After a lot of consideration, I have decided to step down as CEO of Toca Boca. I told the team this morning. It has been seven years since I co-founded the company together with Emil Ovemar. And to be perfectly honest, I need a bit of a break to recharge and figure out what I should be doing next. My own family has also recently expanded so I look forward to spending more time with […]
I promised a second post about the App Store charts and that is coming. But over the past days it has become clear that standing up this madness can’t wait. I wrote a statement about it at Toca Boca because it goes against so much of what we believe in. Quoted below: From Toca Boca’s founding and forward we have made digital toys for kids all over the world. We intentionally design products that work […]
Just before the new year, Nielsen published a list of the top smartphone apps of 2016. The list is based on average unique users which is a way of measuring, although it would have a hard time scaling to a longer list due to the lack of data (the sample is 9,000 panelists). Nielsen image, with my highlighting on the right. More interesting is the ownership of the apps and their respective business models. There are […]
My annual review is up, but on Medium this year instead. 2016 in review – Medium
A first rant on why financial forecasting simply isn’t good enough. Hopefully I can explore some possible options further ahead. False certainty
A challenge worth taking on. “If you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her little child in the checkout line — maybe she’s not usually like this; maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who’s dying of bone cancer, or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the Motor Vehicles Dept who just […]
If you don’t tell the story, then a story gets told in its place anyway. Likely a different one than you intended. A friend and colleague reminded me of this old saying the other day. It is very true in internal business communication, where not communicating sometimes makes the loudest noise. This is easy to forget even if you know that it is the case. With this in mind, I’m going to start writing more […]
A job well done may mean being almost invisible Being a great manager is really hard. More so than I first thought since I think you more often notice the things that aren’t good, than the things that are. Think about a bad manager that you’ve had. That’s easy. Everyone has had one. Now think about a really great manager. Some of you have had them, and congratulations to you! But I suspect many find […]
There are numerous articles every week on how to scale and grow a company. Startup metrics, growth hacking, technology choices. While they are all important, there are many other traits that also affect the growth rate of a company. I would argue that trust is one of the most important ones. It is a recurring theme in both my own projects and others that I look at. First there is gaining, growing and keeping the […]
