Earned his first millions as a student – E24

– I have probably always been very fascinated by exploring, been very curious.

Edgeir Aksnes, entrepreneur behind the electricity company Tibber, does not talk about why he became an entrepreneur, but why his dream for a very long time was to become an astronaut.

– Just the thought of sitting in a spaceship and looking at the stars and the galaxy, it felt very adventurous.

E24 wonders if the fascination with space is not the reason why he started for himself. Will he become like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and earn enough money for a private spaceflight?

– At least we have not announced that plan, says Aksnes with a good laugh.

– But I really see why these great tech entrepreneurs … What drives you is the desire for adventure. There is a lot of risk involved, a lot to explore that has not been done before. So I understand why they do it that way, and then there is probably a terribly good debate about whether this is what you should spend time and money on, says Aksnes in this week’s episode of E24’s podcast Voksenpoeng

Listen to the entire interview where you usually find your podcasts, or in the player below.

– Nothing worked

There was no astronomy career at Aksnes – but he has at least experienced astronomical growth in his own company.

Since its inception, sales have increased hundreds of times. This summer, Tibber was valued at NOK 3 billion.

But it is far from Aksnes’ first attempt at start-up. When he started high school, he had already made career plans as an astronaut, doctor, captain and pilot. Then he discovered technology and programming. During an Easter holiday, he learned to code, and then spent a few months on a training program he was trying to sell to his school.

– So I booked a meeting with the principal. I was going to demonstrate the stuff, so I came up with it on such an old floppy disk. Nothing worked, but it was the first attempt to do business with software.

– You must have been pretty good at coding?

– No, not at all! In retrospect, I made all sorts of mistakes. There was no market for it and nothing worked. But it was satisfying to be able to channel so much energy into something like that. I think it has helped me later, says Aksnes.

Browse the gallery or follow Voksenpoeng_med_Nora on Instagram to read Edgeir Aksnes’ school diary.

If there was no great success on the first try, he at least figured out what to study. The trip went from little Vik in Sogn to Trondheim to become a civil engineer. Aksnes did not immediately find himself at ease in the big city – the transitions became many and large.

– But then I found such a startup environment, Start NTNU. We were 30 students working for entrepreneurship and innovation. That was really when I really felt at home. It took some time.

Sold company as a student

During the study period, there were several entrepreneurial projects. Some never got to their feet, others were not scalable. But in the middle of his studies, Aksnes and two other students from the startup community in Trondheim came up with a startup that created digital solutions for the health sector.

When the students received their diplomas, they had just sold the company to Visma. Aksnes was left with two million kroner.

– For a student, it is absolutely fantastic, says Aksnes.

However, the money did not go to beer or sports car. The newly graduated civil engineer was tough on himself: This was to be the start-up capital for the next project. Everything he had invested in time and creativity was to be carried on. House, car and other daily expenses were to be financed in other ways.

– What I did not know then, was that it would take 11 years before I came up with the next business idea

From director’s salary to zero income

The diploma from NTNU was never used by Aksnes. All the founders of the health tech startup were offered a job at Visma when they sold the company. Aksnes visited several areas there, and worked as development manager and product manager.

After five years in Visma, he was offered a job in Elis AS, which later became Enoro AS. It was his first encounter with the electricity industry: the company delivered software solutions to the energy industry.

There he also met co-founder Daniel Lindén. The two admired the innovations of the time, such as Spotify, Uber and Airbnb. And they were annoyed by the lack of similar innovations they saw in their own industry.

– We were so convinced that here must come something completely different than the old, solid companies with what we called fossil business models. We started calling them dinosaurs, because this here must die out, this is not the future.

The future entrepreneurs, who then sat on fat executive salaries, began to play with the idea of ​​something new. A service that would not make money from people using as much electricity as possible, and that could be viable without telemarketers.

After a few months of talking, the conclusion came in a phone call. Either they had to resign and bet, or they had to stop talking about this.

– The next day we quit our jobs, both of us.

Fat executive salaries were replaced with zero income and total entrepreneurial freedom.

– I felt extremely free that day. Then a few days passed, and then we began to feel desperate. What have we done now? We do not know exactly what we are going to do, how we are going to make this fly and how it is going to go with our economy. It was an extreme phase, says Aksnes.

Do not want to go public – yet

After several rounds of business model, they got the app Tibber stacked on its legs. The company buys the cheapest electricity they can find, resells it without surcharge, and instead makes money on a fixed monthly monthly fee.

The plan further is also to earn more from the sale of products to make households more electricity efficient – and self-sufficient in electricity.

The company quickly made money – and got big investors like Petter Stordalen on the team. But the breakthrough itself, Aksnes himself believes, did not come until around the end of 2018, three years after start-up.

– We wanted a product that could scale by itself, which was so good that people talked about it, so you get a viral spread. It took a long time before it reached a level we were happy with.

Five years after starting up, Aksnes can be satisfied. When Tibber acquired Schibsted on the ownership side this summer, the company was valued at NOK 3 billion. Aksnes itself is left with around 15 percent of the shares.

The founder thinks Tibber will probably go public – but not now.

– I do not want to go public and then it goes like a yo-yo. Right now we are in a so-called hypergrowth phase. It is so extreme, and it requires very competent investors.

– We can not just walk around and waste

Hyper growth and billion valuation notwithstanding – Aksnes has not become rich on the entrepreneurial project yet. After the saved funds from the first successful entrepreneurial project had been used up, he and the co-founder began to take out a modest salary of 400,000 kroner.

In recent years, they have approached what Aksnes himself describes as a “livable level”. But sober it has been all the way. Last year, he took out a salary of 561,000 kroner.

– Then it should be said that my personal finances were very ok when we started Tibber. I had a fully repaid house, so I did not have to think about it. So I’m been lucky with the starting point, but I also think that if we are to succeed in business, we need to do the most important things. We can not just walk around and waste, neither privately nor in business, says Aksnes.

– Let’s say you go public, you realize some of your shares and get something real “fuck you money” – what is the first luxury you treat yourself to?

Aksnes laughs and pulls at it – he insists that he does not miss material things. There will be no castle or sports car.

– I’m more interested in doing something cool with the kids and friends. I am completely “obsessed” with climbing nowadays, so should I treat myself to some luxury, it is more to take a few sabbaticals and just travel and climb.

– Or take the kids to space?

– Yes! Haha.

When the day may come for listing, he is not sure if he will still be in the company. So far, he has used every summer to see if he should continue, or pass on the reins.

– I can not answer for what I conclude with next year, but as long as I feel that there are challenges here, then it is full blown and then I see no reason to stop.

– But the day Tibber is a super stable listed company where nothing happens, then it will be a new project?

– I think I can guarantee that on that day there will probably be someone else leading it, says Aksnes.

E24 is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Schibsted Group. Some journalists in E24 own shares in Schibsted through the group’s share savings program.

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