Everything you have been told so far is wrong (Including what I’m going to say now…)

About me   32 Years old   Used to work for the government

and wear a suit all day   I can’t stop messing with things   I’m the CEO and co-founder of

Tradeshift   Which made me have my previous

birthday in a Colombian jungle with an ex-president of Puorto Rico

It all started with a simple idea…

Idea

(3500bc)

(1933)

(Today)

10 pct. of all trees cut down worldwide 64B € in EU alone spend on typing and retyping

50 pct. of all business mail Stupid…

But surely this have already been done before, what is the competition?

Banks Large global ICT companies Postal Service In more than 30 years…

And they all got it wrong

Ok, so what did Tradeshift do different?

Easy & free

See when you are paid

Avoid mistakes

Communicate easily

And create your own business network

12 months ago we had the idea

6 months ago we got a front page in Wired

And today Tradeshift is used in 61 countries

So what did we learn?

The mobile network in Sri Lanka is faster than the one I have here

The cost of technology is now so low that you can start the next Google everywhere

Build technology for the world market, you are competing there anyways

The financial crisis is great for a start-up

Don’t outsource! Doing the hard work your self is the greatest chance to learn

Don’t trust consultants Don’t hire the MBA Don’t trust people that tell you what you are doing is wrong Look for the people who have passion for your idea

Avoid the easy ideas, hard is good

And ignore the start-up “scene”, they don’t have any money to buy your product…

And finally, forget what I said and do it your way, if it works you are doing it right!

Christian Lanng, Co-founder chl@tradeshift.com (we are hiring!)

Shift Happens!