#FeatureFriday: Interview with Petter Bengtsson, Head of North America at Sinch

We had the pleasure of talking to Petter Bengtsson, Head of North America at Sinch, a SACC-Georgia corporate member. Sinch is a Swedish international powerhouse founded in 2008 serving enterprises across the globe by reinventing mobile messaging. Their cloud platform enables companies to connect with their customers making engagement personal with their simple and programmable SMS, voice, video, and verification tools - which is estimated to be worth about 200 billion kronor. In a short time, Sinch has become a world leader in their market where its cloud platform handles a total of 50 billion API transactions per year. Read on about why Petter decided to join Sinch, the success behind the company, new technological developments in the industry, and much more - enjoy!

Background

Petter has been with Sinch from almost the very beginning – he was employee #6 and has worked alongside the founders for over 10 years. He is currently responsible for Sinch in North America. Petter came over to the US to open up their North American office 6 years ago, so he was the first employee in Atlanta. Today they are about 200 people in the U.S. and growing, with offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta which is the head office, Reston, and Toronto. 

Petter was impressed with the founders’ focus and vision early on, the strong company culture, and that they had the right priorities from the very beginning. All the founders are still with the company today and the majority of them have a very active role. Petter describes them as cultural ambassadors. 

- Since I have been with the company very long, Sinch feels like my baby as well, so I am a big part of driving the culture together with the founders. 

“We have been profitable since month 3 which is very rare in the tech industry, especially in the US.”

Petter was working at Ericsson when he first came in contact with the founders of Sinch, the company intrigued him and their approach to business. 

- It wasn’t about the fancy office space or the perks. It was about working hard and building something truly great. Our first office was in the shop window at African Caribbean Travel at St Eriksplan in Stockholm. It was the cheapest office space that we could find in Stockholm at that time -using our resources in the most efficient way from the start. We have been profitable since month 3 which is very rare in the tech industry, especially in the US.

Petter continues to explain that it has always been about the people and culture and it still is. If you manage to attract the right talent you can do anything and that is what they have managed to do.

The success behind Sinch  

“As a fun fact, we touch every individual on the planet around 15 times a year.”

Petter believes that they have been very focused from the start and that it has been all about the business. They did not try to win any awards or similar, they just wanted to grow as they knew the business had several opportunities. The founders of Sinch saw the uniqueness of SMS early on. Petter says that when you talk about SMS it is not the very sort of sexy way of communicating but it is the most efficient way of communicating with people in the world and has been so pretty much since it started. 

- What makes SMS unique – it is a powerful form of communication and it is the only form of communication that people actually read and you can reach pretty much anyone in the world. As a fun fact, we touch every individual on the planet around 15 times a year. We all get so overwhelmed by emails daily, messaging can help cut through the noise. It is very personal, short, and efficient. No other communication tool can do that. 

Rich media SMS - a new technological development

Petter gets excited when talking about new technological developments such as Rich Media SMS which opens up new innovative and wider ways of communicating. 

- It is super exciting and this is taking us to the next level. We all know the impact that messaging has had on all of us – people don’t use their phones to call any more, instead, they text in different shapes and forms – If it isn’t SMS it’s WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, email, etc. People don’t want to communicate with voice, they want to text. So, with many of these new channels, we are able to give a much more rich and interactive experience by adding pictures, videos, conversations, and AI.

Petter believes that in the future, consumers expect to communicate in this format where you have AI in the background to create different flows, which he believes to be super interesting. 

- We are already doing this with some of our customers and we see a big development with this in the future. 

Increased need for communication during the Covid-19 pandemic

When discussing the effect of Covid-19 on the firm Petter explains that it has been a difficult year for all of us, they are extremely fortunate being in a business that has increased demand through times like this. 

- The need for communication has only increased. We work with all types of businesses and we have tried to support the ones that are struggling as well as expand with others that are growing. In the US for example, we work a lot with companies within ride-sharing, for example, Uber and Lyft, which have had big downturns. We have taken the opportunity to help them to rebuild their technology a bit. We have also had new companies within for example food delivery which has completely exploded, where we have had to scale technology with them. Technology is definitely becoming more important.  

One of the ways they looked to use their platform for good during these challenging times was the launch of ‘Text for Humanity’. A partnership with Mental Health America. Text for Humanity allows strangers to send positive messages to others around the world, Petter explains that the power of this type of connection is truly unique.

Maintaining the Swedish culture while operating in the U.S.  

Petter explains that one of the biggest challenges with operating in the US is attracting talent as a rather unknown company in the U.S. Thus, finding the right people that want to work in their business. 

The reason why they have an office in Atlanta is that they acquired a company in Atlanta that was a very traditional American company. The CEO had the corner office and the people next to him were always in a suit. When Petter and his CEO first came into the office, people were shocked about how they were dressed, how openly they talked about things, and how informal they were - they were just themselves. That set the scene in the new U.S. office culture. 

- We work hard, but we play hard. And at the same time, we try to maintain our Swedish culture. We believe everyone should have an equal opportunity and we all work together with a focus on becoming the largest player in the world. To maintain the Swedish culture, we have introduced Fika and other Swedish elements to the office. Last year we went to Sweden for the employees to learn more about Sweden and the culture. Everyone knows that by now I would say. 

“A diverse workforce drives innovation and contributes to a high-performing culture where we can achieve anything.”

Petter continues to explain that one of the opportunities with having an office in Atlanta is that they have seen that the universities have helped a lot when it comes to recruitment which has been positive. 

- Atlanta is not only a large region but very diverse as well, something that is very important to us. A diverse workforce drives innovation and contributes to a high-performing culture where we can achieve anything.

A bright future ahead

Petter believes that the future is bright for Sinch, he mentions that Sinch was the best performing stock on the stock exchange in Sweden in 2020. 

– Companies are digitizing faster than ever due to the effect of Covid-19 and people want to use our solutions as they are simple and effective. If we would talk in a year we have grown a lot - we have a lot of positions to fill and a lot of customers that we have to take care of.