Henrik Werdelin on the entrepreneurial life
Living his life on what he calls ‘data based gut feelings’ Henrik Werdelin, founder and CEO of Prehype calls himself an OCD entrepreneur.
Being a true believer that structure always defines the output, Henrik Werdelin started his presentation explaining how he coincidentally met his wife at a dinner with friends. First he studied various fields of personal psychology and dating theories, mapped his own profile and the perfect match profile and then stalked his network to find candidates for dating.
The anecdote is very explanatory for his approach to starting, running and invest in businesses which he presented some thoughts about at TechBBQ today.
Defining successful entrepreneurs
Acknowledging that entrepreneurs are very different people, Werdelin brings up a few common traits that he believes defines entrepreneurs.
First of all entrepreneurs operate under anxiety in that they often move in unknown fields, where users and customers are also anxious to get their problems solved. What classifies successful entrepreneurs, is that they are very good at embracing this anxiety.
“Doing something wrong is better than not doing anything at all,” Werdelin says
He also emphasises that successful entrepreneurs work with problems that they find interesting. Statistically your chances of succeeding as an entrepreneur are really small, so why not do something you actually like while trying?
Also, you should challenge yourself to work with people that are smarter than you. Be ambitious and dare to learn from smart people – only like that you will grow as an entrepreneur.
Time is your currency
While people up until now have had to peak in their work lives when they are about 40 years old our generation should prepare to peak a lot later, as we now get much older in general. Time is your currency – make sure that you consider thoroughly how you spend your time, and how you plan the future.
The entrepreneurial life in Denmark
After the presentation we asked Werdelin to explain his view on the entrepreneurial life in Denmark.
“I generally have a lot of faith in the Danish entrepreneurial environment and scene. I have a sense that a lot of great and important things are happening at the moment and that it is growing fast. I think Denmark experiences a lot of highly competent and great ideas with great potential.”
However, he has some advice for the Danish entrepreneurs who make it on the small Danish market and who wish to go abroad and go big.
“During my career I have only been approached 3-4 times by startups who wish to go abroad. For instance Trustpilot who have definitely proved to be able to make it outside the boundaries of Denmark. If you dream of expanding try to reach out to people like me and simply ask to be put in contact with relevant people,” Werdelin encourages.
Henrik Werdelin ended his presentation with valuable advice for entrepreneurs:
“Live the dream, use both your heart and brain, and don’t burn out.”
