30th of september Epicenter hosted Scale-up Summit Oslo as part of this year’s Oslo Innovation week. We invited some inspiring and insightful speakers to share their knowledge on how companies can succeed with today’s major scale-up challenges.
Thomas Wrede-Holm has a master’s degree in economics from the Norwegian School of Management (NHH). When Thomas joined Investinor in 2019, he brought with him almost 20 years of experience as a corporate finance advisor both in Norway and internationally. Thomas works primarily with active follow-up of existing portfolio companies across various sectors, as well as sourcing of new investments. In light of his extensive M&A and capital market experience, he also provides transaction-based assistance to various investment teams internally as needed.
Smart investments: scaleups need funding. But how do you secure the right investors that let you invest time in developing your company, without the fear of having to lose the power of your company to secure growth?
Investment Director Thomas says there is no silver bullet on how to get an investor on board with your business idea.
“ There are tons of advice on how to do this, on what you should say and definitely not say. But it doesn’t need to be a polished fasade. It’s more about ethnicity, being engaged and having a passion for what you do” – Wrede-Holm says.
When the investor is on board it’s important to think about the relationship. Spending time on the chemistry part and on managing expectations is valuable to make sure that both the investor and the entrepreneur are on the same page. That way they don’t find themselves at odds with each other in terms of the way forward.
“ The only thing you know for certain is that your company’s journey will go up and down and there will be discussions. Go and have dinner with your investor. How many founders have actually taken their investor to dinner? Because you are going to spend quite a bit of time with them” – Wrede-Holm points out.
Want to check out the rest of the summit? Follow the links below:
Svein Sørensen, Talented: Talent attraction
Tale Skjølsvik, OsloMet: Talent development
Klara Vatn, Spacemaker.ai: Scale-up growing pains
Sondre Jahr Nygaard, Abelia: Political changes
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