Almost a year ago, Fredrik Anker joined Connected Skills. Read about his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges faced by a visionary company in the industry and the grand visions.

Tell us a bit about you and your background.
I am an entrepreneur since very early on and have done many different things. I started in the restaurant business by building up three restaurants in Österlen. That experience has really shaped me and I quickly realized that you don’t get anything for free.

The journey I made from the restaurant industry to consulting was really a coincidence. I came across a friend who worked in IT recruitment/consulting and was recruited to work in sales, which after a few years led to a position as a national KAM. It was a very fun and stimulating time!

At the end of this period, I was then recruited to Sigma Connectivity Engeneering for a position as business developer and consulting manager. A very exciting company at the forefront of technology so I jumped on board!

After three very fun and intense years, my family grew and I went on parental leave. Even before this, a seed had begun to grow about how to streamline and digitize the consulting business. These thoughts turned into plans and I felt compelled to try to realize this, so I quit my job and started Reshaped. A platform very similar to Connected Skills.

I met Ola early on this trip. He got in touch and we realized that we shared very similar ideas about the future of the consulting industry. He told me that he was building something similar to Reshaped, but with the big difference that he had previously built Great IT as the mainstay.

Reshaped was more of a classic startup which was based on the fact that we needed to raise money from investors in order to roll on and move forward. It went really well and we got into the incubator at MINC. There we got great help, came into contact with many creative people and had a very stimulating environment to work in. sit in.

We came a long way with Reshaped, but when Corona came, many investors and opportunities disappeared, which meant that we could no longer keep up the pace we wanted. At the same time, I joined the Connected Skills team and an amazing journey.

What drives you forward?
I get excited about making things happen and realized. I like to be where there is potential for development and the opportunity to create new paths, that’s where I thrive.

I’m not afraid of being on a new playing field where you initially don’t have all the conditions. It is the journey ahead that is so cool. I don’t like it when you are in a situation where it is always the same, the same. Things are going to happen and challenges are there to be solved!

What does your leadership look like?
I’m the kind of person who likes to lead the way and not hang over my colleagues so much. I like it when you have a team where it really feels like you are doing things together and everyone wants to move forward. It may be a vague answer, but I trust the team to get things done, to be creative and to find new solutions where none exist yet.

What are the challenges facing Connected Skills?
Right now we are in a transition to package and sell Connected Skills as a SaaS service. Getting this to the market so that people really understand the benefits of the service and what it brings. The consulting industry has looked the same and followed the same pattern for a very long time, so it requires that you as a consultant buyer are willing to bring in a new service, to try something new and challenge a little.

Some services have popped up that try to do something similar to what we do, but we have a unique solution and our challenge is to reach out with this so that more customers, buyers and suppliers of consulting services test Connected Skills.

Visions and objectives for Connected Skills?
We have grand visions! In the near future, we want to become the market-leading platform and function for consultant matching. There are enormous opportunities to get out into the Nordic region and further out into the UK, Germany, the rest of Europe and then the US.

We want to be the natural choice for consultant matching in first of all Sweden and then the rest of the world.

Coolest feature of the platform?
It must be the whole picture and the benefits the platform brings to both buyers and sellers of consultancy services. And if I were to mention something more specific, it would be that all sales pressure is removed, which is a huge advantage for all parties.