Norwegian Perspectives
Given the current heating up of the entrepreneurial economy of Silicon Valley, now is an excellent time to hear Nordic perspectives from four Norwegian entrepreneurs who have deep and extensive experience in starting up and running companies in Silicon Valley and in Norway. Come to hear their stories and journeys and join in the interactive session with ample opportunities to pose your questions to our speakers.
TO RSVP, PLEASE GO TO EVENTBRITE - 6/28 SV Event: Stories, Journeys and Lessons of Norwegian Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley
Some of the topics covered in the session
- Pros and cons of cross border, distributed operations (in Norway and SV, and elsewhere)
- Challenges for startups operating in SV today—including finding, managing and retaining talent
- Key lessons learned along the way, about operations, staffing, funding, and others
- Advice for Norwegian and other Nordic startups now setting up shop in SV
Don’t’ miss this opportunity to hear the stories and lessons learned by these accomplished Norwegian entrepreneurs. You are invited to what will no doubt be a very insightful and interactive discussion around entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley but also about similarities and key differences between starting and running companies in Norway/Nordic region and Silicon Valley.
Founder and CEO, Medallia, Inc. Borge is the head of the leading developer of engaging customer experience management software, HQ’d in Palo Alto. An exceptionally strong organization builder, Borge is a former project manager at the Boston Consulting Group. There he led strategy and operational improvement projects for international companies in a wide range of service industries, including retail banking, insurance, food services, and securities. Advanced customer service models were a particular specialty. Before joining BCG, Borge worked in mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley and in financial analysis for Procter & Gamble. He served his country as a lieutenant in the Air Force. Borge combines his love of technology and baseball by instant messaging himself the latest scores. MBA, Stanford University. BBA, University of Michigan.
CEO, Creaza Inc. Based in Oslo, Norway, and Silicon Valley, Creaza is the cloud-based online video editing service designed to enable individual users to collaboratively produce, stream, share and store user-generated video. By combining the power of broadcast-quality HD with the vast reach of social media, Creaza is in the vanguard of a rapidly emerging market in which millions of users in thousands of communities are beginning to continually interact via user-generated online video. Jostein is a highly regarded serial entrepreneur in Europe and North America, having founded and grown several successful companies in digital media, digital financial services and digital commerce. He is founder of two of the leading digital media/internet consultancy firms in Scandinavia – one of which became one of the largest in Europe with 2000 consultants in 20 countries. Jostein is also the founder of the worlds first multinational online stockbroker, raised funding from Goldman Sachs, George Soros funds, GE Capital et al. The company became UKs fastest growing online stockbroker, it was later acquired by American Express and turned it into American Express Financial Services Europe.
EVP, Marketing, cXense Inc. cXense (pronounced [see•sense])—an Oslo-HQ’s company with a strong team in Silicon Valley—is focused on Context Computing, taking into account the way we collect, analyze, combine and leverage the understanding of people's context. Torbjørn Kanestrøm (a.k.a. "TK") leads the global marketing organization at cXense, responsible for branding and communications, marketing strategy, marketing programs, and alliances with service partners and independent software vendors. Kanestrøm brings over 25 years of experience in the areas of technology sales and marketing, which included a stint as a Norwegian Technology Attaché to the US. He served as EVP of International Operations at FAST, and subsequently held positions in Business Development at Microsoft. He has also held management positions in Product Marketing at Cinet AS. Kanestrom holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Oslo.
Chairman, Project InVision Europe and Head of Onsrud Consulting International. For the last 25 years, Stein has focused his attention on the IT industries, delivering outstanding revenue growth in highly competitive international and domestic software markets. As President and CEO of Confirmit, he introduced and established one of the few Norwegian software companies to become profitable in the US. He has also been the CEO of Opticom ASA/Thin Film Electronics. The company was listed at the Oslo Stock Exchange, where it became one of the winners in 1999. A major part of the job was spent dealing with investors and developing partnerships with semiconductors in the US and Asia. Prior to Opticom, he spent 10 years with Computer Associates as the Country Manager and Nordic Managing Director. The revenue with CA Norway grew from $4 to $88 million during this period and became one of the most profitable IT companies in Norway. In the fall of 2009 Stein started Onsrud Consulting International. Located in San Francisco, the key objective is to help Norwegian/European IT companies into the US market. Currently he is working with 3 different companies which are planning to enter the US market within the next 12 months.
Event Details
When: Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Where: SNR Denton, 1530 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Cost: $15 early bird until 12 noon PDT June 27, $25 at the door
SNR Denton
1530 Page Mill Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA, 94304-1125
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps