Jörgen Bladh
You’ll never catch him Onside
Some people just do not want to follow the norm. After spending a decade building Northzone’s presence in Sweden, Jörgen decided to change status to Venture Manager in mid 2009.
Being a serial entrepreneur, it was no surprise when Jörgen decided to found the Stockholm office for Northzone Ventures in 2000. After all, he has a history of co-founding and building two listed high-tech companies (eLearning start-up AcadeMedia and the high-speed Internet access company Thalamus Networks), as well as owning and running several smaller companies.
As part of the team, Jörgen had the great pleasure of seeing Northzone growing from a primarily Norwegian affair, into a true European partnership with a strong Scandinavian foothold. According to himself, his by far most important contribution was the recruitments of Pär-Jörgen Pärsson in 2003 and Hans Otterling in 2006.
Trying to explain the decision to leave the day-to-day activities at Northzone, Jörgen states: “I simply realized I have spent 30 years in business and close to 10 years with Northzone. There is no better place to be at than Northzone if you want to work with exceptional people and build world-class high-tech start-ups. However, having two kids and working around the clock does not give ample space for other activities. The position as a Venture Manager allows me, for the coming decade or so, to focus on meditation and personal development. With great excitement I have started to change my focus away from thinkers such as Geoffrey Moore, Clay Christensen and Black & Scholes, towards even greater thinkers such as Osho, Eckhart Tolle and Almaas.”
Needless to say, it is a big step for me. But to cite Osho, my favourite wise guy in a white beard: “Never stop changing and never stop being unpredictable – only then can life be truly joyful. The moment you become predictable you become a machine. And a machine is boring – it was the same yesterday, it is the same today, it will be the same tomorrow. The day you stop changing, in a subtle way you have died”. If you are aged 42+ and always spend your vacations on the same place with the same people, please read out loud: “The day you stop changing, in a subtle way you have died”.
My role as Venture Manager will allow me to both continuing working with some existing investments and to recommend new investments to the fund. But it will not be a full time job. Since you are likely to fail trying to find me in the office, you can always try meditation centres such as Baravara in Dalarna, Miasto in Italy, or somewhere in India. But it is probably easier to send me an e-mail or a SMS, since I will keep my Northzone email address and mobile number.
