Tore; Its now mid February 2023, and we spoke a bit about strategy, customers, partners and growth plans in our video-chat in December (LinkedIn). How has the first weeks of 2023 been for you and the company? Highlight a normal day at the office.
The first weeks in January have been very busy; a lot of internal processes as well as dialogue with customers and partners. We also had our kick-off last week – really enjoyed that – focusing on the goals for 2023 and how each and one of us must contribute to be able to achieve what we are aiming for; 200.000 signed subscriptions before year-end
Talking about customers. Illustrate a classic Skytech Control customer and why they want to use our SaaS CONTROL platform.
We have customers in various sizes and from all kinds of industries, but our main focus is customers with 100 employees and more. We see that our fully automized on- and off boarding processes is very welcomed. The effective cost-control functionality; dividing private cost from the companies’ invoice, also gives a lot of value. Asset management, where our customers have 100% control over all the assets to their employees, is also a very valuable and requested functionality in our platform.
You also mentioned the partner strategy previously. Exemplify a couple of classic collaboration partners for Skytech Control
We have several partners today, both local and cross boarder; helping us to promote and sale the Skytech Control platform in the market. In Norway, Telia is a very important partner for us. They have a solid brand with good reputation, with more than 40 salespeople promoting our Control platform. Elkjøp Nordic is another important partner for us, covering Norway – Sweden – Finland and Denmark. They have huge growth ambitions in the B2B segment and see that our control platform gives them very important added value in the dialogue with their customers. Both Telia and Elkjøp promote our platform as a white label solution.
Being a young company – strategy, pipeline, sales, tech, products, priorities, “heavy-lifting” projects and decisions – are classic day-to-day topics which goes hand-in-hand with the careful follow-up of the monthly burn-rate in the company. Give us some insight of what’s “cooking behind the scenes” and how you operate and balance this challenge.
As a still quite young company with ambitious growth plans, expanding into four new countries in parallel, there are a lot of things on the table for all of us:-) People are our most important asset, so recruit, develop and keep the best people in various roles are key! Further, we must be clear on our strategy, be focused and cynical in what we do. There are so many opportunities, so daring to say no is also important. Finally, delivering top, professional work with our customers and partners are also of highest importance.
“You are a proud former top professional football player (goalie with UEFA-cup experience and international matches for Norway), responsible for the Norwegian curling-team that won gold medals in Winter Olympic 2002 and educated as police-officer. How to you utilized this broad and diverse experience being a top leader in a start-up company? Have you made any outstanding “saves” or difficult “arrests”?
I am not a technologist, but luckily, we have many others in the company that have very good skills in that area. The most important lesson I have learned from my previous jobs, both as an athlete and as a leader in business, is to know what you do and take decisions from fact-based and documented know-how; not based on feelings and assumptions.
ISO accreditations for 9001 and 27001 is on its way as well. Why is this so important for Skytech Control?
As a young company, in many ways still a kind of start- up, we need to document all our processes and routines. This is important to have internal control, and helps us in the growth-period we are in the middle of. Further, it is crucial to have a scalable, robust and GDPR compliant platform, both for us internal, but also for all our customers and partners. The two ongoing ISO processes (9001 and 27001) will help us to implement a proper quality management system (QMS) and ensure quality and information security in all our work.
Difficult financial market, new investors, need of new EQ and ambitious growth plans. Skytech Control will target new EQ to support ambitions international growth targets. How will you and the company achieve that?
We succeeded in fetching new equity in December -22, to ensure liquidity for implementing our growth plan for coming period. In the longer term, if we will expand our business further and in accordance with our business plan, we need additional equity q3/q4-23. If so, this will most likely be a combination of equity from existing shareholders and new investors. M&A`s could also be a possibility, if we find the right opportunity, the timing is good and the price is fair.
Open topic at the end of this Q&A session, Tore; Anything else you would like our partners and followers to know?
The most important for us in 2023 is to scale up the business in the new countries we have established, gain value from our existing partnerships, attract new strategic global partners and finally develop our business in accordance with our plan. We have started a very exiting journey, challenging, and demanding, but also very energizing and fun. To recruit, keep and develop our people is also a key factor for us. We’re hiring so let us know if you are ready for a new challenge!
Tore; Its now mid February 2023, and we spoke a bit about strategy, customers, partners and growth plans in our video-chat in December (LinkedIn). How has the first weeks of 2023 been for you and the company? Highlight a normal day at the office.
The first weeks in January have been very busy; a lot of internal processes as well as dialogue with customers and partners. We also had our kick-off last week – really enjoyed that – focusing on the goals for 2023 and how each and one of us must contribute to be able to achieve what we are aiming for; 200.000 signed subscriptions before year-end
Talking about customers. Illustrate a classic Skytech Control customer and why they want to use our SaaS CONTROL platform.
We have customers in various sizes and from all kinds of industries, but our main focus is customers with 100 employees and more. We see that our fully automized on- and off boarding processes is very welcomed. The effective cost-control functionality; dividing private cost from the companies’ invoice, also gives a lot of value. Asset management, where our customers have 100% control over all the assets to their employees, is also a very valuable and requested functionality in our platform.
You also mentioned the partner strategy previously. Exemplify a couple of classic collaboration partners for Skytech Control
We have several partners today, both local and cross boarder; helping us to promote and sale the Skytech Control platform in the market. In Norway, Telia is a very important partner for us. They have a solid brand with good reputation, with more than 40 salespeople promoting our Control platform. Elkjøp Nordic is another important partner for us, covering Norway – Sweden – Finland and Denmark. They have huge growth ambitions in the B2B segment and see that our control platform gives them very important added value in the dialogue with their customers. Both Telia and Elkjøp promote our platform as a white label solution.
Being a young company – strategy, pipeline, sales, tech, products, priorities, “heavy-lifting” projects and decisions – are classic day-to-day topics which goes hand-in-hand with the careful follow-up of the monthly burn-rate in the company. Give us some insight of what’s “cooking behind the scenes” and how you operate and balance this challenge.
As a still quite young company with ambitious growth plans, expanding into four new countries in parallel, there are a lot of things on the table for all of us:-) People are our most important asset, so recruit, develop and keep the best people in various roles are key! Further, we must be clear on our strategy, be focused and cynical in what we do. There are so many opportunities, so daring to say no is also important. Finally, delivering top, professional work with our customers and partners are also of highest importance.
“You are a proud former top professional football player (goalie with UEFA-cup experience and international matches for Norway), responsible for the Norwegian curling-team that won gold medals in Winter Olympic 2002 and educated as police-officer. How to you utilized this broad and diverse experience being a top leader in a start-up company? Have you made any outstanding “saves” or difficult “arrests”?
I am not a technologist, but luckily, we have many others in the company that have very good skills in that area. The most important lesson I have learned from my previous jobs, both as an athlete and as a leader in business, is to know what you do and take decisions from fact-based and documented know-how; not based on feelings and assumptions.
ISO accreditations for 9001 and 27001 is on its way as well. Why is this so important for Skytech Control?
As a young company, in many ways still a kind of start- up, we need to document all our processes and routines. This is important to have internal control, and helps us in the growth-period we are in the middle of. Further, it is crucial to have a scalable, robust and GDPR compliant platform, both for us internal, but also for all our customers and partners. The two ongoing ISO processes (9001 and 27001) will help us to implement a proper quality management system (QMS) and ensure quality and information security in all our work.
Difficult financial market, new investors, need of new EQ and ambitious growth plans. Skytech Control will target new EQ to support ambitions international growth targets. How will you and the company achieve that?
We succeeded in fetching new equity in December -22, to ensure liquidity for implementing our growth plan for coming period. In the longer term, if we will expand our business further and in accordance with our business plan, we need additional equity q3/q4-23. If so, this will most likely be a combination of equity from existing shareholders and new investors. M&A`s could also be a possibility, if we find the right opportunity, the timing is good and the price is fair.
Open topic at the end of this Q&A session, Tore; Anything else you would like our partners and followers to know?
The most important for us in 2023 is to scale up the business in the new countries we have established, gain value from our existing partnerships, attract new strategic global partners and finally develop our business in accordance with our plan. We have started a very exiting journey, challenging, and demanding, but also very energizing and fun. To recruit, keep and develop our people is also a key factor for us. We’re hiring so let us know if you are ready for a new challenge!
