VC Perspectives

With a fresh M.Sc in Computer Science, with a final thesis in compiler design, in my back pocket I entered the IT market in 1986, with the expectation that I would design and develope system software and compilers. However the reality hit and I realized that very few organizations in Sweden developed operating systems and similar software and I consequently looked internationally for my first employment. I started with IBM but in the sales and marketing organization where I soon discovered that I both enjoyed and was successful in combing technology with the business needs of customers and shifted away from the deep technology track I had envisioned. Even if I, off and on, couldn’t resist diping my fingers and do things like modify operating system scheduler.

Got involved in Internet Technologies in the late 80’s through a academic project IBM sponsored and as a consequence of that I entered the 90’s as one of the few in that new both the traditional environments of banks and insurance companies as well as the open technologies being used in the academic world and leading research heavy companies.

As a result, after a few year with another american company called Network Systems, I was head hunted to Cisco when they decided to move space of building the nest generations networks for large IBM customers.

To make a long story short, working for Cisco from 1994 to 2000 was a extraordinary experience in many dimensions which I truly enjoyed and which has left me with life long friends, but in the end the transition from a startup to a “normal” company with “normal” people made me long for the “old days”, when Cisco was the underdog and fought the big companies like IBM, Digital etc by being customer focused and agile.

I eventually left Cisco and got involved with a number of startups, for example Transmode, Packetfront, Xelerated and Appgate as well as a few that are not with us today. In the process of helping the companies raise more money I go to know a number of venture firms of whom I worked more with Startupfactory, Amadeus Capital and European Equity Partner.

In 2003 I joined forces with the former managing partner of Startupfactory, Staffan Helgesson, to establish Creandum, with the aim to create a leading Nordic Technology Venture firm.