Morten Lund

Dear Reader : This might be a bit more NEGATIVE than you’re used to. Apologies about that.

I love to chair startups and companies, but I hate 95% board meetings. But maybe not because of what you think.

I hate being dragged into staged and super-prepared board meetings. I get it, you want to look GOOD. But looking GOOD BORES me to death, because it’s FAKE. Every investor knows that things are never super-fluffy and hyggelig. So don’t sell BS.

When I invent or invest in a company –

 » Read on: Stop dragging me into board meetings  »

were just the idea of sending money from me to my daughter – without a middle man. Think peer to peer of music – Napster, Kazaa turning iTunes. Its early – only wackos are really understanding it (or pretending to) – but see it as boring infrastructure like SMS. SMS did not exist 20years ago (or actually it did – for technicians in Nokia who where lazy and didn’t want to call each other) – and today we don’t think about what it is – it’s just the standard way of getting hold of colleagues, kids and parents…

Same will happen with Bitcoins or whatever we call the next generation of software to transfer money.

 » Read on: Bitcoins…  »

This was a TEST, it went out to my whole network. And we FAILED a bit – the links didn’t work. But we like to LEARN from failures. So here it is for everyone. These companies + Kids + Josephine are taking up 115% of my life.

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openXO

openXO have wifi’d up the moon – the team around Christian has built a SMART wifi solution for hotels, retail, vacation homes, etc.. – pretty much ANY vendors with wifi –

 » Read on: We are all in SALES!  »

Today I managed to pay Morten Steen Jorgensen back the one of many loans I took in 2009 to buy myself out of Bankruptcy. Mr Steen showed up at my door with these words: “Here is a loan of 50k$ to buy yourself free – no strings attached – pay back when you can. We know the ‘eating glass feeling’ of the dark side of entrepreneurship – this is our help…”

I was lucky – more than lucky. Luckier than anyone could ever have imagined. I was standing in deep shit – I was over-invested (used personal guarantees) and everything I owned was suddenly picked up by people from the bank (literally –

 » Read on: Business Karma – A Special Day  »

I’m (still) suffering from some weird idea – that the adults know all of the answers ;) – like the +60 Chairman of Danske Bank and B&O (our Industrial Danish pride) – not to mention the new CEO at Bang & Olufsen – Tue Mantoni – who was at McKinsey and then – for some insane reason got auto approval in my brain – as the man who can save the already failing company. but But BUT – my brain has cheated itself – these guys are seriously hard – because none of them have a clue about electronics and product –

 » Read on: B&O, you owe me 2 hours of my life…  »

www.Airhelp.eu has a quite heavy period of 3 months development tasks and UI/UX work to get done – and they have set the budget for this (the right team can get shares for their code).

We are looking ideally for a top UI guy and 1 “full stack guy” – but we are open to anything – if you can convince us that you have the right team. We would prefer if the team can move to Copenhagen for 3months – but are open to the team working from Berlin, London,

 » Read on: 25.000€ + Shares for 3months of work  »

Today we are announcing the Capital Aid and Tradeshift partnership. CapitalAid has a backup of 500bio€ committed on paper  – and when this flies we will have a further 5bio€ committed to lend to small and medium sized companies. It’s just factoring – they did it in the High Middle Ages when Venice became extremely wealthy through its control of trade. There is absolutely no rocket science involved:

CapitalAID will simply offers to pay invoices for a company on the same day as they send it instead of waiting 30-90 days.

(if your company qualifies to get paid –

 » Read on: Working for 24 months on a 3Bio$ Business  »

I’m resigning from Tradeshift as Chairman – because I’m no longer the best fit for the role – now that Tradeshift is maturing. Christian Lanng the CEO and co-founder with Gert, Mikkel and Me – is the best guy to take the seat now. Smart and Self confident MF…. I will still be on the board as a regular member – invited by the founders. The reason is pretty simple, Tradeshift is now a global business which is growing fast and an IPO is within sight of the next few years. – and that is a very short time when sales cycles are +24months and I believe a 100% that the amassing employees can do this :).

 » Read on: Talent is a given – hard work optimises the luck  »

Here is a picture of a real entrepreneurial hero.

Sales is the best Funding

Yesterday I tried to tell a crowd of very hungry entrepreneurs that they should go and sell stuff – and not hunt Venture Capital.. Jacob Wolff-Petersen (above) – one of my best friends – he spent the past 10 years building SteelSeries creating +50mio€ in revenue – without taking in 1€ in VC money… beat that.

 » Read on: Sell Stuff – funding is not the key – sales is.  »

9 MONTHS IN THE LAB

9 months ago I went away from 100% focus on EVERBREAD and TRADESHIFT – they are simply mature – and don’t need my pedantic focus anymore (now I’m  down to 20 hours per week – due to amassing boards & staff in both start ups).

I WANT TO CREATE STUFF

So I have been sitting on my top floor for 9 months straight – inventing about 15 new business from scratch (me + my mac + keynote). From Fashion to Payments and POS over Insurance to Wifi products – I have been bouncing ideas with all my friends (mostly Filip) –

 » Read on: Only Dedication. Over Creativity  »

Dear Entrepreneurs

The reason that very few people do (and should do) start ups – is the insanity when all part are moving 360 / 365… – you simply need to be 1000% impatient while pretending to have a clear strategy – pitching Clients and VCs and New Hires (always 5min from closing down or selling the company for 10bio€) – you have to follow every lead to success. And you never know if the promise – you have from “The Visionary”, “The founder” or “The CTO” is actually true – nor if its mixed in the right way for the market to understand it.

 » Read on: A Shift in how we Trade : Tradeshift.com  »

23.55

Being in the startup scene – is living with a clock permanently on 23.55 trying to score Cinderella. Only the most agressive, funny and smart (and attractive) guys have a chance.

The Tune

After having started more than 100 companies – I feel that I’m starting to find the right melody – or lets call it tune. (And remember that I’m just the musician* – Josephine is my Cinderella – I over scored massively). And the people I have on my dance floor are absolute superstarts. And compared to when I was loaded –

 » Read on: Scoring Cinderella  »

Darn – I’m building something larger then I ever did. Its killing my brain to get into 360 of banking.

Democratizing Money

Creating People’s Bank with a purpose

A Bank where real people like you and me can do our daily banking and paying online. And bank where we will say THANK YOU for using us – what can we do for you? Did you ever hear that in your bank – or in any bank?

Mixing that with Payments

and making it easy to accept payments online –

 » Read on: Democratizing Money & Not Drowning In Your Own Ideas  »

Changing The World

Its so easy to be fooled by flatter – but its also fuel – when you are doing something that no one has ever done before… I’m in the center of a storm – created by .. MYSELF. Wow – it feel’s good. It’s fairly simple – just use your full energy and your voice – and magic will happen. Its simple… Social media actually connects everyone with access to a IP device… And despite all the financially savvy idiots – now ditching Facebook – THE WORLD HAS CHANGED A BIT. Facebook is the social glue –

 » Read on: I love Facebook (even more)  »

I have lent the blog to a young man who is the first of 10 guys I have meet in Copenhagen with a pretty cool new religion. This is pretty crazy shit – I have no idea what it means – is it socialism or brainism or just pure logic sense – to adjust your lifestyle to your real dreams – and not be polluted by materialism? Let me note the only SURE TRUTH about start ups I learned (from my friend Stephan Ekbergh): “The only thing that can kill a  start up – is running out of cash!”.

 » Read on: A New Tribe (Guest Post)  »

You Better Love Change

Im pretty very sure that every single consumer FACING BUSINESS will change. And Im sure that it will happen faster then we can imagine – since the way people behave has changed 100%. Im impressed to see Facebook buying Instagram – and hammering a last seam in Kodak’s coffin.

 » Read on: Infographics As A Business  »

Filip is not only one of the smartest kids I have ever met / he is also becoming crazy social and even positive some times… :). No, he will very soon get into motivational speaking for old industry Santa Claus type of guys – who need someone funny while sipping the XO after the boardroom dinner… :) been there – am there …  » Read on: Filip (RAW TALENT)  »

What Does It Take

Look at hero #1 – Steve Jobs – watch some of his early videos. This guy was never a techie – for real – he was a visionary – who had no problem communicating to both Sales People and Techies. His partner in Apple – W – had a whole blueprint of a motherboard in his head – and he only had one shot at getting it produced. (Mistakes were not an option) – and remember all the crappy electronics we have today are less complicated – then what W had in his head…

 » Read on: The Over Self Confident Self + A Techie  »

(mostly interesting for Danish & EU citizens )

You can easily be very rich

Very rich – but not have a penny (in cash)…. I’m in that situation – but don’t worry about me. Worry about your local society – your country.
In Denmark we have seen the most insane example – and I have to say that I have very little hope for democracy when the people who want to spend there seems to be lame….

Stupid Fuck Up With Good Intentions

How did ATP (one of the largest pension funds in EU) and PFA (also pension fund) end up turning FIH Erhvervsbank (our only aggressive commercial bank –

 » Read on: Banking Is Fucked Up = Your Bizz & Country is FUCKED  »

Im Changing Direction – Again

Tradeshift and Everbread are now running on their own – I don’t have to be there every day. And I see 10 amazing start ups every month – I can’t stop myself anymore – I need to kick a lot of these guys in their bud – and help them to become global and successful. (PLEASE RT THIS TO DESIGN COMMUNITIES).

I’m loosing it – in Design Talent

I’m getting old – and I have lost my touch with the design community and the hackers – who are doing consulting –

 » Read on: Designers & Researchers – Your Time Is Now !!!  »