"To myself, 11 years ago" | Venture Cup Lunch Talk #1

“To myself, 11 years ago” – an open letter to myself

This spring, I found myself on a list of Sweden’s 10 most innovative entrepreneurs, compiled by Åforsk and SISP. I was subsequently invited by Venture Cup to give an inspirational talk about my experiences of combining research and entrepreneurship, and I gave it in the form of an open letter to myself, 10 years ago. It largely consisted in a list of things that would have been useful to know, before we started up. These included the importance of choosing your customers, that culture is stronger than strategy, and the difference between “have to” and “want to”. I’ve now been given the opportunity to do a re-run in a longer format, and so will have even more to tell myself. This is a good thing, because young-me has slipped yet further off and is in more dire need of advice than ever.

About Johanna

Johanna Björklund is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at Umeå University. In 2007, Rickard Lönneborg and she founded Codemill AB, a product-development partner specialising in digital video. Today, the company employs 35 engineers in Computer Science and Interaction design and delivers solutions to international customers such as Burberry, ITV, and the Guardian. Her most recent project is the Codemill daughter-company Smart Video, a video ad tech software that she develops together with serial-entrepreneur Niklas Jansson and previous regional Venture Cup-winner Dinesh Damodaran.

Meet me and listen to my entreprenurial story. About how to keeping up being innovative and about how to co-found two companies alongside being an Associate Professor at Umeå University. 

Sign up to the Lunch Talk by using the link below, look forward to see you there!

Venture Cup Lunch Talk #1