An inspiring SCALEit event

On May 10th, I was privileged and honored to moderate a panel, co-hosted by Silicon Vikings and SCALEit, on “how to scale a technology company by moving to Silicon Valley”.  Are you building a technology company? Do you want to scale it globally? Are you considering Silicon Valley? If so, this was the event for you!

Discussions among the giants

The three panelists, Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk (recently valued at $500MM); Nicolaj Nyholm, Partner at Sunstone Capital, and ex-CEO of Polar Rose (acquired by Apple); and Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Chairman of Podio, (acquired by Citrix) spent over an hour discussing all these and other issues. These successful Danish entrepreneurs discussed how they started their companies (and why), what it was like to toil away before they became successful, why they chose to move to Silicon Valley, and how they were able to successfully scale their companies (both in Denmark and in the Valley). In addition, they also talked about the venture capitalinvestments that they were able to raise at each stage of their evolution.

A entrepreneurial gathering at Børsen, Copenhagen

Nearly a hundred Danish entrepreneurs from Copenhagen and elsewhere attended the event, which was held in the beautiful Børsen building in Copenhagen. At the conclusion of the event, many of the entrepreneurs were able to attend a reception at Zendesk’s offices in the Soho building. There was considerable excitement at the success of Zendesk and Podio, and many Danish entrepreneurs are now considering how they can scale their startups to achieve similar success.

In conclusion, the SCALEit series of events were a great opportunity to get together with many young, talented and energetic Danish innovators and give them an opportunity to learn about how to grow your company to success, ensuring jobs for all and perhaps one day, a Facebook-like valuation!

- Sunil Maulik, Commercial ICT Director at Innovation Center Denmark