Klarna founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski gave an interview on the creation of Klarna and the challenges it had to face.
The current return for Global Technologies Private Portfolio clients who purchased Klarna shares in December 2020 is 229%.
Interview key points:
- The first prototype of Klarna was ready in 4 months, but it took 4 years before the team subordinated the work of the IT department to the tasks of the business. The CEO had to fire a CTO, who was a great coder but a bad entrepreneur.
- When you have 40 offices in 20 countries, it is hard to make directive decisions.
- “As a place of work, we are not suitable for every job seeker. We want to be exceptional, to be a global leader. We need employees who are ready for large-scale challenges.”
- Traditional banks are afraid of Klarna, as they threaten their lending business.
- Competition is a healthy motivator. Thanks to competition with Afterpay (another major buy-now-pay-later service), Klarna is growing much faster than it could have.