Growth minds

This March, Growth minds set a record for new members admitted in one month. Martin Eriksson is one of our new members. As the co-founder and Managing Director of Xertified, a cybersecurity company that raised over 50m SEK. Today, Xertified has 22 team members according to LinkedIn. ? During his career,?Martin?has been sitting in 7 different CXO seats. 17 years ago, he led a multiplayer online game developer with 4 million users.?In the 90s, he helped Teracom launch Boxer TV-Access and became its first employee. Martin?joined Growth minds to prepare Xertified for international expansion and to push himself toward bigger goals. "I want to understand how others are resolving their growth challenges," he told us. "How are others maintaining a positive, curious & helpful organization when times get tough?" ?? Growth minds is Stockholm's fastest-growing community for startup & scaleup leaders. Through monthly, confidential peer sessions, we help leaders reach the next levels of personal & professional growth. Apply on our website.

Last week 15 members of our community met to discuss ways European leaders can seize this unique moment in history to drive prosperity & solidarity across the continent. As a result of that workshop, we registered the domain "Blueprint Europe," which will be the new umbrella for these policy-related initiatives. Register for the chance to join our next workshop on April 11.

This week, we shared the exciting news that Graham Richardson is joining us as COO. Today, Graham follows up a statement laying out his vision to strengthen the next-generation of leaders. Graham’s vision for our community below ??

Happy birthday to Growth minds member, Per-Olof Syrén. PO is the founder of AnPro Labs & an Associate Professor at KTH, where he works in the Division of Coating Technology. He earned his Master's & PhD from the University of California, Berkeley & KTH Royal Institute of Technology, respectively. Last year, PO took the leap to start his first company. His protein engineering startup uses #AlphaFold and other proprietary algorithms to build enzymes that are up to 100x more productive than state-of-the-art. Like many great scientists, PO is an outsider to the protein engineering discipline (Louis Pasteur had a background in chemistry before making fundamental contributions in microbiology; Claude Shannon was an electrical engineer who built the foundation of digital computing). He credits his breakthrough discovery precisely to his naivety. Cheers to newcomers disrupting established disciplines!

Growth minds is excited to welcome Graham Richardson as Chief Operating Officer. Graham will work alongside founders Vincent Weir & Hanna Moisander to advance the Growth minds mission: helping founders better understand the world so they can build a better Europe. A third-generation entrepreneur from Sacramento, California, Graham studied music at the University of California before founding More Streams, a music marketing company, in 2018. Through More Steams, Graham has helped top artists like Kelly Clarkson & Justin Bieber grow their audiences across Europe, Asia, & North America. After working in 20+ countries, Graham chose Stockholm as his new home in 2024 because of its commitment to innovation and liberal ideals. “From the moment I saw the wall of innovators at Arlanda, I knew I was in the right place,” Graham says. “Growth Minds embodies Sweden’s commitment to improving the world through innovation, and I’m excited to play my part. I love the way Growth minds, in particular, enriches leaders & pushes them to build a better Europe.” “Graham has the experience, energy, and mindset to empower leaders in our community,” says co-founder Hanna Moisander. “It feels like he’s been part of the team since Day 1.” CEO Vincent Weir adds, “Graham’s systems-thinking & digital expertise are valuable additions to our team. And his commitment is real. Anyone who’s spoken with him at 3:00 AM California time knows what I’m talking about.” As COO, Graham will focus on enhancing member benefits, improving organization scalability, expanding the event calendar and creating more one-on-one connections. He will relocate to Sweden later this spring. ??Growth Minds is a Stockholm-based executive network connecting startup & scale-up leaders through structured, peer-driven sessions. To become a member, apply on our website.

Oprah Winfrey once said, "Surround yourself with people who lift you higher." We say "show us your friends & we'll show you your future." This IWD, we're celebrating the women who lift one another higher within the Growth minds community. We've tripled our female membership since International Women's Day last year, and we're encouraged that women now constitute 38% of our network--up from 30% in March 2024. To join Hanna Moisander, Maria Hedengren, Isabel Gracián, Binette Seck, Sana Alajmovic, Lana Brandorne, Selah Rui Li, Raiha Buchanan and the other amazing women in our community, apply on our website.

Growth minds member Philip Haglund?has a long Wikipedia?page. Most of it covers his football career, which took him to top clubs in Sweden and the Netherlands between ‘06-’21. But it also covers his second career: founding Gimi – Youth Mobile Banking. 11 years later, Philip is still the founding CEO. He’s also a father, a board member of IFK G?teborg, a Prince Daniel Fellow, and a hero to his teammates in Stockholm. Here’s what a senior colleague said about him recently: "I admire Philip. He’s the ultimate team player—always finding ways to improve himself & push the team in a supportive way. “He learned how to do this playing football. When someone makes a mistake or when the team falls behind, he rallies us.” But Philip doesn’t go to sleep on a win. When we asked Philip what he hopes to gain through Growth minds community, he said “Building an engaged team” and “Learning how to inspire & motivate others facing challenges.” Thanks for your good example, Philip! ?? Growth minds is helping founders better understand the world so they can build a better Europe. Apply to become a member on our website.

Our next afterwork will start with a round-table discussion on Europe's future. The goal of this session is to articulate a shared vision for Sweden and Europe's future--one that recognizes the role that startup and scaleup leaders need to play in navigating chaos and the opportunity that comes from it.

This week, Anton Osika announced Lovable’s $15M fundraise. Earlier this month, he sat down with Growth minds founder Vincent Weir to talk about why Stockholm is becoming Europe's best place to build AI startups. See the full interview on our page or on our YouTube channel. At Growth minds, we’re always looking for the next great founders before they break out—supporting them on their journey with the right network, conversations & challenges. ???Growth minds is Stockholm’s fastest-growing founder community. Apply on our website. If you're building something big, we’d love to hear your story. #startups #founders #growthminds #entrepreneurship #AI #Stockholm

Anton Hellkvist was one of 11 people who attended the Growth minds ski trip last week. When Anton joined Klarna as an Account Manager back in 2017, the world looked different. Klarna’s logo was blue, and the payments startup was growing at ~5% per year. But Anton’s motto is “never settle.” So he got to work right away. Less than three years later, Anton had already been promoted three times–and Klarna had nearly 5X’d its valuation. By the time he left the company in 2022–Klarna had nearly 18x’d its valuation, and Anton had been promoted a 4th time to Head of all Growth Markets. Fittingly, less than one month after Anton left for Revolut, Klarna’s valuation plummeted by $39 billion. Today, Anton is the head of Sales at Revolut’s merchant acquiring business. He manages a team of 70 sales profesionals and has helped Revolut add more than $12 billion to its market cap. Under his leadership, Anton’s department has more than 10X’d sales. ??Growth minds is Stockholm's fastest-growing community for startup and scale up leaders. Apply to join on our website.