byFounders' Situation Room

For this final episode of the Situation Room before the summer we're looking forward to host Lars Thinggaard, recently stepped down CEO of Milestones Systems in conversation with Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, co-founder of Techfestival and a number of startups, most recently the video marketing platform TwentyThree. Both members of our byFounders Collective, we'll talk to these guys about Lars' newly published book "Tech For Life", addressing the trust issues in tech and its leaders - encouraging opinion leaders in our community to take back control and use their immense influence in the world for good.

This is a recording of the 12th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle on June 24th, 2020.

What impact is the ongoing situation having on the terms that VCs offer to founders? Is the climate souring, and are we going to see less of the "founder friendliness" having become so ubiquitous lately?   Governments around the world are offering up relief packages to salvage their economies. Are they hitting the mark, and will they save the early-stage startups with the potential to improve the world we live in and create new jobs?  Julie Høi-Nielsen and Frederik Hasling of Mazanti is constantly tracking the changes on the Danish venture market, whereas Kevin Rooney of Cooley is an expert in international law with a particular focus on foreign companies entering the U.S. Tune in to hear what they are both observing from the current situation. 

This is a recording of the 11th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on June 10th, 2020. 

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Diversity and inclusion - consistent challenges in the world of tech entrepreneurship & venture capital that has not gotten any smaller in the current situation. Despite being one of the most gender-equal regions in the world, venture capital in the Nordics, like elsewhere, skews heavily towards all-male founding teams. 

We invited investors from Crowberry, Maki, Creandum, and Blossom Capital for a discussion on what these funds do to increase the diversity of their deal flow, how they evaluate teams, the issue of closed networks, and "warm intro" requirement posed by some VCs and much more. 

This is a recording of the 10th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle on May 27th, 2020. 

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Is fundraising in 2020 a bad idea? Not necessarily! But the picture has changed from only a few months ago. What should founders prepare for in today's climate? Are terms changing? What about expectations and projections?  Ashley Lundström, Deal Partner at EQT Ventures, Mikkel Schönherr Thøgersen from our portfolio company Omnio and founding partner of Karma Ventures, Margus Uudam are ready to answer all your questions related to fundraising in a crisis from the investor and the entrepreneur perspective. 

This is a recording of the 9th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on May 20th 2020. 

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With global lockdowns and travel bans, people and organizations have been forced to adopt a WFH policy in record time. This poses significant security threats, as we've heard too many unfortunate stories about in the past weeks. Caroline Wong from byFounders' portfolio company Cobalt, is an expert in cybersecurity, and an outspoken figure on the security tech scene. In her recent op-ed for Forbes, she shares best practices security leaders can implement now to fend off threat actors during a time where everyone is more susceptible to hackers. Ty Sbano, Chief Security and Trust Officer at Sisense, will join Caroline to share which strategies he's implemented and tips on how others can do the same. Tune in to get smarter on this crucial issue.

This is a recording of the 8th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on May 13th 2020. 

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Everybody's talking about the startup funding climate during COVID-19. Are VCs still investing? Are angels pulling their funds away from venture? What about corporate VCs - will their mandate be limited? We want to ask the ones funding the funders, namely the Limited Partners (LPs).  Most of them work with a portfolio of venture funds, giving them a unique vantage point from which to observe the situation unfold. What changes are they seeing? What are they looking for when investing now? Will they stop supporting new funds? Or is this rather a great time to start something new - like many argue it is for startup founders. Tune in to find out. 

This is a recording of the 7th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on May 6th 2020. 

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What do you do when a black swan hits you hard? Ok, so whether COVID-19 really was a black swan is highly debatable - but let's leave that aside and acknowledge that many a business was taken by surprise by the rapid developments following the outbreak of a global pandemic. Events and retail are two sectors experiencing a grave impact of the associated lockdowns. Frederikke Schmidt, Founder and Creative Director of Roccamore, producing and selling comfortable and stylish high heels, has had to rethink the sales process drastically. How do you facilitate for customers to try on shoes to feel the difference under circumstances like these?  Jasenko Hadzic's Tame was ready to deliver the software to manage multiple large and small events throughout the year. Now, most physical events are canceled or are going virtual. Tune in to hear how Tame has built a virtual event universe and how Roccamore has redesigned its sales process, both in practically no time, in order to thrive in this brave new world. 

This is a recording of the 6th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on April 29th 2020. 

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COVID-19 is having a significant impact on how we behave and consume. While the shift towards more plant-based diets has been a trend for a while, demand for home delivery of both meals and groceries has veritably exploded during the ongoing pandemic. How do you scale rapidly to meet such quick shifts in demand? And what does this mass behavior change mean for the post-isolation world? Hear from Louise Fritjofsson, who recently launched Reimagine Foods, a novel kind of company co-creating shelf-stable and sustainable food brands with thought leaders, Jakob Jønck, who's experiencing a significant hike in demand for his meal box service SimpleFeast, and Karl Munthe-Kaas, who also experiences unprecedented sales volumes on his online grocery store, Kolonial.no.

This is a recording of the 5th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted by Ida Åsle and Eric Lagier on April 22nd 2020. 

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When a crisis hits, it tends to impact most companies negatively. However, some companies are well-positioned to make the most out of dramatic changes. How do you build for antifragility? Hear from two founders who have figured this out. Camilla Ley Valentin is the founder and CCO of Queue-It, which facilitates online queuing systems for crowded websites to avoid server breakdowns. Lars Maaløe's Corti, on the other hand, operates in the healthtech space and focuses on saving lives by employing artificial intelligence. Both companies are in high demand right now. Join them in the Situation Room. 

This is a recording of the 4th in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode was hosted on April 15th 2020. 

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If you hadn't already bought into the "future of work" hype, you no longer have the luxury of choice. How do you ensure that your employees stay engaged and motivated in a distributed setting? Kasper Hulthin knows quite a bit about employee engagement, having disrupted the market for HR services with Peakon. Sondre Rasch's SafetyWing is building a global safety net for digital nomads and is a remote-first company while Jarek Owczarek, co-founder of legaltech company Contracbook has 8+ years of managing remote teams.  Join in for a discussion about how leaders can position their company to excel with teams scattered across the world!

This is a recording of the third in a series of virtual meetups by byFounders titled The Situation Room. The episode aired on April 8th 2020. 

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