Hence, that’s where I will focus. I will certainly share some of my predictions as well, but will always try to do it in the context I am in.
This is my fifth year as CFO at Planhat. When I joined, I had spent the first six years of my career learning about business and software on the investment side. I really enjoyed it. I was fortunate to work with a few leaders that I respected and learned from. Some I am still close with. The nature of focused and intense projects, having the opportunity to observe and listen, often being the person least knowledgeable about the topic at hand (with resources to leverage more experienced people), iterating quickly, suited me really well and I learned a lot. What I learned, and how I learned it, shaped how I approach problems and how I work today.
I later joined Planhat. How I joined Planhat is for another story, but when I joined Planhat, I had no real operational experience. I had observed successful companies, worked relatively closely with leaders of companies with much more experience than I had (or still have), but I had not been part of building a company at any scale before. That said, I had learned a thing or two working as an investor, and as it was early days for Planhat, I never felt that was a problem.
I also had a healthy degree of naivety combined with excitement towards the product, team and opportunity. I was excited about the world moving towards recurring business models and software growing as a sector. I had spent a lot of time on projects to increase retention; if we could increase retention, growth and valuation multiples would increase, and we would make more money.
I was incredibly excited to join a team of entrepreneurs more experienced than myself. I have learned so much from Niklas Skog, Kaveh Rostampor, Chris Regester, and many others at Planhat over the past years.
Today, I will give my perspective on something I have been thinking a lot about recently: what works for me as I try to work effectively, and ultimately how I try to be successful. Here, I outline some perspectives on what works for me.
Find belonging, ownership and purpose
Let me start with something that is not a way to approach a problem, nor a way to work effectively, but rather a requirement in order to achieve my goals. For me, probably the most important requirement: A sense of belonging, ownership and purpose.
Doing a good job over a long period of time, without a sense of belonging, ownership and purpose, is very difficult. In the jobs or projects where I have done well, this has always been true.
As an investor, I remember getting feedback from my boss that I did a bad job in a project where I didn’t believe in the deal we were pursuing. He said, ”Erik, you are fantastic when you believe in the purpose, but you come across as bored and passive when you don’t”. I took the feedback to heart and thought, “I need to do better when I don’t believe in the purpose”. I tried a bit harder next time, but a few months later he said the same thing. I am not sure if I understood back then, but in hindsight it’s very clear. The solution was (obviously) not to do more and better without purpose. The solution was to find purpose. Luckily, this was the case in many of the projects that I was part of.
At Planhat, I have always felt a sense of belonging, ownership and purpose. During different parts of our journey, it’s been demonstrated in different shapes and forms, but it has always been true and very important to me.
Without this feeling, it is very difficult to be inspired to work hard. It is also not fun. Working is a big part of all our lives, especially for those of us that want to be successful. Without a purpose, work will almost certainly become a negative experience. Personally, I want a job where I get inspiring ideas when lying awake in bed late at night or when I’m in the shower.
Listen (well!)
We have all been told about the importance of listening. If you ask around, most people consider themselves good listeners, similar to how a majority think they're above-average drivers. From what I've observed, this isn’t the case - people tend to be worse listeners than they think. Too often, people are planning their next comment rather than actively listening and thoughtfully reacting to what has just been said. To some extent, this is perfectly natural, as making one’s voice heard in some cases has value in itself (at least perceived value). The irony is that in the effort to be heard, the essence of what makes communication valuable is often lost. When everyone is more concerned with speaking rather than listening, the opportunity for genuine understanding and collaboration diminishes. It becomes a competition for airtime rather than an exchange of ideas.
This is not new, you know this. Everyone knows this, but very few of us are able to translate that knowledge into action, let alone an improved behavior. I am not sure if I am a good listener or not, but I really do make an effort, and when I do, I learn.
As an investor, you are fortunate to have a lot of natural opportunities to observe and listen. The job is literally to listen and evaluate. To give a very concrete example; imagine you are 26 years old. You are (part of a team) assessing an investment into a $200 million banking software company. Your day looks like this:
Work hard
Finally, in order to be successful, you need to work hard. You need to work a lot of hours. This has been said a million times, but in my experience there is no way around it.
In fact, I think that people claiming that you can be successful without working hard are kidding themselves, especially early in their career. Sam Altman wrote a great article on the topic; How To Be Successful.
“I think people who pretend you can be super successful professionally without working most of the time (for some period of your life) are doing a disservice. In fact, work stamina seems to be one of the biggest predictors of long-term success. One more thought about working hard: do it at the beginning of your career. Hard work compounds like interest, and the earlier you do it, the more time you have for the benefits to pay off. It’s also easier to work hard when you have fewer other responsibilities, which is frequently but not always the case when you’re young.”
Working hard is not easy. It inevitably means making sacrifices. It also needs to be sustainable for it to work over long periods of time. Working sustainably will mean different things for different people. Ultimately, it requires a sense of belonging, ownership and purpose. It requires a match between the person and the job. Without this, it is very difficult to be inspired to work hard. It is simply not fun.
Thanks for reading this article. These are some of my perspectives and learnings on a topic I have been thinking about recently. I will over time share more perspectives around challenges I face, conversations I have, and ultimately how I try to improve and learn.
Chief Financial Officer
Planhat
Erik is Planhat’s CFO, responsible for financial strategy, fundraising, and scaling operations as the company expands globally. He brings over a decade of experience across SaaS, fintech, and private equity, including roles at Nordic Capital and Morgan Stanley. He has also served on the boards of high-growth companies such as Trustly, Cint, and GODSENT. With a background in financial mathematics and a sharp operational focus, Erik pairs analytical depth with a track record of driving growth in fast-moving tech environments.
