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.

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?

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

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.

[...] & ZYB superstar Morten Lund goes bankrupt – great speech from last years LeWeb @ http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/as-raw-as-it-gets-startup-legend-lund-bankrupt/ « előző | János Pál Tóth — 2009. 01. 14. [...]

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)

Aidan, “all-in”, “all-in” – it’s a great feeling.

the video isn’t working for me. is there a youtube or other site with this video?

thanks

Absolutely. It’s important to keep the hallucinations going.

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.

for sure !!!

[...] Butcher from TechcrunchUK also highlighted a wonderful speech from Lund given at Le Web last year, I highly recommend you watch. I hope you like that post! The [...]

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?????

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

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

Morten Lund ist pleite…

Morten Lund, einer der Gründer von Skype, ist pleite, weil seine kostenlose Zeitung in Kopenhagen hoch verschuldet ist.
So weit so gut, viele Menschen verlieren dieser Tage eine Menge Geld, wie z. B. Adolf Merkle.

Bemerkenswert ist vor allem das Lun…

“All the pricks went back to their safe jobs, entrepreneurs is now.

Morten Lund is a true inspiration and EntreprenArtist.

Morten Lund ist pleite…

Morten Lund, one of the founders of Skype, is broke, because his free newspaper in Copenhagen is heavily indebted.
So far so good, a lot of people loose a lot of money these days, for instance Adolf Merkle.

It is remarkable that Lund does not begin to…

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).

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.

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)).

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.

[...] Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court declared Morten Lund bankrupt after he lost 10M Krona in an investment. Lund would be cursing his move as his investment into the [...]

[...] UK TechCrunch is reporting that Morten Lund, the Danish VC who famously invested in Skype, has declared bankruptcy. Venture Capital Journal was the first U.S. publication–to my knowledge–to do an in [...]

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

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.

[...] As raw as it gets – Skype legend Morten Lund bankrupt Tags: entrepreneur, morten lund, nyhedsavisen Add to Favorite SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Skype founder Morten Lund bankrupt”, url: “http://www.techotic.com/skype-founder-morten-lund-bankrupt.html” }); « Austrian theater to stage ‘Fritzl’ show The first ever Presidential portrait taken with a digital camera » [...]

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.

Nothing brilliant about the guy. What type of idiot puts all his money in the print newpaper industry?

[...] Mit dem Kauf der dänischen Gratistageszeitung Nyhedsavisen hatte er sich verspekuliert und lt. TechCrunch rund 10 Mio. Dänische Kronen (rd. 1,4 Mio. Euro) [...]

Financial success is all about luck. This is his lesson.

Morten Lund, el fundador de Skype, en Bancarrota…

Morten Lund se declaró ayer en bancarrota en la Corte Marítima y Comercial de Copenhage tras perder 10 millones de coronas en una inversión en un periódico danés, Nyhedsavisen….

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…

[...] investicijoms pasirinktas media verslas gali brangiai kainuoti – rodo asmeninis dano Morten Lund pavyzdys. Vienas iš “Skype” ankstyvųjų investuotojų [...]

Morten,

good luck, and come back soon – we would like to invite you to the ” Oktoberfest ” to celebrate your Come Back this YEAR – All the best from the http://www.spirofrog.de team

Risk = return? An oversimplification. Being ready to lose.. risk is the key… money matters much less than you think. Only people who are born rich have any problem with losing. What the heck is he talking about?

I had dinner with him once. What an arrogant guy. Thought he knew everything. He’s more interested in winning at the expense of others and drawing attention to himself than creating value. Maybe he learned his lesson and gained some humility.

This is a crying shame – Morten is one of the good guys. As Pat says, I’m sure he will be back stronger.

I agree. Risk=reward is the stupidest formula. In that case why not put all your money and go to Vegas or buy a lottery ticket.

The smart investors try to make money with the least risk as possible. Those are the real superstar investors.

Morten should realise that he was just a fluke. His record pretty much speaks for itself. If you take out the dumb luck early investment in Skype that came to him because of his Danish friends, his record is awful … 80 companies and 1 exit????

This is worse than the very worst, 3rd tier VCs.

The stupid part is people on TC talking about how much they admire him. I guess you are who you admire, and that is probably why most of the people who are expressing admiration have not had any exits either. This is the losers commiserating with each other.

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.

Actually, the number is wrong. The creditors apparently have claims against him personally for 120M Danish Kroner.

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.

Again, I beg of you to do your research before you post. He has made several exits, so I suggest you google him. I am not saying he is a superstar, I am saying that people are both under and overestimating him.

[...] [Za: TechCrunch] [...]

I wish Morten all the best as well. There’s nothing more admirable than a man who puts his money where his mouth is. These are difficult economic times for all of us and Morten is one of the biggest victims of it. Instead of spending time on trying to undermine him or his achievements, I think it would be much more suitable for us all to support one another during these times and recognize each other’s strengths instead of trying to break each other’s spirit.

[...] As raw as it gets – Skype legend Morten Lund bankrupt 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. TechCrunch [...]

[...] As raw as it gets – Skype legend Morten Lund bankruptJanuary 14, 2009 [...]

I wish morten all the luck… i am sure he will be back again strong and aggressive. I am a silent admirer of him and i strongly believe that he will come back!!

[...] [Za: TechCrunch] [...]

[...] news was out yesterday about Morten Lund’s bankruptcy following his bad investment on a Danish [...]

[...] is the tech equivalent of Clark Kent getting canned at The Daily Planet. Morten Lund, an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark, might just be the real Rock-’n Roll [...]

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?

This guy was burning 1M kr. ($200,000) on a free newspaper every single day, in a time when everyone (EVERYONE) knew all free newspapers were doomed to lose.

He bet against everyone, when everyone was trying to get out, he was spending more and more.

…and lost.

I met Morten in the middle of december for two hours at his house.

You have to see this whole bankrupt thing from a different perspektive: by declaring that, there is nothing the old manangement team can get from him.

I also know about a couple of his investments that some VCs are really eager to buy them of him.

I also saw his latest investment: a kickass application yet to be announced.

So don’t worry to much: 100% bet he will be back in 6 months!

Remember also his adcompany Hello Group… No way Morten is broke for a long time… Plenty of stuff he can cash out!

I mean, I think that was a real cowboy move and I thought a newspaper? perhaps he thought he’d build something online with the staff? That’s what he is a, rockstar he woos the crowd”fu**s” them. I guarantee he’ll do it again! and for the bitter men… JUST DO IT.

agreed! sounds like you’re defending a friend.

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 )

[...] Awesome speech from 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" (@techcrunch) [...]

[...] Die Auktion blieb bei einem Preis von knapp 47.000 Euro stehen – damit ist der große Big Deal, den viele vorausgesagt hatten, ausgeblieben. Robert Basic wird insgeheim auf einen größeren Erlös gehofft haben, alles in allem dürfte er dennoch zufrieden sein. Immerhin wurde seine Schmerzgrenze von 30.000 Euro deutlich überschritten und die Erlössumme ist nicht schlecht – gerade in schweren Zeiten wie diesen (erst vorgestern ging mit Morten Lund (Skype) eine große Internetikone in die Insolvenz). [...]

As late Milton Friedman would say, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” And yet, we still have those “businessmen,” who believe that they can beat the market with something free, be it a “free” newspaper or “free” that is ad-supported internet.

[...] reported on UK techcrunch this is what he said to a Danish finance newspaper : “It’s like superman getting his suit [...]

Morten was @ BIC in Berlin last year. I did a post on his speech. In that video you’ll see, that he is brutally honest all the time.

[...] do in this downturn — watch this LeWeb interview of the very honest, frank, and a bit crass, Morten Lund who was just declared personally bankrupt by courts in [...]

[...] pratite IT blogove verovatno ste već naleteli na vest da je Morten Lund, jedan od poznatijih evropskih investitora, bankrotirao. Ako niste, evo [...]

[...] this great video over at TechCrunch UK. For any would-be entrepreneurs here is a great video by Morten Lund. He outlines how he rose to [...]

[...] Taka „zaraza” z tego intrentu, choroba, przed którą drżą nawet Wielcy. [...]

Morten old friend good luck from your sardinian family…

[...] Reality Bites – Skype Legend Morten Lund Bankrupted By Newspaper (uk.techcrunch.com) [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] this is good news for Lund, the colorful European web celebrity who TechCrunch UK earlier this year reported to be personally bankrupt after a series of investments gone awry. According to earlier reports, Lund retained 40% of Wamba [...]

[...] TechCrunch自己破産記事（日本語） [...]

Hell yeah!

Hi Mike, Morten’s speech is now in high quality available here too if you want to have a look

Wow Amazing!
ccna ccent

[...] every day to work, be it investing in Skype or being part of starting up dead duck companies (that made him officially bankrupt in 2008) . For him, its all about just doing it, or as he says “just fu**ing doing it”. And ML [...]

[...] Morten Lund połamał sobie zęby na próbie zrobienia z tradycyjnej gazety super przedsiębiorstwa. Potentat medialny Robert Murdoch gotów jest walczyć z samym Google aby ratować swoje “stare” biznesy. Wydaje się, że spadki czytelnictwa dające się odczuć już dawno znacząco przyśpieszyły w okresie światowego kryzysu. Wszyscy z branży wiedzą, że trzeba się dostosować albo zniknąć z rynku. [...]

[...] the project. Lund was made famous in tech circles both for his early Skype investment but also for going personally bankrupt two years [...]

[...] the project. Lund was made famous in tech circles both for his early Skype investment but also for going personally bankrupt two years [...]

[...] the project. Lund was made famous in tech circles both for his early Skype investment but also for going personally bankrupt two years [...]

I commend him for what he said about spoiling his children with love rather than with money.

The takeaway message is to be professional means even if you believe in your idea, you need to diversify your risk, share it with others and not bet your own roof on it. Sharing risk/reward with others also gives you access to their network and advice.

Don’t invest in newspapers in the 21st century, it’s a dying product.

I commend him for what he said about spoiling his children with love rather than with money.

The takeaway message is to be professional means even if you believe in your idea, you need to diversify your risk, share it with others and not bet your own roof on it. Sharing risk/reward with others also gives you access to their network and advice.

And: don’t invest in newspapers in the 21st century, it’s a dying product.

[...] the project. Lund was made famous in tech circles both for his early Skype investment but also for going personally bankrupt two years [...]

[...] the project. Lund was made famous in tech circles both for his early Skype investment but also for going personally bankrupt two years [...]

[...] Morten Lund, their Chairman, was one of the founders and early investors in Skype.  He was then declared bankrupt in 2009 after putting all his cash into a new newspaper and publishing venture in Denmark.  Now he’s [...]