L@C TV: “How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”

“How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”, with Bengt Sundstrøm, founder, owner and president of Lauritz.com


We recently had an exciting Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrøm, owner and president of Lauritz.com.

Over lunch Bengt told us about how he raised the money to start his business in three hours with a quick phone call to his banker, how he does not waste money on Google Ads (but instead use them effectively), what his next strategic moves will be and what the key difficulties are in creating an online auction house. But he did not tell us why he still does not have any serious competition in his business. Because, he says, it is a puzzle to him too.

Here’s a short video interview:

Bengt Sundstrøm is the owner and president of Lauritz, Scandinavia’s biggest auction house. In 1998 Bengt bought the small auction house of Lauritz Christensen Auctions, founded in 1885. One year later Bengt launched the online auctions on lauritz.com. It has since grown to a business with a turn-over of around 100 million euros. The business model is very different from other well-known internet auction houses (e.g. eBay). All bidding on Lauritz is done online but they also have brick-and-mortar viewing locations across Scandinavia where you can go and look at the items on sale. They also have a staff of over one hundred valuation experts. This mix of online auctions, valuation expertise and physical presence has been the key to Laurtiz’ success, says Bengt.

More information: http://www.lauritz.com/

Bengt also (accidentally) became the owner of a vineyard, Chateau Vignelaure, in Provence a few years ago, so he will also tell the story of life as a winegrower. As well as let us taste some of his wines of course. More information:http://www.vignelaure.com/ and on BKWine Magazine: Château Vignelaure – Cabernet sauvignon meets Provence.

And here are some more videos and images from the event!

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

What social networks mean for enterprises

“What social networks mean for enterprises” was the subject for an event a while back where Carlos Diaz, president of blueKiwi was our invited speaker.

Carlos is the keynote speaker at the conference “Enterprise 2.0: Cap vers 2009” that will soon take place: On Thursday November 13 Carlos will speak at the Salons du Louvre, together with Stowe Boyd and Jon Husband.

You can find more information here:
http://www.bluekiwi-software.com/fr/inscription-cap-vers-2009

Here’s a bit more background info from Carlos:

“A l’occasion de l’annonce de blueKiwi 2009, nous organisons un GRAND événement sur le thème de l’Entreprise 2.0 le 13 novembre prochain à Paris aux Salons Du Louvre (nouveau lieu très sympa). Les invitations sont limitées et j’aimerai beaucoup que tu sois des nôtres.

Cet événement réunira plus de 150 décideurs français (plus de 4000 invitations envoyées) de 18h à 20h30 autour du thème de l’Entreprise 2.0. On attend bien entendu nos clients, nos prospects, nos partenaires, des journalistes et des bloggers.

Deux têtes d’affiche, Stowe Boyd (US) gourou du 2.0 et Jon Husband (US) auteur du best-seller “Making Knowledge Work – The Arrival of Web 2.0” donneront une conférence. Enfin, la nouvelle version bK 2009 sera annoncée à cette occasion. Big Surprise !

On finira la soirée autour d’un cocktail.

Penses à t’inscrire dès à présent ici : http://www.bluekiwi-software.com/entreprise-2-cap-vers-2009/index.html

Long lost friends

Perhaps not so long and not so lost, but all the same. Susan Lucas-Conwell was (even though she might not know it) one of the “spiritual inspirations” of Lunch at the Circle. I happened to find this video interview with her where she talks about her current role as Executive Director of SVForum (previously SDForum), a Silicon Valley networking and educational organisation.