Monday, September 28, 2015

Biking in Denmark




Leg 8: Höganäs - Helsingborg - Helsingør - Copenhagen
After a rewarding meeting with Alex Molvin and a beautiful ride along the west coast down to Helsingborg, it was with great excitement I left Sweden and crossed Skagerak with the ferry to Helsingør. I had been told that Denmark is an exceptionally good land to bike in, and these rumours proved to be right: dedicated bike lanes, great surface, and a rather flat landscape. I am not sure whether it was the good conditions, my excitement, or both, that made me accomplish the distance two hours faster than expected. This, despite the fact that I experienced the closest I've come to a crash, so far: in a small passage, some roadwork was going on. I therefore decided to take a shortcut across the sidewalk, since it was empty. Suddenly a roar comes from behind, and I can see a juggernaut coming at me. I'm still on the sidewalk, but the juggernaut has a trailer that is broader than the road. In order to not be hit by it, I throw myself sideways, but there is a wall covered in ivy. I manage not to get hit by the trailer, but instead, my helmet is stuck in the ivy. Shaken by the incident, I although made it to Copenhagen, safe and sound.




Leg 9: Copenhagen - Vordingborg
After a biking-free day in Copenhagen, I took Galaxersomsliterdinabraxer south towards the town Vordingborg. This was a quite unproblematic ride, and I even fell asleep for a couple of minutes when taking a break on lawn, next to an excavator showroom. I believe that Vordingborg is one of the many "summer cities" I will pass during this journey.




Leg 10: Vordingborg - Rødbyhavn - Puttgarten
The last day in Denmark offered many small and remote cities, such as Sakskøbing and Guldborg. In the middle of nowhere a parkway occurs, and my map suggests me to take a 90 degree turn. In the map, there is just a straight line, going tens of kilometres across the fields, it sure looks wrong. But it isn't, this is an old railway that nowadays acts as a so-so, but beautiful, biking path. After biking through the "byhåla" Holeby, I finally reach Rødbyhavn and the ferry towards Germany.




I believe that Sweden can learn a lot from the Danes when it comes to encouraging biking. In Copenhagen, basically all streets have bike lanes, and on the countryside the roads have broad verges with the bicycle symbol painted on them. Moreover, the flat landscape, funny signs and perfect weather made the few days of biking in Denmark really awesome!


På gensyn!

Saturday, September 26, 2015

JUF.dk - Feeding Lawyers

My next meeting is taking place in Valby, one of the suburbs of Copenhagen. I am about to meet with Halfdan Timm, founder of JUF.dk. I circle around the building a couple of times to find a spot where I can lock my bike - it seems like I am not the only biker here.


- Hey, you made it! Welcome!


Halfdan seems to be in an exceptionally good mood today. Not that I can compare with anything, since this is the first time we meet. I dive right into it and ask him how it all started.


- I was, or still am, studying law in Aarhus, and I for some reason started to write a Q&A kind of website about the things I've learned. Mostly about contracts and wills and such things.


In parallel with his studies, Halfdan was working part-time with online marketing.


- When I saw that the site actually started to generate traffic, the online marketer inside of me realize that "hey, this might actually be a business opportunity"!


The name of the site was up until then called "Byens-Advokat.dk" (the lawyer of the city), but the Danish BAR association was not too happy about the name.


- They called my school to check whether I was a lawyer or not. Since I was like six years from it, I had to change name of the site.


The name name then became JUF.dk, a name without meaning.


- Haha, I knew you were going to ask. Nah, Jur.dk was taken, so it became JUF. And it also became a company. People that visited my site were not doing this over a glass of wine on a Saturday, they were in deep trouble and hence also willing to acquire legal service. Hot leads, you can call it.


The idea of the site is that people in need of juridical assistance write to JUF about their situation. JUF then match the clients with suitable lawyers or accountants.


- Lawyers are very professional, but they don't have a clue about how to get new clients. They know nothing about marketing, but I do. Accountants are perhaps a little bit more progressive, but not a lot. It has proven to be quite successful idea, and now there is even some competition. What sets JUF apart is that we also tell the clients when they don't need a lawyer. Hence, we are more objective than the competitors.


Recently, one of the competitors made an offer of acquiring JUF.


- This was the third time they asked, and now the time felt right. I actually sold the company a couple of weeks ago. But there are still some paperwork work to be done.


I ask him what his future plans are.


- I am finishing my degree in Aarhus now, and then I like to travel before I start on something new. Currently, I am doing some online marketing consulting. By the way, have you ever eaten surströmming?


I tell him that I actually haven't, and he then insists on showing me a video with some men from Texas eating surströmming. Inspired by the clip, I indulge in a banana from the fruit basket, thank Halfdan for the interview and head out in the autumn sun again.


Friday, September 18, 2015

Heaps – Tinder for Groups


The sun is still shining, despite the fact that it is September, and I am meeting with Frederik Bjerager Christiansen, CMO at Heaps. Copenhagen Business School has several campuses, and I’m about to visit the business incubator at one of them. When I enter the office, there is full activity going on.

– There is some event going on tonight, I think that it is the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce that is here.

In the building, more than 30 companies have their offices. I explain to Frederik about what SSE Business Lab is all about.

– Yeah, this is the exact same thing, but for CBS students then. It’s a cool place. When you have been here for a certain amount of time, you have to show a proof of concept. If you succeed, you move down one floor to another office space. We should do this if it wasn’t for the other plans we have.

I ask him what the plans are, and he smiles mysteriously. Instead, I ask him about how all of this once started.

– This was in February 2014. I had been in Mumbai for an exchange semester, and was picked up at the airport by my friends. We were supposed to celebrate my return to Copenhagen, and it ended up with five guys drinking. At 10 someone asked, “where should we go out?”

This was a Tuesday, and Copenhagen doesn’t have an awful lot to offer on a regular Tuesday night.

– Then suddenly, on the other side of the street we could see a couple of girls also pre-partying. We thought that it would be great to team up with them, so we tried to communicate by flashing with lights and stuff. Someone suggested that we should through something on their window, but that felt like a bad idea. We ended up not being able to communicate withthem, and the night could have been awesome instead of the crappy night that we experienced.

The day after, the friends thought about the problem with not having a way of communicating in cases like this. And they wanted to find a solution.

– We started thinking and realized that “hey, maybe we should create an app that solves the problem”. So we did it.

The guys did some research on the market, without finding any real competitor.

– There was Tinder, but that’s more for dating. Two of the guys had girlfriends; our idea was not about dating, just partying. 

After meeting up after school, working on the app until 2 am every day, an outline was finished after three months.

– We have a mix of competences within the group. During the product development phase, the business people could not contribute as much as the rest of the guys. We decided to cook for the others instead, contributing in some way.

But as soon as the app was developed, the marketers found their way of contributing.

– We handed out exclusive invitations to the hot guys in school, saying that they could not tell anyone. Of course they did anyway, and the hype was on.

When a big fashion magazine picked up on the release of the app, the users started finding their way.

– We got 5 000 users the first day, 3 000 the second, and 2 500 the third. Denmark’s biggest newspaper also wrote about the app, and that drove even more traffic. On New Years Eve alone, we had 10 000 downloads.

Now, the friends were at a crossroads – should they go 100% on this idea?

– What if we in 20 years regret that we did not try? We had to do it, so two of us moved to LA to try the market over there. Quite soon we got invited to sorority meetings, and I’ve never felt more like a superstar than when I entered a room with 100 cheerleaders, all listening to what we had to say.

In one and a half month, the team got a strong traction in LA, and they will continue to target the American market.

– We are right now negotiating with potential investors. As soon as we are ready, we’re all moving to LA. It will be crazy!

Today, Heaps does not have a revenue model, but that does not seem to scare off any investors.

– This is the case for many apps. We decided to create the perfect app for the guys that wanted to party that February night. Not for the five guys that started a company the day after.

Heaps is Australian slang for “many”. The app has already found its place in the market, and if the LA adventure takes the team to the next level is yet to be seen. But the 80 000 users of today are actually quite many. That’s Heaps.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Soundboks – From Idea to 1.5M DKK Revenue in Three Months

 

26 hours after my meeting with Alex, the sun is still shining, and also in Copenhagen. This is my first biking free day, but despite this fact, I decide to take the bike to my next meeting, I park on Gammel Kongevej, right opposite to The Lakes, and take the elevator up to Soundboks' office.

I’m supposed to meet with Hjalte from Soundboks. But the office is swarming with people. After asking three people, I finally find his office.

– Hi Erik, welcome! Christopher will join us. Let’s find a room.

This is easier said than done; Hjalte and Christopher are sitting in a collaborative space called Lydens Hus (The House of Sound), and is similar to what SSE Business Lab is like.

– From the beginning, only sound-related companies sat here, but nowadays any businesses are welcome. This place is funded by the state, and we are really grateful to sit here. And you cannot really complain about the views, right?

Soundboks started with Christopher. He had visited the Roskilde festival for many years, and each year, he built his own speaker.

– It is sort of a tradition that you build them yourself. And there is also some prestige to build the best ones involved.

I tell Christopher that I don’t really recognize this situation, and that I for sure would have no clue on how to build my own speakers. But Christopher sure did.

– The speakers I made became quite good, and I realized that most people, like you, don’t know how to build speakers themselves, but many of them still wanted one. I guess you can say that we found a demand, especially since the only competing product really sucks.

Christopher teamed up with Hjalte and Jesper, who took innovation classes in high school. They started to sell via yellow pages, and managed to sell 150 items before graduating.

– The sales went well, and we decided to try this out for real, putting everything else aside.

January first, this year, it started for real; in less than three months, the product was developed, designed, and a factory for in-house production was set up.

– The goal was to be able to produce and sell 500 speakers for the Roskilde festival. We found an empty space that we could use as a factory, we bought tools and tables, hired people, and started producing.

Simple design. "No matter how drunk you are, you should still be able to get how it works"

But it was not an entirely smooth ride.

– One month before the festival, a second batch of batteries came. Our supplier had not informed us that they had changed the product slightly, but this change made the battery shut down the amplifier in the speaker – disaster! We reached out to a sound engineer, and after some consulting we realized that we could still use these batteries if we tweaked the product a little. We barely slept during the spring, but it was really worth it!

When it was time for the festival, 70 people were queuing outside Soundboks’ booth before opening.

– It felt unreal. Some of them had been waiting there for ten hours, bringing sleeping bags and all.

Soundboks had 16 people working in the booth, 24 hours a day. They sold out, and it all ended up with a revenue of 1.5M DKK.

– After Roskilde, we produced around 100 more speakers, all of which we sold at another festival.

Soundboks have found a gap in the market. Their only competitor offers what Soundboks believe to be a not-so-good product.

– What sets our speaker apart is that it is plays very loud, and the battery life is very long – you can play up to 30 hours straight with full volume. Moreover, it always comes with two batteries, so you can charge the other one when the first is playing. And it will never break – we have tried to brake it by throwing it around, but it didn't.

An extra battery that can be charged externally

Now, phase two is about to start. The Soundboks team is now working together with a sound engineer to build a better version of the speaker.

– We also need to hire some developers, and more marketing people. Today we are four founders and six employees. We want to do this for a living, so we also need to find the right investor for the ride ahead.

The plan for 2016 is to sell 10 000 speakers – a bold goal.

­– Sure, but we have to aim high. There are more festivals than just Roskilde to go to, and we are now also reaching out to fitness chains. In the longer run, there is a huge American market with college frat parties and the tailgating culture.

Christopher, Hjalte and I (in a different order).

Christopher and Hjalte are 20 years old, and have had their company for less than a year. But the guys already have more business experience than most people. They now know that this is what they want to do, and they have a lot of time in front of them. We take some selfies together, and I thank them for taking the time, heading out in the Copenhagen sun again.
Office views. And Galaxersomsliterdinabraxer.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Biking in Sweden




Friends!

When writing this, I am already in Hamburg, watching the loading dock from Hafencity. A lot of things have happened since, but don’t you worry – first things first; I’d like to tell you about how it has been, travelling by bike in Sweden.

Before I started this trip, I basically had not biked at all. Without comparison, the longest and most adventurous trip I had made to that point was biking to work from Uppsala to Stockholm in May 2014.  This is around 80 km, and I had not been training one single time for it. I also had to make sure to not be too late to work, so it was a tough trip for me. But that was one single time, and luckily for me, I did not have to bike the day after, nor the day after that. This journey is different.

Leg 1: Stockholm – Södertälje – Vagnhärad – Nyköping
Perhaps unexpectedly, but this was the toughest day, so far. It all comes down to two things: time, and food. Making my first interview already in Stockholm made me hit the road very late. I left Hornstull at roughly 13.45, and this was way too late. I had so much to do before starting my trip, I simply did not plan the first day of biking, and thought that I solve it along the way. I sort of did, but it was not the smartest of moves.

Between 1 and 9.30 I had one chocolate bar, and 120 km of biking, with no training. I did not know Galaxersomsliterdinabraxer as well as I do today, and I kind of got lost in the Stockholm suburbs, making me reach Södertälje later than I expected. I did not realize the first leg was that long, and as it got colder and darker, I simply ran out of energy. In between Vagnhärad and Nyköping it is basically nothing, except for a tiny village called Svärta. Despite my condition, I could see the irony in that name.

When I finally reached Nyköping, which seemed to be a really cute city by the way (but it might as well have been hallucinations), I was taken care of by my dear friend Magdalena. She had prepared pasta for me, and I ate it all. And some other stuff as well. It was wonderful.

Leg 2: Nyköping – Norrköping – Linköping
Magdalena is a doctor, which means early mornings. And this was good for me, since I had just as many kilometers to bike as the day before. Barely recovered from the day before, I started biking towards Norrköping – a 60 km ride I had to complete before lunchtime. It was raining cats and dogs (an expression I once learned in school, but never have heard either before or after, but this is the time to use it), and that is of course not optimal when biking. It is not the rain per se that makes it tough though, I was well equipped with a nice kayak jacket.  So far, I have only used my phone as a map, and I have it mounted to the handle. When it is raining cats and dogs, this is not really an option. Instead, I have to stop all the time and take it out of my pocket. This makes you loose time and oftentimes take a wrong turn..

I reached Lina Skandevall’s office in the center of Norrköping at 11.53, despite the rain and loosing the chain. Couldn’t be happier. Having learned form my mistakes the day before, I had a double cheese with fries; A smart choice.

After this interview, I headed over to the industry area by the airport in order to meet with Jörgen Wonisch, and then straight through town again, aiming for Linköping. It was cold and wet, but Snapchat made me survive the ride. And I crossed Göta Kanal, that’s a milestone as good as anything. While finally reaching my friend Petrus’ place, after struggling with height differences and the cobblestone around the Cathedral of Linköping, I repeated yesterday’s pasta indulgence. Petrus had never seen anything similar before.

"Göta Kanal – lummig och sval"

Leg 3: Linköping – Mjölby – Väderstad – Rök – Syllerstorp – Ödeshög
The day could have started way better – I lost the bike key. After searching for it for, say, two hours, I almost gave up. The construction workers that replaced the pipes in the neighbor’s apartment thought it was a good idea to move my bike, and also to cover it in a layer of red-brown dust. I was sure that I had left the key on the floor next to my bike the night before, but there it was only dust by now. I blamed myself, and of course the construction workers, before I found the key in some obscure pocket of my rain jacket. I was happy again – but I had lost a lot of time. It was lunchtime, but I decided to hit the road instead. I know this was not optimal, but I had to.
Fancy lunch on the go
"Mjölby – en lugn och säker plats", Ville Vessla once said
A tribute to all my SASSE friends
This day, I got to experience three things that showed to be very crucial for a biker: headwind, knee problems and hills. The headwind was very obvious, and it became very obvious to me from where Väderstad got its name. My knee started to hurt, partly because of me having my saddle about 1.5 cm too low. Small details, one could think, but it makes a real difference. The uphill was not very apparent along the ride. I thought it was the headwind alone that made this leg tough. But when I checked the map on a computer, I was able to see the altitude, which was increasing throughout the day.

The Rök stone

Syllerstorp greeting

Östergötland got some winds. And some beauty.

Around 6.30, it started to get cold, but I still decided I have to visit the runestone in Rök, just to take a photo for my dad (and to rest my knee for a moment). For some reason, I was not alone. No less than three different crowds of German runestone fans were checking out this remarkable piece of stone. I hurried to Syllerstorp, to see some weird trucks, and then further to Ödeshög, where my cousin Fredrik lives.

Leg 4: Ödeshög – Gränna – Jönköping


A new day, new opportunities! The sun was partly shining, and I knew that this leg should be a beautiful one. The first couple of hours was spent along the Vättern’s shore, before reaching Gränna. I had chats with Marie Lundberg about Amalia Eriksson at the museum, with two ladies about apple plantations at a lunch restaurant, and with my friend Martin about my gears over FaceTime. Fun times!

In between Gränna and Jönköping, some roadwork had to be done on the highway. What had seemed to be a quite peaceful road now became filled with cars and trucks hurrying in at least 110 on the narrow and hilly road without shoulder. Scary, but I made it.

However, the last kilometers between Kaxholmen (nice name by the way) and Huskvarna made it worth all the struggle and fear. Downhill all the way, sunshine from above, Vättern on my right, the apple plantations the ladies in Gränna had been talking about on my left. I could see my goal ahead of me, and this was really one of my trip’s highlights!

Leg 5: Jönköping – Vaggeryd – Värnamo
Wanted ice cream. Came 60 years to late.
After spending the night at my old friend Emil’s place I was recharged and longing for the woods of Småland. And I got a lot of that on my way down to Värnamo. After arriving at a restaurant in Vaggeryd three minutes before lunch hours were over, I basically get to eat what was left in the kitchen. Well-needed, because my next hour was weird.

A smart decision to enter
So far, I had trusted my map app wholeheartedly. This time, it suggested me to take off at a small gravel road in a crossing. So I did, disregarding the fact that a sign warned me for this being a military shooting area. I thought the warning was only valid for the road straight ahead, but I was wrong. Every tenth meter the following hour I was enlightened that being in the area was associated with mortal danger. Luckily for me, I survived this adventure as well, ending up in an idyllic environment outside of Värnamo, where my friend and former SSE student Sofia Blomstrand grew up.




Leg 6: Värnamo – Lagan – Ljungby – Markaryd
The day after, the rain was back. Big time. On my way through Småland’s woods I visited the small town Lagan, right by the river called… Lagan. What was especially fun this day, was that it was the city’s official day. A handful of people saw brave aerobic instructors defied the rain and performing everything from pilates to zumba on stage.



I was not staying too long in Lagan, since I had to reach Munich on time. Next stop was therefore Ljungby, a city that seemed to be famous for having a funeral museum.

Graves. Many graves.
Deers. Many deers.

Good surface. Naah.
It had been a very, very long day with bad roads, deer farms, and loads of rain, when I finally reached Markaryd. The bead and breakfast I intended to visit was full, and the receptionist was surprised herself, so I had to tent. To be honest, I have never raised this kind of tent myself before, and I probably do not know how to do. But it served its purpose, and did not leak during the night. But everything was already wet anyway, so it did not matter that much. I can understand that Markaryd might be beautiful sometimes, but this day it wasn’t, and I have not felt as lonely as I did this Saturday night, having pizza all by myself.

True professionalism
"Make me the largest you can"

Happy face

Leg 7: Markaryd – Örkelljunga – Munka Ljungby – Ängelholm – Höganäs

Happy that the day before was over, I woke up the next day and packed my bags. After searching in vain after some place serving coffee in Markaryd on a Sunday (why did I not try the church?) I hit off towards Skåne.

Multi-niche differentiation in Örkelljunga
The weather app in my phone only showed the “wind” symbol. I begged for it to come from behind, but it didn’t. When I reached the west coast outside of Ängelholm and tried to capture the moment on picture, Galaxersomsliterdinabraxer was actually being blown over twice. The bike lanes between Ängelholm and Höganäs were currently being expanded, but at the parts where it still was not done, it was a difficult ride. The roads had no shoulder, and the wind came in sideways, and I constantly had to parry the gusts.


Best c



Finally got a battery to the selfie stick!
However, I reached Höganäs safe and sound, and it was more than beautiful. This really felt like the first big milestone. The real adventure started now!

Celebration!

The first week of biking was pretty much like a rollercoaster. The highs were incredible, whereas the lows were pretty rough. However, I really feel that I learnt a lot about biking in general and about the value of preparation. Also, being a cyclist for real made realize the potential for improvement. Sweden is a beautiful country, and especially to experience by bike. However, a lot of scenic roads are currently more or less dangerous, and a lot can be done in order to enhance the experience. Instead of feeling fear for being hit by a car, a biker should be able feel the joy of riding on a bike. Here, our neighbouring country in the southwest has a lot to teach us. But let’s save that for a later time!