available on the Android platform and over 1.5 million apps available on Apple, the growing proliferation of apps has amazed many. Consider this from the second most popular app store in the world: So what is driving the App frenzy among users? Quoting A New Domian’s Sandy Beger, and research by Indiana University, effective branding …

While a lot of effort goes into marketing and advertising to get new customers to buy a product or service, companies somehow do not share the same enthusiasm when it comes to providing a good experience. However, in a world where traditional monopolies are being broken by new age innovations, retaining customers is increasingly rising in importance. Companies, both startups …

On the day he closed a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, Petteri Lahtela, co-founder of health-tracking ring Oura, shared with Hybe his key lesson from the campaign. This article was originally posted on HYBE. Story It’s really important to get the story right. We were using a lot of time and several people, to really streamline the story so that all …

Welcome to the third chapter of Planday’s establishment in the United States – a true expansion adventure, controlled with a heavy hand by Danish-owned Lemonsqueeze,  whose specialty is helping European companies gain a foothold and scale their business in the US market. This week, the team focused solely on preparing a pitch, getting a deeper knowledge of the product, and …

Discover how to start your own startup and build great products in this How to Start a Startup lecture by Bala Kamallakharan, an investor, entrepreneur, speaker, and Startup Coach from Iceland. This article was originally posted on Startup Iceland. In today’s How to Start a Startup lecture, we will be talking about Building Great Products. There are several methodologies on …

Creating your first startup might seem easy – I have an idea, I will hire a ‘techie’, find investors and voila. ‘Wantrepreneurship’ is fun until you step into the world of entrepreneurship within the real startup scene. It might seem luxurious and easy from the outside, but once you plunge into it you will realise how many challenges it takes …

Supercell co-founder and CEO Ilkka Paananen outlined some of his his key learnings in a speech at FallUp conference to 1,600 students in Helsinki on Sept 15. This article was originally posted on Hybe. 1) Before you start, spend time thinking about WHY you’re starting.  I hope the answer is not for the money, as it’s very likely you won’t …