Welcome to Founderment

Founderment is an early-stage VC that backs founders of tech-driven startups with blue-sky ambitions. We invest in pre-seed and seed startups and dedicate large amounts of time, attention, care, and empathy, and serve as the founders' fundament during the early phases of the startup life.

Founderment is founded by Christian Schwarz Lausten & Anders Boelskifte Mogensen, together with Anders Holch Povlsen and his venture arm, Heartland A/S.
Aarhus Ø
Founderment graphic element showing a foundation


What we look for

Our scope is curious and explorative in nature and not constrained by industry, field of business, or business model, however technology and software are some of our favourite industries. We have no fixed rules on traction, revenue, or other metrics guiding our investments. We know that every case is different but prefer to invest in the pre-seed & seed stage in companies with a scalable perspective.

We invest in visionary founders with leadership potential who are fast learners and quick thinkers and have strong technical or domain expertise. We look for founders who possess a strong drive, discipline, and dedication to the work ahead and demonstrate personal traits such as empathy, honesty, and kindness.

We expect founders that come to us can clearly articulate the problem they are tackling, the solution, and their execution plan

When do we invest

We back startups with funding that helps get ideas off the ground. We expect you to have identified a clear market opportunity that you wish to attack at this stage. While you may still be pre-product, you must have something to show us with function and value. You and your co-founders are full-time dedicated to pursuing the startup life ahead.

We do also look for companies at a slightly later stage who are working to gain traction in the market. We expect you to have proven a product-market fit at this stage and to have metrics to back you up.

Regardless of the timing of our investment, we have a strong belief and opinion about how 21st-century companies need to operate, capturing three stakeholders' best interests: The company (employees and shareholders), the community (suppliers and customers), and the world outside of the company, especially with ESG in mind. Startups that subscribe to these values are within our scope.

Founderment graphic element showing a foundation


What we offer

With Founderment, we want to be a supportive early-stage investor. We will be hands-on and very engaged when it counts, but fully aware of when to stay in the background. We are ready to lend an ear and send some love on those inevitably ugly days when the outlook is bleak and nothing seems to be working out the way it should.

We are founders ourselves, and we know that every journey is full of ups and downs, wins and fails, plans and pivots.

Access to Founderment’s community

Funding is only one part of helping a startup grow and succeed. Access to the right people and expertise at the right time is just as crucial. We believe sharing is caring and do our best to create a culture where insights, experiences, and knowledge are gathered and exchanged.

Our investments

Get in touch

Christian Vinther

Investment Director
christian.vinther@founderment.dk

Christian Vinther has been part of the startup ecosystem for more than a decade. Both being active in different startups but also working with several hundred startups in the early phases. Recently, he worked in Danish Business Angles to advise both startups and the business angels of the early stages of attracting capital to a startup. Before that, he spent four years in San Francisco helping Danish startups navigate the ecosystem in Silicon Valley on their scaling journey and introduced them to the relevant network.

Furthermore, he was the first employee in Qvin - A female health startup based in San Francisco. Through 5 years, he assisted the founders in building the company and actively raised four different investment rounds.

Anders Boelskifte Mogensen

CEO & Co-founder
anders.mogensen@founderment.dk

Anders' entrepreneurial aspirations came to life while studying at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University in the late nineties. The connection between solid information Technology and design theory coupled With practice in diverse teams applying technology to benefit people, society, and the world was a big inspiration.

Fresh out of University, Anders co-founded Seismonaut.com, a strategic management consultancy. Over the course of ten years, the company grew in size and helped many clients navigate the ever-changing universe of digitalization. We did it with passion, commitment, and a collaborative spirit.

In 2009 Anders was asked to develop a digital media strategy for Nigerias Vice President who was running for office of President in Nigeria. He lost to Goodluck Jonathan - but hey, it's difficult to beat a person with that first name :-) But the project pioneered the use of social media in political campaigning in Nigeria, and furthermore the endeavor lead to the creation of Nordic Hotels Nigeria. A company that today employs almost 200 amazing people working across a group of boutique hotels in Lagos and Abuja.

In 2015 a new idea had formed, and this one wasn't so easy to let go of. Companies demanded access to more flexible spaces as their team’s needs changed, but they had to manage with what the traditional hospitality players could offer them. Gaest was born, and we set out on a journey to make it easy to list, discover, and book unique and inspiring spaces. Just three years later, Airbnb acquired the company, and Anders took on a leadership position at Airbnb, building what was to become Airbnb Event Spaces. https://news.airbnb.com/gaest/ It’s many of these learnings that have been carried forward into Founderment.

Mette Riis

Ground Control
mette.riis@founderment.dk

Mette has more than 20 years of work experience in the hospitality and travel industry with positions within Sales, Finance, HR, and CS.

She was one of the first team members to join Gaest.com and later served on the employee experience team in Airbnb as "ground control"  overlooking the well-being of all Danish employees. In this position she was responsible for brining Airbnb's culture to life, looking after the workplace environment, internal communications,  employee recognition, celebrations, and other workplace events. In Founderment Mette take care of general office operations but also work on ensuring a good experience for all stakeholders engaging with Founderment.

Christian Schwarz Lausten

Chairman & Co-founder
christian.lausten@founderment.dk

Christian is co-founder of Landfolk.com - a digital platform with curated summerhouses, hosted by passionate hosts and driven by world-class technology.

Previously he was Head of Airbnb for Work, EMEA with a focus on Airbnb's offerings to teams and employees and responsible for a $1+ billion budget.

He has founded a number of successful companies in different industries among others Gaest.com (exit to Airbnb in 2019), Seismonaut (Exit 2019) and the fast-growing boutique hotel chain, Nordic Hotel Group in Nigeria.

Previously he was co-founder and managing director of the digital management consultancy Seismonaut which he ran for 12 years he lead a team of 25 super talented digital strategists, design researchers, content specialists and creative minds in Scandinavia.

Christian is passionate about the startup ecosystem and has developed a long range of successful networks (Headstart) and conferences (Internet Week Denmark, High Tech Human Touch, Community Conference) that seek to connect entrepreneurs, makers and visionaries.

Furthermore, Christian has spoken at conferences from SXSW to RadioDays and in many C25 companies.

Apply for funding
We would love to hear about your startup. Send us a few details and your pitch deck, and we will be in touch.