May 2015. Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, is on CNBC. He is wearing a navy blazer, no tie, blue shirt. He’s talking fast, and in bursts of excited management speak. He has a lot to be excited about. It has just been announced that Verizon is going to buy AOL for $4.4 billion. This is of course good news for Mr Armstrong. CNBC anchor, Andrew Ross Sorkin, asks him the key question for the […]
As a part of Techfestival 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark, I was asked to present my thoughts on kids, screens, and technology. In order to get the nuances right, I wrote a speech. You can read it below. Let me tell you a familiar story. Imagine young people longing for an alternate reality. One where regular rules of life do not apply, and one where your imagination prevails. Their parents worry, because this alternate reality is […]
Next week, I’ll be in Copenhagen to speak at Techfestival. It’s my first talk in quite a while, and the first one for years where I’m representing myself as opposed to a company. I have prepared a speech(!) called “In Defense of Screen Time“. I hope to add a perspective to the everlasting question of how kids and families should relate to technology. If you’re in Copenhagen next week, please stop by and chat! All […]
About a week ago, it was announced that I have joined Acast as an independent board member (link in Swedish). Acast is an international podcasting platform that helps with distribution, analytics, monetization, and much more. I’m a huge podcast fan, and have followed the industry from the sidelines for many years. I hope to contribute to the continued success of the company by offering an entrepreneurial perspective among the voices on the board.
As my third and final post on the kids app market, I have made a wish list. What if things were different? How could the market improve? Even if all of my wishes were to come true, the majority of the market complexities would remain. Your user is not your customer. That won’t ever change. But as I’ve stated before – things can still improve. All parts of the ecosystem can do better. This wish […]
My last post about the kids app market received a lot of interest and a fair bit of feedback too. It’s very rewarding to write when people take the time to read it. Thank you. To honor the feedback that I got, I will address a few additions and questions here below. The third and last part of this series will be a wish list of improvements and changes that I think would improve the […]
How do you take on a market where the user isn’t your customer? A market that overlaps and competes with four major industries, but doesn’t belong to any of them? These are questions I have been working with for the past nine years. Since 2010, I’ve been in the kids app market. First it was as CEO and Co-Founder of Toca Boca, and more recently as an independent advisor. Still to this day, I get […]
A year ago today, I launched my advisory business. It’s been really great. The independence, flexibility, diversity of client work – all in all a very pleasurable working experience. And one that I’m intending to continue. Five months in, I wrote a brief update about what I actually have been doing. I thought I would do the same now. I can’t mention any client names since some of the work is confidential. You’ll get the […]
In any business there’s a series of rules to follow. Most of them aren’t explicitly stated, but follow a type of common (business) sense. A general modus operandi (MO) develops. Both as a founder or an employee it’s easiest to stick to this MO. It feels sensible and like it saves time. But by doing so, you are recreating the same issues that these structures have created for all companies before you. To make it […]
There are two different types of strategy tax in a company. One for product strategy and one for corporate strategy. The former is what people usually refer to, and it often comes up when describing Microsoft and its strategy in the 90s. Blogging legend Dave Winer wrote a good explanation of this in 2001, for instance. In more modern times, Ben Thompson from Stratechery has defined it like this: A strategy tax is anything that […]
