Nationality Norwegian Alma mater Iowa State University | Years active 1995 - current Organization founded Meltwater | |
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Born December 1, 1968 (age 48) ( 1968-12-01 ) Seoul, South Korea Known for Founder and CEO of Meltwater Books Outside Insight: How to Use Data to Understand the Future and Transform Your Business Profiles | ||
J rn lyseggen at cgc15 the unfair advantage of the new boardroom
Jørn Lyseggen is a Norwegian serial entrepreneur, patent inventor and the founder and CEO of Meltwater Group and the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST).
Contents
- J rn lyseggen at cgc15 the unfair advantage of the new boardroom
- Early life and education
- Early career
- Meltwater
- Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology
- References
Early life and education
Lyseggen was born in Korea and adopted at a young age by Norwegian parents. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Bergen University College and a Masters degree in electrical engineering with a focus on artificial intelligence and signal processing from Iowa State University.
Early career
Lyseggen began his career as a research scientist in artificial intelligence and machine vision at the Norwegian Computing Center, but left to work in startups. His first start-up was an internet consultancy founded in 1995, which reportedly counted many of the leading Norwegian media houses including Nettavisen founded by Norwegian media entrepreneur Knut Ivar Skeid as one of its clients, the company was sold in 1997 to a company called EUnet International. In 1998, Lyseggen joined the company Mogul AS as CEO and helped to grow the company before selling it in 1999 to Optosoft. He then served as CEO of the Mogul Group AB and led the group to its IPO in 2000.
Meltwater
In 2001, Lyseggen established Magenta News, an online media monitoring company analyzing online news in real time in Oslo, Norway. He founded the company with US$15,000 and within two years the company had nearly $2 million in revenue with no venture funding. The company changed its name to Meltwater News and moved its headquarters to San Francisco in the mid 2000s.
As of 2015, Meltwater, employed over 1000 staff in 41 cities and 21 countries worldwide while generating revenues of over $200 million. The company had also expanded its services beyond media monitoring, to social media analytics, and competitive intelligence for more than 25,000 clients worldwide.
Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology
In 2008, Lyseggen created Meltwater Foundation and launched Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana. MEST is a full-time training program for aspiring local entrepreneurs. Through the program, the entrepreneurs in training (EIT's) are taught how to code, and the basics of business models, and go to market strategies. The final examination of the program is an investment pitch in front of a panel of global entrepreneurs and investors. Historically, about half the teams pitching have been given seed funding of $30k-$100k USD from the Meltwater Foundation to start software companies that can compete in the global marketplace. MEST alumni have been enrolled in Techstars, 500 Startups, and other international accelerator programs to pursue their international expansion. MEST is funded by an annual donation of $2 million from Meltwater. In 2015, MEST was named by Fast Company as one of the top 10 most innovative organizations in Africa.