Morten Lund, an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark, might just be the real Rock-’n Roll entrepreneur. Yesterday he was declared personally bankrupt by the Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court after losing 10M Krona in an investment into a Danish newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, which went badly wrong.
The free daily newspaper owned by his startup catalyst LundXY- Global Ventures, closed in August 2008 with a reported deficit of approximately $100 million, admittedly generated mostly under the previous ownership.
He told Danish finance news outlet Finans (in Danish): “It’s like superman getting his suit stolen – I’m shaken and don’t really wanna talk about it. I will come back again with full power, i just need to wash my suit.” (Google Translate suggests is a little different).
Lund is founder and managing partner of LundKenner, a venture capital firm. Wikipedia describes 36-year old Lund as a startup ‘ideologist’ and ‘visionary’ who has founded or co-invested in more than 40 high-tech start ups in the last decade, most famously Skype. In May 2008 he sold Danish social networking and mobile backup site ZYB to operator Vodafone Europe for around $49m.
At Le Web last year gave an amazing talk about the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur which impressed several commentators. Here it is:
So sorry to hear this
We all go through our highs and our lows, I am sure that Morten will be back stronger than ever and wish him all the best.
for sure !!!
OH PLEASE. This guys got lucky with one loss making company, Skype, which was able to fool Ebay into vastly overpaying for something that will never make any money.
To call him a brilliant VC mocks the definitions of the words brilliant and VC.
Any fool can get lucky, a brilliant VC is someone who consistently makes money. He got what he deserved, and he actually tried to screw over his partners by saying that they did not sign a contract with him. Unfortunately, all was revealed in the end, and he had to make a public apology.
HE GOT WHAT HE DESERVED. AND SO WILL ALL THE STUPID PROFITLESS WEB 2.0 WANNABEES WHO LOOK UP TO DUMB LUCK PEOPLE LIKE HIM AS HEROES
Most likely you are just a bitter man that has not accomplished what this guy has.
You could have only build and sold a company like that in a wild dream.
Stop being envious.
What has he accomplished. He put some money when a Danish friend of him suggested it may be a good investment. That piad off big time when skype got sold. It’s not as if he created Skype, or developed the technology or led the company. On the back of one fluke, he is called a superstar rock star investor? Please?
As Warren Buffet says, it’s only when the tide goes out that you see who has been swimming naked. Any monkey can make money in an upmarket.
I agree with Jameson and Walter.
Just look at the facts : He was lucky to invest in Skype at the early stage of this company he did not create. And he was lucky another time, when this company with no future (every telco in Europe provides now flat rate VoIP services) has been sold to Ebay at an overestimated valuation.
What other Morten Lund investment has been a success, in term of growth and profitability ?
How can you consider Morten Lund as an “entrepreneur” ?
His failure is the first of a serie, I think…
I beg of you to look up what he has done in the past before making such utterly clueless comments. He got rich when he created a company called NeoIdeo which he sold to Leo Burnett at a very young age. He co-founded Bullguard and Zyb, zyb being sold for 50 million dollars and invested early stage in Maxthon (google it)… He has invested in over 80 companies, and people from all over the world have asked him to invest their money, including some of the richest people in asia. Do not underestimate him. Alot of people are hyped, and Morten defintely is, but no more than half of the superstars of silicon valley.
This load of ass kissing comments here is quite disgusting. Why is everybody whishing this gambler good luck? Are they all hoping to get his next investment after he fools his lenders?
Agreed Pat, a ballsy entrepreneur. Good luck to him.
Why would he be like Superman?
Clark Kent was strong even without his suit. He just needed it to cover his identity. Superman would never lost his money if his clothes were stolen.
There was no pocket for a wallet.
I find it amazing that someone as obviously as intelligent as Morten Lund would invest every penny of his millions into a single venture.
Never hear of a rainy day?
Aidan, “all-in”, “all-in” – it’s a great feeling.
I wish him luck. We need people prepared to risk big for inspiration to us hoping to do the same.
There are a few lessons in this story, but “I’ll come back stronger” is the most resonant
Absolutely. It’s important to keep the hallucinations going.
This is an amazing kind of investor guys, a man who really put his money where his mouth was
I saw him at Red Herring in Cannes last year, he is a really cool guy and was in big demand. As he says you have to take risks. At the same time he probably feels terrible right now, but that will go away. His point about this being a great time for entrepreneurship is exactly right!
He should have known not to invest in a newspaper if he’s such a good VC. Newspapers are dead.
I will never forget Lund saying he had come by subway to Le Web conference…
amazing!
Can Someone add a link to the famous speech please
Maybe it’s just old fashioned American idealism, but I respect a man who is willing to try and fail more than someone who plays it safe their entire life.
This shows the thing that makes him such a great investor. I takes risks. Just as the risks made him rich and famous so they now make him poor. With his connections he will soon be back on his feet and fingers in several startups.
His one of the guys you would want to have in your address book.
Oh boy, it does hurt. He’s so talented and determined that’s hard to beat. He’ll be back in no time. Mark my words.
@aidan: never heard of the expression “all in” like in a poker table? To say a newspaper wasn’t a good idea might be clear now, but surely not then for him. Morten has got my respect for betting the farm on something he really believed in. His latest venture went south, so what? Life goes on and he’ll come back stronger than before. The road to success is full of obstacles, it’s your determination to get there that separate the ones who make it of those who don’t. And Morten got lots of it.
I’m sorry to say, but this is the worst researched article, I’ve read on Techcrunch. Drop a mail, if you need to get the right facts – of course he didn’t go bankrupt because of 10 million kroner (equivalent to 2 million dollars).
Hope all goes well, Morten!
Just watched the Video and must say this is one ofthe best articles I have read on TC for a few months.
Perhaps an interview with him would be good.
Morten will be back stronger.
Hard times are for everyone. Some just don’t have what it takes to come out and say it.
My point of view is what won’t kill you will make you stronger.
I just hope to meet Morten one day.
Great guy.
He will bounce right back {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/lJQKhgvvNL_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”He will bounce right back ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/zw3dZjquCH”}}}
He happens to also be a REALLY NICE GUY. Don’t worry Morten, you’ll return stronger than ever!
Great life of an entrepreneur. Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. He’ll learn from this and will surely rise better than ever.
Ambar.
Wow!
Great video, everything he said is spot on.
I have a new hero
No one should feel sorry for Morten. It’s obvious he’s got balls enough for a few dozen more downturns. He will prevail and he obviously is enjoying himself on top of it.
Anyone who thinks there is trying to compensate his loss by enjoying little things like being with the metro crowd again and counting his coins for coffee just misses the point.
He is a startup artist. An artist cannot create when he is cut off from the crowd he creates products for. Only money and power does just that. Others call this “back to zero”. It’s a resilience mechanism to be able to come back down to better rebound.
So Morten is so happy right now and he should be!! Loic doesn’t seem to get that but that’s because he is not an artist but a pawn for Sarkozy
(just joking, sort of 
Have fun Morten! Rock on!
Nice video, not sure about the Crunchbase pic… Seems like a nice guy.
“Take yourself back to zero.” Robert redford
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?id=12440
Exactly translated (im danish) Morten said: “Its like superman getting his suit stolen – im shaken and dont really wanna talk about it. I will come back again with full power, i just need to wash my suit.”
;o)
And just to state something – newspapers arent exactly dead.. Mortens newspaper did great in dk – a free nationally distributed newspaper financed solely by ads and with a kick ass website behind.
But, as close as they were to going breakeven, the finance crisis came, cash ran out and morten closed the newspaper.
The personal bankruptcy comes from the two lead guys in the newspaper whom was personally promised a couple of millions from morten lund for their work in the newspaper.
But – Morten is only personal bankrupt in denmark.. As wise as he is, he probably has a holding company in an offshore country owning the other startups that he is in.. But thats just my guess..
None the less I know that morten will be back – he is an entrepreneur and a KICK ASS guy.. He does the walk – whatever it takes.. ;o)
If you honestly want to claim that his paper was doing great, you’ve obviously never seen the biz case behind it. It was a money burner big time.
Well, they were performing pretty well.. They went from 5mio loss to 2mio loss pr. month and would have made it break even if they didnt ran out of cash.. And their only income was selling printed ads.. They didnt get anything from the state.. So in my mind they did pretty well.. the timing just wasnt right.. And yes ive seen the biz case behind it
)
agreed! sounds like you’re defending a friend.
the video isn’t working for me. is there a youtube or other site with this video?
thanks
It sounds like it sank because it couldn’t shake its previous debt.
I would be interested in knowing what he had intended to do with it in the first place as it seems like an unusual move.
Morten understands the most important thing- life’s not. just. money. All in all, money is as artificial as twinkies.
I like the way he talked about family in his speech.
I don’t understand. This guy cofounded Skype and sold for huge $. So now that he’s lost 2 million he’s wiped out living in a homeless shelter?
Dear Morten,
If you are reading this, you are one in a billion. You are a nice human being for trying to give advice to people even when you are in problems. If there are 10 more people like you the earth will be a much better place by 100 times. You will be back my friend. I believe in you.
“he sold ZYB for around $49m. ”
“Yesterday he was declared personally bankrupt after losing 10M Krona ”
10m Krona is only about $1.7m, what happened to the other 47m?????
Actually, the number is wrong. The creditors apparently have claims against him personally for 120M Danish Kroner.
please stop putting non techcrunch.com items into the main techcrunch feed, if you do at least mark them better so I can skip them
Graywolf – With the greatest respect, this *is* a TechCrunch item. If you have a problem a) don’t click it, read it and comment on it and b) Talk to Mike Arrington, because he authorises this.
I dont have a choice till i read cause you dont disclose it comes from some place other than the main techcrunch site anywhere, you could solve the problem by putting it in the title when you mash it in. I’ve gotten 6 items in the past 24 hours in the TC feed NOT from techcrunch.com
commenting is how you show you like or dislike what someone is doing aka feedback
if mike unblocked me on twitter he’d know this, going comments to try to get my point across if that doesnt work, a blog post is next
“All the pricks went back to their safe jobs, entrepreneurs is now.
Morten Lund is a true inspiration and EntreprenArtist.
morten,
You are a star. So get up soon. All the best to you and your family from Spiro munich/germany.
Best Thomas
I like Morten’s attitude. We shouldn’t forget about those though who’ve lost money as Morten went bankrupt (if true).
He will bounce back, great entrepreneurs always do.
Donald Trump was bankrupt at one point.
I’ve seen that video stream earlier and that guy really made sense no bullshit just get doing. This guy will come straight back up and taller you’ll see ((give a call man)).
and Morten is dead right about the McKinsey (BCG, Accenture, …) guys. That breed is so useless. All they’re good in is talking shit all day long while maximizing their very own profits (not yours!).
Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Had to work with many of them and also got some personal insight into their trainings. It was a fucking PITA. As an advantage, I can now smell it from a mile, when someone is trying to apply any of the psycho stuff he learnt in such a training.
Thanks for posting this Mike – Morten’s words speak to my soul at a time when I have just taken the leap he is talking about.
I’ve been operating on 10% creativity capacity in corporate jobs (designing internal/commercial business apps/web apps) for the past 12 years – i.e. applying my creativity in the service of other people’s big ideas, and with the passing of my father I’ve finally realized how short life is, and how “playing it safe” is killing my spirit.
I’m quitting 9-to-5 work at the end of the month and going to start building my own apps for the mobile/social networking sphere, even though I don’t have a huge savings. I’ve got a lot of solid, practical (and playful) ideas.
I tried to do it part time after work but I just don’t have the bandwidth. So I’m going “all-in”.
Morten’s words are an affirmation. I’d rather make just enough to squeak by, and be 100% creative 100% of the time, than make $100k+ as a cog in a corporate machine for the rest of my life.
Thank you!!!
He mentions that he has investments in 85 startups around the world…he’ll be OK.
He should have tried a different Newspaper model he could have made it viable for a fraction of the cost.
Check out: http://www.Libertynewsprint.com
America’s Digital Newspaper
At least he’s still got his devastating good looks
Hell yeah!
Great talk. From the heart. He’ll do well. The real entrepreneurs, you could drop them off on Mars and they’d start building hotels for the eventual tourists.
Do VCs routinely throw all of their money into their funds? I’d have thought they’d at least keep enough personal money to live comfortably on before risking the rest into their investments, right..? I can understand a VC partnership or firm going bankrupt, of course.
Hi Mike, Morten’s speech is now in high quality available here too if you want to have a look
http://loiclemeur.blip.tv/file/1650371/
The man knows about what he speaks and so do all of the other real entrepreneurs. It’s all about sales. If you have sales, you keep it going. If you don’t, you need to think about whom you can dump it on and that too is all about sales because you have to find a buyer that will bite.
He invested in newspapers. Of course he’s bankrupt.
VC… brilliant are you crazy? Its all luck and timing.