#27) A Project Based Existence
happenstance, misfortune, serendipity, the here and now
I always wanted to have a clear success arc. You know: Harvard MBA, Goldman Sachs, became an entrepreneur, $100M exit, wrote a book, became a bestseller, etc etc.
Not quite how it turned out.
Let’s see:
East Hill Christian School (expelled / withdrawn 5th grade) —> Creative Learning Center —> Booker T. Washington High School —> University of Virginia, B.A. English — > Woodberry Forest, Assistant Director of Admissions —> University of Virginia, M.A, American Studies —> Webmaster, Harper Collins Publishers (NY) —> cofounder, Bottle Rocket —> Venture Partner, antfactory (London) —> CEO, The Ritz Club Online.
So, ok, some early wins: exited a doctom as cofounder. Was on the lead pitch team to raise a $350M pan European VC fund. Launched a profitable gaming business, subsequently sold.
Time to recharge. Sabbatical in Ireland. Played golf. Watched The Ryder Cup at The K Club. Tried to write. Did some consulting.
Impulse move to Bergen Norway to consult for itslearning for a year. 14 people worked there, 13 dudes, 1 blonde haired blue eyed chick (Birte, now my wife).
Set up my own company with Birte as co-owner, Luna Capital AS.
Partnered up with Vegard Sævik of Havila and Camilla Andersson of Fabian Invest to try our hands at “mediatech” investing, lost our shirts on two investments, another one is actually still alive and well today, Dizplai. Coinvested with Alliance in Never.no and came quite close to selling it to Twitter, actually, except for one fateful meeting where we just did not deliver the product goods and had to take it on the chin for the team in NY. A career low moment. Still sour about it.
#1 one son was born! and Birte, Philip and I moved to NY and lived through Hurricane Sandy when I told Birte “not to worry I have been through tons of hurricanes” and there we were on the 20th floor of the William Beaver building downtown south of Wall Street, holding young Philip in our arms and watching the East River come up the side streets like an apocalypse movie and rise, crest and fall at our doorstep. Buying food with cash by candlelight from a Mennonite grocer in Tribeca. Eating pizzas cooked over a single gas burner in the lobby of the building with the rest of the holdouts.
Ran the NY marathon after hard training and passed the halfway marker on target time-wise but the left kneecap started to twinge ever so slightly when I came into Manhattan and started running up to the Bronx. This twinge became a sharp pain. And this runner became a cast member from The Walking Dead coming down 5th Avenue and Central Park to the finish line as it was getting dark and Birte was in the stands wondering if I was still alive, much less finishing. But a busload of Korean tourists saw me at a grocery store with my finisher medal around my neck (chocolate chip cookies in my basket) and asked if I won and I said yes, and they all clapped their hands and took a group photo with me.
Asked Birte to marry me in a West Village playground on a Sunday morning, down on one knee in front of the old guys playing chess and young parents sipping Starbucks. She said yes.
It gets a bit blurry here frankly how various projects wove in and out and collapsed and succeeded to varying degrees.
Consulted for Innovation Norway (back then “pitch training” for entrepreneurs was a big deal), ditto for BTO, now known as Visinnovasjon.
Acted as CMO for Vimond.
In 2015, Annabelle was born!
In 2016 my father passed away in Pensacola with early stage Parkinson’s. We were in Pensacola at the time, witnesses, Thank The Lord.
In 2017, Fiona was born!
Worked my ass off with Anders Haugland and Olav Øverland to launch an oceantech themed VC fund, actually landed a number of prominent commitments, then an anchor flaked, Corona came and we had to take down the circus tent. Pretty beaten down at this point and happy to have a reason to do basically nothing except walk with my kids every day in places nearby I had never ever discovered before despite having lived in Fanahammeren for years.
Worked with Sarsia on Green Power Hub. Helped Evoy raise money.
And all in all, spent way too much time taking coffees and giving away advice and contacts to entrepreneurs in goodwill and pay it forward. Started to value my time more and say, sorry, pay me.
Happily met Mike Pekula along the way, designer extraordinaire, and upped the branding ante big time on everything we do. Thank you Petter Boska for the intro.
Chairman, Think Outside, raised money from Butterfly in Helsinki, but stressful times, really stressful times, fell out with the founder, sold my shares back at cost and now years later all made right with Monica, air cleared recently during a nice late lunch at Arendalsuka last August.
Chairman, Leieting, a peer to peer rental marketplace, great idea, fantastic team led by cofounder Christer Eriksen, and lo and behold we had a breakthrough strategic investor on the hook in Germany after just months of working together, but we also had a truly poisonous angel investor in Bergen who should be banned from angel investing globally for life with his noxious, vulture capital behaviour and thus everything went pear shaped despite board rooms full of lawyers intervening (Christer and I remain close friends).
Helped Espen Morild start a podcast company, Mainstream, sold it to a local media agency.
Helped Paal Kaperdal with financing Sensar Marine and the launch of this amazing and beautiful smart boat product into the market but stepped away for reasons of friendship as Paal became a close friend and that was more important to me than the business partnership.
Tried to help crypto guru Jacobo Toll Messia (Nahmii) with financing but then that wild haired Sam Bankman-Fried came along and suddenly you did not see the word crypto appear in VC media for a long long while. Full stop.
Worked with Refacture, Hatch, Katapult Ocean, Media City Bergen, Swen Blue Ocean, Blue Nav and countless others I frankly fail to recall now.
Worked with National Grid Partners and Raghu Madabushi and Lisa Lambert on a CVC fund spinout, sanctioned by the Board with a $150M anchor investment, then abruptly yanked and canceled and very much not sanctioned when we were well into the market and starting to move LPs to IC I decisions. That was fun. Raghu and I forged a close friendship. Few people I respect more on so many levels.
Raghu introduced me to the cofounder of WAVE Equity Partners, Praveen Sahay, and I hit the road helping WAVE form Fund III. Hardwon battle scars from meeting LPs during some of the driest market conditions one could ever wish on one’s worst enemy. Resigned but have stayed close to Praveen, somebody I admire greatly as an investor and as a human.
Started to write on Substack during Corona then had to stop due to SEC fund marketing regulations (or, so said WAVE’s compliance team), and, well, never letting that happen again. Ever.
During my time at WAVE, got to know the MayMaan team better and better, visited their facilities in south Florida, kicked the tires, literally, and am working in the trenches now on European business development.
James Neufeld, founder and CEO, samdesk, who used to work with me back in those Hurricane Sandy / birth of Twitter days, reached out to me to blitz defence procurement on his behalf in Europe (just gave him a hug yesterday in Amsterdam after having not seen him for over a decade in the flesh).
Anders Haugland and I have stayed good friends over the years and he reached back out to me to suggest I acquaint myself with Sustainable Energy Center in Stord. Anders is the Chairman. And now, happy to say, I am thick as thieves with Willie Wågen, CEO, and his incredible team. Not a weak link in the chain. Working on private capital structures to catalyse more ventures. Real industry breakthroughs, from POCs to FOAKs. Less coffee gatherings to discuss innovation and more real results. I like Stord vis a vis Bergen. Watch this space.
Attended a gathering in Warsaw a year ago organised by Sarah Altemeyer and made a number of very real connections and continue to share thoughts with Sarah almost every week on whatsapp.
Øyvind Bauge joined me as Research Lead part time, a relationship forged over many years of training (then no training) and coffees and big brother / little brother dialogue. Grateful.
Was asked to join the Board of Fana Ungdomshus and breathe life into an old historic building in our neighbourhood, turn it into more of a place for kids and youth and the local community at large and not just Yoga Ladies and communions and birthday parties.
All along the way, every once in a while, deeply deeply disappointed by somebody or by my own self or both at once.
All along the way, every once in a while, savouring a small win in what feels like a sea of false starts.
Hot off the press - introduced by Lauren Reade of the NATO Fund to Glenn Cowan, Founder, MD, ONE9. This is the single most authentic and commercially viable defencetech platform I have encountered globally (and I have seen many) with a potent mix of 20+ years special forces chops and the Kensington Capital Partners investment platform with 20+ years of investing billions in private equity and a uniquely strategic placement in Canada for the Arctic frontline - this, in a sea of shamelessly pivoting climate tech pretenders who were all singing Kumbaya and “save the planet” a year ago but are now preaching resilience in camouflage - oh, the irony.
So what do you make of it all? All of this randomness?
My father asked me in the weeks leading up to his death what I really wanted to do with my life.
What are the threads to this story? Commonalities? Is it a «career» strictly speaking?
When I keyboard “define career” I receive
An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.
The jury is still out: my father in law still asks me every year at Christmas what I do for a living.
Entrepreneurship is a thread. Raising money is a thread (or “speaking to investors” as I like to frame it). People are a vital thread. Leaping before I look is a thread. Tackling difficulty. Failing too is most definitely a thread.
Something has happened recently though. When I crested 50. A fundament formed inside. Something granite and immoveable. A feeling of speaking from experience and not sheer hubris. I cannot even remember The Idiot that I was at the age of 30, 35. God knows what came out of my mouth back then.
Smart and experienced people turn to me for advice on matters of utmost importance to them - the survival and the continuation of their dreams. Mikal Løvik out of the blue, cofounder, Aria, CEO, EQON. Now like the little brother I never knew I needed in life. Who is advising whom in the end?
I said to Joris of Foresight Partners over steak tartare in Amsterdam this past week, somebody deeply experienced in private markets investing and capital allocation, I said I actually have no feeling of impostor syndrome anymore and I am deeply humbled by the trust placed in me. I do not remember when I stepped onto this mantel, but I am also comfortable being here, in this position. Where I am here and now.
Thank you Kelly!