In totalt 5 pages Henrik Blomgren 2018-08-27

12 unknown places of Stockholm to visit for an EIT-ICT-student

And a quizz and a price to win

on the last lecture in 7th of December 2018

Since all of you are here in Sthlm for this semester, and most of you for the first time, I
heavily suggest you use at least part of your spare time in order to “understand” Stockholm
and the swedes from an ICT- and entrepreneurial point of view. A good way to do that is to
visit the places below and try to talk to people you meet during the road and not the least:
Observe what you see (and not see) while there.

There will also be a quiz in the end of the course related to the places mentioned below (at
7th December). The quiz is only possible to answer if you actually visit the 12 places
physically (Googling will not be enough). It is not an obligatory moment in the course, rather
a free choice, but in the last lecture in December there will be price given to the one (or
ones) of you that has the best result from the quiz (we will do the quiz on last lecture so if
you want to win you got to look around close to the 12 places and observe everything you
can capture and see, meaning: Prepare for the quizz).

Consider “what” you see and hear while doing the visits below, and not the least: What you
do “not” see and hear while doing it. Gradually you will probably find patterns, and not the
least: start to understand customers and other kind of people you will have use of later on in
your carrier doing entrepreneurship.

Visit the places partly because it is fun, of course it is. But do it also in order to increase your
understanding on what it really means to be working in an international setting (most likely
something you will continue doing after the program is finished). On top of that you will
increase your understanding on how to understand the context for customers, companies,
finance etc, something you definitely will have use of further on. In that sense we can
consider Sthlm as a “case” developing ways to understand other places we might visit on the
globe (and other citys you will visit during rest of the time in this program can be analyzed in
similar ways).

So, below is a list of places inside Sthlm I suggest you visit during this semester.

It will not be a group study-trip here, mainly because if all of us did go to these places at the
same time, we would jam it up and people we meet would be upset. So, instead: Go there
when you have spare time over and/or when are already downtown for meeting friends or
doing “traditional tourism”.

You can visit the places in any order you like. They are not connected in a cerstin order. And
yes, you are correct: Most of these places are not found in a traditional guide book, not even
known to a lot of Swedes living here (not even to Swedish students here at KTH). The places
are more of “unknown places of Sthlm…hopefully of interest to an ICT-geek”.
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1. Arsenalsgatan 8 C. The headquarter of Investor.

https://www.investorab.com/ Investor is the holding-company for the
Wallenberg Family, the historically most well-known financial family in
Sweden (they own companies like Ericsson, Scania, Atlas Copco, Sandvik, 3 etc
etc etc). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallenberg_family By tradition,
Investor has the biggest influence on the company Ericsson (right opposite of
Electrum here in Kista). Börje Ekholm, the sitting CEO of Ericsson, was
previously CEO of Investor, and by the way: Börje was also a student here at
KTH once (yes, he is in my age and we did take our basic education here at
about same time). So, if you stand outside the headquarter of Investor for a
while, I would not be surprised if you could see Börje (or other well-known
big-industry people) pass by simply because Investor still are one of the main
owners of Ericsson, meaning…Börjes boss.
2. Brunkebergstorg 4. Spotify HQ: https://www.spotify.com There is a bar called
Hobo besides it where you can have great coffe and/or a beer.
https://hobo.se/ . It is extremely likely you will meet Spotify-employees there
for AW (After work) during night time. And yes, Guess you already knew but
still…Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, is a dropout from KTH.
3. Regeringsgatan 65 (3rd floor). SUP46. http://sup46.com/ The “original startup-
house of Sweden” (the first one…now there are several in the city). Here
several well-known startups take off and sit in the office-space of SUP46 for a
while getting help from others. KTH is one of the founders to SUP46. There is
a coffeshop in the entrance open for anyone where you can sit and
work/study anytime you like. Most often you find everything from laywers,
management-consultants, startup-people and VC-people there. It gives a
great flavor on what’s cooking in the start-up-community at this moment. In
evening-time there is also fairly often different kind of events that you might
be interested in. Everything from hackathons to corporate presentations and
recruitment-events. Just follow their website, or check in for instance at
Meet-up. And by the way: if you want to start your own company there is a
unit called KTH Innovation here at KTH full of start-up-coaches that might be
able to help you. These people often hang out here at SUP46.
https://www.kth.se/en/innovation And do not forget to visit the IKEA new
“showroom” that is just around the entrance to SUP46.
4. Kungsträdgårdsgatan. The big banks HQ-street. In Sweden there is 4 big
banks, having like 90 % of the financial market (globally speaking rather
unusual). SEB, Handelsbanken, Swedbank and Nordea. SEB and
Handelsbanken has their HQ on this street. And by the way: The biggest
owner of SEB is…yes…the Wallenberg-family (see bullit 1).
5. Nybrogatan 3. Teatergrillen. https://teatergrillen.se/ A restaurant where you
often find VC-people of Stockholm eating lunch. A rather quiet place, guess
because they want to be able to sit and speak quietly. Sweden is a small
country, and Stockholm a rather small city. It means in practice that it is not
thousands of people working in the VC-sector (more like hundreds). And lot of
them already know each other from back in school (like when some of them
did study here at KTH once). So, they have a tendency of meeting each other
(or prospects) and eating lunch at similar places. Other lunch-restaurants
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where you can find them is for instance Riche https://riche.se/ or Sturehof
https://www.sturehof.com/ (just 100 meters away from Teatergrillen). Lot
of them have their offices close to Stureplan, close by. These restaurants are
somewhat expensive yes, but I do think you can manage the cheapest stuff if
you want to try (or just look on the inside). It is not as expensive as some
restaurants you might find globally.
6. Skansen. The old student-house of KTH. It is a building called Café Petissan.
http://www.cafepetissan.com/. To be found at Skansen actually. Once upon a
time, like 100 years ago, this building was in the middle of Drottninggatan
(today Drottninggatan is a walking shopping-street). At that time it was on the
outside of KTH campus and hosting the Student Union (The place where
students did meet). If you go there take a look on the walls. There you find
names of students from that time. Historically they did serve Coffe, buns and
“punch” (a typical Swedish drink you should drink warm).
7. Skeppsbron 18. Headquarter of Kinnevik. https://www.kinnevik.com/ The
history of Kinnevik is closely related to a man called Jan Stenbeck (he is now
dead and his daughter Christina is the head of the empire nowadays).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Stenbeck He was a well-known
entrepreneur during 1980s and 1990s heavily interested in breaking up
“monopoly” (like media, telecom etc). You can call him the “Swedish Richard
Branson” if you like. He founded companies like Tele2, Comviq, Millicom,
Modern Times Group, Metro etc. Lot of “younger” entrepreneurs we know of
today (like Niclas Zennström, the founder of Skype) started their carrier at
Kinnevik. You might call it a great startup-school if you like.
8. Södra Blasieholmshamnen 8. Grand Hotel veranda and bar.
https://www.grandhotel.se/ Originally the “coolest hotel” in Stockholm (5
star). During evening time it is of interest just to hang in the bar and listen to
all languages spoken there. Well-known music artists and not the least
“international capital” is staying here. So don’t be surprised if you here lot of
Mandarin and Arabic spoken there during night time. And maybe some
business deals also can be overheard.
9. Katarinahissen. Stadsgården 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katarina_Elevator The elevator was once made
in order to help ”poor people” get back home after work. The story was like
this: You probably already have noticed that Sthlm physically looks like an
hourglass with the island Gamla Stan in the middle. Way back poor people
lived on “södermalm” (the southern part…where the elevator is). These
people had to walk long way to work (often to the north side of Gamla Stan).
But there is a hill to climb when walking back to Södermalm and therefor the
elevator was built to make it easier for them. Probably that “working culture”
is the reason why Södermalm nowadays is like “Greenwich village of
Stockholm”. No coincidence gaming companies like Mojang (Minecraft),
Electronic Arts Studios, EA (Fifa-games, Star Wars-games) etc had, and still
have, their offices around here. There is a restaurant on top of the elevator
with grate view over Sthlm (Called Gondolen). If you stand there and look on
the right you find a big office with lot of glass-windows (previously the office
of EA). And if you look on the left during night time you find the first “light-
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screen-out-door-commercials of Stockholm” (Tothpaste Stomatol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomatol_Sign ) It still works and is actually
“saved by the city” to keep it lighting for historical reasons. You will also see
lot of the other bullits mentioned here from that bar. A great view of Sthlm.
And by the way…if you really look well you will find buildings where family
members of family Wallenberg live (on “Djurgården).
10. Västra Trädgårdsgatan 16. http://tandstickspalatset.se/en/ The Krueger
palace (The Match palace). Well known historically because of the founder
who once did sit there with his office, Ivar Kreuger (and the office space and
the roundabout on the inside being well-known by Architects).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Kreuger Actually the biggest financial
scandal ever in Swedish history when he did die (1932 during recession in US,
his capital was international so it affected him). Interesting though is the fact
that after he did die “his bank” was the Wallberg-family and they took over
his shares at Ericsson (that they still hold) and his lawyer took other stuff (that
was what became the Kinnevik imperium later on). By the way it might be of
interest to know that Kreuger once actually was a student at KTH Main
Campus (Valhallavägen) and if you walk from main campus area downtown to
visit the bullits here (will take you about 15 minutes walking) you can pass by
the address Villagatan 13, and there he did live.
11. Österlånggatan 51. Gyldene Freden. http://www.gyldenefreden.se/ The
restaurant where the Swedish Academy meet every thuresday (and extremely
old restaurant). Yes, correct, the Academy you might heard a lot about during
the global mee-too-campain in media. The Swedish Academy by the way is at
Källargränd 4, also in Gamla Stan. http://www.svenskaakademien.se/ And if
thinking about the Nobel prize, here the nobel foundation is situated at
Sturegatan 14 (close to Stureplan and the “VC-restaurants” mentioned
above). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Foundation
12. Hantverkargatan 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_City_Hall#Site_and_construction
Stadshuset/City Hall. If thinking of the Nobel prize it might be of interest to
know the following: The nobel prize-cermony is always at the city hall
(stadshuset). It is open and possible to visit. And if you stand outside here in
December on the event you will see the “Nobel-people” pass by for the party.
The architect for the building was the KTH-alum Ragnar Östberg and funny
enough it was constructed by a company called Kreuger & Toll (yes that
company was the “starting-point” for Ivar Kreuger mentioned above).
13. Strandvägen. Here a lot of well-known people do live, like “Björn Borg”. A
perfect street to walk if walking to Djurgården and Skansen.

Draw any kind of conclusion you like from the above but one seems very clear: Sweden, and
Stockholm has always been, and will be, a globally speaking rather small place. That means it
is seldom many steps away from one person to another person (even physically). Sometimes
that might be terrible (like “if you mess up a meeting at company A it might effect your
meeting with company Y”) but on the other hand it can be a great place for running a
business and getting a living since if you know one person it is not that difficult via that
person to get to know other people you might like to get to know. And since in business
In totalt 5 pages Henrik Blomgren 2018-08-27

contacts is often of value, being a student here at KTH might be worthwhile. Lot of business
historically in this country has connections to former alumni, and that is still something
ongoing at these days.

Another way to say the same thing is to claim this: Take care of your study-friends you meet
while being here at KTH. You never know when you might have use of them in business life.
And friends, that is something you create…before you need them ;-)

I also hope all this drives your curiosity further since curiosity is really one of the most
important tool for learning!

Map below with the addresses mentioned (not perfectly positioned on the map…but you do
have a better GPS-map in your phone, use that one).

Henrik Blomgren
Course-responsible I&E Basics, KTH