As a former motorsport athlete turned founder, operator and investor, my career has been defined by a love for working with brilliant minds.

On LinkedIn, I usually share unfiltered thoughts on startups and investments - and what it actually takes to build. No fluff. No BS. Just straight talk from someone who's been on both sides of the table and seen the good and the bad.

I'm heading up different companies:

📈 Paaske & Co | My consulting firm specialized in building thought leadership within tech and investment. I work with executives, entrepreneurs, family offices, VCs and PE firms to build unique storytellings and execute organic content-led growth strategies that drives business results - backed by deep vertical knowledge.

🚀 Abeam | A curated global community for unicorn founders, top-investors and leading executives. We are removing the noise and facilitating real-life peer-to-peer connection for those at the top of their game. (Download the Abeam in App Store to apply for membership).

Maiken Paaske

First Sweden tried it. Then abolished it because the losses were bigger than the gains. Then Norway tried it and lost more than it gained. And now Denmark is about to try it too. The wealth tax 💸 

In 2022, Norway raised its wealth tax expecting DKK ~1 billion in extra revenue. The actual result? They lost DKK ~4 billion. Over 300 wealthy founders and investors left the country, taking capital, jobs, and future investment with them.

Sweden's story is older but identical. By the time they abolished their wealth tax in 2007, Swedish offshore assets had passed SEK 500 billion. IKEA's Kamprad left. Tetra Pak's Rausing left. H&M's ownership restructured to survive it. When they finally scrapped the tax, total revenue increased by SEK 260 billion over the following decade.

The historic economic learnings are SO clear. We have two case studies right next to us. Both say the same thing.

What makes Denmark's politicians think the math will be any different here? 🤔 

We’re literally implementing a competitive handicap for our business owners, backed by law.

Founder @ Abeam - The home for outliers | Former VC partner | Board member

DTU Skylab

As an Innovation Partner with DTU Skylab, my main responsibility is to support innovation projects from researchers at DTU Compute and DTU Construct leading to commercialization of groundbreaking research. 

I help with commercial assessments, market research, soft funding applications and development of potential spinout cases together with my fellow Innovation Partners, the Tech Transfer Office and our vast network of industry mentors and other collaborators.

Innovation Partner

LEIA Health

As Venture Developer for LEIA Health I have acted as a secondment to People Ventures and  virtual 'Chief of Staff' to the founders of the company helping them execute on important strategic projects to move them forward towards their company objectives of supporting the next 2B parents and their parental health. 

Achievements:

· Assisted in closing a major and really important exclusive partnership deal in Sweden for them propelling their revenue traction forwards by an order of magnitude. 
· Helped develop B2B sales approach, structure, processes and a playbook that can be executed by a team with limited resources. 
· Supported in developing the fundraising story and narrative for the Seed round and driving the growth modelling for the coming funding period.

Venture Developer (Secondment)

Tiimo

As Venture Developer for Tiimo I have acted as a secondment to People Ventures and  virtual 'Chief of Staff' to the founders and CEO of the company helping them execute on important strategic projects to move them forward towards their company objectives of supporting neurodivergent people across the world. 

Achievements:

· Successfully project managed the development and launch of Tiimo Learn, a new business area for the company.
· Helped develop the partner programme strategy and get it out leading to quick signup and vetting of more then 50 partners WW using Tiimo in their coaching practice. 
· Provided commercial sparring on legal contracts with partners and providers. 
· Facilitated introductions with potential strategic partners. 
· Helped with ongoing sparring and support on especially commercial issues.

People Ventures

As the Health Lead & Venture Developer for People Ventures my main objectives have been to build a strong position for the fund in the ecosystem, help secure an interesting portfolio of digital health startups and work hands-on with the founders of those portfolio companies in growing them into the successes, we all aspire for them to become. 

Responsibilities: 

· Help founders in portfolio companies grow the value of their startups on the journey to next funding round(s) and - eventually - an exit. 
· Secure dealflow of interesting digital health startups from across the Nordic region with an emphasis on Denmark and Sweden. 
· Build a strong network and position in the ecosystem as a leading early stage VC. 

Achievements: 

· Successfully helped both Tiimo, LEIA Health and Cortrium on various strategically important projects paving the way for strong business growth. 
· Helped both Cortrium and LEIA Health close significant revenue deals from new strategic partnerships. 
· Assisted LEIA Health on their fundraising story, narrative, growth modelling and data room ahead of their Seed funding round. 
· Built strong position in the Danish digital health ecosystem for People Ventures as the #1 early stage VC fund defined by our peers and major players in the sector. 
· Recognized thought leader in HealthTech and Digital Health with thought leader and conference speaker engagements both domestically and abroad.

Venture Developer | HealthTech VC | Scaleup COO

Cortrium

As COO of Cortrium I was asked by the chairman of the board to step in and help the team in the transition between an outgoing CEO and the recruitment of a new one. The job description was broad and depending on what was needed to do in order to help the team push the company forward. Member of the management team. 

Responsibilities: 

· Drive sales, marketing and support for +1000 customers and distributors in 17 markets.
· Support revenue growth and a healthy business model.
· Manage the business, including outsourced finance and legal functions
· Manage key strategic partnerships.

Achievements: 

· Complete business review for the Board of Directors identifying key painpoints we needed to fix immidiately. 
· Successfully rewamped and relaunched the business model and implemented it with a 30% price increase and less than 1,5% customer churn in close collaboration with key partner Pfizer Germany.
· Negotiated and closed the first big strategic customer, a chain of +40 cardiology clinics in Germany, on a multi-year volume deal replacing legacy platforms with Cortrium in all of the clinics. 
· Repackaged and repositioned our core value proposition depending on customer segments (casual, medium and heavy users).
· Assisted in recruiting the new CEO and secured a smooth, fast and efficient onboarding of him to the company and the team and an efficient transition back to People Ventures for me.

COO (interim)

inQvation

As Head of Studio I was headhunted by a General Partner of inQvation to head up their startup studio building high potential startups from scratch. The initiative was brand new, so everything needed to be invented and implemented before seeing the hopefully positive effects.

Responsibilities: 

· Develop new startups based on in-house how-to-model to be developed over time. 
· Source startup talent within interesting verticals, either for new startups or deal sourcing.
· Build strong relationships in the ecosystem to pave the way for more efficient scouting. 

Achievements: 

· Successfully created the early foundation for 3 MedTech startups: HEI Therapeutics, Evido Health and M2Call contributing to early business cases and pitch decks, founder recruitment and early funding (first money in). 
· Developed the iQnite Case Competition format with the theme of climate change resulting in a case competition with +70 entrepreneurs participating and 2 startups - Legacy Group and kleen hub - formed on the back of the competition. 
· Build strong relationships with the Tech Transfer Offices of major Danish universities to negotiate and secure fair and appropriate IP rights for relevant spinouts.
· Sought after advisor to early stage startups.

Head of Startup Studio | Building Businesses & Teams

FURTHER

As a Partner at FURTHER Cph me and my partner Lars developed a boutique agency within the bigger agency dedicated towards a deep customer understanding as the best basis for developing efficient customer strategies, digital or offline. The agency was a spinout from Peytz & Co, so we had to start from scratch building a customer base, getting known in the ecosystem and securing clients. 

Responsibilities: 

· Develop a clear offering and value proposition to attract significant customers. 
· Do sales, build pipeline and win projects for the agency. 
· Deliver on customer projects ensuring top customer satisfaction.
· Secure our position in the market to drive awareness and new leads for projects. 

Achievements: 

· Successfully built a blue chip client portfolio in little time including Google, Salling Group, LINAK and Orsted. 
· Won a large 18 month tender to build and implement a new innovation model for the tourism industry in Ringkøbing-Skjern and Varde municipalities on the Danish West Cost and delivered on it exceeding the customers expectations in the process.  
· Sold and facilitated Innovation Sprints (12 weeks) and Design Sprints to customers, including Google. 
· Secured teaching and speaking engagements at various higher education institutions and industry events.

Partner

Peytz & Co

As a Client Service Director my main role was to help the agency customers develop their digital strategies and optimize their digital business opportunities. This provided me with the opportunity to meet a lot of different types of clients and get a real feel for some of the similarities but also important differences between industries, when it comes to digital transformation. 

Responsibilities: 

· Drive new client business for the agency.
· Develop effective digital strategies and optimization plans to optimize customer value and satisfaction. 
· Provide thought leadership to stay top of mind with existing as well as new potential customers. 
· Ad hoc project management. 

Achievements: 

· Successfully developed a complete digital transformation strategy and plan for large waste handling company spanning both a new website and online services for their customers. 
· Developed a comprehensive digital strategy for a major customer that ended up becoming the basis for my book "Den effektive digitale strategy", which Peytz & Co kindly published. 
· Built and implemented powerful business management frameworks for select customers based on best-in-class experience from my time at Microsoft. 
· Impactful speaking engagements both internally and at industry events on digital innovation and transformation.

Client Services Director

CluedIn ApS

As an early Advisor to CluedIn, I met the 3 founders when they were starting out in a loft on the outskirts of Østerbro in Copenhagen. I quickly fell in love with their idea and decided to help them getting started. 

Achievements: 

· Setting up the basic company structure and processes on a 'simple is beautiful' basis. 
· Helped get the bank and payroll systems up and running.
· Sparring on how to pitch to investors, including setting up a Springboard with Connect Denmark for them.
· Helped build the pitchdeck that secured their first funding and got them off the ground (and the rest is history, as they say).

Advisor

SAXO.com

As the CIO of Saxo.com I was originally headhunted as non-technical CTO to help drive the internationalization of one of Denmarks most popular e-commerce websites. People leader of the development team. 

However, due to a misalignment of expectations on both sides of the table my tenure was cut short by mutual agreement.

Health Lead & Venture Developer @ People Ventures | COO, HealthTech

My mission in life is to help others succeed and realize ambitious goals. It is the common denominator when I reflect on +25 years of hands-on experience building, managing and optimizing 'digital first' businesses and products. And it is also at the core of who I am as a person.

To the team I bring a 'low ego/high capability' profile, who thrives in the engine room and have extensive, successful experience in many aspects of building and operating a business built to scale quickly and efficiently. I consider myself very good at setting ambitious goals and building simple and efficient structures around achieving these goals in ways that are as fun as they are engaging for great people to be a part of. 

As a person I am deeply loyal and committed to my stakeholders, team members and the mission at hand. The only way I know is to be 'all in' on succeeding together. I am an open and easy going person, who likes to 'get my hands dirty', be where the action is and help the team be great any way I possibly can. I consider my work my passion, and my passion is to do my utmost in my work. Always.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Maiken Paaske's LinkedIn Performance

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