Startup Syndrome
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
53. Knowing when to quit
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the last episode of Startup Syndrome (for now, at least). Julia and Andreas have been going back and forth on whether to continue recording eac...
52. The ex(c)iting world of exits
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been speaking with a few companies recently where the founders are in exit talks, and Andreas has been looking into different types of exits...
51. We got your backs with these growth hacks
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been thinking about the different growth hacks he’s seen throughout the years from both SSE Business Lab companies but also other well-k...
50. Product-Market-Model-Channel Fit bit by bit
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas and Julia has been listening in on the Activate workshops recently and were inspired by the Go-to-market workshop by Rasmus Savander to talk a...
49. Steering the Leadership in the right direction
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has recently been through the recruiting process of new colleagues to SSE Business Lab and Julia reminisces about her time recruiting and mana...
48. The recipe for cooking up startup success
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has previously gotten the request to talk about the success stories they’ve seen at SSE Business Lab, and Julia has recently gotten a simila...
47. Diving into diversity - Differences & similarities in co-founders
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been thinking back on a course she took about the pros and cons of diversity in teams, and Andreas recently hosted a workshop about what asp...
46. Say hi to the SHA (Shareholders’ Agreement)
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been getting a lot of questions about Shareholders’ Agreements lately, and Julia has been looking into the fine print of the Startup Too...
45. Every single way a startup can fail
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been thinking about all of the different ways he’s seen startups fail, and Julia has finally read about the “Onion Theory of Risk” w...
44. Billing before building
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been thinking about how to sell before you build after hearing Harald Mix’s comment at Breakit Funding Day where he spoke about how they b...
43. The B2B SaaS Masterclass
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been looking into the history of the term SaaS, and Andreas has been deep diving into why VCs love SaaS businesses so much. They end up spe...
42. Couldn’t Google build this?
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been reading up on the new Gemini Business by Google, and Julia loves to talk about startups competing out the big tech companies. ...
41. Behind the scenes of the MVPs of Ideate and Activate
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia goes back memory lane to when she started the Activate program, and Andreas tells the story of why och how he started Ideate. They end up speak...
40. Sweat Equity makes us sweat
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has recently spoken to a company which early on did a sweat equity deal, and Julia ran into an alumni company who did the same. They end up s...
39. Fundraising 101 - One on one
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been chatting to multiple different founders about the basics of fundraising, and Andreas has been hearing more about how the US is influenc...
38. Coaching on leveraging coaches
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been mentored by an old acquaintance and Julia has been going through half a coaching program. Neither makes them equipped to give advice ...
37. Shooting for a North Star Metric
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia and Andreas have both been on an offsite with the team, going through the OKRs for the year, which reminded them of the most important metric to...
36. Applying best practices for how to apply to SSE Business Lab
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been listening to Startup School from Y Combinator and Andreas has been wrapping up as application deadlines for the programs approach - thi...
35. Time to update your investor update?
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been busy planning the annual LP dinner for SSE Ventures and Andreas has been figuring out if there’s a perfect way to manage your investo...
34. OpenAI: The Times are tough
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been reading the New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, and Julia has been looking into similar legal disputes from the p...
33. First principles thinking in tech - from Aristotle to Ek
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has welcomed the new year as an opportunity to suddenly become a morning person, and Julia is also inspired ahead of 2024 after listening to a...
32. One-round wonders, doomed to go under or new path for founders?
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has just learned the term “one-round wonder”, a company that only raises capital once and then becomes profitable, and Julia has been thin...
31. Ask a VC “Why should founders choose you?”
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been annoying VCs by asking them why founders should choose them, and Julia has made a near-impossible quiz guessing the VC based on what ...
30. A good foundation to leave your nation for internationalization
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has a lot of learnings about the New York tech ecosystem from her 2.5 months in the city, and Andreas has been to Slush, with tons of insights f...
29. Mind’s set on growing the learning curve
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has discovered the flaws of his often-quoted favorite cognitive bias, and Julia has a take on the balancing between fixed and growth mindset. ...
28. OpenAI - The board is not keeping us bored
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been onboarding new board members at SSE Ventures, and Andreas has been obsessed with the chaos at OpenAI and their unique governance. They...
27. Working out getting product-market fit
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas just had a long discussion about product-market fit (PMF) with a founder the other day and Julia is upset that the concept is always explained...
26. Bankruptcies and liquidations - WeWork it out
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas is in New York on a visit and has been thinking about WeWorks recent bankruptcy, and Julia has been learning more about the different types of...
25. Timing markets - Push the raise or fill the briefcase?
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia is constantly thrown back to the profit vs. growth discussion in the VC industry and Andreas has been listening in on coaching at SSE Business L...
24. Where did Almi money go?
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been digging deep into the documents behind Almi Invest Stockholm losing the public procurement for their next fund, and Andreas has thought...
23. Sales which scales - Trust is a must
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been hearing the term “free cash flow” over and over again, and Andreas has been digging deep into different B2B sales motions. T...
22. Tapping into the well of wellbeing
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been talking about SSE launching a center for wellbeing, welfare and happiness, and Julia believes the current market puts entrepreneurs a...
21. Option Programs: What are the options?
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has recently become an expert on Qualified Employee Stock Options and Andreas shares an old anecdote of why options brings back difficult memori...
20. The startup climate for Climate tech
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas is the in-house expert on everything sustainability-related at SSE Business Lab, and Julia has a newfound interest in biodiversity after atten...
19. The terms of a term sheet
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas just met with Cherry VC and talked about their term sheet, which is available on their website, and Julia has been digging into the nitty grit...
18. TechBBQ - The recipe for a well done meet
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been preparing for TechBBQ for weeks and Andreas has not been preparing at all. Still, they ended up having a lot of good stories to tell fr...
17. Building a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) with minimum effort
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has received a suggestion to talk about how to quickly validate an idea, and Andreas is thrilled to do a full on deep-dive into minimum viable p...
16. Selling Secondaries - Second time’s the charm
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia recently met a founder who was leaving his startup and wondered whether he could sell his shares, and Andreas is excited to speak about a topic ...
15. Pitch Perfect - Why you start with the why
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Both Julia and Andreas have been prepping the startups for the Demo Day that SSE Business Lab hosts today, which includes weeks of pitch training for ...
14. Startup deja vu - and why these ideas don’t see success
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas and Julia have both been seeing many different ideas pass them by in their days at the SSE Business Lab. They reminisce about the different id...
13. The future of VC - Vicious Catastrophe or Value Creation?
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been reading about how the economic downturn will affect the VC industry and Andreas has been wondering since 2019 when this shift was going...
12. Getting to profit: Uber got the Memmo
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia was asked how it’s possible that Uber made its first ever profitable quarter and Andreas has been reading tweets (or posts on X, as it’s cal...
11. Boards, salaries and pivots - Founder Q&A
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has made of list of the most common questions that the team has been asked by the SSE Business Lab member startups recently and Julia is quizz...
10. Fundraising starts with fun
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia is excited about fundraising season starting soon and Andreas has a new rule for when the clock starts ticking for a startup, i.e. from what poi...
9. Convertible notes: The NICE is the new WISE
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has been signing a few of those so called convertible note agreements for the fund investments with SSE Ventures and Andreas has seen a few othe...
8. Will a broken cap table make you capsize?
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia has seen a post circulating on Linkedin of examples of “uninvestable captables”. Andreas is curious if these cap tables really are as broken...
7. AI deep dive
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has learned how AI models and neural networks actually work and Julia is all about how both individuals and startups could think about using A...
6. What is really a VC case?
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has had a philosophical conversation about what kind of founder you have to be to start a VC-backable startup and Julia gives the investor’s...
5. Splitting equity & fun(d) facts
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia is nerdy about fund structures and Andreas have been in multiple meetings about founder’s equity and how to split it when you get started. Th...
4. B2C & what happens when money is free?
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia is curious about the state of B2C companies and Andreas has spent the week deep diving into the concept of ZIRP – zero interest rate policy. ...
3. The investor meeting done right
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has just written an article about questions entrepreneurs receive in an investor meeting and Julia has been in admissions meetings all week. ...
2. Get the press to say yes
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Andreas has been to Nigeria on a mission for the United Nations Development Program and Julia has been trying to get Breakit to make her a columnist.&...
1. Digging gold in the US
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Julia just got back from meeting 30+ funds in New York, and Andreas goes back on memory lane to the failures and successes of Swedish companies intern...