I try to each year do a review and give insights into what I have been up to. As I am involved in multiple things a lot of people around me do not really know what I am doing. This is my attempt to give insigts into this.
2024 has been a fascinating year, filled with new experiences and challenges. Here’s my annual reflection. I’ll share updates on the companies and organizations I am involved in, as well as some general thoughts on how things are going.
Mindpark: A Year of Growth Despite Challenges
I can’t help but be impressed by what the amazing team at Mindpark has accomplished this year. We’ve grown in terms of square meters, locations, conferences held and the number of coworkers. With the opening of Mölndal and the expansion in Hyllie, we now have over 18,000 sqm of coworking space and approximately 750 companies and organizations being at our places every month, either as coworkers or conference guests. It’s fantastic to be part of this journey!
Sanna has led the company in a strong and inspiring way, building an incredible team spirit. It’s great to see the team—Helene, Sofie, Karolina, Tati, and everyone else—really creating and improving the spaces. Go team!
However, it hasn’t been easy. The past few years have been tough, and 2024 has been particularly challenging due to the economic downturn, with many businesses scrutinizing every expense. While this has led to an influx of new coworkers (some larger companies, like Bjurfors, have moved out of having their own offices and instead have more flexible office solutions with us) others have struggled financially, and some have not survived. Still, we are grateful: the coworking market in Stockholm is significantly more challenging, and we are pleased with our decision to focus on Gothenburg and Skåne instead of expanding to Stockholm.
The fact that we have managed to grow so much despite tough times is incredibly impressive.
At the end of 2024, we also conducted a survey among coworkers and received outstanding feedback, a testament to the strength of our team and community. Super good!
Some numbers:
- Total square meters: 18,000 sqm
- Number of coworkers: Over 1,000 people
- Number of companies renting office or desk at Mindpark: Around 350
Contentor: From Selling Words to Being SaaS
Contentor has had an exciting journey this year. With a new business model, we have taken significant steps in transforming the business, and signed 18 companies and brands to our new model. This includss high-profile clients such as Visa, Steamery, Gina Tricot, GeoGuessr (and some I can’t mention). It’s incredible to see the team embrace this transformation with so much energy and determination.
It is hard to explain how massive this shift has been. Contentor has essentially transitioned from being an established company optimizing its processes to becoming a startup reinventing everything from scratch. Under Rabie’s leadership, the team has maintained high energy levels, despite the many frustrations and setbacks that come with such a transformation.
One interesting aspect is that this change has forced the company to work even more closely with customers. By leveraging its unique position—combining e-commerce experience, language expertise, and technology—it has built an AI solution that is hard to match for others.
And we are proud of this. The industry has been pushed forward. We launched our hub to improve translation processes and published a white paper that impressed many with its insights into scaling AI solutions for e-commerce.
At the same time, the shift from selling words to offering a subscription service has had financial implications. The number of words handled in 2024 increased significantly, while revenue declined. Running a business with increasing output but falling revenue is something I’ve never experienced before—and gives entirely new learnings!
However, it’s very exciting, and now both output and revenue are increasing again. We just signed our biggest customer yet in the new Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) model, so the numbers are starting to look quite promising. Looking forward to an eventful 2025!
Numbers:
- Words handled in CaaS agreements: 8,400,039
- Words processed through the hub: 1,234,926
E-commerce Park: New horizons with Future Retail
This year marks a significant shift for E-commerce Park: the organization has become more international and has grown in several ways. We have renamed and expanded the incubator to Future Retail Incubator, enabling us to include more startups and scale our activities. We have also introduced a track focused on circular e-commerce and sustainability retail, as there is much to be done in that area.
We have also launched a digital community that brings together many people involved in e-commerce. It’s great to see members actively helping each other and sharing tips on everything from very practical issues, like the best accounting software, to trend-spotting from China and selling on TikTok.
Thanks to funding from Region Skåne, in addition to the City of Helsingborg, we have been able to organize more sessions, particularly for larger companies looking to improve their e-commerce game. And we have also hosted three major events: E-commerce Day, Succeed Abroad, and Practical AI Day.
Looking ahead to 2025, things seem promising. We just recently announced our expansion to Mindpark, which has been very well received. We also plan to build more on the digital community and host events in other parts of Sweden—and perhaps beyond.
Numbers:
- Companies in the E-commerce community: 130
- Companies that participated in the Future Retail Incubator: 25
Nybryggt coffee business: A year of stability but also new milestones
Nybryggt, which sells mostly whole beans coffee online, continues to grow, even though the past year have shown only modest increase in sales. Considering that Sweden has seen a decline in e-commerce over the past two years, not shrinking is quite an achievement.
In the fall, the business underwent a rebranding, which I think turned out very well. We were a bit nervous beforehand—what would customers think? We ran the idea by a few customers we know, and they felt it wasn’t very “coffee-like.” But we trusted our instincts and went through with it. After launching the rebranding in Finland and Denmark first, and seeing no negative impact on conversions, we rolled it out in Sweden as well. I think it’s great!
A major highlight was now in November, when the company achieved its best month ever, surpassing 1 million kronor in revenue from e-commerce—a true milestone for the team! And ehandel.se wrote about our record breaking black week as well.
We have also expanded the products sold. We have added more tea for example, and more different Nespresso pods.
At the end of the year, we also introduced the new name for the business group. Previously, it was called the rather generic “Service Supply Scandinavia.” Now we have consolidated it under a single name: Bean-buddies. More catchy!
Numbers:
- Number of coffee brands in the assortment: 57
- Number of customers during the financial year: 10,412
- Financial figures are available here: Open Financials
Zoégas old café and store
The café business in Zoégas historic location, officially called Café 1886, has also seen exciting developments. Officially, it’s a subsidiary of Bean-buddies, but in practice it operates quite independently, co-owned by Hanna and William (who run Bruket) along with over 100 other Helsingborg enthusiasts who love the place.
The café has truly become a special place in Helsingborg. It’s a lot of fun to be part of something that both honors tradition and brings new ideas at the same time.
Numbers:
- Number of brewed coffees sold: 12,159
- Financial figures can be found here: Open Financials
Other Projects and Involvements
Campus Webb: The Dream of Stability
Campus Webb has gained a few new customers this year, but there hasn’t been much activity. This is a project I would love to see grow more steadily and sustainably. The potential is there, but momentum has been hard to find. We’ll see how things develop in 2025.
Öresund Startups: Gaining Momentum Again
Öresund Startups gained traction again in 2024, mainly due to some smart workflow optimizations that made it easier for volunteers and me to keep it running smoothly. The goal remains the same: to showcase what’s happening in this region on an international audience.
And it’s working: the website has grown and the news reach between 5,000 and 50,000 visitors per month, depending on the stories published. The audience mix is roughly 25% from Sweden, 25% from Denmark, and 50% from the rest of the world. As it should be I think.
Numbers:
- Best 30-day reach: September 20 – October 20 (62,320 views)
Other Roles
LU Innovation
I work part time at Lunds University with the innovation team. Being part of the academic world and seeing how entrepreneurship works in this context has been highly rewarding. The difference in approach compared to the private sector is fascinating and educational. One of biggest differences is that many researchers do not fully commit to entrepreneurship, as they primarily identify as academics. While this is understandable, it means that many great ideas and solutions never develop enough to reach the market and to scale.
Tillväxt Helsingborg
I have continued to be on the board of Tillväxt Helsingborg. In 2024, we recruited Jeremie Poirier as the foundation’s new leader. With his help, the team has grown and broadened its focus on helping businesses expand and create more jobs in Helsingborg, a city with one of Sweden’s highest unemployment rates. It feels meaningful to be part of something that can drive positive change in the region.
Climate iniatives
Over the year I have started two initaitives that are about reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. One is a crowdsourced website that gathers tips and locations where you easily can find climate friendly alterantives, such as second hand stores, or vegan cafées. So far mostly in southern Sweden, but growing.
The second is a store which sells biochar (biokol). I think a lot will happen with biochar, as it is a really special material, and I have some plans to do more here as well.
Reduced Engagement in Other Areas
Even though it might seem a bit odd, the list above is unusually short. I’ve deprioritized or wrapped up quite a few things in recent years for various reasons. Skåne Startups, an organization I really liked, we decided to shut down a bit over a year ago. I’m no longer active in Tryggrätt—others took over there. Rscued Fruits was sold, so I’m no longer involved in that either. So overall engagements that end for one reason or another.
Also, some companies I have become very passive, while still being a part. Such as Wellbefy (and it’s sister site Wmotion) and Klimatstrategerna. I try to help out when I can, but am not involved on a continuous basis.
Personal Life: Small Steps Forward
Physical Health
I had ambitions to work out more this year—my goal was 100 workout days. The result? 108 sessions. I had mainly planned to run twice a week, but that didn’t really happen; I only managed 18 runs over the year instead of the 100+ that running twice a week would have meant. On the other hand, I’ve discovered a newfound appreciation for spinning, something I never thought would happen! I ended up doing 16 spinning classes this year. Yoga has remained an important part of my life, even though I did it less frequently than before—only 15 sessions. The yoga studio I go to, Raw Yoga, moved to a fantastic location, but it’s a bit out of the way, which has meant I haven’t gone as often. The times I did go were very necessary and appreciated.
Mental Health
There have been some changes for my mental health this year. Overall, it’s been good. I’m involved in many different things, and that works well for me. I’ve been unusually calm, actually—rarely feeling stressed. That might mean I’m either doing less or I’ve simply gotten older and learned to take things in stride better.
However, I noticed I was getting too distracted by my phone, especially certain apps. So I uninstalled the Instagram app (Instagram works terribly in a browser, so I barely use it, maybe once a week, without getting sucked in). I had already uninstalled Facebook, and I don’t get email notifications on my phone. LinkedIn also logged me out, so I just stayed logged out. All of that minimized my distractions significantly, which feels great.
News notifications took up a lot of time too, so I removed those as well and now only keep one news app that isn’t heavily updated. For me, that’s The Economist, which updates once a day and doesn’t send push notifications. It works well.
Social Health
During the year, I spent time with friends and sometimes hosted dinners with a few close friends or larger groups. That’s important to me and brings me a lot of joy.
On many satursdays I invite friends to a Lördagsfika at the Zoegas café. Sunday I try to go to the sauna and have a kallbad.
I also have several recurring “social rituals,” or events, that are really appreciated. The year starts with a New Year’s party that isn’t on New Year’s Day, then me and Rebecca have a Midsummer party and later, when it gets dark again, we host a glögg gathering.
A Typical Day in 2024
A question I get sometimes is: what does a typical day look like for you? The truth is, there really isn’t a “typical” day for me. They’re all quite different, and since I’m involved in several different things, my days can vary a lot. But I thought I’d try to describe one anyway. So I googled a random date generator and asked it to pick a date. It chose February 21, 2024. Here’s what that day looked like:
It was a Wednesday, and I started the day by calling my mentee from Nyföretagarcentrum. I don’t remember exactly why, but I assume it was to check in on how she was doing. After that, I had a meeting with an e-commerce entrepreneur about scaling up his business and possibly doing something together with Nybryggt’s e-commerce operations. That meeting was at the old Zoégas café because it’s close to my home and it’s a nice place to have breakfast, given the choice.
After that meeting, Roosa and I had our regular check-in about Nybryggt, which we do every second week. Then I had a few hours without any meetings (unusual for a Wednesday—I normally had meeting-free days on Mondays and Tuesdays last year). During that time, I worked on various tasks. I’m not entirely sure what they were, but looking at my inbox that day, I see it was a range of emails: about photography at the E-commerce Park, sharing contact info with someone who wanted to become a coworker at Mindpark, helping out planning an event at Mindpark in Malmö, emailing about a potential project with Campuswebb, emailing with Almi about funding, finalizing the annual accounts for some of my companies, handling admin around funding for Mindpark, emailing with alumni from the incubator at E-commerce Park about guest appearances… probably other things as well, but that’s what I see in my inbox.
After that, there was a sync meeting with Abbas about Mindpark in Helsingborg and the events there, such as Grow Invest. A meeting we’ve had every second week throughout the year as well.
All in all, it was a pretty “normal” day, although what changes the most is how much time each venture takes. On this day, multiple things revolved around the coffee business, which is slightly unusual—there’s usually no more than one topic from each of the companies, except for Mindpark, which has been my main focus this year.
But generally, that’s what my days are like. Some days I’m in Malmö, or Lund, or Gothenburg, but most often I’m in Helsingborg—probably 3–4 days a week on average.
What will happen in 2025?
I am looking forward to 2025 a lot. There are exciting new things going on, both with Mindpark, but also around Contentor, Bean-buddies, E-commerce Park and some around the climate initiatives I have started, where especially biochar is super interesting and more will happen.
Ett litet sidoprojekt (i vibecoding anda): vilka företag (och i vilka kommuner) i Sverige har betalat för att flest ton koldioxid ska dras ut ur luften?
För att nå parisavtalet måste CO2 dras ut ur luften, så kallad CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal) i branschspråk, eller koldioxidinfångning på lite mer svenska.
Detta kan bara göras på några få sätt på riktigt (plantera träd räknas inte, är för kortsiktigt, måste lagras i 1000+ år för att räknas på riktigt).
Biokol är en av grejerna (som jag nördat ner mig i), men utöver det saker som CCS (som fångar in CO2 vid skorstenar) eller DAC (stora fläktar som fångar in och lagrar).
Jag ville kolla hur mycket det görs i Sverige, och vilka företag. Finns lite publik data kring det, så gjorde en topplista. Här är den: https://co2listan.se/