I can’t believe a year’s gone by already, it feels like it was yesterday I took the not so easy decision to startup. We are well on our away and have achieved more than we could hope, this tells us that we are doing something that’s been missing in the game. I’m truly humbled and proud. Before looking forward and taking on the future, helping even more customers, I took a minute to reflect on my journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, the story of how TeQflo came alive, I hope it can serve as inspiration!

Have you ever felt unfulfilled while living a supposedly great professional life? Perhaps you went to a prestigious school, got a brilliant career going while constantly struggling for work life balance? You seem to have it all but you don’t feel it. This was my life a year ago. Having experienced enriching professional challenges, the important question grew stronger; will this life make me happy? Naturally I started exploring. For sure, knowledge is valuable but I was after the gold, the tacit knowledge acquired by action, knowledge and reflection. 

Celebrating one year as an entrepreneur I began to reflect over the eventful year. A year when TeQflo was born and grew to 7 employees. Share my story seemed appropriate kicking off the #TeQfloLife blog, the behind the scenes of TeQflo. Welcome to get a glimpse of TeQfloLife!

 I’ve explored extensively for the last couple of years through challenging professional roles. Starting in my academic home turf of finance, I quickly moved from auditing to corporate finance and business controlling. Transferring to business development, I helped optimising production between countries, tried to acquire companies, contributed to a greenfield in Austria while smoothing out cultural differences in cross country business cooperation’s.

I've contributed to one of the largest retail turnarounds in Sweden meanwhile stepping out of my comfort zone and into marketing, sales and E-commerce. Chasing valuable knowledge, I’ve read books on leadership, biography’s and popular science. My studies were crowned by a fantastic experience completing an Executive MBA. 

Panel debate in Botswana on entrepreneurship and innovation. Me and Elisabeth Brevenson with the largest diamond company and bank in Botswana, as a part of the Executive MBA

The corporate career was perfectly setup. Still, the more I explored corporate life, doubts grew if it was for me. The final bell rang when my manager asked what I wanted to stay onboard and be happy. I had no answer. 

It was time to explore entrepreneurship. I envisioned building a company where our customers thrived and our co-workers grow. Not only professionally but more importantly through personal growth. 

Early morning climb of Vida Gora in Brac Croatia    

The idea of TeQflo was founded on a growing frustration of mine. I worked with some of the smartest consultants in the market. 

However, they never conceded to digitalised solutions helping us progress towards our strategic goals. In fact, they blocked improvement prioritizing manual Excels and PowerPoints. Moreover, I lacked direct access to IT competence, who were, to my frustration, not there to support the business goals. Therefore, I wanted TeQflo to bridge the gap between the business and technology. 

In consultancy, that means right between management consulting and IT/technology. We should know the Why and How applying technology to solve for business challenges. TeQflo was borne literary meaning Smart Tech Flowing. Smart as in customer context solutions for value creation. Tech as in IT and technology and Flowing for working, easy-to-use solutions. Just like Bruce Lee meant in his famous quote.

That great feeling of enjoyment reaching the top

Now it’s been 1 full year since leaving corporate life for my start-up life and I have no regrets. I’ve experienced the full emotional register including happiness, uncertainty, fatigue, disappointment and laughter. Building the foundation for a potentially great company has been very fulfilling and provided wholeness. 

One of the proudest was, without doubt, when fantastic people started to join the TeQflo journey. 

Not only talented and skilled, but also brave leaving good jobs pursuing a better life building TeQflo. I am ever grateful and will do my utmost to make your “investment” in TeQflo worthwhile leading to happier lives. 

Moreover, thank you customers trusting a new company to provide services to your much valuable business. Lastly, thank you to all our partners who choose to cooperate with an unproven start-up. Thank you all!

Celebrating customer success

Summing up, entrepreneurship is an incredible adventure. Hopefully this text will inspire brave decisions in your life. Feel free to comment and I’ll be happy answering any questions. Take a leap of faith – that’s where a life of growth and enjoyment are! 

Henrik Börjesson

 P.S. Sharing our values and up for an exciting TeQflo journey? Please connect teqflo.teamtailor.com, we’d like to get to know you! We are only at the beginning of the beginning. D.S.

 #TeQflo #TeQfloLife