Jakob Twedmark is approaching 20 years in the industry and looks forward to at least 20 more!

Lina Johansson

Specialist Paid Social & SEM

For many, he is the public face of Motillo — a role that didn't feel entirely natural from the start. With a lifelong interest in entrepreneurship and technology, he feels he is living his dream. Here you get to know Motillo's CEO and co-founder Jakob Twedmark a little better.

Jakob was born in 1981 and spent his early years in Kortedala, Gothenburg. Just as he was about to start school, the family moved to Värmland and the small town of Kil outside Karlstad. There, Jakob's parents envisioned a calmer upbringing for him and his two sisters.

– Kil isn't particularly big, so you can cycle wherever you need to go — everything is a bit closer. It was a big change from life in Gothenburg. I felt at home from the start and quickly became part of the community, says Jakob.

In his spare time, Jakob enjoyed skateboarding and had a brief stint in table tennis before the local club shut down. Like many others who work in this industry, there was also an early interest in computers — though if you compare today's technology and internet speeds with those of the 90s, it's safe to say the latter were somewhat limited.

– I often sat at the computer downloading games and programming. Since this was the dial-up era, the phone line was blocked whenever you were connected to the internet — or in the worst case, the connection would drop when someone called. Eventually my parents had enough and got a dedicated phone line into my room for me to connect with. It was pretty cool to have your own number that only went to my room — not many others had that, says Jakob.

Entrepreneurship started with the Nokia 5110

Regular readers of our articles have probably noticed that a fairly large proportion of Motillo's employees grew up in Kil. Jakob and Jonas Kihlström are the same age and ended up in the same class in secondary school. They shared an interest in computers but with one key difference: Jakob liked Mac and Jonas PC — a difference that is very much still alive today. They exchanged tips and helped each other, but there was also an internal rivalry between the two. If one added a "cool" animation to his self-programmed site, the other couldn't be outdone and would try to top it.

When it was time to start upper secondary school, Jakob chose to study the Natural Science programme with a Computer Science focus in Karlstad — the dream of becoming a professional skateboarder had been set aside. A first business idea had taken shape instead. This was during the time when the Nokia 5110 became popular with its interchangeable covers, and with an airbrush in the garage, Jakob took orders from friends and acquaintances to give them a unique design on their phones.

Graduating right in the middle of the dot-com crash

Straight after upper secondary school, Jakob went on to Karlstad University to study Information Systems, earning a master's degree. Job prospects were not great when the IT bubble had burst in the mid-2000s, especially not in Karlstad. Jakob therefore looked for work in Stockholm and was hired as an e-commerce consultant at Panagora. Shortly before, he had met his girlfriend Daniella, and it so happened that she was accepted to Uppsala University at the same time — the move to the capital was a fact for the couple.

– I learned a great deal about both e-commerce and programming at Panagora. After two years I changed jobs and joined Knowit, where I moved into project management and stayed for three years. Then I moved on to Centigo and the role of management consultant to start working more strategically, says Jakob.

Low bars don't motivate

When Jakob had been working at Centigo for 1.5 years, the couple were expecting their first child and decided to return to Karlstad. The move felt right for their upcoming family life, but career-wise it was less appealing for Jakob — none of the employers there attracted him. He decided to contact his old school friend Jonas to pitch an idea about starting their own business:

– I knew what Jonas was capable of and how talented he was, so I was glad he wanted to come on board. In hindsight I've heard that he had some decision anxiety, but what ultimately made him jump in was the fear that I would succeed and he would miss out, says Jakob with a laugh.

Starting a company is rarely easy and there was quite a bit of learning by doing in the beginning. Jakob created, among other things, an Excel document with growth targets for the first years, and he admits the curve was probably a little too steep.

– I need to set the bar high to really get motivated — if the goals are too low I lose enthusiasm. It's exciting to think "wow, could we actually achieve this?" and then work towards it, says Jakob. In the beginning we were very inexperienced and neither of us had the slightest sales experience, but over time we've found our respective roles well. One thing I have learned, though, is that things take longer than you think, and that you have to allow yourself to make mistakes along the way, he continues.

"Jonas and I are quite different, so we complement each other well."

Heading towards another record year

In addition to being CEO of Motillo, Jakob is now also husband to Daniella, father to Edvin and Harry, owner of Doris, a dedicated CrossFit enthusiast, and a football coach. Are 24 hours in a day really enough for all of that?

– Yes, with a bit of planning it works out. I prefer to start the day with an early CrossFit session. The rest of the family is usually still asleep and I'm back home in time for breakfast. The football team I coach is my youngest son's team and fortunately they don't have too many training sessions per week. I'm pretty bad at football myself, but the 8-year-olds haven't noticed yet. I can feel that moment approaching, though, so after this season I'll be ending my coaching career before the illusion shatters. In summer we enjoy boating on Lake Vänern and in winter there's quite a bit of skiing, so filling up the days is never a problem.

It has now been 11 years since Motillo was founded. The company has grown from two people to 23 employees and around 50 e-commerce projects under its belt. There are no plans to flatten any growth curves:

– Our new premises have room for 50 employees, so the goal is to be that many within a few years. That relies on us finding more people we want to work with and all of us continuously getting a little better at what we do. 2022 was a record year and the way things look now, we'll break the record this year too. That's proof that we're on the right path forward, concludes Jakob.