Welcome to Founder’s Weekly: words of encouragement for the gritty, growth-minded people in Stockholm & beyond.
Last year, I met an entrepreneurial spirit trapped inside the body of an employee. Let’s call this person “Katja.”
By day, Katja was an employee at a Swedish unicorn (she still works there, which is why she doesn’t want us to use her real name).
But like most entrepreneurial spirits, she was a risk-taker who couldn’t always accept the bureaucratic process of innovation or the plodding pace of her own personal advancement.
Fate brought Katja to Founders Coral. A few months in, she posted the following note to our community:
Who wants to launch something?
Goals
*Turnover first year, 5m sek.
*Profitable within 3 months.
*Only utilize known and proven technology.
*Generate 100k sek in cash per involved person, monthly.
*KISS - Keep it simple, stupid!
*Target whatever customer is willing to pay for, today.
*Involve 3+-1 individuals with different skill sets.
*Product should require max 2 day a week of involvement from each individual, once launched and running.
Several people responded. Some months passed. Then last week, I got another note:
“Just wanted you to know that we started the company, and we just got our first three customers.”
Katja’s company is called TempControl.se. It helps restaurants, schools, local distribution companies and other regulated kitchens comply with a law that requires them to regularly report the temperature of their fridges and freezers.
"Please share my thanks with the SFC community,” Katja told me. “You inspired me to take the first steps and you supported me after I made the jump. Sometimes I got a strong second opinion. Other times I got biased pampering. But it was the support I needed.
"As entrepreneurs, we fail so many times. What I like about this group is we don’t penalize failure. We find ways to help one another keep going.”
At Stockholm Founders Coral, our mission is to help founders past, present and future build healthy habits of mind and body so that they have the energy to self-start and not settle.
If you want to join this mission and meet other growth mindset people like Katja, join our Discord community. You can also join us for an afterwork we're organizing on Friday, 17 November. More information in the Discord.
🪸 Submit corrections, feedback, or ideas for this update to me, Vincent Weir.