We’re Welcoming Marie Mostad and Christian Mikalsen to the Collective

We are incredibly excited to be welcoming Norwegian-based Marie Mostad, co-founder & COO of Inzpire.me, and Christian Mikalsen, co-founder & CTO of Kolonial.no, to the byFounders Collective!

The Collective is a unique and founding pillar of byFounders. Composed of 65 of the most successful entrepreneurs and operators in the Nordics and Baltics, with additional members such as Johan Brand, Josefin Landgård, and Niklas Zennström, their aggregated knowledge and expertise provides the byFounders’ portfolio companies with operational guidance, a valuable network in virtually all industries, verticals, and locations, mentorship, and a supportive community. Welcoming Marie Mostad and Christian Mikalsen further bolsters our support network in Norway.

Marie Mostad is the co-founder & COO of Inzpire.me: a data-driven platform that helps brands work with content creators to communicate their impactful stories on social media. Inzpire.me was founded in 2016, raised a round of $1.3 million, and is now present in 100 countries, with an engaged team working hard on its ongoing expansion. By joining the byFounders Collective, Marie hopes to share her recent learnings and experiences with the next generation of founders and help young startups build more strong and diverse teams.

“I witnessed a strong ‘pay it forward’ culture when I was part of the startup ecosystem in Boston and I like the idea of startups succeeding together. So when the opportunity presented itself to join a Collective that supports founders, I was excited to get involved. Building a company involves a lot of ‘trial and error’ so I hope that I can support young startups by sharing learnings from my own mistakes and successes.”

Prior to co-founding Inzpire.me, Marie was a Creative Director at Rest Devices, a tech startup based in Boston, MA, specializing in wearable sensor technology for infants. In 2019 she won Founder of the Year in Norway at the Nordic Startup Awards. She has a Masters in Strategic Management from the Norwegian School of Economics and studied Graphic Design at Parsons in New York City, NY.

“I’m excited by startups that solve challenges for the entire population by looking for ‘simple’ solutions to complex problems, and who are created by teams that are strong, diverse, visionary, and ambitious. I would also like to see more female tech founders, and I love that more and more young girls are interested in this field. The more support and encouragement I can provide them with, the better!”

Christian Mikalsen is the co-founder & CTO of Kolonial.no, Norway’s largest online supermarket. Incepted in 2013 by ten founders (!), with a goal to make weekday shopping easier, the company now makes roughly $250 million in sales and a product & tech team of more than 100 people. Following Kolonial.no’s fast growth — it’s the fastest-growing online supermarket in the Nordics — Christian joins the byFounders’ Collective with an aim to share his learnings on company growth and founder relations.

“It’s a truly exciting time in the Nordic startup scene and, whilst I am still learning new things at Kolonial.no every day, I’d love to start sharing some of that knowledge to help young companies and its founders, that are still earlier in their journey, succeed. I’d really love to see more truly cross-functional founding teams who bring together technology, business, and operations in a smart way, and I hope to see a lot more Norwegian companies with large scaling ambitions. We still have some catching up to do to our Nordic neighbors!”‍

The byFounders Collective now has six Norwegian members: Christian Mikalsen, Christine Spiten, Johan Brand, Karl Munthe-Kaas, Lasse Andresen, and Marie Mostad. To date, we’ve invested in one company founded by Norwegians — SafetyWing.

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To learn more about how the Collective supports the next generation of founders, we encourage you to read this article: https://www.byfounders.vc/insights/secret-sauce