I invested in these guys 18 months ago – and it was classic – all was amazing when I came in XuQa – and then we saw a change in the market. Normal kids – sorry but they are – would have started crying and bitching – but these guys just changed their business and found a new angle – reinvented themselves from being SocialNetwork – to becoming a leader in Virtual Currency…. No crap – no complaining – it just happened over night and bang now revenue is flying in and Im feeling even more lucky!!! Thanx to these Pakistani WUNDERKIDS!

– just an initial sketch.

(- wow its a long time since I played with .GIF)

After being psycho aggressively investing in the last 4 months – deploying 10mio€ into 20 companies  I have found a person and a company (structure) where I will spend all my time and focus for the next 6 months. Its all about financial services for ordinary people – a bit like Zecco (the unbelievable success with now 50.000 clients). I think there is an insane and enormous potential. I will off course tell you much more – when I can.

And yes I dare to think that we can create millions of happy clients and billions of value.

I have been to MANY many MANY board meetings – and I have to admit that Im probably the worst board member in the world. Mainly due to my attentionspan of about 2min :(

But I enjoy meetings with young structured Americans who really deliver like a Radio show – and just brush you up on the business in 1,5h.  (And Morrie – you know who I mean – you are fucking good!)

My friend Mik (king of the good life) – got me into the coolest simplest deal in the world – and now they are live – have a look and try http://www.pagegangster.com/

Im so proud to be part of this Glubble project . Ian is a true master. It should be under my WILD concept – since its really something GOOD for kids.

I have loved Zecco since I met the guys first time (well actually we first declined – but then after some wine – Soren and I went all in). And now Jeroen and partners have really made it to BIG. And this picture show all their self confidente in one shot ;)

For the first time – I have tried a real conman or should I say concouple – really strange. They got German investors and me – they got a supercool partner – they seemed really ok. And now they are taking the company hostage and playing stupid trying to blackmail us. WOW – imagine that I should try this. Weird. I will let you know what the names are soon – so the internet transparency will avoid this to happen to YOU.

Monday I went with Hlin to Paris (Costes Hotel is just nice) – its just impossible not to be in love in Paris. We had amassing weather and where perfectly neglected by any waiter and service person in our way – and I still find it charming.

Quite some phone calls – on a trade sale of a company I’m doing
Good meeting with startup Trigami.com – where I will probably put in some money
Lots of sms with Loic – and Alain R
More trade sale activity
Lots of thinking about Orolix – whats the best strategy – how do I help out

I’m thinking every day about the value of a board and my role and how I help the best – and how little or much I should do – and weather my insecurity (VERY WELL HIDDEN) will ever go away… Telling myself constantly – that its not me role to create the companies – Im only support when needed and in some strategy (hate that word) – I mean in some of the crucial decisions.. But I also know that a startup is ONE BIG CRUCIAL DECISION.

We took a long walk both Monday and Tuesday – in the Rue St. Honore and Le Champs.. Im so happy to have email on my phone when Hlin goes into the 5th shop and I can just stay outside – pretend to be patient – but do mails ;) (I’m not sane). Had dinner – where Loic and Me where acting like pricks – by only talking about ourself and his and my projects – but also got a VERY INTERESTING insight in his role in the French election (he is on CNN all the time – not only because he speaks English – he is charming and VERY SMART – street smart).

made a handshake deal with ww.trivop.com – founders is JUST COOL
talked quite some to my close friend Jacob from SteelSeries
was thinking a quite some about BullGuard – love their growth
met a couple of fun entrepreneurs
mentaly preparing for VERY secret meetings in Wienna – on Wed.

Got home Tuesday night – Hlin went directly on night shift at the hospital (wow she is brave) – I just played with the kids and watched my beloved EyeTV – love recorded TV. Saw Danish Agger score for Liverpool against Chel$ea – good.

Got the Kids to School – and directly to the train to the Airport – got a bit angry with the lines in security – since all 6 people for the meeting inside the Airport got delayed 20min… 2 Very nice meetings – first on selling a company for a friend – talking legal – strangely I start to find it interesting – Ive always been surfing at these meetings – but now I was all over – and to be honest – NOT IMPRESSED BY ANYONE but my own good old lawyer Carsten who from the sideline avoided to major problems – that NO ONE ELSE HAD SEEN. Jumped on plane to meetings a the VERY COOL AND NEWLY RENOVATED Meridian in Vienna – stealth meetings all day – in a whole new speed and with people who just have been doing what Im trying to do for 35 years. Gentle, Humble, Nice, Interesting, Clever, Smart and No BS guys – who are all just what I needed for my new big plan (sorry t be secret ass). Wonderful Dinner at Bar Italia – owned by Manfred from BWIN – who unfortunately was i Milan watching the CL game (where I did not make it) – but we had fantastic food and his brother Gigi took very good care of us. The BIG guys left dinner to go back and negotiate – I stayed with a friend and walked back – inventing a Twitter Exchange plug in – that would reply to all emails above 140 characters – I will not deep read until later this week (hmm not funny in writing). Had some drinks

Was thinking a lot about the days outcome – feeling Orolixed :)

Tonight I was with my obesity startup and Im so fuc… impressed by the team – we will get a brilliant biotechnology guy in with some cash and one of the best Danish brains (AND SOCIALLY VERY STRONG) – and got a meeting with Weight Watchers during May. Cool guy the COO from WW.

WEBSITES i used this week
Pierre W Lande Actics (weird shit) Loic (good vcast) Google Finance, Mail, Spreadsheet, yousendit

Very exited about
Avanoo.com
Orolix Orolix Orolix
My idea of a Luxury Brand Fund
The Secret team from Wienna
How to recruit 10 top people we need for projects right now
HelloGroup – specially Thomas P from hellobrand

Thats it folks (sorry to use this as a diary – but I needed it – again)

November 2005 – I had the pleasure of being in Delhi –  with Soren Kenner, Martin S and Mads – we had a treatment that I have seldomly tried by the Indian Musketeers: Bundeep, Rishi and Manish – who wanted to start an Advisory and M&A Consulting boutique. I did not really understnd what they wanted to do – but India was cool – and they are ÜberCool nd Nice and have obviuos extremly high moral and etichs. So it was easy – to choose to invest some money into their Induswiev idea. And as always – with rally good people – their fiscal year end report shows very nice numbers. And their references must make everyone impressed – plus they have a pipeline of clients that looks like a basket of diamonds ;) ost impressing is their productivity – the newsletter and India review is steller – see www.theindusview.com

Dear Rishi, Manish and Bundeep – thank you so much for letting me tap into this exploding market with THE VERY BEST PEOPLE = YOU GUYS !!

Dear Highly valued Readrs: If you need anything in India – og have any business to do – just ping these guys.

For more

Red Herring 100 in Cannes was good. The program is – VERY AVERAGE – some moderators are very good and actually involved and you have to give credits to Red Herring for A) giving away a price that costs 2000€ to pick up ;) B) Asking 40 VCs to pay 2000€ to debate in panels ;)

When that is said – I have to admit that I love those conferences. I would have had to travel to Sofia, Berlin, Zurich, London, Paris… to have had the meetings I had in 48hours. Most interestesting is www.smeet.de , www.trigami.com, www.Treveda.com, www.gravityzoo.com, www.corpcom.de, www.joinr.de, www.epuls.pl … all companies I would love to go into.

Tommy (CEO @ Zyb) is the proof of investeing in people and gutfeeling. I meet Tommy summer 2005 – thanx to Nicolaj Refstrup – and I was 100% convinced that I wanted to work with him after 5min. Now – nearly 2years later- one time bankrupsi – he has proven to be a FANTASTIC LEADER – and inspiration to the now 20 people working at Zyb. And Zyb has been awarded best startup in Denmark and Red Herring Top100 European company. And Tommy is still only using 20% of his potential ;) – I FUCKING LOVE IT !!!

I have never seen an advertorial on travel done so well – and then by NBC in primetime ;). This is one of my best ventures!!

Its ll about luck!

I have been thingking about making a website for StartUps all over the world – a stream of fast and short messages and messengers who report (insider and outsider stories).

Concept – done on on top of – guess what – www.twittervision.com

One of my startups is VERY SUCCESFULL – but it takes a positivist to get it:

They make NO MONEY
They use 200.000€ every month
Their product is free
They will go technically bankrupt in may

Wierd – weird – They are a TOP 100 Company in Europe
– and the team is amazing – and will succed and EVERYONE wants to finance them.

Im thinking a lot about what the Big Plan is – when you are involved with 50-60 ventures. And it looks more and more like having something to do with revenue…

Formerly known as Jull og Stejle – and with a history going back to 1992 – HelloWeb – is now a part of HelloGroup. I cant wait to see what will happen when this giups turs just one year old in July ;) – its good people and powerfull execution. Personally Im very much looking forward to the days when they can do more stuff for LundKenner…

I was posting for talent the other day and I forgot to say how proud I am to work with the best talent already. So I wrote to the leading Danish business magazine to put these guys into Top100 Talents – www.bny.dk. These are only Danes.

Tommy Ahlers, Zyb.com – 31
Well – this guy was a shooting star at Mckinsey (top lawyer with a first class degree) – who chose to ditch a very promising carreer with them in favour of starting his own business. The fact that the first incarnation of Zyb didn’t work, did not break his spirit and he stuck with it  – which has resulted in him now dominating the mobile backup market in Europe (having signed 5 operators and more than 100.000 users). He will become one of the greats. Zyb is funded by www.nordic.com – backed with a lot of cash – and is being courted by some of the biggest venture capital funds.

Mogens Jakobsen – 29
Mogens is the youngest partner at Dangaard Telecom (turnover>2Bn USD) and now part of Brightpoint – where he runs one of the most promising business units. Pretty simple story really: This guy is a MEGA star. He is easily a top ten talent in Denmark – primarily due to his amazing insight into the global market for MVNOs.

Nikolaj Refstrup, Spleak.com – 32
Nikolaj has a background in the venture sector and has founded Oryx Invest – which has delivered 2-3 big success stories since DotCom. Subsequently he wanted to get his hands dirty and founded SPLEAK – the chat-robot which is taking the world by storm – with more than 1 million users. – As CEO Nicolaj has orchestrated and amazing transition from a vague idea on a piece of paper to a truly international business with offices in Copenhagen, Delhi and San Fransico. Nikolaj has independently attracted some class A investors including the Clausen family (Danfoss) IU and DFJ who have all chosen to invest in the company. An honour bestowed on very few. This guy is amazing with XXL in empathy and of truly international calibre. Beyond Spleak Nikolaj has investments in the fashion industry, leisure property in Nicaragua (must be a future) and has is very well connected internationally.

Theis Søndergaard, co founder Bullguard 30
Theis is a journalist by training – and was one of the guys who helped start SMS AS, whilst studying. He founded BullGuard with me in 2002 – and has been the company CTO since then, with responsibly for the BullGuard development team and products strategy, playing a key role in making the company what it is today. Antivirus software is a very serious game. BullGuard’s cutting edge security software in addition to its amazingly advanced backend has made it the choice of some of the biggest PC builders in the world – and the man behind this is Theis. He is one in a million – They do not come sharper or more capable than this.

Morten Wulff, Traceworks – 30
Has built traceworks fra scratch – 3 years ago he placed his bets on an industry which, at that time, didn’t even exist. His foresight was spot-on and Traceworks will break through 20 mil USD in revenue this year. Mark Kharazmi og I have just assisted in closing a large capital investment in the company along with the leading Nordic VC fund. Morten is a visionary and a good humanitarian – but what makes him truly great is that he understands the realities hidden behind the pop and makeup which is web 2.0

Mark Kharazmi, LundKenner – 33
Is a Partner in my venture company (not capital) and has at a very young age already tried what very few ever get to try – starting Nordic Venture partner (as an intern), CFO for Dansk Droges activities in Poland – og now Partner at LundKenner. He continuously keeps an eye on 7-8 companies and assists 2-3 early startups on taking steps towards international maturity every month.

Jacob Langemark,CEO HelloGroup – 35
Was a textbook definition of a “flyer” at Unilever – but chose to do his own thing. After two failed attempts he found the rhythm at AdTomic (Where he as CEO and Partner grew the business from 5-30 Mil DKK in revenue.) – and has founded www.hellogroup.com which must be THE fastest growing advertising and consulting agency in Scandinavia. 45 employees and and 25 Mil DKK in revenue since launch in July 2006. Beat that! The client list includes: SaxoBank, Adobe, Zecco, NyhedsAvisen, Fidelity, BullGuard…

Alexander Staun-Rechnitzer*, COO bullguard.com – 31
Comes from the murky world of international organisations where he was working with some of the leading players in international politics as a go-fix’er dispatched to many quite uncivilised places. From this he joined BullGuard as PR Manager, but has over the last 3 years worked his way up to the role of COO – where he runs BullGuard operations in 8 countries and refers to CEO Heini Zachariasen. He will become one of the greats and his 50% British pedigree and discipline is unbelievably refreshing in very “down to earth” Denmark. Truly international talent.

Christian Jebsen, Vækstfonden – 35?
Christian is extremely close to becoming one of Denmarks best venture capitalists. His background from a gigantic American startup which spent 80million USD (don’t know their name) – has given him an intimate knowledge of the business, which can be matched by very few. With the founding of Vækstfondens new BlackStone foundation – where Cristian will become a Partner – I believe we will see his name mentioned quite a few times in the coming years.

Im very focused on Orolix – and wow impressed by Nagib and the team in Brazil. We taking in some money to ensure the roleout – and talking to 4 parties and a couple of private investors (friends) who gets a better deal just to ensure the round.

On top of that in the sparetime – I have been helping IIP – in Barcelona – they have TAKE OFF. Going into www.Ciklum.net – since I simply love the CEO Torben – not rocket scientist – but WORLDCLASS EXECUTER and WHAT A DEMAND. I think a lot about Solar Power – and when i think I act – so we are helping TrueSolarAutonomy.com and to expand it. We are hopefully going into a German social site –  and looking at some property in Ibiza – with Lars and Rosa and Alberto and Yvonne – and following a bit up on the Bali project Damai.com (just got an award from from TripAdvisor). Looking at something in between Pandora and Last.fm – looks promising – still missing the perfect presentation layer – but tech seems super.  Also into a couple a secret deals – mergers and something comming up with Master Draper… BullGuard beating all numbers – PokerOffice getting a super CEO… What a world – what a time…

Im looking for talent – people who can focus and want to live out a businessdream – Im always in search. And actually Im a bit disapointed not to get more cold calls/emails. Just to let you know ;)

*no – its not me on the picture – I never wear belt – and shirt goes outside the pants