Varbig founder new business coach at the incubator

The incubator helps entrepreneurs turn their innovative ideas into reality. Part of its recipe for success is to offer startups coaching from entrepreneurs who have built and scaled companies themselves. The team of advisors is now strengthened with Magnus Mollstedt, one of the founders of the recruitment platform Varbi.

- Innovatum Science Park has one of Sweden's strongest coaching teams and Magnus is further proof of that. The experiences from his journey of scaling up a SaaS company from scratch will be a game-changer for our startups," says Eivind Vogel-Rödin, head of startup operations and founder of the media platform Shootitlive.

In 2007, Magnus started Varbi together with his friend John-Erik Hassel. The goal was to build a new type of dialog-based recruitment system with a focus on user-friendliness and world-class support. Varbi has become a market leader in the public sector and universities. In September 2021, they sold the company, which today has a turnover of approximately SEK 80 million and is used by over 80,000 recruiters, mainly in the Nordic region and the Netherlands.

Helping entrepreneurs to grow faster

- I've wanted to contribute to the startup scene for a long time but the time is only now available. I am driven by building and running companies and I believe that my knowledge and experience will benefit the startups here. I want to help entrepreneurs to grow faster," says Magnus.

According to Magnus, the journey with Varbi has been characterized by hard work, unpretentiousness and high ceilings. It started with several tough years during the financial crisis from the basement in Trollhättan, hard sales work and a constant search for cheap train tickets to Stockholm to get meetings and build relationships. After a couple of years, things turned around and the focus became major growth and international upscaling. The team also managed to integrate and partner with LinkedIn early on, as one of LinkedIn's first partners.

Customer focus and relationship building - key success factors

Key success factors have been relationship building and creating a transparent environment with problem solving and putting the customer first.

- One of the many important lessons I want to pass on to new entrepreneurs is to constantly listen to customers and constantly improve your processes! Since Varbi focused on user-friendliness and good support, we worked hard to listen to customers. For the first 12 years, we had a rolling schedule where all employees manned the first line support to understand the customer perspective. This became a good driver for us to remove thresholds and develop the platform in the right direction. As CEO, I had the support every Friday, which meant that I always got first-hand information about how customers used our product and how they experienced us as a company," Magnus continues.

Magnus took up his new role on April 18 and has already met a bunch of entrepreneurs who have pitched their ideas for a place in the incubator.

- It really feels like it's bubbling here in Trollhättan and the region with many driven people. I was not prepared for the fact that there were so many exciting ideas in start-up. I am pleasantly surprised and look forward to start coaching the entrepreneurs.