Building Másmóvil: learnings from Norwegian tech entrepreneurs

We are currently accepting applications for our next accelerator, where we invest 1,2MNOK in great technology entrepreneurs building exciting companies out of Norway.

We’ve caught up with some former entrepreneurs who are now investors in our fund. Christian Solli Nyborg (CSN) co-founded the Spanish telecom company Másmóvil in 2006, and 12 years later it’s valued at € > 2,0 Bn (yes — you read that right). After stepping out of Másmóvil, Christian is now working on new projects as well as helping Norwegian and Spanish entrepreneurs.

SL: Why did you choose to start Másmóvil?
CSN: It started with me seeing a market opportunity in the Spanish market. I knew that the Spanish telecom market would be deregulated. Originally, there were 3 large operators in Spain, and all of a sudden EU would force them to rent their network to new entrants. Spain also had the highest prices and the least satisfied customers in Europe. In other words; “Houston, we have an opportunity”.

SL: Why did it go so well?
CSN: Most importantly, because we worked really hard and stayed in the game. We put our hearts, mind and souls into it, and that was the most important thing.

We were by no means smarter, nor did we have the best strategy or the best product. We did a lot of mistakes, but through hard work and an ability to grow and learn as we went on it happened.

Given that we were two foreigners starting the company, it was easy to be made aware of our many flaws — and we tried to compensate for this the best way we could — by trying to hire the best local and global talent there was to complement the two of us. We hired great people with experience and network from the Spanish telecom market — as well as internationally (including Norway) that could help build Másmóvil together with us.

SL: Talking about recruiting… as a small, unknown company, how did you go about hiring these great people?
CSN: Primarily two things. First, we talked a lot about the vision. What kind of company are we building, what it would become. As a leader, that’s one of your main responsibilities; motivating potential employees so that they choose to join you on your journey.

Second, it’s about giving them lucrative long-term incentives in the form of stock-options with vesting. Meaning, you give your employees stock options, but they have to stay with your company for a certain period of time in order to keep the stock options. Then your employees care about what the company becomes, and stick around to make to contribute to it happening.

SL: Building Másmóvil to what it is today has involved a lot of sales. How did you go about this in the beginning?
CSN: We started thinking about sales and marketing 2 years before we launched. Strategy, execution plans, everything. That said, once we had a license to operate and launched, we figured out that most of our ideas were not the best ones. Luckily we had capacity to iterate quickly; changing strategy, logo, branding and everything quickly. During this process we did a lot of mistakes, but we learned a lot at the same time. To succeed, you have to be willing to “kill your darlings” — listen to the market, react, and potentially throw away everything you’ve worked on for a long time.

We did a lot of experiments when it comes to sales and marketing. For example, we launched very specialized campaigns for certain customer groups, like expat-communities. We went all in, with special discounts for international calls and customer service representatives speaking 6 different languages. Such experiments were very successful, and grew our customer base significantly.

SL: When we advise our startups, we talk a lot about how they should ignore their competitors and rather focus on giving value to their customers. Given the extreme focus on price in the telco-space, how did you go about this?
CSN: Well, it was a combination. We wanted to have the best prices, but we soon realized that there would always be another company that tried to go below whatever you offered. Whenever we thought we had the best prices, another competitor emerged with slightly better prices.

So we chose to focus on differentiating our product, giving our customers something differentiated as well. And we actually launched a bunch of innovations to the market. For instance, we were the first telco worldwide with free Spotify premium bundled with your subscription, and we were first in Spain with automatic top-up, free Skype installs — which was a big thing at the time, the first with Customer service in many languages, and the first with a virtual assistant on our website. These innovations grew our user base even though we weren’t always cheaper than all of our competitors.

SL: Building Másmóvil, you took in external capital from VC firm Northzone amongst others. Were you deliberate in choosing who to bring in as owners?
CSN: We were probably like 90% of startups, in that early on we weren’t really in a position to pick and choose amongst investors. Nordic investors felt that the Spanish market was too far away, while venture capital was nearly non-existent in Spain. But we were lucky to find some great investors that believed in us, and that worked.

From my perspective, what’s most important is to have investors that are business builders that shares your vision. They should be advising and positive, but not try to control your business. The entrepreneur is the one knowing the business best.

Choosing an investor is about more than just choosing a company to work with. Building a company is about multiple “marriages”. First you choose your co-founder, and secondly you choose who you bring in as investor. It’s important that you choose a person that you connect with, otherwise you will run in to unnecessary problems further down the road.

SL: Now that you’re spending some of your time helping Norwegian entrepreneurs: is there something you believe most could do better?
CSN: Tough question… There’s not really one thing I can point at. I’m mostly impressed by the people that I meet. They’re hard-working and talented. It might be that their ambitions could be bigger. While entrepreneurs in places like Silicon Valley talk about ruling the world from the beginning, Norwegian founders are somewhat more realistic in regards to what they can accomplish.

Are you looking to scale your startup? Check out our upcoming accelerator, where selected companies get 1,2MNOK in investment and access to support through our 3-month program.