After the
first day’s 121 km with no food, 64 km from Nyköping to Norrköping was really
nothing. Even though the weather gods tried to mess with me, I arrive at
Tunnbindaregatan 8 in Norrköping, 7 minutes before my lunch meeting with Lina
Skandevall, founder and owner of the company with her own name.
The company
is situated in a beautiful old building called Tegelborgen, a historic brick
house that now houses a creative collective. I park my bike beneath ornamented
handrails and ceiling paintings and walk the stairs up to Lina’s office.
– Hi, oh
you’re already here? Sorry, I almost forgot! I have a big deadline for The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise later today. Tonight,
one of the largest banks in town has an opening party, that I have to sneak out
from in order to catch my Iceland flight in Stockholm. And in between all of
this I have an interview with Driva Eget and an external client meeting. And of
course you. Come, let’s go grab some lunch.
As it seems, being Lina Skandevall is hectic. But she
manages to squeeze a lunch with me into her schedule.
– People ask me if I am cloned five times, but somehow
I can find the time of doing all the things I want. I am very efficient at what
I do, and I think that is almost a prerequisite, being an entrepreneur.
Lina’s
entrepreneurial journey started as a nineteen year-old in a small village
outside of Växjö, Småland. She and a friend had forgotten to apply for summer
jobs, but that did not stop them: The community center in the village was
rarely used, so they decided to transform it into a summer café.
– The
people in charge of the community center were just happy if something happened,
so we just started it, without realizing what we did. For some reason we
thought that the local newspaper Smålandsposten would be interested in our new
café, and they were. They came the very first day, and we didn’t even have any
guests. We had to bring our families, and we told them to act like customers
and not tell the journalist their surnames. We were two blond girls who sang
songs from Småland. It seems like it was somewhat of a hit, and we had the café
for two summers.
After high
school, Lina wanted to move away from the little village. She ended up in
Norrköping, studying environmental technology.
– To be
honest, I wanted to become a landscape architect, but I didn’t fulfill the
requirements. Environmental technology was close enough.
During her
studies, she realized that she had a talent for writing.
– I don’t
know if you remember Lunarstorm, but I used to have a blog back then. When I
started studying, I decided to stop writing, and I posted something like “I’m
through with this” on the blog. Random people then contacted me and begged me to continue.
This was before the likes were invented, so I hadn’t even realized that I had readers,
and even less that people thought it was that good.
This made
Lina think, and she sent a chronicle about gynecologists to the local
newspaper. And they loved it. She immediately started to work as a entertainment
journalist, in parallel to her studies.
– I was
twenty-five and had really fun. I interviewed celebrities and went to parties
all the time. The following years I worked with print, TV, radio – you name it!
After
having worked with virtually all media in town, and also a short period with
environmental technology, she was recommended to start her own firm.
– People
around me saw how I worked and realized that “hey, you should become your own”.
And so I did.
Today, 11
years later, it seems like Lina is still having a blast at work. Among other
things, she is in editor-in-chief of the interactive traveling magazine
GoTraveling.
– It is an
awesome job, because I love traveling. This year, I have been on eleven press
trips. My colleagues and I are very good friends, so we have the privilege of
traveling together as a job – how great isn’t that? My old friend, the one I
founded the café with, recently reminded me of what I said when we went to Gran
Canaria for the money we earned from the café. Apparently I said something like
“what if you could travel as a job”, and here I am today!
The phone
rings, and Lina realizes she had forgotten the interview. She excuses herself
and asks the journalist to wait for another five minutes. We’re finishing up our
coffee, as Lina greets the fourth person during this lunch. It seems like she
knows them all very well.
– Well, it
has been my job to meet people for more than 10 years, and I have become
something of a local celebrity. This year, I will make the New Year’s speech
for 20 000 people. It’s fun, but I am already now nervous.
It doesn’t
seem like Lina Skandevall is nervous. But after all, she has been in the
business for quite some time and seems to be something of Norrköping's own media queen. I thank her for the lunch, and hangs around in the office for
another half an hour, when Lina is rushing to her next meeting.
My next
meeting is in an hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment