In 2017, Askeladden & Co was born with the ambition to build a platform that could enable great entrepreneurs to build great companies. With time and traction, our ambition and purpose grew to what it is today: To enable great entrepreneurs to found a better world - for our Customers, Colleagues and Society.
90% of startups fail, 10% survive and only 1-2% become what we would consider true successes. Our ambition is to support our founders in significantly outperforming these statistics, by providing an unfair advantage across four elements:
Building on a decade of company building experience, numerous fails and learnings, our clear perspective is that a company's success often can be boiled down to a few major decisions. Let's make the right ones.
This enables good access to a wide range of useful business partners, investors, customers, talent, politicians, authorities, suppliers, banks, etc. This makes a difference in speed, win-rate and terms.
We fund the companies with sufficient capital to develop a great concept, build and launch the company and tweak until product-market fit is achieved. External funding should be raised for scaling.
The basics are taken care of—accounting, contracts, formalities, reporting, and countless practicalities that founders often waste too much time on. Additionally, some of Norway’s best minds are available not just for sparring but also for hands-on execution in marketing, tech, HR, and finance. There are significant synergies here, as the same team delivers these services across nearly all A&CO companies.
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The World is full of opportunities, and the journey towards catching them is best travelled together. In A&CO, supporting one another is core in what we do.
Status quo is not for us. It's all about energy, ambitions, hard work and value creation. We push for the better; for our companies, customers, colleagues and society.
Complicating is easy. Simplifying is hard. Simple plain vanilla solutions, for customers, employees and for the company itself, is our way of creating significant value.
What must be true to actually found a better world?
Customers get high quality goods and services at reasonable prices. Our colleagues get sustainable jobs with fair compensation. The society benefits through innovation and value creation in the industries we enter, as well as our contribution through taxes and fees.
To ensure we move in the right direction we have set a clear set of business principles that matters to us and what we believe in.
To foster entrepreneurship effectively, profitability is key. It enables us to grow self-sufficiently, expand faster, and create even more value, all on our own terms. Each A&CO company should aim for profitability as well as top line growth in accordance with its business model and maturity.
Leveraging digitalization and streamlined customer journeys are creating exceptional experiences accessible to a broader audience. Notoriously pursuing high customer satisfaction scores, all A&CO companies track and ensure high levels of customer satisfaction above industry standards.
We strive to surpass industry norms by providing fair compensation and create great places to work. We improve working conditions, enhance transparency, governance, and eliminate illicit work practices in the industries we enter. All A&CO companies track and ensure high employee satisfaction.
Diversity fuels innovation, and we're committed to increase female representation in entrepreneurship. Our target is 40% female representation by 2026, both in company CxO positions and in A&CO management. We strive to reshape an industry where 80%+ of startups are all-male founded.
At A&CO we understand the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects in creating sustainable value. Through board governance, we guide companies in establishing and monitoring ESG targets. By 2024, all companies will report on an ESG target close to core business.
Our commitment to founding 3-5 new companies annually is at the core of what we do. We build great, sustainable companies with our founders. Along the way we encourage colleagues and management to invest with us increasing joint ownership to the future success of our ventures.
Together with our cofounders, we seek to develop great concepts with solid business models. The customer always comes first, with high quality offerings wrapped in smoothness.
Phase 1
We seek to launch 3-6 months after kick-off. Once launched, we tweak until we have product market fit, which for us means happy customers, happy employees and proven ability to make a solid profit.
Phase 2
When we have reached proof of concept, it’s all about scaling the companies to the biggest possible size. The grind is on - those who last and adapt, win.
Phase 3
We want to be an strong and contributing shareholder in the companies as long as we are the best to do that. At some point, others will be better fit to take the companies to the next level - an opportunity for us to make an exit and go on with the next adventure.
Phase 4
Parkveien 12
0350 Oslo, Norway
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