Mehkar Sheikh

Talking to Lovable founder Anton Osika on stage at Nordic Tech Week earlier today, we spoke about how Stockholm tech founders are well-known for giving back to the startup ecosystem, with capital and time. Osika told me that he was quite busy building Lovable and couldn't set aside too much time to invest in other founders. However, he and his cofounder Fabian Hedin have pledged 50% of future earnings to philanthropy. More here: https://lnkd.in/dwe7XdMZ

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The school year has started and universities in Sweden are abuzz with new international students. For those of you who want to work part-time while you study, here are some things you should know. 🕵️‍♀️First things first – check if you can actually work. Not all education permits allow for you to work while you study. For example, exchange students or higher vocational education students may not be eligible. Check your decision letter and your residence card – if you can work, it will say “får arbeta” on it. 💰Focus on your savings if you plan on job seeking after graduation. If you plan to apply for a job seeking visa after graduation, remember that there are financial requirements to fulfil. If you don’t fulfil them, you won’t get the permit – it doesn’t matter if you fulfil everything else. So keep the financial requirements in mind to make sure you have them lined up and available by the time you apply. 🏃‍♀️Don’t let the push for part-time jobs or internships throw you off your education timeline. I know it feels like the best way to get a job in the future is to start working with companies now. And it’s definitely a good avenue to pursue. But if you spend so much time with work that you let your education slow down or don’t fulfil your credit requirements, you may find yourself being rejected for a student extension or work permit application in the future. 🧠 Think twice before you leave school for a job offer. The idea of working instead of school sounds great. Getting salary instead of paying tuition and having your time count towards permanent residency make it an attractive option. But if you are laid off or find yourself unemployed again, you likely won’t have the option to switch back to a student permit from inside Sweden. Even if your university approves your leave, that doesn’t mean that you can make that switch. Then you’re stuck scrambling for a new job within the 3 month grace period but without a degree to support you. Part-time work while you pursue higher education in Sweden can be a great gateway to so many opportunities. But verifying and understanding how your immigration status fits with your goals is imperative for a smooth to transition from student to work life. Welcome to Sweden! 🇸🇪 #StudyInSweden #WorkInSweden #WorkPermits #Immigration #RelocationExperts #Emigreat #ImmigrationAdvice #Sweden

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Spotify is shuffling its leadership playlist. Founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO of the music streaming giant after 19 years. Instead, he will become executive chair of the company. Alex Norstrom and Gustav Söderström will step up to fill his position, as co-CEOs – a leadership duo replacing the solo artist. Ek has said the change “simply matches titles to how we already operate”. It’s never easy for the founder to relinquish the CEO title, even if Ek says he will remain “deeply involved”, working on long-term strategy. On the one hand, Ek must be tired. Over the course of nearly two decades he has fought to build his global, billion-dollar business. He had to do it in the face of stiff competition from Apple. It was believed it had a near-monopoly on music streaming through iTunes. He waged a long campaign to challenge that assumption. It paid huge dividends. The final test of a great founder and leader, in many ways, is to choose his or her successor. Ben Francis MBE hired his replacement as CEO at Gymshark in 2015 after 3 years. I waited at Homeserve for 8 years before replacing myself as UK CEO. My success at Homeserve came from hiring great CEOs for each of our 10 countries and a great CEO for them to work for, when I ended up with too many direct reports. Founders are great at creating businesses, copying and pivoting until they get the right model and start growing. (Exactly what Ek did. Music streaming platforms were not a completely original idea. But he managed to make a standout product and executed it brilliantly.) My advice in these succession situations, when the founder steps away, is to hire a proven CEO with the right cultural fit to work with the founder to achieve exponential growth with fewer mistakes. It looks like Ek has built the right leadership playlist to do this. And he’s been CEO at the company he created for nearly two decades – few pop stars can sustain a career that long!

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🚀 Big news for Icelandic innovation: Iceland's first HealthTech accelerator has just launched: KLAK - Health 💗 I’m proud of LIFA Ventures ' support of this initiative, alongside other great Icelandic partners, to help lay the foundation for a stronger HealthTech ecosystem. Iceland has already produced incredible MedTech and Life Science success stories, from Embla Medical (Össur) to Nox Medical to Kerecis 🐟. These prove that world-class innovation can and does grow from our small island. But we need more. More founders supported from day one. More investors and mentors need to step in early. More infrastructure to ensure that our next generation of startups doesn’t just leave for bigger markets, but builds global impact from here. KLAK Health is a big first step in that direction, and it won’t be the last. Iceland has the talent, creativity, and ambition. Now we are finally focusing more on the sector that can change lives everywhere. 💡 To all the future founders out there: the ecosystem is ready to back you. Let’s make Iceland a place where MedTech and HealthTech startups can thrive. Great work KLAK - Icelandic Startups ! #HealthTech #MedTech #Startups #Iceland #Innovation #medicaldevices #LIFAVC #KLAK

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