In April 2021, I made Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in the Media & Marketing category. It started with an email I hadn’t expected, and two days to reply.
The email from Forbes
On the evening of 10 March 2021, I got an email from Forbes. I’d been picked out as a possible candidate for that year’s list in the Media & Marketing category, and the deadline to reply was two days later.
The reply was a questionnaire and two photos. I didn’t write it alone. An experienced entrepreneur and friend helped me with the application, and two colleagues interviewed me, edited the text and helped cut it down so it fitted the fields.
The application was about what Webamp was built on. I started in 2015 in a shared flat in Nørrebro with DKK 40,000 from my childhood savings, without investors and without co-founders. My mission was to challenge an entire industry by giving clients an exceptional experience and bringing transparency to a world that, for a lot of people, feels abstract and distant.
In my universe, the client is the hero, and we’re Yoda, trying to advise them.
Four weeks without an answer
Forbes doesn’t tell you whether you’ve made it until the list is public. When I asked if they’d received my application, the answer was that nobody hears anything until the list comes out. So I waited.
A lot happened in the meantime. At the end of March, Berlingske Talent 100 came out with me on the list, and Børsen ran my opinion piece on why society needs young leaders.
A couple of days before the announcement, I could see my name on the Forbes site, and at seven in the morning on 8 April 2021, the list officially came out. It’s a serious pat on the back for what I’ve been trying to achieve over the last handful of years of my life.
I got help getting the story out in the Danish media, and the list gave me access to a network of others who are on it too.
How to get on the list
If you’re under 30 and think it could be you, this is what I’ve learned:
- Anyone can nominate, including yourself. Forbes takes nominations on its website, and the editors and a panel of independent judges look at things like revenue, funding, scale, inventiveness and potential.
- Have your story ready before the email arrives. I had two days to reply. What could be written that quickly was what I’d been living by for six years.
- Get someone to interview you. It was other people who got the best out of me and cut the text down. You’re rarely good at writing about yourself.
- Show that others have noticed. Awards and press coverage show it’s not just you saying it.
- Use it afterwards. A list is an opportunity. Without someone to tell the story, it just becomes a line on LinkedIn.
A year later: the summit in Israel
In 2022, I took part in the Forbes Under 30 Summit EMEA in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the first summit for Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2019. It was four days of workshops and conversations about entrepreneurship and making a positive difference. While I was there, I recorded a special episode of the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard with interviews in English.