Valley Nordic: An Experiment In Podcasting

Around three years ago, I started a podcast, Valley Nordic, with a Norwegian venture capitalist, Arne Tonning, as an experiment. Arne and I think differently about the the world. He has a Nordic and a venture capitalist perspective on technology companies and I have a silicon valley perspective on business. Hence, the podcast is titled Valley Nordic. We started as an experiment to see if we record our conversations and post them online, would anybody listen. A few days after our first episode was released, we got feedback that we needed topics for our episodes:) In essence, the podcast is a free flowing conversation between Arne and I on business, culture, and technology with our diverse perspectives as they relate to selected topics. 

Thanks to our listeners, we published our 100th episode last week. 

We looked into 27 companies and we were right about their growth challenges and their valuations. See the complete podcast episodes index:  

Episode Title	Publish Date
S1E1: A New Podcast	May 02, 2019 21:00
S1E2: UBER, LYFT and Berkshire Hathaway	May 09, 2019 17:00
S1E3: Facebook Blockchain and Startup Operations	May 16, 2019 18:00
S1E4: B2B vs B2C, SW vs HW & US vs Nordic VC	May 23, 2019 13:00
S1E5: Zoom; Product Market Fit; AI & VR/AR	May 30, 2019 12:00
S1E6: StitchFix, Marketing, Blockchain, and Autonomous Systems	June 06, 2019 23:00
S1E7: Decision Making For Startups	June 13, 2019 13:00
S1E8: Facebook Libra, Barriers To Entry, Slack	June 20, 2019 22:00
S1E9: The Business Of Venture Capital	June 27, 2019 16:00
S1E10: Technology Led vs. Business Led Startups And Drones	July 11, 2019 9:00
S1E11: IoT and startup hiring	July 18, 2019 18:00
S1E12: Medallia IPO and 5G	July 25, 2019 12:00
S1E13: The RealReal & Edge Computing	August 01, 2019 16:00
S1E14: How To Think About Moving Your Startup To Silicon Valley	August 06, 2019 10:00
S1E15: Raising Venture Capital in Silicon Valley for International Startups	August 15, 2019 15:00
S1E16: WeWork IPO and The Art of Pivoting	August 21, 2019 15:00
S1E17: Peloton	August 29, 2019 11:00
S1E18: Streaming Videos	September 05, 2019 15:00
S1E19: Product & Marketing at Startups	September 11, 2019 13:00
S1E20: Softbank	September 18, 2019 23:00
S1E21: Software Development	September 25, 2019 17:00
S1E22: Market Segmentation, Business Models, and Scaling	October 03, 2019 13:00
S1E23: Direct to Consumer (D2C) Startups	October 10, 2019 13:00
S1E24: Food Tech & Beyond Meat	October 17, 2019 13:00
S1E25: Economic Downturn Preparation & Operations For Startups	October 24, 2019 15:00
S1E26: Amazon	October 30, 2019 15:00
S1E27: Apple	November 05, 2019 14:00
S1E28: Google	November 16, 2019 12:00
S1E29: Startup Valuations & Term Sheets	November 21, 2019 10:00
S1E30: Growth at a Big Company & The Magnet Strategy	November 26, 2019 14:00
S1E31: Season Finale - 2019 In Review	December 05, 2019 11:00
S2 E1: January Business Highlights, CES, and 2020 Tech Trends	January 23, 2020 13:00
S2 E2: Why Do We Buy Things?	January 30, 2020 15:00
S2 E3: Hollywood Behind The Scenes With Howie Mandel	February 06, 2020 16:00
S2 E4: Marketplaces	February 13, 2020 16:00
S2 E5: Sustainability	February 20, 2020 13:00
S2 E6: GTM for B2B SaaS Startups	February 27, 2020 12:00
S2 E7: Dynamics Of The Technology Ecosystem	March 05, 2020 13:00
S2 E8: The Game Industry and Investment w/Per-Arne Lundberg	March 12, 2020 13:00
S2 E9: Healthcare	March 19, 2020 15:00
S2 E10: Corona World & Post Corona World	March 26, 2020 13:00
S2 E11: Education & EdTech	April 02, 2020 13:00
S2 E12: Marketing with Andrew Sherrard	April 07, 2020 16:00
S2 E13: Systems Thinking and Complex Systems	April 16, 2020 14:00
S2 E14: COVIDtech	April 23, 2020 16:00
S2 E15: Incubators and Startup Mistakes with Kjell Håkan Närfelt	April 30, 2020 14:00
S2 E16: Why Quibi Will Disappoint	May 07, 2020 13:00
S2 E17: Fintech	May 14, 2020 14:00
S2 E18: Tech M&A	May 21, 2020 14:00
S2 E19: P in CPG changing with D2C	May 28, 2020 14:00
S2 E20: Remote Work	June 04, 2020 14:00
S2 E21: Capital Markets And Raising A Venture Fund	June 11, 2020 13:00
S2 E22: Super Apps	June 18, 2020 13:00
S2 E23: WWDC 2020	June 25, 2020 14:00
S2 E24: 2020 Tech IPOs	July 02, 2020 10:00
S2 E25: Tech Summer	August 20, 2020 14:00
S2 E26: GPT3, Fortnite, TikTok, and Immigration	August 27, 2020 12:00
S2 E27: Unity	September 03, 2020 20:00
S2 E28: Silicon Valley vs. Seoul vs. Amsterdam with Matt Papakipos	September 10, 2020 15:00
S2 E29: Snowflake IPO	September 17, 2020 20:00
S2 E30: Product Management With AI	September 24, 2020 16:00
S2 E31: Deep Tech Investments In America And Europe	October 01, 2020 12:00
S2 E32: Google's New Hardware	October 08, 2020 15:00
S2 E33: Off Wall Street IPOs	October 15, 2020 19:00
S2 E34: DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google	October 22, 2020 13:00
S2 E35: Ant Group IPO	October 29, 2020 17:00
S2 E36: Elections, Prop 22, and Tech	November 05, 2020 18:00
S2 E37: User Research with Joanna Jones	November 12, 2020 18:00
S2 E38: Airbnb IPO	November 19, 2020 18:00
S2 E40: Embedded Systems With David Krieger	December 03, 2020 12:00
S2 E41 Season Finale: 2020 Trends Review	December 10, 2020 18:00
S3E1: Virtual Reality's Barriers to Adoption	January 14, 2021 16:00
S3E2 : Tesla History and Valuation	January 28, 2021 17:00
S3E3: Retail Investing, Robinhood, and Gamestop	February 11, 2021 13:00
S3E4: Roblox IPO	February 25, 2021 12:00
S3E5: Non Fungible Tokens (NFT)	March 11, 2021 19:00
S3E6: Clubhouse	March 28, 2021 14:00
S3E7: Semiconductor (Chip) Shortage	April 08, 2021 17:00
S3E8: Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)	April 22, 2021 14:00
S3E9: Startup Boards	June 17, 2021 14:00
S3E10: Space Tech	July 01, 2021 13:00
S3E11: Robinhood IPO	July 15, 2021 14:00
S3E12: China Tech Crackdown - Good Governance or More Control	August 12, 2021 16:00
S3E13: Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) - Past, Present, and Future	August 28, 2021 11:00
S3E14: Quick Commerce in Europe	September 09, 2021 9:00
S3E15: Semiconductor Business Deep Dive With Mike Polacek	September 23, 2021 13:00
S3E16: Ethereum Update	October 08, 2021 0:00
S3E17: Amplitude IPO	October 24, 2021 12:00
S3E18: Sequoia Capital's New Structure and Changing Venture Capital Dynamics	November 07, 2021 11:00
S3E19: Netflix Games	November 21, 2021 12:00
S3E20 Season Finale: Trends In Review - 2021 Update	December 05, 2021 13:00
S4E1: The state of the financial markets - Stocks, Crypto, and Venture Capital	February 03, 2022 16:00
S4E2: Web3	February 17, 2022 15:00
S4E3: New Sovereign Investments Influenced by the Russia-Ukraine War	March 03, 2022 17:00
S4E4: New Framework for Management in Corporations	March 17, 2022 13:00
S4E5: HP Acquisition Of Poly	March 31, 2022 16:00
S4E6: The Twitter Drama	April 15, 2022 13:00
S4E7: Metaverse	May 02, 2022 14:00
S4E8: Deglobalization	May 16, 2022 16:00
S4E9: Reflections - Valley Nordic 100th Episode	May 31, 2022 15:00

I am grateful to the eight guests who appeared on the podcast to share their wisdom: 

1. David Krieger (S1E21 - Software Development and S2E40 - Embedded Systems)

2. Joanna Jones (S2E37 - User Research)

3. Michael Polacek (S3E15 - Semiconductors)

4. Matt Papakipos (S2E28 - Silicon Valley vs Seoul vs Amsterdam)

5. Howie Mandel (S2E3 - Hollywood)

6. Andrew Sherrard (S2E12 - Marketing)

7. Kjell Håkan Närfelt (S2E15 - Incubators and Startup Mistakes)

8. Per-Arne Lundberg (S2E8 - Gaming Investments)

Co-hosting the podcast made me learn me a lot of new things, including advertising on podcasts, which I might not have learned otherwise. The experiment was successful. To scale the successful experiment we will have to put money and effort into it. Both Arne and I are not up for it due to our day jobs. So, I am not sure for how long we will continue the podcast. Furthermore, today the world has many other podcasts which are better:) 

Thanks for listening.