Jonas Kjellberg

Jonas Kjellberg has a passion for destroying working business models and building better ones; he is best-known for co-creating Skype, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft.

As one of the founding partners of Skype, Jonas was part of one of the internet’s biggest businesses – a simple, innovative idea that has gone on to revolutionise and disrupt the telecommunications sector.

Having worked with his cofounders Janus Friis an Niklas Zennstrom on the management side of Skype, Jonas eventually became VP of Global Sales and then Managing Director between 2004-2007. Since the sale of Skype, he has worked extensively advising other start-ups and is a prolific venture investor.

A serial entrepreneur, he has served as CEO and founder of Campuz Mobile (acquired by Vodafone) and Optimal Telecom, (part of Tele2), and been vice president of Bertelsmann for Lycos Europe, CEO and partner of Wyatt Media Group, and head of the online business area for Swedish investment company AB Kinnevik.

At AB Kinnevik, a firm with a global reach, Jonas was part of transforming the company into a global tech investor by investing more than 700 million Euros into new Internet giants as Zalando, Rocket Internet, Avito, Lamoda, Jabong, and Hallo Fresh. Jonas was also the Chairman of iCloud, sold to Apple, and founder of Player:IO (subsequently sold to Yahoo!)

Jonas holds an MBA from Uppsala University and an engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He also lectures on the subjects of entrepreneurship and "How to Create a Winning Sales Culture" in his keynote talks and at Stanford University and the Stockholm School of Economics.

When not lecturing, Jonas is an avid investor and coaches entrepreneurs through BCG Digital Ventures, a corporate investment and incubation firm, and his company Gear Up Ventures, which implements the innovation and entrepreneurship model set out in his book Gear Up.

In addition to co-authoring Gear Up: Test Your Business Potential and Plan Your Path to Success, he has co-authored Gear Up: Bring Business Opportunities to Life and Business Creation. He is currently working on two new books about Social and Creative Entrepreneurship.

A highly acclaimed and sought-after business speaker, Jonas Kjellberg draws upon his experience from a long and impressive career and advises business leaders from a wide range of industries in developing their sales strategies and in creating a winning sales culture to face new customer demands.

In his keynote presentations, Jonas explains the fundamental understanding for how product, sales and profitability must interact in order to create successful businesses. He analyses what kind of innovative thinking is needed for success and why some good ideas and companies made it while others did not.

He examines the fascinating step-by-step process of how his team at Skype rethought classic business models, tapped into new opportunities, and came up with a profitable model that still allowed them to offer Skype for free.

Organisations today face new demands as customer satisfaction is becoming more and more transparent with users increasingly sharing their experiences.

FOUR of Jonas’ popular keynote presentations include:

Managing digital transformations, disruption, and innovation
Each year digital inventions bring new changes to our markets and industries. First, the Internet changed how we did business; then, mobile changed how we interacted with each other.

How can you prepare your business for the next disruption? In this interactive talk, Jonas Kjellberg speaks about the disruptors or "game changers" who are remaking the world of business around us. Then he challenges the game changers in the audience to tell him he's wrong and to contribute to the discussion.

Social and creative innovation: new business models for a new generation
Great businesses are born from great ideas. Microsoft was born on user-friendly software, Skype on making calls on the Internet, and Uber on making car rides available everywhere.

But how do you know if your idea is great? In this talk, Jonas Kjellberg speaks about what kind of innovative thinking is needed for success and why some good ideas and companies make it while others do not.

Business creation, growth, and success
Many people who launch start-ups have great ideas but little business experience. What does it take to create, grow, and sustain a business?

In this talk, Jonas Kjellberg outlines the process of business creation based on his book Gear Up: Test Your Business Potential and Plan Your Path to Success. Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs, and everyone in between will learn how to transform their business idea into a high potential venture.

A comedy of errors: VC's, the tech world, and the many failures that lead to my success
For every start-up that becomes a unicorn, there are a dozen others that we never hear from again. Serial entrepreneur Jonas Kjellberg worked in many start-ups before his eventual success with Skype.

In this talk, Jonas describes the lessons learned from his many start-ups, failures, and eventual successes that defined his career during the dot-com boom and beyond. Jonas details the ups-and-downs of the industry as well as his experiences from Campuz Mobile (acquired by Vodafone) to his success with Skype.

Clients often ask about purchasing books for giveaways and delegate packs. Below you’ll find a selection of products by Jonas Kjellberg. Click the images to view on Amazon's website. For bulk orders, please speak with your Booking Agent.