Mads Faurholt-Jorgensen is a serial entrepreneur and has started over 20 companies within the financial sector, technology, marketing, HR and education, with several thousand employees, valued at a couple billion US dollars, and with investors such as Goldman Sachs, the Worldbank and Alibaba. Previously, he was Global Partner and Managing Director at the German Internet giant Rocket Internet, Head of Asia in the world's fastest-growing company Groupon, and management consultant at McKinsey. Mads has his BA from Copenhagen Business School, which he completed in the shortest amount of time ever (1 year and 9 months) and his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mads lives in London and travels globally every week.

Lars Tvede is a Partner at the top-performing venture capital fund Nordic Eye, CEO at Beluga and advisor to a Swiss hedge fund group. He spent 11 years in portfolio management and investment banking before moving to the high-tech and telecommunications industries, where he was co-founder of several technology companies that have won numerous international awards, including: Wall Street Journal Europe Innovation Award, Red Herring Global 100 Award, Bully Award and Swiss IMD Startup Award. Lars completed simultaneously a Master's degree in Engineering from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and a Bachelor's degree in International Business from Copenhagen Business School while starting two companies, and he is a certified derivatives trader from the National Futures Association in Chicago. He has written several books on creativity, marketing, high-tech, the future, innovation and financial markets, including The Creative Society, Supertrends, Business Cycles and The Psychology of Finance.

Introduction by Peter Warnoe xi

Part 1. About me as an entrepreneur 2

1. My entrepreneurial role 4

2. My personal effectiveness 34

3. My public impact 56

4. My face-to-face impact 86

Part 2. About my company's ideas and funding 110

5. My company's basic ideas 112

6. My strategies for network effects 130

7. Founding and starting my company 138

8. My sources of funding 156

9. My funding processes 194

Part 3. About my team and my corporate culture 240

10. My core team 242

11. My outsourcing and my staff 270

Part 4. About my company's growth,strategies and challenges 302

12. My growth phases 304

13. My marketing mix 330

14. My five biggest commercial threats 348

Part 5. About my exit and what comes after 358

15. My alternative exit routes 360

16. My exit processes 370

17. My next project 382

Appendices

Appendix A: 116 business strategies for entrepreneurs 390

Appendix B: 46 typical criteria for success in start-up companies 404

Appendix C: List of useful websites, apps and web-extensions for entrepreneurs 410

Glossary 426

Endnotes 438

About the authors 446

Index 447