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Q&A with Ola Ahlvarsson January 27, 2000 This Swede Loves to "Surf on the Internet Avalanche" Ola Ahlvarsson, CEO of Result Venture Knowledge International, talks about the Net explosion in Scandinavia and why e-business in Europe "must stay local" Ola Ahlvarsson, 29, is one of Europe's leading e-commerce entrepreneurs. He first broke into the headlines by co-founding the successful online CD retailer Boxman. But once a business is up and running, he prefers to step back and found another. So far, he has helped start 20 e-businesses, from an online sports-equipment shop called sportus.com to a clothing site called dressmart.com. This year, he expects to open 20 more sites through his Result Venture Knowledge International, which funds Internet ideas and assists entrepreneurs. He spoke with Business Week's William Echikson about why Sweden, with a population of only 9 million, is out in front of Europe's e-biz revolution: BW: You call yourself an e-facilitator. What does that mean? Ahlvarsson: We help dot.coms get started. Instead of receiving 6,000 business plans from entrepreneurs, we come up with our own ideas and run through them. We conceive the best projects and find the best people. If we decide to set up a telephone-directory-selling company, we make it happen. We help find the money, but we don't finance ourselves. Then we get the management. We even get out there and put the stickers on your marketing envelopes. Our big advantage is that we have experience rolling out e-commerce sites across Europe and we can help skilled people achieve the same goal. BW: Why is Sweden a good place to start a dot.com? Ahlvarsson: Sweden is turning into Silicon Valley in Europe. There are a tremendous amount of companies that come out here. Internet penetration is so high that you get instant feedback. You do something here, and you see if it works in two months. In the U.S., it takes two years. We enjoy a small wired sample. Success breeds success. An exciting entrepreneurial culture is forming. We have the largest European portal, Scandinavia Online. We have 8 of the 10 largest Web agencies in Europe located here in Stockholm. BW: Do you really feel you can beat back the American e-commerce invasion of Europe? Ahlvarsson: The Americans do have some advantages. They have a big home market and a market cap which may help them in the initial battles. But they won't necessarily win the war. The local guy understands the market better. My favorite example is Getgift.com. That may sound nice in English. But in Swedish, it means goat poison. You really have to be local in Europe. In Sweden, Leknet is a great toys site. But in Norway, lek is the biggest porn site. American companies don't often think local enough. BW: What about your baby, Boxman? How will it fare now that CDNow is moving fast into Europe? Ahlvarsson: Boxman has a couple years' head start in Europe, and we sell a lot more than them in Europe. But, of course, CDNow is bigger than us overall. The key will be getting Boxman floated on the stock market to assure its financial stability. All my businesses must stay local, even as we take them across Europe. In my new sports site, I have signed up local athletes, the best skiiers in Norway, the best soccer players in Sweden, and the best bicyclists in Holland. We don't want the big American stars. BW: What about the mobile Internet? How will you adapt your sites? Ahlvarsson: We're looking into mobile e-commerce with every project. At Boxman, for example, we're thinking of setting up a service to download songs you hear on the radio. Or we will let you buy sports tickets on your mobile phone. Almost anything is possible. BW: Tell me a little about yourself. Have all your ventures been so successful? Ahlvarsson: I grew up in Stockholm and went to business school at the Stockholm School of Economics. While there, I started to focus on entrepreneurial activities. When I was 18, I had this idea of starting a free newspaper and handing it out on the subway. But when I went to the subway authorities and told them my idea, they laughed at me. Soon afterwards, some experienced journalists came to them with the same idea, and Metro was born. It's now the fastest growing chain of newspapers in Europe. I learned an important lesson. It doesn't matter how good your idea is. It only matters how you can execute. It's like the Spice Girls. It didn't matter that they can't sing or dance. They had the right network to create a global brand... BW: How did you get into the Internet business? Ahlvarsson: In 1997, I was working in a Web agency. One of our customers, a retail CD chain, came to us and asked to help them go online. I saw the opportunity and with two friends started Boxman. The chain helped supply us records. I concentrated on building the business. Boxman moved into dressmart.com and into the other ideas. In most cases, we took only minority stakes. What interested me was creating, not managing. BW: Wasn't your father a devoted Social Democrat? Ahlvarsson: My dad was a plumber who went into politics and ended up as Vice-Mayor of Stockholm. I'm not into politics, by the way. The times are different. But when my father started, he was a sort of entrepreneur. He helped create pensions. There were none before. So I feel I am following in his image. BW: How does it feel to be rich, especially with your family's egalitarian socialist backround? Ahlvarsson: Rich depends on what you compare it with. I'm not like Jeff Bezos. Money is only a strategic tool. Amazon has the market cap to buy anyone out. In any case, I don't have time to spend money. What's really exciting is to surf on the Internet avalanche. When this calms down, I'll settle down in my personal life and have children. But for now, I work every waking hour. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP