The best English-speaking online resource for entrepreneurs in Denmark. Interviews with top entrepeneurs, investors and advisors. High-caliber networking and comprehensive resources.
Alex Farcet (Q): Can you give me a short bio? What's your background and why did you end up in Denmark?
Eric-Alan Rapp (A): Have lived in Europe for a total of, what, 16 years all together now.
5 years in France off and on, back to the States and then DK since 97.
After 2 years background started in commercial banking.
After 2 years in France, started commercial banking in 80s in Chicago, then got my MBA in France 91 and started doing M&A work.
Met a Danish woman in grad school, transferred back to Chicago in 94 for three years, came to DK doing corporate finance work, worked at TDC (then TeleDanmark International) in their M&A group then jumped out and co-founded a mobile app company.
Have been with this team since 2002, doing venture capital work and loving it - combines the best of everything I've done until now.
(Q): What does 'M&A' work mean concretely, what did you do?
A: Working with companies and their owners, primarily to sell them. Doing extensive business analyses, preparing detailed business plans, performing valuations, locating potential acquirors throughout the world and (hopefully) selling the company.
(Q): Where you were at TDC, I presume you were on the buying end of M&A?
A: I was Director in the M&A group of TDC International. Not just M&A though, and not just buying also some license work.
(Q): TDC was, and still is, a gigantic company. Was the culture any different to what you had experienced elsewhere?
A: It was both a great place and very different from the investment banking environment I'd come from. Much larger organization with different dynamics. Very, very competent people and an international environment (American telco SBC shareholder).
I left because I'd always really had this dream to start and build a company
(Q): Was there a Danish dimension to it? How is working in Denmark different to working France for example?
A: Ahh, the culture question. I'm curious to hear your reaction to my France / Denmark / USA angle. Here goes:
Culturally, it was actually much easier for me to integrate into France. Part could be that I'd lived there with a family and then studied there, so made some great friends.
It was easier for me to learn fluent French (a year) too. Ironic - fewer people spoke English there, but maybe that helped me integrate more easily.
Working in France is different in that (here come the generalizations) in a French environment, many of the decisions are actually made before meetings take place, and the meetings are more formality. In DK the meetings are a forum for democratic decisions. In the USA it's really hub-and-spoke - managers make decisions and people execute.
One of the things I like about DK is that people are used to working independently. You give someone a general task and know that they'll work it out and come back with a solution.
(Q): Well, I've had the same problem with learning Danish - you sometimes have to insist to not speak English (though I must admit I used that as an excuse for years).
In terms of work culture, I've found Denmark much less formal, less hierarchical. On the other hand, today's decision could very well be reversed tomorrow if something better comes along.
A: Completely agree! More flat structures in DK, less flat in USA, much less flat in France.
(Q): Back to you. What was the name of the mobile startup you co-founded? And what happened to it?
A: It was called Hellodies and it was just about the time the last bubble popped. Mobile space - a "media fusion platform" that could merge different kinds of media and send them as an interactive voice call. fx combine a voice menu, then a music clip, then a recorded message or text-to-speach, then another menu.
First application was music messages. Very avant garde back then.
You ever hear of "Lydbesked" from Sonofon - TV ads with (I'm going to misspell his name) Polle fra Snave? We did the backbone for that.
Send an sms and your friend receives a voice call from Polle, etc.
You asked what happened to it. Aside from being an incredibly enriching experience from a personal and professional point of view, it didn't become a resounding success. Lots of reasons for it, and lots of lessons learned. We were chronically under-funded in a very tough funding environment (although in hindsight probably not as tough as now). We had a great product, best-in-class, but the market quickly became saturated with other products that looked and smelled like it.
(Q): I presume you teamed up with a techie and brought the business / funding side? Did you partner with a Dane?
A: To be totally honest, the fact that I teamed up with the people in Hellodies is why I'm still here in Denmark today.
Another former TDC guy (Thomas, you reading this?), someone from Ericsson, people from the creative industry. A great team that showed me what it can be like in Denmark. I spent a few years really "finding my legs" here.
One of the funding sources for Hellodies was Vaekstfonden, and when I rolled off Hellodies (Cellpoint AB eventually bought it) I started working with VF doing early-stage investing. Sunstone Capital spun out from VF in May last year.
(Q): I'm really curious now - what do you mean ' what it can be like in Denmark'?
A: I'll answer that but this is funny: as soon as I wrote Thomas' name above my phone rang and it was Thomas from Hellodies. We haven't spoken in several months. This story about Thomas is actually related to what it can be like in DK, though
(In my opinion, the laws of probability stop at the borders of Denmark. I have a million of those stories here. Everyone knows everyone. I meet someone new, and within 5 minutes we've found 10 people in common, often in another country. It's also because it's a small country here - and that took me years to really get used to)
(Q): That I'm starting to be completely convinced of. It's amazing how interconnected everything and everyone is.
A: What it's like in DK? I'm interested in your opinion here: We moved here from Chicago, where the city itself had more people than in DK. To be honest, for several years I felt, well...
...it's a small country. But it turns out Piet Hein is right. It's greater than it's small. My time with Hellodies and that team showed me that you can either let the size squeeze you out, or embrace it and work with it.
Working with the team here at Sunstone is for me simply amazing. I can't imagine another place I'd rather be. Period. My point is, I realized you can find your place if you have the right attitude.
How's it for you, coming from France?
(Q): I'm not really French. I grew up in Africa, went boarding school in England, then an American high school in Zaïre, the university in the States. I have a very critical, subjective, view of French formalism and elitism. But I've never worked for a French company so what do I know? It's my mother tongue (litterally and figuratively) but not my mother culture if I can say that.
I think one is much more critical of one's home country when one has lived away from it. That's probably why I'm much happier here than my Danish wife who finds it provincial sometimes. She's ready to go anytime. I think I've found my roots for the first time ever (never lived anywhere more than 4 years in a row and that was because it was university).
A: OK, I get it. Sounds like your mother culture is a combination. Maybe you're just as culturally confused as I am... I totally agree about the roots. Before moving here I'd never lived more than 2 years in any one place. In my life.
(Q): I appreciate the simple things. I bike to work. The city is beautiful and safe. People are straightforward, though very reserved at first. I like that the ocean is never more than a few minutes away.
A: Oh, I love this - talking about the good stuff. I've started using my bike too. I like being near the ocean. It's truly a great place for kids. Close to other countries. Let's not talk about the negative stuff, ok?
(Q): Copenhagen has all the pluses of a European capital but in a miniature, user friendly way.
Let’s turn to your current adventure. What is Sunstone Capital? What was the genesis of the company – I understand you put together a lot of the early documentation / business case?
A: I've also seen a growing entrepreneurialism (seque back to the interview).
Sunstone Capital (www.sunstonecapital.com) is a venture capital investor. We're managing around EUR 400 million in funds, we invest in early-stage tech and life science companies.
I've been with our team since near the beginning, but we're really a result of team effort. Sounds cliché but it's true.
(Q): So at some point your sitting in Væksfonden and you say to yourself (-selves) Denmark needs another VC?
A: That's a long story. The vision of Sunstone came from the CEO of VF. It wasn't a short-term thing.
The team that we have today all joined because they bought into the vision. May 2007, when completed our spinout, was the culmination - and also the start, really.
We all want to build companies here. That's sort of our life blood.
(Q): What was (is) the vision? How is Sunstone different?
A: Good question. Instead of saying how we're different, I'll try to explain a bit who we are.
In the Tech team (where I am), we're all international. I'm the token foreigner in DK, but everyone has worked abroad, lived abroad. Everyone has been involved in start-ups from the other side of the table.
We bring a combination of tech skills, financial skills, business development skills and a great enthusiasm for our companies. It's really all about people and business development in the end.