The Exchanges

Q And so, you know, obviously I love VC, so I'd love to hear more about that. So when you went in, what did you have? Did you have a pitch deck and the product? What essentials would you say there are for founders entering a round of funding?

A Sure. Um, the first pitch deck we had was terrible. It was like, 60 slides, it had, it took like, an hour to go through, and, and it talked about all of the things that Picketail could become. It was just like, it was such a visionary, like, naive, we're going to take over the world type of deck, but it completely lost the sense of sort of like, Identifying the smallest possible problem, and showing, like, diligence and focus in, in how we approach that, that problem. So, so, as sort of, like, the weeks went by, and we did, like, a lot of practice pitching, ah, with friends, the people in the industry, and people that work at other companies, the pressure, the presentation was cut down from maybe 60 slides to, to only 10 slides, ah, when we started doing, like, live VCE pitching. And I think that's, like, the first advice. Like, whenever you think that you've, like, made the deck smaller or more condensed, like, remove another two slides. Because as it turns out, the purpose of a deck is not to answer all questions about a business. It's to create ground for, like, interesting discussions to come. Like, VCs, in general, are interested people, and they want to be curious at the end of a presentation. They want to have some questions to ask. They want to engage in conversation. And I think the best pitch decks do that. They, they trigger excitement, but they, they leave things fo…

AI assessment note: “whenever you think that you've, like, made the deck smaller or more condensed, like, remove another two slides.”

Q and Daniel Waterhouse at Balderson, actually, I asked him for his advice on, before this interview, just for maybe questions to ask, and he wanted to know that you've built a team so successfully in New York, but you've managed to retain the magic in Sweden as well. How have you managed to create this brilliant company culture in Sweden, and have it retained when you expand to New York?

A Oh, that's a generous question. Uh, well, thank you for, for complimenting our company culture. I think that one of the key parts of it has been to One, make sure that communications is prioritized and invested in. That means that every new hire in the New York office is onboarded for one or two weeks in the Stockholm office, so that they can really kind of, like, understand our culture, our history, our vision, what, what the company is based upon. During these onboarding weeks, we have, like, a packed schedule of, like, different key stakeholders within the company that do a full presentation and story about, like, how What they work on within Ticktail, how the scope of their work has changed over time, why they started the company, what they're excited about in the company. So after that, kind of like onboarding course, you're 100% kind of up to speed on everything that has happened, that is happening, and where we're planning to go. The second part, of course, is that we put in place this sort of, like, knowledge or, like, transfer program between the offices, so if anyone in the Stockholm or New York office wants to go to the, to the other office to work, we will sponsor that trip entirely, whenever they want, for, for whichever reason. We also plan to have two company-wide offsites every year. So every, the entire company, twice a year, goes on this trip, ah, to, to diffe…

AI assessment note: “every new hire in the New York office is onboarded for one or two weeks”

Q So she was your first customer, and, and then how did you expand from there? Was it a word of mouth? Did you do online marketing?

A Oh, sure. So, the launch event of Thick Tail was actually this big e-commerce conference called the Nordic E-Commerce Summit. And we were able to strike a deal with them. They bring together about 2000 people in the industry to hear about sort of like the latest trends in e-commerce. And I went to the person organizing the event, and I said, look, If you let us present, I'll make sure that we launch on the day of the event. In fact, I'm going to make sure that we set up a timer on our website, counting down to the moment we go up on stage and present, so that the service actually goes live at the same time that we go up on stage.

AI assessment note: “the launch event of Thick Tail was actually this big e-commerce conference”

Q To be fair, you have raised investment from some incredible people now though, with, with Balderson and legends like Klaus Hommels. How did you meet those people?

A Well, I feel extremely lucky to have, ah, come to know, like, some really great entrepreneurs and, and people that work at other startups, ah, that, that were able to give us advice and support and mentorship as needed to kind of, like, develop our pitch and, and develop the presentation of TickTail to better reflect, like, the, the opportunity and, and, and how we would actually be running the business. And it was actually also through these people that, that we were introduced to, to these great investors, people like, ah, well, the, the partnership at Bolleton or Klaus Hommels. So, so what we did when we started pitching, and we were supposed to go out and raise our, our seed round, we started by pitching other startups. And we would just contact other startups and their founders and say, like, hey, we're a startup as well, we have this pitch, ah, would you please find, like, um, 30 minutes or 40 minutes from your busy schedule and give us some feedback on our pitch? And then once we pitched them, and they were giving some feedback, if they seemed excited about our opportunity, we would also ask them to introduce us to their investors. It's, it's pretty good, because once you get those introductions, you actually get introductions from startups that these VCs have already invested in, and of course, for that reason, already trust and believe in. And I think it's one of the m…

AI assessment note: “we would also ask them to introduce us to their investors”

Q and Daniel Waterhouse at Balderson, actually, I asked him for his advice on, before this interview, just for maybe questions to ask, and he wanted to know that you've built a team so successfully in New York, but you've managed to retain the magic in Sweden as well. How have you managed to create this brilliant company culture in Sweden, and have it retained when you expand to New York?

A Oh, that's a generous question. Uh, well, thank you for, for complimenting our company culture. I think that one of the key parts of it has been to One, make sure that communications is prioritized and invested in. That means that every new hire in the New York office is onboarded for one or two weeks in the Stockholm office, so that they can really kind of, like, understand our culture, our history, our vision, what, what the company is based upon. During these onboarding weeks, we have, like, a packed schedule of, like, different key stakeholders within the company that do a full presentation and story about, like, how What they work on within Ticktail, how the scope of their work has changed over time, why they started the company, what they're excited about in the company. So after that, kind of like onboarding course, you're 100% kind of up to speed on everything that has happened, that is happening, and where we're planning to go. The second part, of course, is that we put in place this sort of, like, knowledge or, like, transfer program between the offices, so if anyone in the Stockholm or New York office wants to go to the, to the other office to work, we will sponsor that trip entirely, whenever they want, for, for whichever reason. We also plan to have two company-wide offsites every year. So every, the entire company, twice a year, goes on this trip, ah, to, to diffe…

AI assessment note: “every new hire in the New York office is onboarded for one or two weeks”

Q To be fair, you have raised investment from some incredible people now though, with, with Balderson and legends like Klaus Hommels. How did you meet those people?

A Well, I feel extremely lucky to have, ah, come to know, like, some really great entrepreneurs and, and people that work at other startups, ah, that, that were able to give us advice and support and mentorship as needed to kind of, like, develop our pitch and, and develop the presentation of TickTail to better reflect, like, the, the opportunity and, and, and how we would actually be running the business. And it was actually also through these people that, that we were introduced to, to these great investors, people like, ah, well, the, the partnership at Bolleton or Klaus Hommels. So, so what we did when we started pitching, and we were supposed to go out and raise our, our seed round, we started by pitching other startups. And we would just contact other startups and their founders and say, like, hey, we're a startup as well, we have this pitch, ah, would you please find, like, um, 30 minutes or 40 minutes from your busy schedule and give us some feedback on our pitch? And then once we pitched them, and they were giving some feedback, if they seemed excited about our opportunity, we would also ask them to introduce us to their investors. It's, it's pretty good, because once you get those introductions, you actually get introductions from startups that these VCs have already invested in, and of course, for that reason, already trust and believe in. And I think it's one of the m…

AI assessment note: “it was actually also through these people that, that we were introduced to, to these great investors”

Q And so you're attracted to the e-commerce, and how did you actually get the ball rolling then on Ticktail? Did you use, you know, did you bootstrap with your co-founder? Did you have offices? How did it all start?

A No, sure. Um, well, it started one night. We were working super late in the office. I think it was like two or three AM. And I just told Kai, look, I want to do something else. I want to build a product. I want to invest my life into something that is longer term, a company where I can see myself work, not for the next year or two, but for the next 10 years. And I want to work on something that, that has this impact on, on the world around us. And I want to work together with, with you. And, and then that kind of like started a conversation between the two of us where we, we didn't know exactly what Ticktail was or what it was supposed to become. We just knew that we wanted to build a business and we wanted to build a company that was like, had a longterm perspective.

AI assessment note: “it started one night. We were working super late in the office.”

Q And in the whole Ticktail process then, with, with that moment in mind, what moment would you say has been the most nerve-wracking or frightening? Was it that moment or expanding to new continents, or what was it for you that really worried you?

A Well, that's a great question. I think it's, like, different things worry you in different ways. Like, that moment was just incredibly nerve-wracking. And probably, like, I've probably never felt, like, as stressed out and excited and Just, like, energized as I did when I, when I walked up on that stage. But then there's been, like, a lot of other moments like that one following the sort of, like, growth of Ticktail. Like, I remember pitching a VC for the first time, and just how nervous I was to go into that room and present the deck and present my vision and this thing that I've been spending so much time working and thinking about, only to have it be, like, criticized or, or, like, judged by this Like really, in my mind, important person that seemed to know everything about startups and technology.

AI assessment note: “I remember pitching a VC for the first time, and just how nervous I was”

Q And so, you know, obviously I love VC, so I'd love to hear more about that. So when you went in, what did you have? Did you have a pitch deck and the product? What essentials would you say there are for founders entering a round of funding?

A Sure. Um, the first pitch deck we had was terrible. It was like, 60 slides, it had, it took like, an hour to go through, and, and it talked about all of the things that Picketail could become. It was just like, it was such a visionary, like, naive, we're going to take over the world type of deck, but it completely lost the sense of sort of like, Identifying the smallest possible problem, and showing, like, diligence and focus in, in how we approach that, that problem. So, so, as sort of, like, the weeks went by, and we did, like, a lot of practice pitching, ah, with friends, the people in the industry, and people that work at other companies, the pressure, the presentation was cut down from maybe 60 slides to, to only 10 slides, ah, when we started doing, like, live VCE pitching. And I think that's, like, the first advice. Like, whenever you think that you've, like, made the deck smaller or more condensed, like, remove another two slides. Because as it turns out, the purpose of a deck is not to answer all questions about a business. It's to create ground for, like, interesting discussions to come. Like, VCs, in general, are interested people, and they want to be curious at the end of a presentation. They want to have some questions to ask. They want to engage in conversation. And I think the best pitch decks do that. They, they trigger excitement, but they, they leave things fo…

AI assessment note: “presentation was cut down from maybe 60 slides to, to only 10 slides”

Q So she was your first customer, and, and then how did you expand from there? Was it a word of mouth? Did you do online marketing?

A Oh, sure. So, the launch event of Thick Tail was actually this big e-commerce conference called the Nordic E-Commerce Summit. And we were able to strike a deal with them. They bring together about 2000 people in the industry to hear about sort of like the latest trends in e-commerce. And I went to the person organizing the event, and I said, look, If you let us present, I'll make sure that we launch on the day of the event. In fact, I'm going to make sure that we set up a timer on our website, counting down to the moment we go up on stage and present, so that the service actually goes live at the same time that we go up on stage.

AI assessment note: “the launch event of Thick Tail was actually this big e-commerce conference”

Q And so you're attracted to the e-commerce, and how did you actually get the ball rolling then on Ticktail? Did you use, you know, did you bootstrap with your co-founder? Did you have offices? How did it all start?

A No, sure. Um, well, it started one night. We were working super late in the office. I think it was like two or three AM. And I just told Kai, look, I want to do something else. I want to build a product. I want to invest my life into something that is longer term, a company where I can see myself work, not for the next year or two, but for the next 10 years. And I want to work on something that, that has this impact on, on the world around us. And I want to work together with, with you. And, and then that kind of like started a conversation between the two of us where we, we didn't know exactly what Ticktail was or what it was supposed to become. We just knew that we wanted to build a business and we wanted to build a company that was like, had a longterm perspective.

AI assessment note: “it started one night. We were working super late in the office.”

Q And in the whole Ticktail process then, with, with that moment in mind, what moment would you say has been the most nerve-wracking or frightening? Was it that moment or expanding to new continents, or what was it for you that really worried you?

A Well, that's a great question. I think it's, like, different things worry you in different ways. Like, that moment was just incredibly nerve-wracking. And probably, like, I've probably never felt, like, as stressed out and excited and Just, like, energized as I did when I, when I walked up on that stage. But then there's been, like, a lot of other moments like that one following the sort of, like, growth of Ticktail. Like, I remember pitching a VC for the first time, and just how nervous I was to go into that room and present the deck and present my vision and this thing that I've been spending so much time working and thinking about, only to have it be, like, criticized or, or, like, judged by this Like really, in my mind, important person that seemed to know everything about startups and technology.

AI assessment note: “I've probably never felt, like, as stressed out and excited”