Anna Kjellberg’s Post

Walking in my own footsteps Lars’ story is part of “Walking in my own footsteps” taking place in 2024 as a celebration to the leaders who inspired my 40-year professional career.   The CEO of QlikTech Lars Björk was my manager for 6 years during a time when the company was growing fast while building everything required for global presence and going public. Many times fixing the engine while flying. Possible as we had a strong company culture with people collaborating across boarders and functions.   Lars Björk is one of few to have been a successful leader during an entrepreneurial era, up-scaling as well as after going public. He joined QlikTech in 2000 as the CFO. The company survived a close Chapter11 in the early days, re-positioned the software product (QlikView), managed a turn around, and brought in international venture capital money in 2004 to start scaling up the organization to build, what would later become a true global software player and prepare for an exit through an IPO on Nasdaq New York, which happened in 2010.    QlikView helped business managers see and analyze their data in a new way to make more qualified decisions. We had skilled sales force and aligned leaders to bring QlikView to the market. We adapted ways of working, and gradually brought in new competence as we expanded. Qlik had so much soul that Morgan Stanley could measure the company culture in an increased opening stock value. So what is part of the story behind this culture?   In 2006 to be closer to what would be the main market for the company and prepare for an exit, potentially an IPO, Lars Björk moved with his family to the US. The hub for R&D and the internal induction week, QlikAcademy, remained in Lund, Sweden where QlikTech was founded. A way to cement a US headquarted company with a Swedish soul.   QlikAcademy was mandatory for all employees, from receptionists to VPs. It offered a common framework for values, product and sales, with interactive workshops and real life business cases. This is where the Global Qlik Soul prospered as Qlikies stayed in touch to share knowledge.    In addition to QlikAcademy and partner summits, employees were invited to an annual all employee gathering. The magic was in this combination of face to face meetings, and enabling collaboration through a global virtual network, using Skype in the early days. At the annual event we celebrated wins, educated ourselves and had fun. It glued the company, the people and the culture together as we lived our values and could move forward as one team, with top leaders who walked the talk.   Looking back somewhat wiser, we both agree that some things could have been done differently, but all in all we know that the Qlik journey was a once in a lifetime experience hard to copy.   It was great to catch up with Lars in Lund to share war stories. Hopefully one day the full Qlik Story will be written to celebrate an incredible journey and all Qlik heroes that made it possible.

3 hard truths I learned when exiting my first company. When I left Adaptive Lab in 2021, three years after selling to Capgemini, everyone assumed I'd be popping champagne for months. But in reality, I felt oddly empty. Here are three truths I learned about exiting a business: (that nobody talks about) 1/ Your identity takes a big hit. For years, I was "the Adaptive Lab guy." That was my introduction at events, my LinkedIn bio, my dinner party conversation starter. When that suddenly disappears, you realise how much of yourself you've wrapped up in your company. 2/ The "what next?" question hits harder than you expect. After years of constant problem-solving and team-building, the silence is deafening. I found myself compulsively thinking about new businesses while trying to enjoy family time - a habit my partner still gently calls me out on. 3/ 'Success' leaves you questioning what's next. There's this unspoken pressure to do something "even bigger" next time. It took me nearly two years to realise that my next venture needed to be driven by purpose, not scale. That's partly why BRiMM exists today. Not because I felt pressured to start something new, but because I finally had the clarity to build something truly meaningful. The champagne did eventually get opened. But the real celebration came when I finally understood what I wanted to build next. *** Follow me (James Haycock) to hear the highs (hopefully) and lows (inevitably) of building a new, purposeful business.

I wanted to build my own company. But I was a firefighter. 🥵 24-hour shifts. No fancy MBA. No time for complexity. That turned out to be my secret weapon. When you only have seconds to make decisions, you get really good at knowing what matters. I brought that same mindset to my company - and turned the whole game of business into a simple data model. I searched for the “chain reaction” that would make or break the business. I became obsessed with the key “data links” within that chain. This approach was what helped me scale and sell my company UpLaunch for eight figures - and then I refined it after partnering with Dan Martell to scale SaaS Academy a couple years later. At some point, I realized this “chain reaction” thing was a bit unique 😅 Because most founders and COOs over complicate it. But the truth is... Just 9 areas to measure, pressing the right pressure points, and some 5th grade math — it's all that mattered. If you’re curious… I’m hosting a free workshop next Wednesday (Dec 18th) where I’ll show you how to spot this chain reaction in your own business - and press in all the right places. Link in the comments. ✌️ MV

Throwback Thursday: And in honor of TechCrunch Disrupt last week we featured Stewart Alsop and the Demo conf.  And then at the event I listened to all the start-ups and the struggles, trials and tribulations are MORE REAL than ever before so I thought we’d pick a FAILED Start up from the Demo Conf….Mine!! We launched State Software at the Demo Conf in 2001 after securing 6 Dev partners including Amazon (drag and drop/shopping), Sun Microsystems (Visual CPQ), and an early Presentation App so a total of 3 potential use cases to investigate/scale. So just as we were starting to get real interest from VC’s and other market movers……BOOM!!!!  Then the 2001 stock market crash was caused by a number of factors, including the bursting of the dot-com bubble debacle, the September 11 attacks, and accounting scandals from Enron to WorldCom and a few others. It felt like it was OVER FAST!!!! Our quick pivot was to sell, sell, sell, the company and this is an entire sales cycle and process within itself and we had -0- experience. BUT, as a Founder you FIND a way and we were in cycles with BEA Systems (Adam Bosworth), Sun Microsystem, Oracle (Thomas Kurian), IBM (lots of champions) and in the 11th hour we had no option - But to OPEN SOURCE our assets and #JSON was official…. YOURS!!! But we learned SO MANY LESSONS during that initial phase to launch that are PARAMOUNT to any company success. 1. Find a Design partner with a BRAND that you can rely and lean on. They will be a reference and provide credibility for this phase Solve their NEED and MAKE sure it’s not the Macarena (1 HIT WONDER) 2. Establish thought leadership for next 10-15 customers 3. Wash/Rinse/Repeat 4. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS……..be maniacal on serving a single use case that is a large market to get LIFT OFF 5. Sequence your efforts as Start Ups die from indigestion NOT digestion 6. HIRE WISELY……the TEAM really matters and create the culture to thrive and survive And MANY more golden nuggets and lessons learned. They say you learn more from failure than you do success - and I have to agree - even though success is way more fun and profitable, take the good with the bad and that will let you climb higher next time - at least it did with me. Hope this helps you on your journey and feel free to check out my other stories at our website - theGTMfirm.com Listen for yourself: Until next week… Listen, Learn and Share…. https://lnkd.in/gACe54if Here to Help > click here for more stories: from my partner Keith Newman  And we have so much more coming at www.thegtmfirm.com  #founders #startups #lessonslearned #growth https://lnkd.in/ge3uJQaY

Timeline of the companies I’ve helped grow over the last 20+ years. 2001: Neoris 2003: Grupo Performa 2009: EcoAqua 2014: Victori Capital 2016: Headclicks …They all had one thing in common: The solutions we were offering were very hands-on. Which meant a lot of manual work in the backend, custom solutions & labour-intense customer support. By no means do I see these things as objectively bad things, quite the contrary actually. As a customer of software myself, I’ve always valued tight-knit demonstrations and walkthroughs of new tech. …But in my eyes, building a great product requires the ability to serve 100s or 1000s of customers in a short time frame. And that requires being able to onboard & fulfill customers at scale. Let’s use my current software company, Flieber, as an example to illustrate this. To build version one, I invested a little over $200,000 upfront & we grew it to $350,000 in ARR in less than 4 months. Initially? All seemed well because we were “ticking off the boxes” of what a new software company’s health metrics should look like… We were growing fast. We had great unit economics. We were serving dozens of customers. But we had one glaring issue: a lengthy onboarding process which took 25 days on average for a new brand to be integrated. …Which meant a lot of extra manual work, custom solutions, a less streamlined workflow. Obviously, this put a strain on our onboarding team and in our customers — I knew it wasn’t sustainable. But all our competitors operated the same way, so I thought that was just the reality of the business model. It took me 4 years to create the courage to challenge the status quo and streamline our whole onboarding process. I made a note of every bottleneck we had faced up to then & I invested over 9 months into rebuilding the platform from scratch. Onboarding takes less than 30 mins per brand now & is fully self-servicing. I like telling this story because doing something like this would’ve rarely dawned on me at one of my previous companies. I didn’t want to “stay stuck” inside the business pulling levers when I could’ve been working “on” the business & making it run smoother. And to make that happen? Yes I had to invest capital upfront. Yes I had to deal with the uncertainty of it not working out. Yes I had to take a “risk” on a platform that solves a problem which brands might not “know” they’d benefit from yet. But It’s paid off tremendously, our brands are loving the product, we’re growing even faster, and we’re only set to innovate even more as we go deeper into 2024. More & more brands everyday are realizing that the “hassle-free” approach to inventory doesn’t involve mounds of excel sheets… And that’s a clear indicator to me that Flieber’s solution is set to become more prevalent in the D2C space from here.

Imagine scaling your business not just for growth—but for a life of choice, fulfilment, and freedom. At My TrueNORTH, we believe in more than just adding zeros to your revenue. We’re about helping you build a business that works for you, allowing you to live the life you’ve always envisioned. Here’s how some of our client's lives have transformed after embracing the #ADDAZERO Methodology: No more being tethered to the day-to-day operations. Our clients have created businesses that thrive without their constant involvement, giving them the luxury of spending time where it truly counts—be it with family, on adventures, or simply enjoying life’s finer moments. From hiking the world’s most scenic trails to pursuing lifelong passions, our clients are now in control. They’ve moved from being owned by their business to owning the lifestyle they always dreamt of. With the #ADDAZERO Methodology, success isn’t just about profits—it’s about building the life you choose. For our clients, success means more than financial growth. They’re making a meaningful difference, aligning their businesses with BCORP standards, ESG goals, and a deeper sense of purpose. They are building companies that stand for something larger, creating both wealth and positive change in the world. Our clients aren’t just chasing short-term wins. They’re building businesses that ensure long-term financial peace and security. With the #ADDAZERO Methodology, they’re not just building for today—they’re setting the foundation for a legacy that extends far into the future, creating value for generations to come. With the #ADDAZERO Methodology, our clients have moved from doing business to living a life of purpose and freedom. You can too. Isn’t it time you turned your business into a gateway for the life you truly want? I'm hosting an interactive FREE TO ATTEND masterclass entitled "How to #ADDAZERO" on 2 October from 4pm. Care to join me? https://lnkd.in/e7tsv_zT

We recently launched Izinga 2.0, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you! Our team poured their hearts and expertise into creating a site that embodies our commitment to helping businesses grow faster and scale smarter. From the moment we started the redesign, our goal was clear: to build a platform that not only showcases what we do but also provides valuable resources for small and medium-sized businesses striving for success. The journey was challenging yet incredibly rewarding, and now, we’d love to hear from you. 🔍 Check out our new website: https://izinga.co/ Whether it’s optimizing your financial processes or providing insightful analysis, we’re here to help your business, your dreams, and your visions. As you explore, you’ll notice that our dedication extends beyond just marketing and branding. For those navigating the complexities of finance and accounting, our team offers robust, effective services designed to streamline operations and support strategic growth. At Izinga, we help your business grow faster and scale smarter, by having your back. Your feedback is invaluable to us. It not only helps us improve but also fuels our passion for excellence. So, dive in, take a look around, and let me know your thoughts!

Our next 'Strive Sessions' Roundtable takes place next week (July 11th) in San Francisco! 🚀 We have two spaces left! 💡 The focus of the evening will be around the topic of 'Growing from $1M to $10M ARR'. 💡The aim of the event is to bring together Investment and VC Partners, as well as Sales Leaders and Founders from the Go-To-Market community, to share best practices, discuss current challenges, network, and generally have some fun! 💡Our special guest speaker at this event, will be Drew Ganther, who will be sharing his experience and learnings from his impressive career in the SaaS space. Want to know more? Reach out for more information! #gotomarket #scalewithstrive #strivesessions #saassales

Do you remember a life-changing moment for you? This is mine. After 25 years of building and running my company freiheit.com technologies, which I co-founded together with Stefan Richter, as I planned two years ago I am handing over my CEO role. Stefan Richter started as the first software engineer and employee no. 1 in October 1998, and in February 1999 we incorporated our company together. I took over the business part, and he took over the engineering part. Over a quarter of a century, we have created the most profitable and most successful software development company in Europe. Every project we started since then has been delivered successfully. Never late. Never failed. Today we are working on some of the largest software projects in the world. Our dream has always been to create a company and a business that will last for over a century. I always knew that at some point we would have to hand over the company to the next generation. So, in January 2021, we closed a deal with the Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, (dream team: Malte Hinz, Christoph Gebhardt, CFA, Philipp Hof) and we sold 90% of our shares. We turned our leadership group into shareholders and offered virtual shares to over 100 people in our organization. Our job was now to create the team and the organization that will lead our company for the next 25 years. And to put the right people in the right seats. We selected Christopher Schorling, who was originally a member of our advisory board, to become our next CEO. After many interviews and two years of working together with him, we are sure that we can entrust him with this role. Christopher has a long history of working as a consultant, and ultimately as senior partner, at leading management consulting companies like McKinsey and Bain & Company. These companies have decades of experience in shaping and retaining their own high-performance organizations and in helping their clients to be effective, efficient and successful. We do the same, but in the world of software. So we can see that this fits very well. To ensure a smooth handover, I will stay with the company until the end of 2024. The last 25 years have been exciting, groundbreaking, exhausting, emotional, inspiring, unforgettable, and full of incredibly admirable people, ideas and moments, and I don’t want to miss a second of it. Of course I get goosebumps just thinking about the moment when I leave the company at the end of the year ... but it is absolutely the right time. And I am grateful to all of you who I have met and for all the wonderful memories, conversations and insights you have given me. The people I worked with side-by-side. The partners and clients who have entrusted us with their most important projects. Many became friends for life. This will stay! And for sure, next year will be very exciting for all of us 💗 Please follow this link if you want to read the whole story: https://lnkd.in/ehe4285h

2024 was crazy year. Year was literally same as Jeff Bezos quote: "Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History" But this is not success post, vice versa. This year we have failed one company. Lost so much money, just literally burned. Let me tell you why: - Wrong features - Not to know user - Planning mistakes - Wrong market analysis - Wrong product on wrong time But after that participated in #WebSummit, #IIBA conference, researched more and took time to think and analyse. 3 things I learned hard way: - Focus on one thing. No more multitasking. - Learn selling, business, communication. - Work with professionals. Then build Pro Analysts Hub > https://lnkd.in/eb_N-M-V What did you learn this year? Let's discuss below 👇