Nicolaj Reffstrup

We've created a global platform for extraordinary jewellery designers worldwide, and we're truly passionate about the journey, which is only just gaining global momentum... 🚀 But, let's be real - Has it been smooth sailing? Not a chance. ☘ Has it been tough? You bet. 💪 Have we grown from it? Every single day. ❣ ...I can't guarantee you won't face your own hurdles, but at least you won't have to repeat the same mistakes we've made. Looking forward to sharing togther with awesome and talented people on May 16th. in Copenhagen💛 #luxurytech #tech #femaleentrepreneur

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We have one more end-of-year offer for you! 🤗 Our 10-hour stampcard (Danish: Klippekort) is on sale for just 10,000,- DKK! But you have to be quick - we ‘re only selling 10 stampcards at that price ☝ What can you use it for, you ask? Well, when you buy a stampcard, you buy 10 hours for any kind of ESG task you need help with. You can even decide yourselves, if you want to divide the hours and spend them on multiple tasks 😉 Maybe you need someone to check your policies, screen your sustainability text for greenwashing, help you with carbon accounting, or any other small task that doesn’t require starting up a large project. Because sometimes you just need a little bit of help. Pretty convenient, right? Buy a stampcard here, and we’ll reach out to you to chat about what you need: https://lnkd.in/dj9sCfXr #ESG #CSR #Sustainability #Consultancy #Sale #Greenwashing

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🎊 Great news for early-stage businesses in Denmark! The new government reform introduces significant funding opportunities, tax relief, and legal changes aimed at boosting startup growth. This is a perfect time for innovative ideas in health, wellbeing, and energy sectors to thrive. If you have a startup or an idea, we want to hear from you! Learn more about the reforms and send your pitch to us for a chance to collaborate. At KRING we not only invest in impact ideas and business concepts, we co-create! https://lnkd.in/dSBnmuDS #Startups #Innovation #Health #Energy #Entrepreneurship #DenmarkReform #EarlyStageBusiness #impactinvesting #Venturebuilding #kring

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🚨New byFounders investment alert! Livv Health - a 🇳🇴 HealthTech company founded by Sverre Sundsdal (prev. Head of AI at Babylon Health) and Ishita Barua, MD PhD (a medical doctor with a PhD in AI for Medicine and the author of the highly praised book “Artificial Intelligence Saves Lives”) - is tackling one of the most difficult but impactful problems we face in healthcare today: consolidating fragmented medical records into a single accessible platform. Read more about why we invested here: https://lnkd.in/dfm9wm9T

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During a lecture on Venture Capital and Angel Investors at CBS today, I couldn’t help but reflect on how VC funding plays a significant role in driving fast, scalable business models and on research found them behind many fast fashion brands. Companies like Shein, which has raised $4 billion, and Cider, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and valued at $1 billion, are examples. While Cider claims its on-demand inventory makes it more ethical, that’s still debatable. We know the mechanics of fast fashion: rapid production is often made possible by using cheap materials, underpaid labor, and sometimes by replicating designs. These practices raise serious concerns about labor violations and environmental impact. Despite these red flags, VCs continue to back such ventures, chasing short-term profits. Meanwhile, new and innovative sustainable startups, which could actually drive meaningful change, often struggle to get the support they need. This disparity in funding makes it harder for truly ethical solutions to scale. While VCs may not be able to reform the fast-fashion industry overnight, perhaps it’s time to start thinking critically about the long-term consequences of funding it — and the missed opportunity in not backing more sustainable alternatives and helping them scale up! #funding #venturecapital #angelinvestors #equity #crowdfunding #sustainability #fashion #capitalism

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How Hobbii is winning with a multi-country Live Shopping setup! 🌎 The Danish rocket ship, founded in 2015 by Jens Reimer Olesen, Morten Petersen, Jonas Reeh and Emil Reeh has achieved an exponential growth that most E-commerce startups can only dream of. 🚀 In a recent article in DetailWatch, Hobbii’s CEO, Jeppe Kallesoe Odefey reveals that much of their growth comes from the 30 countries they serve. He says, “We have an online community that we work very hard to make even more interesting for customers to participate in.” A part of that community engagement comes from their Live Shopping events, which they run in the US, the UK, Germany, Denmark and France. “So far, we have run over 300 Live Shopping events across our key markets, and we see a growth in reach, views, engagement and sales with every event” says their Head of Social and Growth Marketing, Christian Hasseriis. “Live Shopping with Sprii has no doubt played a major role in our growth story. Given the scale and multi-country approach in our Live Shopping strategy it’s great to have a reliable partner like Sprii.” #Hobbii #LiveShopping #EcommerceGrowth #EcommerceStartups #LiveStreamSelling #SocialCommerce

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Our Founders Message: As the founder of Vanten, I've always believed that power dressing isn’t about mimicking menswear. My journey began when I realized that true empowerment comes from feeling confident and powerful from within, regardless of the clothes you choose to wear. It’s this philosophy that has shaped our brand and every piece we create. Join me as I share my story and our mission to redefine power dressing for women everywhere. #FounderStory #PowerDressing #WomenEmpowerment"

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... CIFF Summer '25 collection edition. 🗣 Cheers to Konrad Olsson from Scandinavian MIND and Josefine Cramer for the invite to be part of a panel and represent Momentum. 🙏 It was a pleasure to deep-dive into upcoming EU legislations (like our often discussed #EUDPP) in the fashion industry with other experts like Jenny Wärn and Emilia Gädda. ❎ There's also a clear move in communicating green goals to external stakeholders: Companies are switching from greenwashing (making false green claims) to greenhushing, a counterintuitive practice in which companies intentionally don’t publicize their climate-friendly actions and goals. Does that mean we tried and failed to go to net zero? -> No, I believe we still try, reform, and implement more realistically from now on. 💬 My favorite take: "Regulation is good to transform the fashion industry into a less wasteful one, but creativity and design should still be the focus since that's what fashion is all about" Achim Berg Marie Busck Kay Litzinger Jess Fleischer Anja Padget Mette Stubkjaer Christensen Simon Hjelte Heidi Svane Pedersen Daniel di Benedetto Kasper Karimaa David Thunmarker

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Got a killer idea or early case within digital health or energy? Read on to see if you are a match and get in touch ⚡️ At KRING, we have two tracks for investments; we invest in our developed ventures in our #venturestudio, BUT we also invest in early-stage external cases, when there is a match 🎯 First of all, there needs to be a match between you as co-founder(s) and KRING's values. Naturally, we have some key criteria for our external investment strategy. We could be a good match if your startup is: 1) 🧬 Within digital health, focused on early diagnostics and early intervention, chronic disease prevention, management and reversal, functional medicine, or behavioural-based health interventions. 2) 🌏 Within energy, focused on energy renovation, optimization, grid flexibility, EV infrastructure or the built environment. 3) 👶🏽 Early in the journey with ongoing development needed for product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, team capabilities or other strategic work. 4) 💻 Has a digital business model that is asset-light with low fixed costs and high scalability. 5) 💸 With early focus on profitability - we build ‘Zebras’ rather than ‘Unicorns’ and aim to make our companies sustainable with early profitability. Classic “VC journeys” are the exception. 6) 🤓 Has a B2B2C or B2C focus. We focus on solving real end-user problems with a demonstrated high level of value-add and consumer demand, either directly or via corporate partnerships. In the case your startup does not fall within each category above, there may still be a relevant match between your case and KRING. If you are interested in learning more, please get in touch with me or fill out the assessment on our website: https://lnkd.in/dvNGP_iW 📩 Don’t hesitate to get in touch - we would love to hear from you! 🤘 #venturestudio #startupstudio #impactstartups

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Bankrupt. Small. 6 hours away. These are a few of the characteristics of the business that today's guest Jens Grudno bought. Those were the bad. But there were also the good: * 117 years old * Strong brand * Differentiated, high-quality product * And cheap — Jens didn't pay much for the business This is the story of how Jens worked his way through finance and startups, and arrived as the owner of DOVO, an old business manufacturing an old product: straight razors. This is a turnaround story, and Jens acknowledges that he chose for himself a very difficult task for someone who'd never bought a business before. But as you'll hear, he is drawn to outsized challenges, to proving the haters wrong. But it wasn't just an emotional decision. This is a guy who read Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor as a teenager, so he thinks like an investor, always seeking value, risk-reward asymmetries. And he thought the downside here was limited, while the potential to restore this centenarian to its former glory represented big upside. Now of course, there's theory... then there's reality. This has ended up being extremely difficult, and everything has taken longer than predicted. But Jens has survived and stabilized DOVO, and he's gearing up for the launch of a new product that he's optimistic will dominate its category and catapult its revenue. Enjoy this rollercoaster ride with Jens Grudno, owner of DOVO. ( 👉 link to interview in comments below)

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These are the hottest startups to follow in the Nordics 🔥 curated by Sifted and Mimi Billing - picked by top VC funds, generalists and deep tech VCs in the area. Please note, that these are companies we have not invested, but think are worth to follow or with high potential. https://lnkd.in/d3pit3FT ——— Our fund was asked to list in particular university and science spin-off companies. My picks from Voima Ventures: - IntuiCell, Photoncycle and Vitroscope Sophia Bendz, partner at Cherry Ventures - Leya, Lovable and Terra Labs Sabina Wizander, partner at Creandum - Normain, Dendrite.ai Agent, Soolv Linus Dahg, CEO of Inventure - IONLACE - We're hiring!, spektr,Ambio Kremena Tosheva, investor at SNÖ Ventures - ReOrbit, Carbon Crusher, Keystrike #nordics #startups #tech #innovation #ai #venturecapital

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"A good COO runs just behind a CEO with urgency and picks up all the pieces that fall behind on the journey." This is Kjartan Slette's (COO & Co-Founder Unacast) description of why he and Thomas Walle (CEO & Co-Founder Unacast) have such a well-functioning partnership after over 10 years. Thanks for a great summary of the COO Summit Autumn 2024 (link to article in the comments), Joakim Birkeli Jacobsen & Shifter.no. Agnes Dyvik Clark shares some great takeaways from her fireside chat with Jon Kåre Stene and other relevant insights into the COO's role in a venture-backed scaleup. Curious to hear how Jon Kåre and Karl would agree with the Batman & Robin comparison! 😅 Great to witness another "Tandberg Mafia" story with Michel Sagen and his learnings from building Videxio and Pexip. Spoiler alert -> One common thread all the speakers come back to is the importance of culture. Something that is hard to copy or replicate but authentically crafted by the founders from early on. "Progress over perfection" - was Videxio's cultural mantra in the early days and I believe a lot of companies, both big and small could learn a lot by following that mindset. 💪🏻🔥🚀

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🏁 Apply until Friday 🏁 We make the difference for the ones who can make the difference. Or in other words, if you are a highly impactful European climatetech startup at founding or pre-seed stage we can be your first believer who helps you to get kickstarted. On the mission to become Europe's leading catalyst for pre-seed climatetech ventures we designed our remote acceleration journey for start-ups which are looking for their first significant funding and are on the way to find their product-market fit. We will select just the very best and most ambitious teams to support them individually to make them as successful as possible. We have no strict curriculum, no cohort activities, almost no obligatory events. We will tailor a journey on your specific needs. ​​ 🎯 we provide a structured approach to reach product-market fit 👵 mentoring from experienced founders and experts speeds you up 📚 our knowledge-base helps to work like a serial entrepreneur 🤝 we connect you with many relevant contacts 💶 with our investment we are going to lead your pre-seed round, sized 200k - 1.5mn Euro 👼 we help you to find awesome co-investors for the pre-seed round and support you later with your seed round 👩‍🔬 we help you to find highly motivated and skilled first employees from our network 💻 fully digital program, but strong network in most European startup hubs Apply until this Friday (September 27th): https://lnkd.in/diWDSpnw

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Introducing: Building Giants, with Doccla CEO Dag Larsson. Earlier this month Doccla raised their £35m Series B - led by Lakestar to scale what is now Europe’s leading provider of fully managed virtual wards. This was four years after we first met Dag in 2020 and co-led Doccla's seed round. In Building Giants, we aim to show you the insights that our portfolio CEOs are learning during the journey of building Giants (not just after they've IPO'd). Dag talks about his lessons learnt from Seed to Series B, including: - The need to embed data, and focus on talent, from the start - Why you should build only for customers, not investors - How to partner with the NHS - Why his co-founder dynamic works well - Why he doesn't centre the organisation on his own leadership This Q&A is packed with helpful information for founders looking to scale. Plus, we turn the tables and hear from Cameron McLain, co-founder and Managing Partner at Giant, on what Giant saw in Doccla, why we invested and why Dag has become an 'investment archetype' at Giant's investment meetings... 📺 Watch the full video via the link in comments!

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It's been a couple of years now since publicly launching KOSTÜME at Rouleur Live, and I couldn't make it at all last year for various reasons. So much has happened in the last two years, so it will be very interesting to get a vibe check from the industry on Thursday. There is so much bad news still floating around, but whilst it is important to analyse the how's and why's, none of what has happened is remotely rocket science, and yet there seems to be a morbid fascination about dissecting it ad nauseam and leaping on the next big news story with perverse glee. Rapha is the perfect example. Of course the recent results are not positive. But if you actually look behind the numbers, the 'losses' are nowhere near as bad as many so-called industry 'commentators' are pointing out, and a lot of it is simply down to the ongoing ammortisation of goodwill that came as part of their acquisition. In the meantime, all the negative chat is doing is further destabilising the industry, not least when it comes to badly needed external investment. Far be it for me to defend Rapha, but some of the reporting I have read is just downright misleading, and people should know better. In the meantime, success stories like our own seem to be being almost totally ignored. In market conditions where the leading brands are struggling to shift stock even at a loss, we are selling out batches of our bib shorts direct to customers in 26 countries with absolutely no discounts or overstock, not even any paid ads or performance marketing, and customers have to wait 4-6 weeks to receive them. YoY revenue is up 200%, new customers up 250%....I could go on, but I am really not fishing for validation. Our customers are all the validation I need - if ever I feel a bit low I just look at our Trustpilot... What I will say is that as someone who is in their 25th consecutive year as a founder of very different high-growth startups it's been an eye-opening last 12-18 months in many, many ways, and I have a lot to (very candidly) say about the experience once I am able to free up some more time! The current early stage investment ecosystem is...well, let's save that for another time. Ultimately I am very, very excited about the next chapter for us. And, hopefully, for the industry as a whole. Grab me for a chat if you see me (or DM if you fancy arranging something more formal.)

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🎙️Do VCs have moral obligations when investing in & nurturing startups? I'm thrilled to share the latest episode of "Startup to Scale Up Game Plan" where I sat down with Robin Egerot, Managing Partner at Goose Valley Ventures . Robin's extensive experience investing in companies like Klarna, Lunar Bank, and Receipt Hero makes this episode a must-listen! We explored: 🧭 The ethical considerations in venture capital & the Mensarius Oath 🤝 The crucial role of trust & loyalty between investors and founders 🧠 Goose Valley's proactive approach to supporting founders' mental health 🚀 Insights into the Nordic startup ecosystem & emerging technologies like AI Robin's wisdom and passion for fostering innovation shine through, offering invaluable advice for both budding VCs and startup enthusiasts. Watch the clip below and share your thoughts! ⬇️ You can also listen to the full episode via the links in the 1st comment #VentureCapital #MentalHealth #AI #NordicStartups

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Starting the week with a new brand audit performed by Google Gemini Pro - 1.5 Today we are looking at ASKET through the prism of AI About ASKET ASKET is a Swedish menswear brand founded in 2015 with a mission to offer sustainable and timeless clothing. The brand focuses on transparency, ethical production, and durable garments made with high-quality materials. Asket's vision is to become a leading advocate for responsible consumption in the fashion industry by promoting quality over quantity and encouraging customers to buy less, but better. Check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/egpTiUxb ASKET Competitors Everlane Everlane shares a similar focus on ethical and sustainable practices, transparent pricing, and minimalist aesthetic with Asket. Reigning Champ - CYC Design Corporation Reigning Champ, like Asket, emphasizes high-quality basics with a focus on minimalist design and durable construction. Outerknown Outerknown, similar to Asket, prioritizes sustainability and ethical manufacturing in its men's clothing, appealing to a similar conscious consumer. Fun Fact: according to Google Gemini Pro 1.5, ASKET significantly outperforms its competition when it comes to Sustainability while being a lesser known brand overall:

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The NoA Growth Award shortlist is now official. For the fourth consecutive year, NoA in cooperation with Resumé hands out the NoA Growth Award (Tillväxtpriset) at the yearly gala dinner for Sweden’s Best CMOs.   The award recognizes how marketing teams can drive growth by activating and elevating their company’s overall strategy.   Previous winners include the marketing teams from Lyko, Polestar, and Apohem.   Shortlisted for this year’s NoA Growth Award are*: Katarina Gold, Akavia Johanna Åberg och Mikael Gustafsson, ATG Magnus Hammarskjöld, Celsius Tomas Bäcklund, Elite Hotels Jeanette Eliasson, Nordnet Ulrika Nilsson, Quintus Technologies   This year’s jury (the lovely faces in the picture) consists of jury president Niklas Bondesson, with jury members Anders Ullstrand, Caroline Rudbeck, Andreas Fredmark, Erika Bennerholt, Johan Anselmsson, Niclas Sandin (missing from the picture), and Emma Stjernlöf.   The award is handed out on October 24.   * list in alphabetical order based on company name.   #marketing #award #growth #tillväxtpriset #noagrowthaward

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🚀 Reform-Driven Success: Empowering Early-Stage Startups with KRING Exciting times for early-stage startups! 🌱 Recent reforms and funding initiatives by the danish government, like DKK 665 million for high-risk investments and the removal of the 25% Entrepreneur's Tax, create unprecedented opportunities for new ideas. At KRING, we leverage our expertise and investor networks to support co-founders in creating impact-driven businesses. Our unique venture-building model and strong partnerships help startups scale quickly and effectively. Discover how these reforms can empower entrepreneurs within early-stage businesses and new ideas. Join us in building the next generation of impactful companies: https://lnkd.in/duzkype2 TestaViva Triba Health Valified aescolab Welldium Nuna Flextribe pree.to #Entrepreneurship #StartupSuccess #ImpactInvesting #Sustainability #Innovation #BusinessReform #EarlyStageStartups #KRING

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