Who is Morten Lund?

Morten Lund, (born April 3, 1972) is an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark. Along with Soren Kenner, Lund is founder and managing partner of LundKenner, a venture capital firm focusing on technology ventures.^[1] From 2007 he has also fronted the startup catalyst LundXY.

That’s what Wikipedia has to say. But who is he really?

Father of 4 kids and 60+ startups? Archangel investor, startup ideologist and visionary? Smooth salesman and marketer who excels at selling himself? Undeterred by failure and innovative DJ of proven technologies producing a smash hit every few years? Uber networker and connector leaving project management to someone else? Updated younger look-a-like version of Sir Richard Branson? Greatest fan of Steve Jobs who thinks you should always take ‘the first right’? Easy going but energetic personality who loves people just like his friend Bill Clinton?

Who knows. You be the judge. Here’s an interview from TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw:

Last Wednesday, March 5th I had the pleasure to mingle with a spectacular community of smart people attending TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw: innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, bloggers and so on.

What else would you want? Oh, maybe a networking dinner the night before, celebrity arch-angel investor straight from Le Web video, 7 minutes contest during the event, great speakers, great lunch and last but not least… flute playing lesson broadcasted via video stream.

So many memories, new businessfriends, old acquaintances refreshed, things to think over. I’ll be relaying those over to you during the next few days on this blog. So stay tuned.

Yes, we are experiencing a downturn. Yes, in the macro-scale it will probably get worse before it gets better. But let’s not worry about the broken financial system or gloomy future of some financial institutions. Let’s not worry about the economy while there are fat juicy opportunities to be harvested out there.

The airheads and smart-asses are gone back to their safe and warm jobs - says celebrity investor Morten Lund. The supply of new and innovative projects is lower so it’s easier to achieve first mover advantage - says Holtzbrinck Ventures CEO Konstantin Urban. Easy UE money is out there for the taking - says serial entreprenuer turned investor Rafal Styczen. Grab whatever is left from your bankrupt competitors’ assets - says Piotr Czublun of CMS Cameron McKenna. Exciting stuff.

So what the heck are we having these conferences for?

Remember what Friedrich Nietzsche said about The Financial System being dead?

The Financial System is dead. The Financial System remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?

And then good ol’ Friedrich tells us to get together and have a conference before we get to work:

Companions, the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators, the creator seeks — those who write new values on new tablets. Companions, the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest. … Fellow creators, The Entrepreneur seeks, fellow harvesters and fellow celebrants: what are herds and shepherds and corpses to him?

So let’s get to work and let’s not allow this crisis deter us from being creative and innovative. When the going gets tough only tough get going. And it takes one tough entrepreneur to build anything meaningful. Determination, hard work and lots of good luck - says Morten Lund. Also fellow harvesters and fellow celebrants - reminds Friedrich Nietzsche, famous management coach.

Stay tuned for another transmission from a memoir of TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw participant.

PS. Here’s how we got into The Financial Crisis:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Guess what. Another New Europe’s most exciting conference for tech-entrepreneurs, new media and technology executives and investors - TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw - is happening on March 5th at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Poland.

And guess who’s coming…

Morten Lund is coming. If you don’t know who he is by now… you better don’t admit it. Better check out this post and videos.

Morten Lund, (born April 3, 1972) is an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark - according to Wikipedia.

At 36 years of age he is one of the most active seed investors in Europe, with an eye for turning existing business models and distribution methods on their head. His portfolio features over 80 companies spanning the Internet, telecoms, health and alternative energy.^[5] On January 13, 2009, Morten Lund was declared personally bankrupt by the Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court^[6].

Archangel investor, serial entrepreuneur, startup ideologist and visionary. He has founded and/or co-invested in more than 40 high-tech start ups including Skype, the Internet phone startup bought by eBay. At 36 years of age, his current portfolio includes over 80 companies, from internet technology, through telecommunications, to health and energy. Lund has additionally established a category of investments in his portfolio entitled WILD – Worldwide Investments/Involvement in Life Development which is currently investing in companies within the areas of water purification technology, water turbine energy, landmine detection and hunger/obesity.

He is one of the most active seed investors in Europe. Lund is a special member of Clinton’s Global Initiative (www.clintonglobalinitiative.org), he is a professor at Reykjavik University and frequent speaker at international conferences. His blog has more readers than a local newspaper, 40,000.

Lund’s investment model merges angel and venture capital with incubator support catapaulting start-ups into existence. He believes: “Startups need help from smart people – not takeovers from smart asses”. To Lund, being an investor is all about adding value. He doesn’t over-think and he doesn’t let himself get bogged down by institutional processes. He just does. Quickly. He falls in love with companies, and does what it takes to help them grow.

Tenacious, instinctive and viciously self-promoting, one of Morten’s secrets to success lies in his network activity which extends from honing the raw brilliance of young programmers to masterminding a sit-down with former President Clinton. He is not afraid to take risks and dedicates funds for high risk early stage investments. He is known for acting on the moment, focusing on people, timing, network and…luck hence the title of his blog: ‘Its all about Luck’.

SIME 08 - Morten Lund from SIME on Vimeo.

Recent activities include, co-founding Denmarks now largest newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, a free newspaper, where he intends to transform the nature of printed press today, merging this offline distribution with an attractive online presence. He also recently started 40+ companies under his boutique firm LundKenner and ignited international communications agency Hello Group founded 2006 and now employing 65 people, and currently the fastest growing add and media agency in Scandinavia. On top of all that Morten has started 3 funds – Chinese Property, Indian Tech Ventures and Middle East GreenTech Private Equity Fund.

Recent exits include:
VOIP star Skype (recently sold to eBay for $2.6 billion), Anti-virus consumer brand Bullguard,
Web Agency NeoIdeo (sold to Leo Burnett),
Chinese browser Maxthon with 72 million downloads,
Orolix the fastest growing on-line company in Brazil, Commisions free stocktrading Zecco.com (75.000+ clients in 12months)
PokerOffice the world leader in poker training.

Within his WILD investment portfolio, he is currently involved with WaterStillar, a company for water purification techniques; IJoule, a startup working to fight obesity and Aresa, a company that uses genetically modified plants to detect landmines.

At the heart of Morten Lund there’s something that drives him to go big. To Lund, big money means big power. It means Carl Icahn-style clout and activism. Something makes people listen to Lund, he has the clout, vision and disruptive ideas to fascinate and inspire. He will influence how we live, communicate, work and play tomorrow.

Gasp…

Any questions?

TMT.Ventures’09 Warsaw, March 5th - Warsaw, Poland