Stian Rustad, Founder, 24SevenOffice.Com, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor

Stian Rustad, Founder, 24SevenOffice.Com, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor

Stian Rustad is the founder of 24Seven Technolgy Group ASA and has been CEO since its incorporation in 1997.

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Stian Rustad is the founder of 24Seven Technolgy Group ASA and has been CEO since its incorporation in 1997. In addition to being the largest shareholder in 24Seven Technology Group, Mr. Rustad is the chairman of the board in ICT Group AS, and a board member in Searchdaimon AS, where he also was the chairman of the board from 2005 to 2006. Furthermore, Rustad holds a patent known as Travellers notebook. Mr. Rustad is a graduate economist from the Norwegian School of Management (BI) (1996) and has a comprehensive education in electronic engineering from Telemark University College (1994), French language from the University of Marseille (1994), Economy and Administration and European Studies from Agder University College (1995).

01:32- How do you introduce yourself in a business setting?

• That’s one thing that I’ve been thinking more about lately because I used to just think about myself as the entrepreneur.
• But lately, I’ve realized that, you know, I’m more or more actually an investor as well.
• And maybe it’s more correct to say, serial entrepreneur and investor.

03:29- Where did you see your journey start?

• I studied at the University in Telemark, where I studied engineering and electronic engineering. And at that time, there was also quite a lot of programming on that course.
• So I always liked to do programming, I started to do that when I was a kid with my Commodore 60 V rays with the basic, etc. But at that time, the internet was starting to become a thing. So I became very interested on the internet.
• During my studies, I realized that I wanted to start a company, I wanted to build something on my own.
• I understood that if I had a degree in economics, as well, it would be so much easier for me to run a company start a company raise money, and hold all the standards needed to run the company. So then I started an Africa bachelor’s degree at BAE Norwegian Business School.

09:26-What’s more difficult, creating a successful startup or creating a successful scale-up?

• I think it goes in different stages. You know, at first is really hard.
• Because you don’t have a product, you don’t have the money. You don’t have customers. You don’t have anything. You just have your ID.
• I think the absolutely toughest part is all for the first one or two years, in general, that’s how I see it. And that’s where most people give up. People that actually shouldn’t give up, because they’re just like, six months, 12 months away from the breakthrough.
• And then I would say the next phase is that when things are getting serious, you started making teams, different layers of the teams, you’re starting to be political, and all that stuff, then it’s getting a little bit harder.
• We have to navigate through that as well. And that’s the part where many people, in my opinion, should discuss whether they should give the management a professional manager.

15:21- Where do you find your passion, and what is it?

• I love to create new stuff, whether it’s a new technology, new functionality, new business ideas, love to improve things.
• So when I can improve how people work, how they live, improve businesses, and processes, improve the environment, or do something that makes it useful for the world, I love it in all forms, whether it’s software or physical products, or products or services.

16:00- How do you then identify success?

• I think my most important measurement of success is the number of employees
• I think then I really feel like in creating something useful, we need, we need people to need work, we need to create value, we need to create tax money.
• And the number of people that have a company is also a measurement of how much impact we actually do on other companies and on the world. So I would say my measurement is probably the number of employees.

17:31- Is your work attitude the same as your company’s name- 24/7?

• I think we’re still founding this company. It’s like, we have so many plans to grow this tenfold, this company still. So even though we’ve been around for quite a while, we really have really big ambitions.
• So I think you cannot do that if you’re not willing to work a lot. So I definitely work a lot.
• Whenever I feel tired, or feel like I’m not productive, I just go for, you know, do some exercise, stay with my family, watch a movie, or whatever. And then I can start working.

25:06- Where do you get your inspiration from?

• I get a lot of inspiration from my colleagues. We have a team, which is great.
• So I would say that a lot of our success is because of the team. And the rest is because of the employees.
• So when it comes to the team, it comes to my co-founders and partners. They are great, great people. And because we find the right people to work for us, that’s the main reason for success.

RESOURCES:

You can connect with Stian Rustad – LinkedIn

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Stian Rustad is the founder of 24Seven Technolgy Group ASA and has been CEO since its incorporation in 1997. In addition to being the largest shareholder in 24Seven Technology Group, Mr. Rustad is the chairman of the board in ICT Group AS, and a board member in Searchdaimon AS, where he also was the chairman of the board from 2005 to 2006. Furthermore, Rustad holds a patent known as Travellers notebook. Mr. Rustad is a graduate economist from the Norwegian School of Management (BI) (1996) and has a comprehensive education in electronic engineering from Telemark University College (1994), French language from the University of Marseille (1994), Economy and Administration and European Studies from Agder University College (1995).