Startup Interview with Emil Åkesson, Vetrik's Founder CEO

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I’m originally from the Swedish Army but I’ve been in the startup scene for well over a decade now. I’ve always been involved in companies where my specific niche of knowledge has been vital, but never in an industry I wanted to truly revolutionize. That is what led me to found Vetrik.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Vetrik is a platform for the animal industry. We offer a full ERP and fintech solution for companies and freelancers and a companion app för animal owners.

What is the origin story?

We realized that the pet sector was one of the last frontiers in the digitization race. A multi-billion euro industry with tech from the ’80s and ’90s. We wanted to bring the whole industry into the future by creating the obvious digital solution from fort companies and pet owners.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

Our team consists of nothing but experienced experts. Competent financial people, leaders, award-winning vets, one has even founded and run a hospital. But more than this, we share a vision. We truly want to make the pet industry future-proofed. We want to make sure each animal, animal owner, and professional has the best possible tool and possibilities to thrive. That is why we are a great team.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Probably crawling on the walls in frustration over all the problems that need to be solved and how to solve them.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

Number of users and user experience feedback.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We have a 65% conversion rate for our apps, which is well beyond any of our expectations. We were hoping for 20-25%. But now we are building on that, learning from what we’ve been doing right and what we need to improve. So we can only do better from here on out.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

We base our system on blockchain or cryptographically signed distributed ledger tech. I can talk for hours about why this is the way to go. We believe this truly to be the future of data.

I am more concerned with the classic local client. It has its pro’s of course, but it’s also quite frustrating to hear the argument that a local client is better than an online platform for reason xyz. I firmly believe that an online solution is best for most customers as long as they have a stable connection and the pros far outweigh the cons.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

It’s a community of like-minded individuals who understand where we are currently, but more importantly, where we might be heading. HackerNoon is somewhere to find inspiration and to learn.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Stop doubting. Listen to other people and learn, but DON’T listen to the know-it-alls and the naysayers. And most importantly, If you have a great idea… go for it!

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Even companies with literally NO IT experience actually welcome digital solutions if you make it simple enough for them to use them. Anyone can be converted, even those who traditionally use pen and paper and have never even bought something from a webshop before.