Claus Rosenberg Gotthard is a Danish serial-entrepreneur who has build companies since his late teenage years. His latest venture - Book'n'Bloom - is a business management tool that just raised $11.5M from a London VC. It allows small businesses or freelancers to manage their business from their Facebook page and Mobile. Book'n'Bloom is already available in 3 languages (English, Spanish & Greek), has a team of 21 people (16 of which are based in Thessaloniki) and they have an active sales force in Athens, Madrid & Bogota (Colombia) and this year they are planning to expand to min. 5 new markets.

1. The Power of Startup Grind’s Global Network
When I attended Startup Grind’s annual flagship Conference in Silicon Valley, I wouldn’t image just how
many new friends I would make. Fellow Chapter Directors from around the world jumped into a plane to
join 3000 founders and investors from around the world. One of them was Claus Rosenberg Gotthard, a
Danish-born entrepreneur who is not only running the Startup Grind Madrid chapter, but has co-
founded Book’n’Bloom. His startup just raised a whooping €11.5M in Series A funding from a London-
based VC to expand the business in new markets, including Greece.
While talking to Claus back in February, he told me about this round and grabbed my attention
immediately. Their back-office development team is based in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki,
and Claus was talking about his plans to launch a new office in Athens. I offered to help with finding local
top talent utilizing our network of experienced professionals and asked Claus if he would be willing to
come in our city and be a speaker instead of the interviewer! It was actually the 2nd
time that Claus did
this, as Cyprus hosted him first. He was so impressed by Startup Grind’s values that he volunteered to
launch a new Chapter in Madrid where he is based .Two years later and €14M total funding raised, he
was back at the speaker seat for a unique change of roles.

2. Claus is not your usual entrepreneur; a young founder at his early 20’s who developed a mobile app with
his college friends. He’s a full on business-man who comes from a family of entrepreneurs. He launched
a series of different ventures, one of them scaled in having thousands of employees in Russia. His
entrepreneurial journey leads him to Cyprus where he hired a Greek intern born in Thessaloniki, Babis
Papadopoulos. Being open-mind and always having his eyes open for the next opportunity, Claus saw
potential and made Babis his co-founder in his latest startup, Book’n’Bloom.
Not having a technology background didn’t stop Claus to enter into the high-tech business. When did a
hurdle stop an entrepreneur anyway? He stated that this lead him to believe that he can tackle one of
the last frontiers: to transform millions of small local appointment led businesses - helping them to
transition from Pen & Paper into Social & Mobile operation of their business. You have to be a little bit
crazy to start such an ambitious quest, but Claus was armed with a clear vision and secured €2M in Seed
Funding. He recruited a team of 21 people, 16 of which are based in Thessaloniki and the rest acting as
active sales force in Athens, Madrid and Bogota (Colombia). The new round of €11.5M in Series A
funding will help them expand to minimum 5 new markets.
The fireside chat with Claus was super interesting as not many Greeks know about Book’n’Bloom before
hosting him in Athens. The exclusive news of the funding round came exclusively through Startup Grind
and the buzz around Claus startup was huge. People were eager to meet the CEO who is investing in
Greece, a country heavily hit by a continuous crisis that led to -25% GDP the last 5 years. That’s equal to
the GDP lost during WWII. Most Greek founders are looking to expand their startups abroad, talking to

3. investors how they are going to expand in West Europe or US. Claus on the other hand take a
completely different approach, accepting the country risk but also leveraging the lower burn-rate that
stems from salaries that can be super attractive for founders. A developer in Greece might cost you 50%
less than a developer in California or New York for example. The quality of work though is equal and has
nothing to be jealous of. As Claus mentioned, Greece is uniquely positioned with high percentage well
educated graduates looking for a job. They complete their studies with a Master’s degree already
included (minimum 4 years for a BSc compared to 3 years in US or UK). That gives founders a
competitive advantage as they can dedicate more effort into developing the product itself instead of
financing expensive office rent or ridiculously high salaries.
Claus secret to success? Stay humble and keep Grinding! On behalf of the entire Startup Grind Athens
team, we would like not only to congratulate him for his latest successful funding round, but also to
thank a fellow Chapter Director for accepting my invitation to visit Greece and change hats one more
time. It was certainly one of my favorite events so far and it all started by a simple conversation I had
two months ago in Startup Grind Global.
I wonder what will come out of Startup Grind Europe, our first ever conference on this side of the
Atlantic, coming to London 15th
June. Join me and 700 other founders to create your own story!