Katarina Bonde: Are you scaling, or just burning cash?

Описание: Scaling a company is not about chasing headlines. It’s about proving customers care.

In this episode of I by IMD, Katarina Bonde shares hard-earned lessons from decades in venture-backed tech, board leadership, and global scale-ups. She challenges founders to validate demand before celebrating growth: “If no one is… spending money to buy it, you actually don't have a product.”
Katarina, who served as board chair and CEO in various venture-backed tech firms across the US and Europe, also reframes the AI discussion. The opportunity isn’t in the current bubble, but in the smart use of data – “the real gold here.”
For rapid-growth startups, so-called scale-ups, who are tempted to prioritize land grabs over margins, Katarina offers a grounded reminder: “You have to show that you have a business model that can pay for itself.”

Our Guest:
Katarina Bonde served as Chair of companies including Mentimeter, Stillfront Group, and others in Sweden’s digital ecosystem. She also served as an executive in various venture-backed tech firms in Europe and the US and is an active angel investor.
LinkedIn:   / katarinabonde  

Time Stamps:
02:10 – Europe vs. US capital markets
06:00 – Product-market validation
07:04 – Freemium & venture-fueled models
09:44 – Is AI a bubble?
10:55 – Data as gold
12:24 – Profitability discipline
14:32 – Founder vs investor tensions
15:37 – The role of the board chair
18:32 – Optimism about AI & the future

Resources to dig deeper:
IMD Digital Strategy Research: https://www.imd.org/research-knowledg...
OECD Startup & SME Policy: https://www.oecd.org/industry/smes/
European Commission Digital Strategy: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/

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