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'I learned to work in an environment of chaos'

The Local Denmark
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
'I learned to work in an environment of chaos'
Rasmus Preuthun Carlsen and Samlino's 'Captain Compare'. Photos: Submitted

In our ongoing feature series on Denmark's entrepreneurs, we speak with Rasmus Preuthun Carlsen about his mission to "help Danes save money and time".

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Rasmus Preuthun Carlsen is the CEO and co-founder of Samlino.dk, a comprehensive online portal to compare products and services and services within finance, insurance and internet providers. We spoke to Carlsen about his mission to provide customers with timely and accurate information on the best deals for credit cards, loans, broadband, unemployment insurance and more.
 

How did you come up with this business idea?
I have worked in the insurance industry for seven years. My assumption has always been that buying insurance products is complex and very time consuming in Denmark. Why should you have to meet with sales agent for hours to buy an insurance product? I started to do some research in neighboring markets and to my surprise financial comparison portals like check24.de and moneysupermarket.uk were very big in countries similar to Denmark. Thus I decided to quit my job and start helping Danes save money and time.
 
What were the initial challenges? How did you overcome them?
When you are a new concept in a market, the safest thing for potential partners like companies and the press is to say ‘no’ to you, so you need to remember that every objection is a reaction to something you say, and therefore you must make sure they see the benefits in working with you and make ‘no’ not an option.
 
How has the journey been so far?
It’s been a real adventure with ups and down, laughing and crying – but most of all hard work. But overall, it’s been a great success and our website now is visited by thousands of Danes every day to compare and buy financial products. Furthermore we have had great success with delivering comparison tables to big newspapers in Denmark to help consumers make an informed decision.  Finally more and more companies are seeing our platform as an alternative way to get quality costumers.
 
How has becoming an entrepreneur changed you, personally?
It has for sure made me more ”street smart” in my approach to different tasks. As an entrepreneur you have to think outside of the box all the time and build success with very limited resources.  Thus you have to ask yourself all the time: How can you do this smarter? More efficient? More bootstrapped? Better than your competitors? Also I have learned to work and live in an environment of chaos – because that’s what a start-up is compared to corporate.
 

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