20 VC: Morten Lund on Skype, Bankruptcy, Fintech and Why "Banks Are Full Of Lots Of Stupid People Doing Nothing"

Check out The Two Minute Takeaway from our chat with Morten for the key facts and themes discuss in the episode.

Morten Lund, best know for his seed investment in Skype, he has also founded and co-invested in more than 100 startups including the likes of Airhelp who you might recognize as we interviewed their CEO Nicolas Michaelsen in episode check 32, as well as Bullguard, Maxthon and many more. In today’s incredible interview we talk about the story behind his skype investment, how he went from $150m to bankruptcy moving to the present both with his work with Coders Trust helping coders in developing countries to improve their lives to his rocketship journey with one of the world’s most exciting fintech companies in Tradeshift, who have raised a total of over $200m.

A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today’s show and you can find out more about Mattermark here! 

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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Morten got into the technology industry and the world of investing?

2.) How did Morten’s investment in Skype come about? How did Morten deal with the bankruptcy and how it changed him as a person?

3.) How does Morten view the current state of European fintech? Where are the significant market opportunities that are yet to be exploited?

4.) Following Morten bankruptcy, he only works with “really cool people”. So what makes Morten like someone and believe in them?

5.) How did TradeShift come about from Morten’s basement? What was the a-ha moment? What has driven the immense success with over $200m invested? What is the future for the company and the future of money?

6.) Looking forward, what is Morten’s main goal and aspiration and how does he plan on attaining it?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Morten’s Fave Book: Shantaram

Morten’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Economist

Morten’s Most Recent Investment: Hippocorn

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Morten on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!