From selling tools on a street corner at 8 to founder and CEO of Amplify. My talk on entrepreneurship is about keeping going.
Starting out as a young entrepreneur
Why do I talk about entrepreneurship? When I was 8, I got my first taste of life as an entrepreneur. I’d sneaked my dad’s tools out of the workshop and sold them on a street corner. I sold every single piece for ridiculously low prices. My dad had to say goodbye to his tools, and yet he told me he was a little bit impressed by my work ethic.
That story sparked my interest in building something, and at 23 the time had come to do it for real. Today I’m a little bit prouder of that than of my performance on the street corner. In July 2015, I started the digital marketing agency Webamp from a shared flat in Nørrebro with DKK 40,000 from my childhood savings.
In 2024, Webamp changed its name to Amplify, where I’m founder and CEO today. We’ve helped more than 350 companies and have turned over more than DKK 80 million since the start, without investors. From 2021 to 2024, I also hosted the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard, where I put the spotlight on the stories behind some of Denmark’s most talented entrepreneurs.
There has to be room for brains that work differently.
Entrepreneurship, for better and for worse
Passion, ambition and dreams are some of the things that drive us as people. But is that enough when you’re the only one calling the shots? Building Webamp, now Amplify, has had both tailwinds and headwinds. At the start I took no salary for two to two and a half years, and in the end I moved back in with my dad because I couldn’t pay the rent.
I wasn’t the obvious entrepreneur on paper either. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, went to a special needs school and have no school-leaving exams. Today I see it as part of my strength, and that’s why one of my principles is that there has to be room for brains that work differently.
As an entrepreneur, you have to be ready for what you can’t predict. You have to adapt quickly, and you can’t do that if you’re always looking at what everyone else is doing. It’s about getting a little better every day than the person you were yesterday.
What is an entrepreneur?
We spend a lot of energy saying that everyone should grow as much as possible. To me, a pizzeria owner is an entrepreneur too, and you don’t need to build a big business to be one. I’ve learnt that quality beats quantity, and that a business doesn’t need to be big to be good.
Entrepreneurship doesn’t stop once you’ve started the business, either. Since March 2026, I’ve been rebuilding Amplify with AI while the agency keeps running. We’ve got an AI colleague in Slack, and every morning it goes through the ad accounts, but a person approves before anything happens. It’s reminded me how much it takes to start over with something that already works.
What can a talk on entrepreneurship do for you?
My talk on entrepreneurship is meant to raise your expectations of what you can do yourself. Many people who are interested in entrepreneurship either don’t trust their own abilities, or they dive in headfirst before they know how deep the water is. Don’t hold back from jumping, but if you don’t know the depth, it’s a good idea to arm yourself with a few simple pieces of advice.
That’s why it’s packed with practical advice on what to do and what not to do. Whether you have a small startup or are already well established, you’ll leave with new energy to get going.
Book a talk on entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur has taught me a lot about company culture, leadership and marketing. If your company, school or network wants to hear more about entrepreneurship, write to me and book a talk. Tell me what your audience is dealing with, and I’ll build the talk around it.
Until then, you can listen to the conversations on Den Nye Standard. All 41 conversations are on the Den Nye Standard page and on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
More talks
I also give talks on:
On the talks page you’ll find all the topics, including ‘AI transformation, from the inside’ and ‘Marketing and brand’, and what a talk can look like.