The Now, Then, Ten podcast by Facebook and Founders Forum continues to explore the lives of visionary leaders with this week’s guest being Johan Brand.
The series is hosted by Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and one of the most influential people in tech, serial entrepreneur Brent Hoberman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Forum, Founders Factory & firstminute capital.
In the latest episode, Nicola talks to Norwegian founder Johan Brand about his passion for “values-based entrepreneurship” – including his biggest success story yet, Kahoot!.
Kahoot! is an online learning platform that has had over five billion players, from classrooms to boardrooms, and has been called a “cultural phenomenon” by The New York Times.
“The ambition was to create a global brand that got people excited about learning,” says Johan when describing Kahoot!’s evolution from a research project to one of the world’s fastest-growing EdTech brands. “We’re doing the most basic thing, which is getting people to play together… to have fun,” he says.
Community is also at the heart of We Are Human, the company Johan co-founded to invest in brands driven by social purpose, he explains in the episode: “The companies we work with… are all creating communities. Our job is to invest in founders and businesses to really see the responsibility, and the power of a community.”
Johan’s latest project, EntrepreneurShipOne, a zero-emissions yacht where bright minds meet, learn and explore new ideas, is no different. As well as being a floating classroom, the yacht, which takes inspiration from The Life Aquatic (participants wear orange beanies in tribute to Bill Murray’s character in the movie) is part of Johan’s focus on ‘The Blue Economy.’
He encourages all business leaders to join him on his mission to explore the ocean’s commercial opportunities at the same time as helping to preserve it. “We need the ocean, we need to save it and we need to take the potential out of it,” he says.
From social learning to an ocean of opportunity, this episode is an inspiring story of entrepreneurial spirit, passion and purpose.
Now, Then, Ten is available on Apple, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
