They started before they had an idea - and built one of Europe’s leading fintechs | with Jeppe Rindom, Co-founder Pleo

Jeppe Rindom, co-founder and CEO of Pleo, joins Henrik for a walk through Copenhagen — starting at the cheap shared office where it all began, ending at the restaurant where Jeppe first convinced his co-founder Nico to move back from California and build something together.

It's a surprisingly unglamorous story. They incorporated a company called "The Company of February 3rd, 2015" before they had a name or an idea, spent a few weeks on payroll software before deciding it was the most boring thing in the world, and onboarded 70 customers in a single day before having to call most of them back and ask them to leave.

They also cover:

• Why you don't need the idea before you start
• What it actually costs to build a company — financially and personally
• How they expanded from Denmark to the UK, Germany and Sweden
• Why Europe struggles to produce global companies and whether that's changing
• What the first 15 employees meant to the culture Pleo has today
• How Jeppe thinks about AI and the next generation of founders

Pleo: pleo.com
Prehype: prehype.com

00:00 Copenhagen & The Beginning of Pleo
01:34 Starting Without an Idea
03:33 The First Pivot
04:53 Why Most People Never Start
06:02 Raising Money Early
07:42 When It Almost Ended
10:18 Luck vs Momentum
12:41 Finding the Real Problem
15:45 Validating with Customers
19:00 First Breakthrough
21:03 Growth Feels Like Chaos
26:06 Scaling & Expanding to London
29:27 The Reality of Being a Founder
35:14 Building & Scaling in Europe
41:06 Culture, Co-Founders & Full Circle

Read the full transcript: In-Between Time: Jeppe Rindom