Make it with passion

We asked our associated partner Patrick von Schenck about his lessons learnt from the past weeks and months. Patrick, educated and raised in the most entrepreneurial environments in the Nordics, is today at JP Cornerstone and responsible for helping Entrepreneurs putting some in place the top talent at the companies of tomorrow. Patrick, a Brit in his soul despite his surname, naturally took on a bit of humorous angle to our question and gave us five essential tips on how to excel in video conferencing.

In maybe one of the more lonely periods in history, finding and maintaining love is of course more important than ever and Philip Jonzon Jarl, CEO of the value based dating app Relate has seen an increased interest in both the app and the now digital events. He has also been kind enough to share his best practise with us, highlighting the importance of regular check-ins but also check-outs, Slack channel for MiTs (most important things) and the app Be Focused.

We continue to chat with great entrepreneurs about what we can learn from the Covid-pandemic in terms of digital practises, both personally and professionally. This time Rupert Dean is on the other side of Zoom. When Rupert started X+why, the praised London based chain of hubs for co-working focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship, it was out of a macro analysis: big head quarters and non flexible 10 year leases is not the future. Still very much believing the macro analysis holds, Rupert laughs about the consequence of the quarantine: “Short term we have become a victim of our promise of flexibility”.

We had read about Facebook now having asked employees to work from home for the rest of the year and that they have cancelled any large physical events planned with 50 or more people through June 2021, but we wanted to somewhat better understand the lessons learnt from Facebook when it comes to working remotely. We therefore reached out to Ludvig Hedlund, by now almost a Facebook veteran after some 8 years in the company, today experiencing the London lock down out of his London apartment instead of the not so shabby Facebook London offices.

Peter Gestrup, CEO of Pretty Pegs and one of our oldest entrepreneurial friends has been seeing the same kinds of challenges as many of us during this period and says it out loud - as well as we all have adjusted, it is sometimes rather boring to be working from home. Here he gives their top three concrete and very useful operational tips on how the team at Pretty Pegs have been using KPIs, brisk walks and contemplation to handle the new normality.

Next in line is Chris Persson, a serial entrepreneur and a person that always sees possibilities when others see challenges. Chris has a long history as entrepreneur, e.g. co-founded Bookatable that he later sold and integrated with the team at Guide Micheline and as a partner with Recapex he was instrumental in shaping the partnership between the $8 billion revenue giant the Axel Johnson group and Recapex leading to creating the CVC vehicle "D-Ax". Still a partner at Recapex, Chris today spends most of his time once again rocking the boat, this time by co-creating LIS - London Interdiciplinary School - trying to reshape the way we look at university education.

The recent weeks of Covid-19 has given many of us new new practises, new insights and new ways to look at what is normal. To many this has been in particular evident when it comes to how we deal with and relate to technology. In times of change there are some people that are faster than others to act and react, the Entrepreneurs. These are the people that are early and fast, even if not always right. But always worth listening to, to learn about what is around the corner.

Next in our search for great covid digital practises is Nima Samimi. Nima is a serial entrepreneur with an amazing track record of solving challenges in an entrepreneurial way with help of technology and digital solutions.

Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland together host some 27 million people. Small in gross numbers compared to France, Germany or the UK, but but still a hidden gem for the international companies that have successfully launched in the region. In particular consumer facing technology plays like Facebook, Google or Match.com have been surprised by the potential of the region. Why is that the region is a gem and why is it that it is hidden to many?