No investors were harmed in the making of this company

I woke up this morning to 43 new Facebook messages. All from the same person. From someone I’ve met, but wouldn't say that I know. Best described as a stream of consciousness with feedback, questions and advice regarding the blog and my company Seed Nordic.

I have been reading your blogs on Medium. To be honest they make me uncomfortable for various reasons but you seem to be motivating some folks. I feel moved to offer this.

Ok, good news is I make people feel something. Bad news is that they feel uncomfortable. The reader had lots of great questions and comments. Some I had answers to, some I did not. And some just based on misunderstanding. So instead of trying to answer the thread. We had lunch. A humbling, inspiring and disturbing lunch.

Humbling due to the fact that he made me think. Why am I doing what I do? What do I really want? Is the Start-up factory model right for me, or should I just go start a real startup?

Inspiring cause he had lots of great stories to share, and great ideas to consider.

Disturbing because he thought I was burning through someone else’s cash. Disturbing cause he thought I had wasted 150k SEK in the Caribbean.

Let me set the record straight. It’s my own money. I’m betting everything I own on this. I’m ALL IN. If we fail I take the full responsibility, and the full financial hit. There are no more savings in the bank.

The 600k we started the year with was made from classic management consulting. 60-80 hour weeks for 3 months, while running Seed Nordic on the side. The 150k was not spent in the Caribbean, it was wages and social fees for 3 months (January to March), in which 3 weeks was spent working on my business plan in the Caribbean.

Oh, that felt good.. I needed to get that of my chest.

That said. A big thanks to Mr. Reader for getting in touch and asking questions. What’s obvious to me, isn’t necessarily obvious to the reader. So the candid feedback is crucial. Keep it up.

He pointed out a lot of other stuff as well, which I’ll try to address in later posts. So stay tuned…

It’s Friday afternoon, and it’s high time for an After Work. Pop a cold beer, lean back, and read about how we can help large companies go from idea to prototype in 6 weeks ☺

Happy Friday everyone!

Ken