The Growth Pod

Christoffer Rutgersson co-founded Bambora, and helped lead the startup to a 1.5 billion euro exit. Then he became CEO of public fintech company Qliro, quickly turning it profitable while doubling down on growth.

Learn more:

(0:00) Introduction

MAX is a family-owned restaurant chain with more than 170 locations, consistently ranked as the favorite burger chain in Sweden.

We talked with CEO and owner Richard Bergfors about the secret to their success, competing with giants like McDonald's and Burger King, international expansion, failures and challenges, market trends, and a lot more.

Learn more:

⁠https://www.max.se/⁠

⁠https://generogrowth.com/⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/burgerspotting/⁠

(0:00) Introduction

(0:55) How MAX got started

(5:05) @Burgerspotting and eating 400+ burgers per year

(10:03) Max’s secret to success

(14:15) The competitive advantage of a family business

(17:40) Will Max become bigger than McDonald’s in Sweden?

(20:38) Expanding to Poland and Egypt

(24:55) What Richard loves most about his job

(26:45) Why MAX is no longer in Dubai

(29:27) The "better burger" trend and market consolidation

(33:40) Betting on plant-based

(38:47) Richard’s go-to MAX order, recent lessons learned, inspiration, thoughts on the future

Matsmart is an online grocery store that has helped save over 65,000 tons of food from going to waste. We talked with co-founder Karl Andersson about the company's journey to 100 million euros in revenue.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com

https://www.motatos.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlan

(0:00) Introduction

(1:04) How a batch of Christmas soda led to Matsmart

(8:10) The problem of food waste

(10:40) Customer behaviors and creating a new category

(17:35) Building the Matsmart brand

(27:38) Expanding outside of Sweden

(33:45) Quick-commerce and the evolving food e-commerce space

(38:13) Getting to profitability

(42:15) Raising 200 million euros in funding

(48:05) What does the future hold for Karl and Matsmart?

Learn more:

⁠https://generogrowth.com

https://boxbollen.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacoberiksson/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-eriksson-019846a0/
(0:57) Working together as brothers
(6:35) How Boxbollen got started
(13:45) Partnering with A-list celebrities
(20:29) Placing big bets
(23:22) Boxbollen’s growth playbook
(25:59) Growing profitably
(30:20) Building a lean and efficient team
(34:40) Dealing with competitors and scammers
(37:20) New markets, product launches, selling the company?

Innovation is a term that is as often used as it is misunderstood. To tackle this huge topic, we sat down with professor, speaker, author, advisor, and innovation expert Alf Rehn.

We talked about the role of psychological safety in building an innovative culture, why small improvements may be more important than big ideas, lessons learned from companies like SAS and IKEA, and more.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com/

https://alfrehn.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfrehn/

(0:00  Introduction

(1:15) Taping down cables to the floor

(8:10) Small improvements over big ideas

(12:25) Company culture and psychological safety

(28:20) The processes and incentives that lead to innovation

(40:30) The role of leadership

HMD Global is the manufacturer behind Nokia phones. We talked with CMO Lars Silberbauer about the "dumbphone" trend, HMD's unique approach to sustainability, how they compete against the likes of Apple and Samsung, and more.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.hmdglobal.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larssilberbauer

(0:00) Introduction

(0:45) Joining HMD

(5:24) Nokia’s brand power and cultural significance

(8:57) Feature phones vs smartphones

(10:33) Turning HMD into a house of brands

(13:15) Why leaders must get their hands dirty with AI

(20:47) Understanding trends and markets around the world

(25:32) Avoiding analysis paralysis

(27:55) HMD’s unique approach to sustainability

(35:12) Manufacturing in Europe

(40:57) Measuring marketing performance

We sat down with Fredrik Skantze, CEO and co-founder of Funnel, the Swedish SaaS company that’s raised over 120M€ to build the leading marketing data hub. Join us to hear Fredrik talk on building a global company, getting rid of sales commissions, lessons learned from Silicon Valley, and much more!

⁠https://funnel.io/⁠

⁠https://generogrowth.com/⁠ 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredrikskantze⁠ 

⁠https://funnel.io/marketing-data-state-2024⁠

(0:00) Introduction

(0:46) The pivot that led to Funnel

(6:23) Finding product-market fit and the early days

(9:57) Figuring out go-to-market 

(13:39) How digital marketing has evolved over the last 15 years

(22:40) Getting rid of bonuses and sales commissions

(29:15) Company culture and lessons learned from Silicon Valley

(36:49) How the Nordic ecosystem is changing 

(41:39) Key takeaways from Funnel’s survey on AI and marketing

(46:12) What keeps Fredrik motivated and excited?

Sanna Suvanto-Harsaae has been on the boards of over 20 Nordic companies like Finnair, Clas Ohlson, Posti, and Paulig. We talked about why strategies fail, how to build a high-performance culture, making tough decisions, and much more!

https://generogrowth.com/⁠

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sannasuvantoharsaae/

(0:00) Introduction

In just eight years, BookBeat grew from zero to 100+ million euros. We spoke with CEO Niclas Sandin about strategy, branding, customer acquisition, competing with big names like Spotify and Amazon, and whether AI will change the industry.

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.bookbeat.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/niclassandin/

(0:00) Introduction

(1:02) How BookBeat got started

(3:36) Having a 200-year-old family business as the owner

(5:10) BookBeat’s 4 strategic pillars

(13:48) Competing without a unique selling proposition (why differentiation doesn’t matter)

(16:46) Building top-of-mind awareness

(23:00) The tools, insights, and strategies behind BookBeat’s advertising

(26:30) Optimizing the media mix

(34:54) Innovating the business model

(40:10) Competing with Spotify and Amazon

(44:42) Will AI revolutionize audiobooks?

(48:27) The changing media landscape and why books still matter

(53:44) Biggest lessons learned

In just 3 years Lyvia went from an idea to a group of 40 companies with 2+ billion SEK in total revenue. We talked with CEO and co-founder Sebastian Karlsson about the insights, strategies, and decisions behind their rapid growth.

https://generogrowth.com/

https://lyviagroup.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-karlsson-8629193b

(0:00) Introduction

(0:47) 500 million SEK in 5 years and how it all started

(6:22) Lyvia’s business model

(9:09) How to learn both capital allocation and operations as a CEO

(12:00) Organic growth vs acquisitions

(14:28) How Lyvia helps companies with growth and profitability.

(20:54) What successful IT firms have in common

(23:13) Why do companies sell to Lyvia?

(25:22) Going international as a Swedish company

(28:10) Why most acquisitions fail and why Lyvia has succeeded

(34:05) Securing 1.6bn SEK in funding in this economic climate

(38:47) Lessons learned from sales, biggest challenges, decision making, and outcomes