I spent 96 hours with 16,000 founders, here’s what kills startups
/After 96 hours with 16,000 founders at Oslo Innovation Week, I noticed 7 startup mistakes that kept showing up over and over again.
And it's the same ones I’ve experienced helping execs, founders and startups save over 2.5M NOK, land 400M NOK grants and double their salary in a single year.
So in this video, I’ll reveal the 7 Startup Killers you need to avoid, so you can be the next Cognite, 1x, Oda, or Northern Playground.
While listening to thousands of founders at Oslo Innovation Week, I noticed a common, deeply ingrained limiting belief.
One of the clearest examples of this limiting belief in action is Sweden’s Spotify versus Norway’s Wimp.
Wimp played it safe, aimed to dominate the Nordics, whereas Spotify went bold and aimed to conquer the world, so they targeted the U.S. market first. We all know who won.
And honestly, I get the Wimp mindset. Why risk global scaling and ambition if you believe it guarantees the destruction of the high quality of life you have in Norway?
Time and again, I see the opposite proven true: with the right high-performance mindset, you don’t have to choose between success and quality of life.
You can have both: the success you dream of, and a life abundant with genuine love, joy, and purpose. Just ask my clients 😉 [read their testimonials here]
Don’t roll your eyes at me and think I’m pedalling the “you can have it all” narrative. I’m not.
I’m saying ambition and quality of life don’t have to be in opposition. If you’ve lived inside that false dichotomy, you don’t have to keep doing so. You just need a new belief system to operate from.
Startup Killer #1: Believing global success comes at the expense of the great Norwegian work-life balance.
I heard the same sentence from hundreds of founders and their teams throughout Oslo Innovation Week:
“We’re in survival mode. We can’t focus on anything else that’s not critical.”
As Maria Katarina Michelesen, Head of Community at RunwayFBU, pointed out, startup culture often treats burnout as a badge of honour. Exhaustion is seen as proof of commitment.
I know this feeling all too well. I paid the price for living in survival mode for too long: severe chronic fatigue syndrome (ME). I was bedridden and endured other unpleasant symptoms for almost 4 years. There is nothing heroic about living in survival mode.
Look at Olympiatoppen, Norway’s elite sports HQ. If their athletes bragged about winning medals on minimal sleep or food, they’d be frowned upon.
Norway’s elite athletes, like Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, aren’t trained to win medals in survival mode. They’re trained to perform at world-class levels from the high-performance, thriving mode.
So why do we expect founders to lead, scale, and succeed at world-class levels in survival mode — and be proud of it?
I will now be blunt:
Living in survival mode is detrimental to your mental or physical health. And without your health, you have nothing. You won’t even have your startup.
So stop thinking it’s cool to live in survival mode, and start operating from thriving mode.
Startup Killer #2: Operating from survival mode and calling it “high performance.” and “success”.
Do you provide expert mindset support and training to help your startup thrive during the steep climb of scaling?
That was the question I asked hundreds of founders, VCs, and accelerators at Startup Lab, Mesh, and DNB NXT during Oslo Innovation Week.
Startup culture is high-paced, high-pressure, and high-stakes.
As Anson Lin, Growth Expert at Canadian Startup Boardy, recently shared that no one talks about the personal cost. Right now they’re in full grind mode, working around the clock to launch their new founder-investor campaign. So forget hobbies, gym sessions or time with friends. It’s all-in.
And the data backs this up.
Research from The Inner Circle by Startup Snapshot found: 80% of startup employees say the grind significantly impacts their mental health. 90% didn’t expect startup life to be this intense, And 85% hide their stress and wellbeing challenges from leadership
This environment mirrors elite sport.
Take Formula 1 for example, where drivers make split-second, life-or-death decisions under extreme physical and cognitive load.
But here’s the difference:
F1 drivers receive high-performance mental training, like immersive race simulation exercises.
Norway’s Olympiatoppen trains athletes’ minds, not just their bodies. Because peak performance is psychological, not just physical. Talent and hours alone is never enough to truly realise an athlete’s full potential
I’ve coached world-class athletes (including Allan Hovda and US Paraclimbers) to multiple national records and World Championships. The edge wasn’t “working harder or longer.” It was mental training.
The research is overwhelming: Mental fatigue is the #1 performance stopper. And your mind-body connect is powerful. It’s why every drug is blind or double-blind tested.
So here’s what surprised me most: 99% of the founders, VCs, and accelerators I spoke to do NOT offer high-performance mindset training.
Their reasons?
(1) “We don’t have time” and
(2) “We don’t have budget.”
But the real question is:
Do you have the luxury not to?
For example, I recently read Deloitte’s latest research that shows companies can save 50,000+ NOK per employee, per year just in reduced mental health costs.
And that number doesn’t even factor in:
• Lost productivity
• Missed deadlines and stalled projects
• Rehiring and onboarding costs
• The time it takes for new talent to ramp up
The top 1% know mental performance isn’t a luxury and do things differently.
VCs like Ada Ventures invest in the mental performance of their founders and teams — and their companies scale faster, stronger, and more sustainably.
Because success doesn’t belong to the team that grinds the hardest. It belongs to the team trained to sustain high performance under pressure and stress.
Startup Killer #3: Skipping Mental Performance Training for Founders and Startups.
Listening to hundreds of founders at Oslo Innovation Week, one thing became clear to me: comfort is king in Norway.
I heard many Norwegian startups like Cardboard express that work-life balance is their number one priority. And at a session on attracting international talent at MESH, many said that’s why they love working and living in Norway.
But, when you look at the Nordic startups that truly scale, like 1x, Oda, Cognite and Lovable, they fuse bold vision with relentless ambition.
They build transparent cultures that celebrate grit, growth, and acceleration, while still supporting employee wellbeing, ok I admit to an extent. That’s how they attract the right talent and unlock their startup’s full potential.
So I find it strange when VCs and founders, like Trondheim-based ProVenture and John Markus Lervik of Cognite, called out the fact that Norwegian startup culture’s obsession with comfort is keeping many startups “average”, compared to Sweden, their comments were met with criticism.
On my YouTube channel, Yngvar Ugland, AI Professional of the Year 2024 and inventor of the Moonshot Method, actively encourages his team at DNB Norge to fail fast, learn fast, and embrace pressure as growth. [Watch our conversation here].
I know I’ve grown the most when pushed beyond my comfort zone, like when I developed psychological methods to fully recover from two ‘incurable’ chronic conditions.
I’m sure if you reflected on your life, you’d notice a similar pattern.
Even Canadian author T. Harv Eker said: “Mediocrity comes from staying comfortable.”
So when startups consistently operate from their discomfort zone, that’s what sets them apart.
And if you prefer comfort over ambition, that’s fine — but don’t tear down others for their grit, drive, and relentless pursuit of excellence.
Startup Killer #4: Making it taboo to value grit and ambition over comfort.
Years ago I interviewed my client, elite Norwegian athlete Allan Hovda, on my podcast and when I asked him to introduce himself, he simply said, “I’m just an average guy”.
He’s far from average.
Allan’s achievements include winning Norway’s extreme triathlon three times, and breaking the Norwegian Ironman record twice in one year, all while working in the oil industry and raising a family alongside his powerhouse wife.
After talking with hundreds of Norwegian founders and international talent living in Norway, I now understand this to be Norway’s Janteloven way: be humble, downplay your achievements, and avoid voicing bold ideas.
Anything else is seen as rude or arrogant.
I also observed this when one of Norway’s top entrepreneurs shared his startup growth mindset. And before the next panel officially began, other participants publicly voiced their disagreement when he wasn’t in the room.
I can’t remember their names, but a handful of VCs and business owners even told me they prefer hiring international sales talent because Janteloven prevents Norwegians from being great salespeople.
Oslo Business Region’s Mari Strømsvåg also recognised janteloven is putting a ceiling on leaders, founders, and startups. Mari believes we should celebrate their achivements, instead of shaming their ambition.
So even if you’re not the “humble brag” kind of person, your startup cannot afford to hide its wins. If you don’t show your momentum: Investors might assume there isn’t any, top talent will look elsewhere, and media, partners, opportunities might overlook you. And the trail you’re blazing will stay invisible to anyone coming after you.
Visibility isn’t vanity. It’s strategy. And the appetite is clear: Norwegians want to hear success stories and be inspired to aim higher.
Startup Killer #5: Janteloven is limiting startup and founder growth.
At Olso Innovation Week, I noticed many founders believed that high performance, people-first culture would develop organically as their startup scaled.
One of my exec clients at a Norwegian startup now valued at around $50 million lived this firsthand.
When she came to me about 12 months ago, she told me, “I feel like I’m going crazy.”
She was on the edge of burnout. The founder had unintentionally created a toxic culture, in which my client and the employees faced daily manipulation, micromanagement, bullying, and unfair treatment.
In contrast, CEO and founder of Cognite described at Oslo Innovation Week how he set a crystal-clear North Star from day 1: Cognite will be the world’s best in industrial AI. The Predsident, Petteri Vainikka, shared at Aker Tech House recently, that Cognite’s North Star hasn’t changed in 8 years. It continues to guide culture, decision-making, and strategy, enabling Cognite to scale past $1B.
But even Cognite slipped during covid. John Markus said the new HR team shifted focus towards becoming “a good workplace”. Culture changed, momentum faltered.
Years ago, I spoke to another CEO who also wanted to create “a good workplace” culture to solve their low engagement and employees refusing to come into the office.
Instead of bringing me in to help address her company wide low engagement, which I’d already successfully done with one of their teams. She decided to buy a massage chair.
She hoped the chair would be like bees to honey, magically drawing employees back into the office, boosting morale, and fixing performance.
Spoiler, it didn’t work. The employees just had a new chair to avoid.
Five years later, the company finished paying off that chair — 180,000 NOK (£18,000). I would have charged £5,000 to actually transform culture.
This is the cost, and more, of addressing symptoms instead of the system.
So what happened to my startup exec client?
I helped her step into her power and transform the company from the top down. She led a dream executive team, reshaped the culture, and gave the company a real shot at success. Today, every level, from the boardroom to employees, is thriving.
When Cognite started losing momentum, founder John Markus refocused the company and doubled down on its mission: not to be the “best place to work,” but to be the best in industrial AI. Since then, their culture has been deliberately designed to support that mission, which is also why their HQ is in Phoenix, USA.
After the massage chair disaster, my client, who had been advocating for culture and leadership support, was invited to the CEO throne
He’s led the tech company out of the red. Stabilised the team. And rebuilt trust, performance and engagement.
Your startup’s culture is your operating system that determines whether your startup scales and thrives, or burns through talent, morale, time, and money.
Don’t treat culture as a nice-to-have. Don’t wait for cracks to become collapse.
Design culture early. Lead it daily. And bring in support before you need damage control.
Your mission is too important to gamble on “hope.” Build the culture that allows your people, and your startup, to actually thrive and succeed.
Startup Killer #6: Letting your culture “happen” instead of shaping it to fuel your startup’s ambition.
Is Norway’s female talent missing grit - or even high-level talent?
That’s a question I heard from a few male founders and execs during Oslo Innovation Week. I won’t name and shame, but, is it true?
John Markus, founder of Cognite, said he’s noticed a trend: when they promote their top female talent, they leave, not for competitors, but for comfortable government jobs, like NAV. Another at Cognite suggested top female talent is simply “hard to find.”
I see this firsthand with my female executive clients and friends. They feel trapped between two options: quit for a less demanding job or go on sick leave.
And to dismiss this common situation down to Norwegian women lacking grit or talent, echoes a narrative we’ve been fighting against for centuries:
In Norway, the first female CEO of a major listed company was only in 2008.
Women in Switzerland couldn’t open a bank account without a man until 1985.
Female health conditions like endometriosis still face 7–12 year diagnostic delays in Scandinavia, significantly impacting women’s careers.
In Europe, there’s higher injury rates among female officers, soldiers, and frontline workers due to protective gear primarily sized for male bodies.
Suggesting that women lack grit or talent compared to men adds to the very scary global narrative: that women aren’t equal.
This week, a Norwegian shipbroker was fired after sharing a photo of a woman’s breasts in a work group chat called “the guys.” He’s gone to Norwegian media outlet DN, complaining the consequence was too harsh, and warned that “worse things will happen in the industry” if companies keep holding men accountable.
Australian Olympic swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan recently made headlines after stating she refused to compete against men in professional female swim events. She had to threaten to leave her sport, her career, to make her stance heard.
My friend Janet Murray faced public backlash, had her business targeted and has lost significant income, simply for advocating for women’s rights.
Within ten years of having a child, the average woman’s pay drops by 40% in the UK. And in Norway by 10–20%. It’s reported the average father’s income increases after having children.
Now, this feels a little scary to say… but Cognite is wrong.
When ambitious women meet exhaustion, overwhelm, stress, or bullying, manipulation or sexism… brilliance bows out.
It’s not that these women lack ambition, talent, or grit. Far from it. They’re often trapped in toxic environments without the mental tools, knowledge, or support to thrive.
The female execs and clients I work with who managed to stay and thrive in their roles did so, because I helped them stand in their power, and this ultimately led to the toxic individuals being removed.
Those who quit or went on long-term sick leave did so because they weren’t given the right support, and the bullying continued.
Cognite and Microsoft Norge have both said that in Trump’s America, female-specific leadership programs and support have been removed. And if you try to offer them? Backlash.
So will we see more female talent settling for careers that satisfy their safety over ambition?
If Norwegian startups keep thinking the fix is hiring women with “more grit”, passively waiting for top female talent to appear or even giving them more ‘work-life balance’, then unfortunately, I fear yes.
From my experience coaching hundreds of ambitious female professionals, the real solution is giving them:
• Mental training to operate at peak performance
• Robust unbiased support structures, I’m talking psychologists, coaches and real allies in office
• Safe, intentional physical and cultural environments
When my clients master their mind, the results are transformative:
More impact at work in less time, presence and joy at home, less stress, firmer boundaries, and conscious choices about where they work—sometimes choosing not to stay at your company if it doesn’t align with their highest self.
One client on this path became the force that saved a valuable Norwegian startup.
As one CEO, whose name I regrettably didn’t note at Oslo Innovation Week, said: “I’ve never regretted investing in a female-founded startup.”
Startup Killer #7: You’re losing brilliant female talent to inadequate support.
🚀 But now you know these 7 startup killers, you still need to figure out exactly how to apply this insight to your situation.
So if you want my help with avoiding these traps or navigating out of one you’re currently in, click the link below to book your free 20-minute Call now:
