Founders Stories: Why Oliver, Simon and Erik want to make you love your work life
Welcome to this edition of Founders Stories, a series of interviews where we sit down with each of our portfolio co-founders to talk about what they’re building and why it matters.
Erik and Oliver, along with Simon, are the co-founders of Headlight — a personal training program for your professional life.
Headlight brings today’s outdated and fragmented market of coaches under one concept-driven program. Headlight participants and trainers connect via the company’s app and video call sessions wherever they want making training convenient and flexible.
The program was developed Erik over the past 15 years. It’s philosophy is based on his experience after his board fired him from his position as CEO of one of the largest commercial production companies in Denmark.
With four months notice and nothing more to lose, he discovered the courage to do all the things he had wanted for the company but had not dared to try up to that point.
During those four months Erik successfully completed all open projects and won three major new deals. More importantly, for the first time in years he felt like he was in love with what he was doing. It was creative, unconventional and brave.
The experience was an eye opener. Watching his performance going up ten-fold after he was fired showed Erik the incredible power of having the courage to pursue your goals and throw yourself into a project without fear. When he finally left the company, he started coaching executives in Denmark and in the U.S. sharing with them what he had learnt and creating a structured framework to help them achieve their goals.
He came together with Oliver Bernhard, who previously founded SaaS company Nosco, and Founders partner and multiple-time entrepreneur Simon Sylvest to scale the program as a digital product earlier this year.
Headlight is designed to help professionals train, like a muscle, the discipline that is preventing them having the work life they dream of.
Hear more about the team’s vision in our interview or read the transcript below.
About Founders
Founders is a startup studio. Together with exceptional entrepreneurs we build products and companies that radically improve how people and organisations work. Our portfolio includes Pleo, Duuoo, Kontist, Son of a Tailor, Maguru, LifeX, Reach, Wonderwerk, Headlight & Donna.
But enough about us, back to the story! 😉
Q&A with Erik and Oliver from Headlight
Who are you and what do you do at Headlight?
Erik: I’m Erik Algreen, I am Head of Program at Headlight.
Oliver: I’m Oliver Bernhard and I’m the CEO
Can you explain in one line, a tagline, exactly what Headlight is?
Oliver: Headlight is a personal development programme for your professional life.
Tell us about the user case — who is it for and what can they expect to get out of it?
Erik: It’s for people who cannot find the engagement that they aspire to put into their work life and so they find found themselves in a hamster wheel. They are conscious about their place in space and they want something else.
Why is this something you want to solve?
Erik: I can talk about that thing about not being fulfilled in your work life for hours. If you cannot find meaning in your work life, then it is meaningless. Which sucks.
Oliver: This is the fourth company I’ve started and I’ve just learned along the way that once you get out there in real life, working, having employees and so on, you meet challenges that you are not really prepared for. And sometimes it’s actually you who is blocking the road ahead, so to move ahead and grow, you need to look at yourself. That’s the route I’ve been on, my learning. I worked with Erik previously and learned a lot about the concept that you can actually systemise the way you develop yourself as a person. I want to look deeper into that and teach other people do it as well.
Can you talk a little bit about the scale of the problem you’re addressing?
Erik: There’s huge research done by Gallup in 2013 that says that in North America, 63% of the workforce is not engaged in their work life, and in Denmark it is 69%. So that’s the scale that we know of for now. That’s one of the numbers that we’re looking into.
Tell us about the space — how are you different?
Erik: What has happened over the past five years — or ten years — is that the workforce, the younger generation, millennials, are asking for different aspects of fulfilment and meaningfulness than my generation did. They are identifying themselves less through their work life only and asking for a more holistic perspective on who they are. Headlight very much caters to that mindset.
When you ask about how we differentiate ourselves — the Headlight programme is structured around adjustments in your work life. Adjustments to your own personal approach to your work life. And those adjustments are always being made through projects and initiatives on your desk, or in your actual work life. There is not an added curriculum — not something you have to do on top of what you do on a daily basis, which makes it less cumbersome, and more logical and rational. That’s the biggest difference.
Could you super briefly give an overview of what it’s like to use Headlight, as a product.
Oliver: First we start with a studio day. A full day, ten people. We gather usually at some awesome inspiring place. The purpose of the day is to uncover what we call your Hidden Curriculum. Without going too much into the actual details of the day, it’s about finding your personal motivation for your work life, and trying to discover what are your shortcomings and strengths and so on. After that you have two sessions each month with a personal trainer who we have educated in the Headlight programme. They help you to work in a way that’s more aligned with your strategy and helps you work with your weaknesses and use your strengths.
Why is this is a good time for Headlight?
Oliver: We are in the top of the Maslow pyramid. Years ago people were much more concentrated on getting their pay check and paying rent but now especially in the western world they need more meaningfulness, they’re beginning to seek more purpose in their life. So just sitting behind a desk, typing away and looking at numbers, that doesn’t really fulfil what they’re searching for, they want something more. But they don’t know how to get it or what it actually is, so they’re seeking some sort of enlightenment.
Erik: On a corporate level, corporations are increasingly trying to have a holistic approach. They don’t really know what it is but they can just see that employees are looking for something different. We are being met with a lot of curiosity and open arms from that perspective, because they also have corporate social responsibility and the UN’s world goals. We have a lot of conversations about purpose for corporations.
Can you talk a little bit about what your path into founding Headlight?
Oliver: I started a couple of companies before — SaaS companies and a co-working space among others. I also started companies at university and I was a DJ at one time. I knew one of the founders of Founders, Simon, so when I sold my last company I called him to take a coffee. He was talking about a new project Headlight and I thought, that sounds really interesting, let’s talk some more. We decided that was a really good idea to work together on the project and I knew Erik from before and said we need to get this guy on board. That’s basically how it came together.
Erik: My professional life started out as a blacksmith from when I was 16 to 21 and that’s my only formal education apart from 10 years at school. I started some companies, I was a CEO at a commercial production company, got booted, and used the four months leave to realise the projects on my desk that I was most excited about. I succeeded with all of them with the form that I chose, which made me think that there is something to look into when people have nothing to lose. Because I was booted and I didn’t have a job anymore but I still had those four months. The courage I found by not having anything to lose — could you somehow help people find that without having to get fired or lose something valuable to you? So I created the philosophy and program that is now the Headlight program. And I’ve done work with this in the States and in Europe for the past 15 years.
Is there something that makes Headlight a special unique place to work?
Erik: For me, one of the things about the crew is a very strong need to make the most out of the hours that you go to work, instead of just going to work. Everything gets more exciting, better. I always ask people, where do you want to buy your cheese? From a person who loves cheese and will go to hell and back to find the most exciting cheese? Or to buy it from a cheese person who hates cheese? But is selling cheese anyway. All of us at Headlight are aspiring to go to work to make the most out of that day, every day.
Info
Want to find out more about how Headlight works? Check out the video on their website or you can apply for a spot here.
You can also the latest from the team on LinkedIn and Facebook.
