Introduction
When you hear “venture capital,” you might picture flashy tech startups, billion-dollar valuations, and overnight success stories. But as Tom Henriksson, General Partner at OpenOcean, explains in this candid interview with Inside Success CEO David Sonowo, the reality is a lot more complex and a lot more human.
Tom’s journey from management consulting and Nokia executive roles to founding venture capital firms and investing in companies like MySQL and Truecaller offers a rare window into the world of high-risk, high-reward investing. It’s a story of bold bets, massive wins, and equally tough failures, all driven by a passion for helping startups scale beyond the impossible.
Explaining Venture Capital
David: What exactly is venture capital? What does it mean and how does it work?
Tom: Venture capital is money invested at risk into early-stage startups. We raise funds from institutions, families, and ourselves, then invest equity in promising companies. We support them to grow, aiming for a “positive exit” and selling our shares when the company goes public or is bought. The main goal is helping startups mature and make money.
David: How did you get into venture capital?
Tom: It wasn’t planned. I started in management consulting, then did an MBA aiming for strategy consulting. But during my MBA, I worked with startups and got hooked. I also connected with a Finnish venture capitalist, did some market research for them, and that experience brought me into VC.
Tom’s Biggest wins and Toughest lessons
David: Which startup investment has been your biggest success or passion project?
Tom: Two stand out. Early on, we invested in MySQL, an open source database company, which sold for over $1 billion to Sun Microsystems. That was a major win. Later, at OpenOcean, we backed Truecaller, a Swedish app that grew to 100 million revenue and went public in 2021 in Stockholm’s largest IPO that year, worth over 2 billion euros. Both were incredible journeys.
David: Sounds great, but what’s been your toughest lesson in this business?
Tom: Toughest truth? Half your investments will fail, even if you’re the best VC. Startups look amazing on paper but many don’t take off. It’s heartbreaking because you believe in the people and the ideas, but often they just don’t work out. It’s sad for both the founders and investors. You have to be strong, and remember it’s the big wins that keep you going.
David: So you have to be really strong to deal with that?
Tom: Yes. You have to remember it’s the big wins that matter more. But it’s still sad when strong ideas with ambitious people don’t succeed.
Reflecting on his Journey
David: What advice would you give your younger self?
Tom: In investing: Take more risks. Sometimes you have to back those crazy, bold ideas to achieve really big things.
In life: I probably should’ve saved more and made long-term investments earlier. It took me until my 50s to become financially stable.
David: What business do you wish you invested in? Since you mentioned taking more risks, what’s one you didn’t take and now regret?
Tom: Definitely UiPath. It was a company from Romania, and in 2015 we saw they were building software robots to automate business processes. But at the time, no major software startup had come out of Romania yet, so we hesitated. The team didn’t yet look like your typical global business founders, but they had amazing tech. I wish I had dared to invest then. UiPath ended up becoming the fastest-growing enterprise software company at the time.
David: Wow.
Tom: When we first saw them, they had zero recurring revenue, just some consulting income in the hundreds of thousands. The next year? $5 million in monthly subscriptions. Then $30 million. Then $150 million. Their valuation went from a few million euros to tens of billions in just four years.
David: That’s incredible. As a VC, what’s your main passion, the business, the founder, or the financial return?
Tom: The financial return comes as a result of backing the right people and the right ideas. What really drives me is the chance to work with brilliant founders and support innovations that can genuinely improve industries and lives.
Tom Henriksson Daily Routine
David: That’s brilliant. So, what’s a typical day in your life like?
Tom: No two days are the same, but generally, I split my time between managing the firm, supporting our portfolio companies, fundraising, and meeting new startups. It’s a mix of strategy, problem-solving, and constant learning and that’s what keeps it exciting.
David: Considering how passionate you are about technology and the people in the field, how do you pick the industries?
Tom: Well, actually, I would say that people is the most complex one. But industries is of course also super, super challenging because the rate of change today, it’s crazy to just keep up. So to be decent or successful in this job, you need to be naturally very, very curious, read a lot, follow a lot, have a team with lots of different viewpoints and skills, and have world-class networks of experts in different disciplines who help you amplify that insight and knowledge. It is a complex one, and sometimes you get them wrong, and hopefully you get them right, and the timing, more often than wrong, then you might succeed.
Advice for young people
David: What advice would you give a young person starting a business who wants to speak to a VC?
Tom: Know who you are, what you’re building, and what you want. Venture capital is for founders aiming to build massive, high-impact companies. You need extreme ambition and resilience, be ready to face a hard, long journey. Not every business is fit for VC, and that’s okay.
David: What advice would you give a young person with no network trying to get into VC?
Tom: Venture capital is a fairly small industry. In Europe, we’re talking about a few hundred active firms; only a few hundred internship positions a year. It’s been tough to get into and a bit insular unless you know someone. But I think it’s getting better many players like Open Ocean are promoting, opening up our viewpoints and networks.
David: And you’ve got an interview with Inside Success
Tom: This was a no-brainer because your mission is super important. But to get to the tricks if you’re a good student, we want smart people, independent thinkers, people who bring strong new views. To get recognized, you probably need to infiltrate startup and VC circles, university clubs, entrepreneurship societies. If you don’t follow industry publications or know what’s going on in AI or the hot companies, you probably won’t be as interesting a candidate.
Tom Henriksson Top 3 Book Recommendation
David: What books would you recommend, your top 3?
Tom: My favorite book of all times is Lord of the Rings, but that might not be relevant. In business, Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, and his follow-up Inside the Tornado, are loved books about how a startup can go to market and scale. E-Boys was from 2000, about Benchmark Capital and how they formed and succeeded. The third one is The Power Law by Steven Mallaby, a great deep insight into the history, models, and future of venture capital. If someone we’re interviewing has read that and can talk about it, that would be impressive to me.
David: I had two more quick questions. Everyone keeps talking about Africa being the next big thing for business growth. What are VCs doing about that expansion, and what are you or OpenOcean thinking in that regard?
Tom: Great question. Honestly, OpenOcean isn’t doing as much as we’d like to in Africa, we’re currently focused on European software startups. That said, some of our portfolio companies, like Truecaller, have tens of millions of users in Africa and are actively building products for that market. So Africa is definitely on the radar.
One sign of the growing opportunity there is Yuri Milner from DST Global, a firm that invests in late-stage tech companies worldwide. DST has backed giants like Alibaba, Spotify, and OpenAI. Yuri has always had impeccable timing when it comes to entering geographic markets. Now, DST is starting to invest in Africa. That should be a wake-up call for others, Africa’s evolution is clearly underway.
Closing Statement
David: Thank you so much, Tom. This has been really inspiring. Last question, any final advice you’d give to young people?
Tom: Love something and be passionate. That’s when good things start happening. Stay curious, keep exploring, open every door you can. Don’t let setbacks or hardships stop you. Startups are basically a string of problems until they finally succeed, and life is similar. If you stay optimistic, curious, and keep going with a positive mindset, opportunity will come your way.
David: Totally agree. Thank you so much again. Can I add you on LinkedIn?
Tom: Absolutely, my pleasure.
David: We really appreciate this. Wishing you the best.
Tom: Thank you, same to you and your audience. It’s been a real pleasure.
David: Thank you. Take care!
Tom: Bye bye.
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