Goodbye, Klarna. It’s been spectacular!
After 7 amazing years, I’ve officially left Klarna. Here are my top 5 takeaways from this incredible journey:
Founder mode is real. I have seen Sebastian Siemiatkowski dive deep into so many product and commercial problems and provide HUUUUGE value. This is something I will always take with me and try to apply to the new business I am building. Things move so much faster, more junior people get the best coaching of their lives, information flows are more efficient, plus a ton of other benefits.
Irregular career paths are enriching and prepare you for everything. I joined Klarna in Stockholm to build a new product from scratch. We reached millions of users and built a cross functional product organization with hundreds of super smart Klarnauts. Then I moved to Spain to launch the country operations—again, from the ground up. After building all commercial teams and helping start the rest of initiatives (engineering hub, operations, etc), Klarna has today a few million active users and presence in most top100 retailers.
AI will change everything. You might have seen in the news how Klarna is getting leaner and leaner by applying AI to different company areas: customer service, commercial operations, HR tools, etc. Klarna is truly adapting AI at an unprecedented speed for a company of its size. Once you see the power of AI applied in the right way, there is no way back. This insight has impacted me profoundly and is going to be the foundation of the new company I am starting.
Customer obsession is king. If you are not really, really, really close to your end users, you will end up building the wrong product for them. If you are not really, really, really close to your enterprise clients, you will be unable to understand and solve their problems. I know this has been repeated a million times, but it is so fundamentally important, I will say it once more.
Fast iteration beats everything else. Except for a few fundamental, hypercritical, and one-way-door decisions, iterating fast is the best way to progress with anything. It applies to product (with MVPs and fast iteration for new features), to building teams (hire slow, fire fast), to commercial actions (always find a new angle).
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I said 5, but I have soooo many more. It has been amazing to work for a company that has given me so much. Thank you, Klarna!
Founder @ GraphApi.io
3moWas a pleasure talking to you Krish Ramachandran.