Sweden has a history whit many successful entrepreneurs. We have many different companies in different segments which are leaders on the market. Sweden is most known for IKEA, the company that changed the way of selling and designing furniture’s. We have Volvo (yes, I know, owners are from china nowadays), leaders of safety and comfort and claims to be releasing the first self-driving car for costumers in 2017. But the sector with probably the most successfully companies is the clothes sector there probably HM is the biggest. Founded in 1947 in Västerås and have today circa 4000 stores and over 148 000 employees. HM also owns Cheap Monday and a couple other brands that were started of Swedish entrepreneurs.
Two other successful cloth companies are WESC an Odd Molly. WESC started in 1999 by Greger Hagelin, and has today stores all over the world and had a big impact on the fashion industry. Odd Molly, started in 2002 by Per Holknekt and is today selling clothes in over 30 countries. The list of all the prices Per won for best entrepreneurship is long.
So why am I bringing up those two guys? What does they have in common more than the clothing companies and being successful in entrepreneurship? The both grow up during the 70’s when skateboarding came to Sweden, both have been really good at skateboarding. Per was professional skateboarder between 1980-1985 and lived together with Greger in California.
Most went well for most people that started skateboarding in the 1970s and many of them became successful in entrepreneurship.
So why is that? There is probably a hundred answers to this, they are smart, have a hug network, know the market etc etc but my explanation is that skateboarding is (at least for me) one of the hardest things you can do. You need to be fully dedicated of what you do and rise every time you fall. I never spent so much time, on anything, and got so small results. And so I think a startup is too, it going to be hard in the beginning and it’s probably not going be a smooth ride. So when Serdar tells you not to “continue working with a dog that will not hunts”, don’t listen to him, make sure that dog will become the best hunter instead.
Are you interested in those guys and Swedish skateboard and entrepreneurship history I recommend you to see the documentary “Hooked for life” by Staffan Hildebrand.
did they have a big fan base as scateboarders and if yes did that help in establishing the brand
Yes and no. So WESC is a brand targeting a younger crowed which will fit in on a skateboarder. They have something called WeActivist, that is a person that WESC sponsor but it’s not only skateboarders, it’s also a lot of people from the music, art and film industry. So yes, in that case probably the huge network skateboarding Greger has true skateboarding helped him.
But in the case with Per is different, Odd Molly does women’s clothing and are targeting a crowed far away the skateboardculture.
“Serdar tells you not to “continue working with a dog that will not hunts”, don’t listen to him, make sure that dog will become the best hunter instead.” Can you clarify this part? I do not recall any analogy of dog.
Mail sent out to us on Friday 23/9 market as “Before you Submit, Few Considerations”.
Aha, so I did not say this but I sent an email regarding your game simulation not about entrepreneurship. Remember, it is a suggestion on simulation based on your results in the market. Which is already existing company with big investment and cash etc it is different then here. So Ikea opening new store somewhere else in 2010 and IKEA opening first store in Sweden 50 years ago are different both in terms of context, in terms of business experience. In the initial one, IKEA has to prove the market, test their products, in the recent one, Ikea is already well known brand, with reputation and huge amount of cash.
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