Rune Bromer Jægersdorf

How I got offers to be the CTO in a South Korean startup, a co-founder with an engineering manager at Google in SF, and a lead developer in a Nordic project (unrelated to my previous posts about job offers). In early 2023, a few months after the release of ChatGPT-3, "chat with your PDF document(s)" apps were popping up everywhere. While these functionalities are now common, they weren't back then. I found an open-source code for a simple demo of this kind of app. I'm not sure what got into me, but I forked (cloned) it, and decided to add a lot more features to it and completely rework it. In particular, I made it a full-stack application: you could upload multiple documents, create/delete multiple chat windows and use specific documents within them, have context-aware conversations in respect to the chat history, and more. I put it together in 1-2 weeks, and released it as an open-source project on GitHub. Posted it on Twitter (1st tweet, 0 followers). It received ~40k views and +700 stars on GitHub. Everything else I made before that point got 0. I then started getting messages from people. 1/ An engineering manager at Google in SF wanted to be an equal-part co-founder in an AI project. We had a few calls, some at midnight, but it eventually dissolved because the guy's vision for the app was the kind that would've needed a team of full-time developers and a few months. Ambition is great, but this was a fever dream (I would've been the solo dev). 2/ Someone from South Korea reached out, offering me to be the CTO in their new startup. No salary, just equity. The startup? "Your AI platform for everything." Again, the limit of what I can do is pretty high, but I'm not (too) delusional. Other than me, there were two other guys. They had me sign an NDA, of course. Needles to say, I didn't join. Their homepage is the same as it was a year ago. 3/ Two people working in software engineering (although not developers) from the Nordics reached out. I thought what they envisioned was a little out of scope, but nevertheless doable. They asked for my hourly rate, and I gave them what is probably equivalent to senior engineers at large companies in Slovakia, but still probably lower than mid-level devs in Nordic countries. They said 'Sure, no problem', then ghosted me lol. I guess it was a problem after all. Sorry, purchasing power parity is great, but only for the products I buy, not for the salaries I get. And with all that, I thought to myself: if I can put together something in 1-2 weeks and have it potentially change the course of my life, then the last couple of years I've spent learning to code have not been in vain. This project didn't change my life, but I became more optimistic. I realized that a totally different life and future might be one side project away. That's why I launched the last project, and why I'll keep launching more. Sooner or later, we'll get there. Not a shred of doubt about that in my mind.

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Don't validate your product. Invalidate it. As a partner at Antler I'm surrounded by founders trying to figure out if their business is going to work. It's often 10x faster to figure out if your business is NOT going to work. Everyone is so focused on finding product market fit (PMF) and validating their product. It can take *years* to do this. And when working in an early stage startup environment, I'd rather know something is not going to work early than know it is working really late. There's a huge cost to wasting time and building in the wrong direction and practically no founder has a map to reference. So I say figure out what will KILL your business. Figure out what you can ask that, if you get a specific answer, means it's NOT working. By the time you've played this process of elimination enough times (and often very quickly) you'll be left with something that probably is. #startups #founders #products

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Tips & tricks for European VCs fundraising right now. From Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural. What's your secret? What do you know? Who do you know? What can you help with? Why would companies come to you? Articulate this. For yourself. For your LPs. For your founders. What other advice would you give to emerging VCs? Join the conversation. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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Alvas.ai is incorporated as a Delaware C Corp, in the US And not a Danish ApS. Here are the benefits: 1. Everything is smooth and fast The Delaware C Corp is used by every Silicon Valley company, which has created an ecosystem of software tools to help startups get going We filed the legal documents, got a bank account, and prepared investment documents in 30 minutes, with no costs to lawyers, accountants, or outside consultants Compare that to stories about Danish startups having to wait 3 months to get a bank account 2. Private soft funding As a Silicon Valley company, you get access to free everything Recently, we’ve gotten 150k USD in credits to Microsoft Azure/OpenAI 3. US investments US investors are more reluctant to invest in other types of corporations, than Delaware C Corps. That can cause headaches later on for Danish/European startups that seek US investments. So by having that sorted from the start, we eliminate future pains 4. Taxes You would think it is a deal breaker, yet there is not a big difference Danish corporate income tax is 22% US corporate income tax is 21% 🦄 #startup #founder #legal #incorporation #unicorn

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Hey Linkedin 👋 I'm launching a new SaaS called Linker! And we got 229 Beta Testers in Less than 4 weeks. And we are launching on the 10th! So we have 11 days ⏳ to get another 274 members before we launch. And that's why we need your help, Linkedin! We need another 274 beta testers who ideally: ✅ Need more leads to grow their business ✅ Uses cold email campaigns to grow their business ✅ Uses cold outreach campaigns to grow their business ✅ Uses Linkedin to generate sales calls. So if you know at least 1 person who would need something like this. Tag'em below so they can see if Linker is a good fit for them🔥 In return, I can share with you my secret technique for never losing your keys again! 🔑 (Okay, maybe not. But I can offer a free personalized review of your current outreach strategy, which is almost as good, right? 😄) -------- Linker might be something they might want to check out because: It helps you to find verified emails and phone numbers, from Apollo, Sales Navigator, and Google Maps. And guess what! We also have an email verifier integrated, so you can verify emails from other sources. That's not it! It will also create personalized first lines so you can personalize your cold email or cold linkedin campaigns! We're giving unlimited email exports to people who join on the 10th of June! So if you know someone who might need something like this tag'em below or share this post. Thanks, Greg

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I have been having a lot of discussions on how real this major SaaS replacement using AI is for Klarna. And if so, how replicable is this? As mentioned on this last week's episode of All In, Chamath Palihapitiya talks about how the industry historically "never went after the system of record" software, like Salesforce or ERPs. They are too hard to rip and replace. Now we are hearing from Klarna that they have managed to do this with AI. Systems of record have a REALLY low tolerance for being wrong, especially in regulated industries. How much custom work is required to get AI to generate accurate enough results to do this? These systems are notoriously complex. They require A LOT of training for admins to maintain, and even then it is a struggle. Each implementation is different. Consulting firms make TONS of money customizing instances of this software to make it work for companies. Now Salesforce is shifting gears to enable their customers to build agents themselves with Agentforce. What does this mean for their underlying software? Did they see the writing on the wall? Many enterprises have leaned on SaaS to provide a framework to operate, automate, and collect/manage data (you tell us how to do it). These SaaS providers take usage and learnings across companies, build functionality, and deliver it across their customers. And they maintain it! Of course, there are some enterprises who think they know best and build their own. Then companies assign an owner of that system and the processes around it to coordinate efforts and make sure it is providing value (if they do it correctly). They are essentially relying on "what is everyone else doing?" combined with "who knows our business the best internally to make sure it works for us?" A downside (and upside) is that SaaS vendors are incentivized to generalize patterns (especially VC backed companies), so customization is usually always needed at large enterprises. If AI can build and maintain these systems, problem solved on that end of relying on external vendors to do it. If it can also solve the customization problem, even better!! However.... what happens when the knowledge sharing stops? The generalized patterns, although sometimes tough to customize, are also incredibly useful to introduce new frameworks and shifts in the way these enterprises operate. This is why Salesforce has been adopted across so many enterprises. It was a much better operating model than what they had before. This really begs the question of which parts will get open sourced and shared. Will the common patterns and frameworks just become freely available and the customization and maintenance will get automated by AI? "Software was eating the world, now it is eating itself". https://lnkd.in/gZ93bx-S

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Meet the company that changed how the world listens to music Spotify. 1. Founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm, Sweden, Spotify was born out of a simple but bold idea: to fight music piracy and bring legal music to everyone’s fingertips. But it wasn’t an easy start. 2. At that time, illegal downloads were rampant. Most people believed paying for music was a thing of the past. To combat this, Spotify introduced an ad-supported free model, making it the first streaming service to allow free access to millions of songs legally. 3. By 2008, Spotify officially launched in Europe, but they faced one major hurdle: getting the record labels on board. Daniel Ek had to negotiate tirelessly with music giants to sign deals. Finally, after long discussions, they secured agreements that allowed them to launch in the U.S. in 2011. 4. The idea was simple ⏩ Allow users to stream music for free with ads or upgrade to premium for an ad-free experience with better sound quality. This “freemium” model took off, and by 2015, Spotify hit over 60 million users globally. 5. But success came with challenges. Apple launched Apple Music, and artists like Taylor Swift pulled their music, protesting low royalty payments. Spotify had to pivot quickly, offering exclusive content and improving its payout structure to keep both users and artists satisfied. 6. As the streaming market grew, so did Spotify’s innovations. They introduced personalized playlists like "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar," which used AI to predict what users wanted to hear. These personalized experiences were a game-changer, and by 2020, Spotify had 320 million users worldwide.   7. But competition wasn’t the only challenge. Spotify also faced criticism over its business model, particularly from artists who felt they weren’t earning enough. To respond, Spotify invested in podcasts, acquiring companies like Anchor and Gimlet Media. 8. By 2023, Spotify had become the largest audio platform in the world, with over 200 million premium subscribers. Their venture into podcasts made them the leading podcast platform, and they continued to innovate with features like live audio events. 9. Today, Spotify is valued at over $26 billion, with a presence in 180 countries. It has transformed the music industry, making streaming the dominant way people consume music and audio content globally. The startup that began as a solution to piracy is now the go-to platform for music lovers worldwide. Agree? #spotify #musicindustry #streamingrevolution

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„If you‘re good at something, don‘t do it for free“ It wasn‘t my intention to quote the Joker, but there is some wisdom in this for SaaS founders 😅🃏 A big thank you Anna Nadeina for inviting me to share our journey with ContractHero | Digital Contract Management. We explored our early days: from validating the need for effective contract management, to building our initial pilot. Today, ContractHero empowers hundreds of companies to automate their critical documents and gain powerful insights 📊📈

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What happens when self-funded startups compete against venture-driven startups? In the current financial market, I increasingly meet founders stating: “We don’t want to raise capital. We want to be self-funded!” This is a great development. External funding is not the only way to grow your company. I’ve been in this exact situation with one of my former startups. We didn’t want to do the funding show. We made money and wanted to grow slowly and steadily. But then came a competitor. They raised big amounts of capital and changed the rules of the market. In general, this is what can happen: 💰 Price Wars: Competitors with deep pockets can afford to undercut prices significantly. They are basically buying logos and taking market shares. 📣 Marketing Muscle: Funded competitors can invest heavily in marketing and sales. This increases their brand awareness, sales dialogues, and can saturate the market quickly. 🚀 Innovation Disparity: Startups with external funding can allocate significant resources to research and development, driving innovation at a faster pace. The above is primarily true if your competitors have a similar product to yours and you are selling to the same clients. You can try to differentiate your company from others. We tried. It failed, and we ended up being forced to raise capital – it eventually became a race towards the biggest investor tickets. What are your thoughts on this? Have you faced similar challenges in your journey? #StartupScaling #Fundraising #CompetitiveStrategy #CashflowPositive #MarketDynamics

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Noloco is such a cool tool. I regularly get asked for advice on how to systemise or digitalize manual workflows and processes for businesses. I threw this together in an hour and it already hits 80% of the use cases needed. Airtable, Bubble, Retool, Softr etc are all a ballache and missing just one core feature here or there to be usable. Noloco hits a sweet spot of no code tooling where it feels simplified but not limiting. It's extendable where needed. I'm struggling for an analogy here but giving a customer not just the end result but also the ability to edit and extend it themselves without coding is next level stuff. #nocode #businessapps

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What is Hans doing differently at Neople as a second-time Founder?   - Double down on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)! - Focus early. Even a small indication of product-market fit can be enough to take the first step confidently.   Curious to learn more? I will be releasing the first podcast episode of Missteps & Mastery soon. Stay tuned!

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New AI startup raises $1B. But there's a twist. Ilya Sutskever's SSI is no ordinary AI company. SSI called: Super safe intelligence Their focus? Ensuring AI doesn't destroy humanity. Let that sink in for a moment. SSI's mission is both ambitious and terrifying. They're tackling: -Existential risks posed by advanced AI -Alignment of AI with human values -Developing AI systems that benefit humanity This isn't just another tech startup launch. It's a critical endeavor for our future. I'm both excited and concerned. Excited by the potential of safe, beneficial AI. Concerned by the magnitude of the challenges ahead. SSI's work is a stark reminder that: -AI development must prioritize safety -We need deep collaboration, not just competition -The stakes couldn't be higher This funding round is a billion-dollar wake-up call. It screams: "Hey world, AI safety isn't optional!" We must confront AI risks head-on. Or face consequences that could reshape our world. For better, or for worse. Follow me Mohamed Karizi for more AI news

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Meet Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin : The Swedish founders who got to $1 Million ARR in 8 days with their AI startup: Lovable 🤯 Lovable builds full-stack web apps for you with natural language - so imagine ChatGPT but for building an entire app… 💡 Product teams use Lovable right now to more clearly conceptualize new ideas and validate them with users. 💨This way founders and solopreneurs can iterate towards Product-Market Fit (PMF) 10x faster. 🧑‍💻 Less than 1% of the human population can code, but we’re now entering a new era where anyone is going to be able to build much faster without writing a single line of code. 🌟 Lovable now has over 50k users with over 52k stars on Github after 2 months of launch. It also reached the front page of both Product Hunt and Hacker News… 🗞️ 🚀 They’ve already reached over $1M in ARR with over 3000 paying customers. More than 1000 products are built on Lovable every day. 💰 On October 7th 2024, Lovable raised a $7.5M seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures and byFounders with participation from DeepMind Angel Operators, Shopify’s Siavash Ghorbani, Voi’s Frederik Hjelm, Creandum co-founder Stefan Lindberg and more. Check out the full story here 👉 https://lnkd.in/d8_tRajV

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Klarna is launching a credit card! Will it work? Credit card launches have a mixed success. Look at, for example: - Apple Card And there have been several new ones launched recently. Ex: - Robinhood Gold Card And there are others with similar approaches to Klarna's Card - Affirm has debit card that allows users to pay any purchase over time (Klarna's Card has similar functionality, but is on credit rails) - Upgrade, Inc. has the OneCard which is a credit card and BNPL all in one + a checking account and more. The 2 big advantages they have launching a card are (1) distribution (can sell to existing users) (2) product (rewards) DISTRIBUTION On distribution, Klarna Stacks has a great user base to cross-sell into: - 25 million active users in the US (150M globally) versus - 15 million for Affirm - 5 million customers for Upgrade Take these numbers w/ grain of salt, they are company reported figures and not 100% apples to apples. 25 million, however exactly they measure it, is a lot. Bank of America for example has 55 million digitally active users. PRODUCT Rewards. Because Klarna has 500,000 merchants on network, they can do something from day one that few others can...offer merchant funded rewards. Their key feature is "10% cash back at select merchants". Consumers are addicted to points and it's hard to get them to switch from their favorite cards. Touting something big like "10% cash back at select merchants" might work for some users if targeted appropriately and they don't feel like this is a bait and switch. WHY IT MATTERS In fintech more broadly, we are entering a "rebundling error". Point solutions like Robinhood, Affirm, Klarna have reached scale and are become multi-product companies with deep customer relationships. Some of these companies are going to figure it out and that is exciting. Even if a few of these product launches fail, big banks should be worried. Their product bundles haven't changed much in the last 10 years and for the first time they have real competition. Consumers are the real winners. For the first time in a while, they have new options on how to spend, save and invest. Best of luck to the Klarna team and other folks building here!

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You’ve probably heard the accusations of Runway ML scraping content from YouTube. But today let’s not focus on the companies that scrape content from the web, instead let’s chat about the different content companies from the past. The stories of The Pirate Bay and Spotify are great examples. Both companies originated from Sweden. The Pirate Bay quickly gained popularity for its ability to allow users to share music and other content. Although its rise to fame was fast, its fall from grace was just as quick. 2003 - Piratebay was founded 2006 - the company was raided by police 2008 - lawsuits and legal challenges started 2009 - jailed and fined $3.6 2010 - shutdowns and blockade 2014 - The Swedish police seized it’s data centers, causing the site to go offline for two months but it later relaunched in 2015. 2016 - moved to new servers, but the legal battles and constant attempts to shut it down continue. The site still operates but under very strenuous circumstances for it’s owners. In contrast, Spotify, which chose the responsible route by respecting copyright laws, have flourished. 2006 - Spotify founded 2008 - Spotify is publicly released (by invitation only) in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, France and Spain 2011 - Spotify launches in the United States 2018 - IPO, company was valued at over a billion dollars, showcasing the opportunities afforded to those who operate within legal boundaries. What path would you choose?

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What's a good CAC payback in B2B SaaS? 60 months? 24 months? 12 months? Steffen Hedebrandt recently got to interview Chris Walker CEO of Passetto and founder of Refine Labs. Chris let us in on some of the numbers of all the companies he has seen in those two companies. Check out the snippet below...

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The biggest question when thinking about investing in AI companies - Bundling - Or unbundling Let me explain. My view is every use case that could be done by a skilled chatGPT user will become its own app, innovation will be UI and product engineering. A managed interaction for advanced users. Just like every product that could have been done by a skilled Excel user is now a SAAS company. This is the unbundling effect. Markets go though stages of Bundling and Unbundling periodicity. Companies like OpenAI are not product engineering companies, every product update is not to improve customer experience, its a cost centre change, a service like this can only ever serve the average user. Advance users will be pushed out to use advanced apps that carve out a vertical market. (or horizontal, personally I enjoy verticals and the power of community for early stage) AI tools for Lawyers AI tools for Educators AI tools for Accountants AI tools for Doctors Once we enter the third wave, we will stop calling it 'AI' I learn a lot reading venture capital blogs, Ben Evans being a person I highly respect, his newsletter is gold. Article: https://lnkd.in/gkcTAeJ3

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Biggest news of today, fresh from the oven. Ilya Sutskever (ex co-founder and scief scientist of OpenAI) is starting a new company with a single goal of building safe superintelligence. So not aiming for human intelligence anymore, but beyond that. From anybody else this would sound a bit crazy, but now we're talking one of the biggest brains behind AI we have today. So exciting to follow their journey! https://ssi.inc/

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