I'm currently running Inly, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
A Google search of "how to build a website" at the age of 12 followed by 16 years of learning, tinkering and building. That's pretty much me. After a bunch of projects I have come to realize that the intersection between design, technology and business is where I love to spend my time. You can read about some of my defining experiences below.
Coincidentally, when I was just about to graduate, we had the opportunity of merging Sharpmind with another established agency with whom we had tight relations. Starting this autumn, I'm working full-time on our newly founded business Inly from our office in Stockholm.
Back to reality after my semester abroad. I'm now working towards wrapping up my Master's degree in Interaction Design (luckily, the finish line is getting close). By learning more about Interaction Design I hope to dive deeper into my interest in designing products that are user friendly yet keeps the business goals in mind.
As part of my university studies I had the opportunity to study a semester abroad at Tsinghua University in Beijing, primarily in the field of business and economics. This was an adventure that certainly pushed me outside of my comfort zone in many ways. I tried to survive in an entirely different culture and on the way I gained new friends from all around the world. The experience also taught me about the chinese tech ecosystem, which differs greatly from the western countries.
Driven by our passion for good design and delightful digital experiences, my friend Marco and I decided to quit our web developer jobs and start Sharpmind, our own digital agency. Since the summer of 2016 we have been busy building web and app solutions for various clients, beside of our university studies. A key insight from this ever-developing adventure is that I appreciate the freedom and impact that results from running a business, rather than working at a traditional corporate company. Apart from that, the great responsibility and regular customer interaction have made me grow a lot as a person.
After graduating from upper secondary school I was admitted to the Software Engineering programme at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Through courses such as data structures, algorithms and hardware programming I gained a better understanding of the fundamentals of computer science. I also developed my leadership and project management skills through various group projects as well as courses within agile software development.
In the last year of upper secondary school I was contacted by a web development agency in Stockholm. I ended up working remotely beside of school for two years, had a fun ride and got to know a lot of ambitious people. My classmate and friend Marco was also working at the same company. In the end, we both wanted more creative freedom and responsibility, so we decided to quit to start our own agency.
My friend Xavier and I built Feedient, a web app that gathered your social feeds into one place. We built it mainly for fun without any real monetization strategy, but we managed to reach 80 000 unique users and were mentioned by news sites such as Lifehacker and Gizmodo. One of the main things I learned from this side project was the importance of having a business plan. Apparently, building something just for fun doesn’t mean it’s something people will pay for.
Through a school initiative I got to start a semi-serious business with a few friends. We developed an app solution where restaurants in the city of Växjö market their lunch menus. In the end, our business didn’t really take off, but we did win a few prizes; regionally we had the best website and the best logotype. We were also one of the companies to represent our region in the national championship. Most of all we got out of our “comfort zones” and grew a lot personally. During this time I also started to get to know my current business partner Marco.
12 year old me realized that all the cool gaming groups had websites, so I figured out how to build one for me and my friends as well. At 14 I was providing such web development services through a gaming Internet forum (primarily World of Warcraft private servers). After a while, I decided not to reinvent the wheel for every customer, so I built a web platform called FusionCMS together with my then newly met Internet-friend Xavier.
We sold nearly 300 copies and even provided a third party marketplace of themes and plugins. We were never motivated by the money, but by the technical challenge. However, looking back I consider this to be my first business. Apart from just the programming practice, this side project taught me plenty about everything from public relations to customer support and taxes.
Interested in hiring me? I'm available for design and development gigs through my consulting firm Inly.