“Visionary builds what dreamers imagined.” ― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
Every decade brings forth success stories backed by perseverance, hard work, and dedication. These stories feature an individual driven by a passion for doing things differently and achieving what others haven’t so far. Similar is the case of Teddy Wold, the founder and CEO of Klingit, a Stockholm-based creative tech company.
A Natural Born Entrepreneur
A simple and straight path seldom leads to success. When people asked Thomas Edison why he kept putting in a lot of work without ever getting the results he was hoping for, he replied, “I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that don’t work”.
This quote sums up the experience of an entrepreneur. After dropping out of college, Teddy Wold established an e-learning portal for teaching HTML coding to young students, which numerous schools in Sweden used. Later, Wold started to work as a freelance web designer, which soon became a business idea for him. He holds experience running two businesses, ACT (which was later acquired) and Klingit.
The Non-Traditional Tech Organisation
Experts suggest that human imagination works harder than conventional human enterprise. However, at any moment, tech geniuses or scientists are redesigning future technology and transforming the digital landscape. For instance, not a single organisation thought that they could survive the pandemic, let alone thrive in it. However, with remote working as a new working model option, enterprises found a way to keep operations running. In fact, organisations like Klingit were not only born in the post-pandemic era but were also able to enjoy unexpected success despite the limitations.
Teddy Wold and his partner, Rikard Hegelund, identified the bottlenecks many companies face in their operations and found ways to avoid them in their venture. Whether it’s hiring resources from different parts of the world or providing them with the opportunity to work flexible hours, Klingit has it all.
When asked about the company’s unique business model, Wold says that it minimises discrimination and opens up several new opportunities. For example, he claims that they are able to hire the best designers from all parts of the world. He also added that they can reduce turnaround time due to different time zones. With Wold and Hegelund at the epicentre of Klingit, the company has managed to build a solid clientele of over 100 clients and a vast network of remote employees belonging to different parts of the world.
The SaaS Mindset
Teddy Wold calls the company’s approach the “SaaS mindset”. For instance, they have a single platform that accepts customers’ order requests. With the same platform, Klingit’s management assigns designers that are best suited for the job. Customers can see the flow of their orders on the platform and provide feedback if necessary. The company believes it can offer faster, better managed, and cheaper alternatives than conventional businesses.
Wold also believes that they can start focusing on other business aspects and digital marketing down the line. So, the first step he took to help the company reach new heights was communicating with different investors. They were able to put the founders of King, Sunit Mehrotra and Frank Hollingworth on board. King has been among the leading advertising agencies in Sweden for over 25 years. Klingit has also partnered with By WiT ventures, which has invested SEK 8 million and will help it seek further acquisitions in Europe.
In hindsight, people wonder what happens when someone works hard and has endured perseverance for a long time. Teddy Wold is a living example of that same hard work. He identified the issues digital organisations face and worked tirelessly to establish a new model for carving the business landscape. So, for those wondering, Wold should be on the list of the most successful visionaries of the post-pandemic era.
