Thought Leaders in Internet of Things: Greenwave Systems CEO Martin Manniche (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a little bit about the specifics of Greenwave. Where are you doing this company from? Where are you based? What are the specifics of the company?

Martin Manniche: We started the company up front. We saw that there was a need for us to innovate in a different way and build this big managed services platform. We like to say that we are headquartered in one location, but we really see ourselves as a company with diversity and focused on being a global company. As I said, we are US-headquartered out of Irvine, California. We are European-headquartered at Copenhagen.

We are, today, around 250 employees worldwide. We have, over the last three years, doubled revenues year over year. We are very profitable. We have seen massive growth within the last three years. The company is seven years old but the first four years was hard. We grew but we didn’t grow the pace we’ve done over the last three years.

I think this could be a motivation for some of your listeners to see that when we started, many people say, “What is IoT? Why are you doing this?” The market was in a depression. That was the best time to start because we had no issue hiring talent. I normally like to start companies when the market is tough. We are funded by the founders and some VCs. We just announced a round with two investors.

One is EDBI, which is supported by the Singapore government. Then ST Telemedia. The reason we brought them in is they have investments in very strategic telcos in Asia and we’d like to work with them. We have done okay in the US market and also growing well in the European market, but we have very little footprint in Asia Pacific. We are quite confident that ST Telemedia and EDBI will be great partners.

We didn’t take the money because we needed them, but we did it because we are at a stage where we will be using the money where we will be doing acquihires. One thing I really liked at Cisco was that it really had the entrepreneur gene allowing entrepreneurs to come into the company.

Sramana Mitra: Cisco is a master of acquihire strategy.

Martin Manniche: Absolutely. I was very impressed by how they do it and how professional the process of integrating those companies was. We have already acquired a few smaller companies and we will continue doing that. We will actually be much more active now. We are in the process of acquiring one or two companies.

Sramana Mitra: It seems like you are from Denmark which is why your European headquarters is from Denmark?

Martin Manniche: I can’t hide from my accent. I’m a Danish guy. I moved over 10 years ago from Denmark as part of the Cisco acquisition.

Sramana Mitra: What is your read of what’s happening in the Denmark startup ecosystem today?

Martin Manniche: I’m part of the Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador and also supporting investments in Denmark. As an entrepreneur, at a certain stage, it’s time to give something back. I spend more and more of my time on Goodwill. What’s interesting in Denmark is that there is a culture from the school system all the way up to the startups that they’re pushing the students out of the box. That is not just unique for Denmark. The point that Denmark has been missing was the venture funding. Now, that it’s becoming easier. That has helped grow entrepreneurship.

The Danish government, for a very long time, is very focused on making Denmark a leader in clean tech solutions. If we want to be a clean tech solution, we need to be a great example for the global market for what a country can do in clean tech. I think it comes from support from the government. I think it comes from teachers educating. Many people have some reservation on the entrepreneurial route saying, “Why do you want to take that risk? Why don’t you just take a normal job?” I would put it another way. Why shouldn’t you give yourself the chance to show that you can win against any competition? That’s a very rewarding way of thinking about yourself.

If you have that gene in you, you will also be a very passionate leader. Passion is one thing that you have, but it can spread to your team. You can start companies in days, documentation-wise. How you’re running companies should be simple enough that you don’t scare people away.

Sramana Mitra: Great! I enjoyed talking to you. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Internet of Things: Greenwave Systems CEO Martin Manniche
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