I spend the week at the Point 65 head quarters in Stockholm. This is what I did:
Tuesday08:45 am. Budget meeting with my business partner and brother Tomas and our financial advisor Lars Hjällström.
Me, Lars, Anders and Tomas in budget meeting. I would rather be paddling... Tomas, Lars and I were joined for lunch by Point 65 board member Anders Arnborger and we spent the early afternoon in a strategy meeting.
3 pm. Tomas and I headed out to the Stockholm Boat Exhibition “
Allt for Sjon” where
Point 65 is exhibiting. There we met with Swedish retailers Pelle and Carina of
Nynäs Kajak, Håkan of
Rock Water and Pierre of
Kajakeriet. Pelle and Carinas store and outfitting centre is located very near Stockholm in the archipelago around Nynäshamn. Järflotta, Torö and Öja, which is amongst the most beautiful in Sweden. Håkan runs Rock Water with his brother and brother-in-law and are located in Uppsala. They have focused a lot on white water kayaks but are getting more and more into touring. Pierre, whose store and outfitting is also located in the heart of the Stockholm archipelago, Ingarö, is actually Point 65's very first retailer and oldest customer!
7 pm. After hanging out in the booth we all took off to the excellent restaurant
Bergamott, where we were joined by Point 65 staff members Lina (office manager) and Jonas (logistics) and all had dinner together. Alec, the owner of Bergamott and a friend had prepared a feast for us. Starting of with an "amuse bouche" in the shape of oysters washed down with a Muscadet, the most underrated white of France. Following this we were served an incredible "pot-au-feus" with a nice Cote de Rhone. The desert was a lovely baked apple. A very nice dinner!
Pelle, me, Carina,Staffan, Pierre, Tomas and Jonas with oysters. Paddling? this was ok! The day started of with Tomas and others in another meeting concerning financials which carried on until noon.
12:00 noon. Lunch interview with potential recruit for the post as CFO.
1:30 pm. Meeting with our land lord about extending our offices as we need more space.
2 pm. Tomas and I were interviewed by Lars Larsson for a magazine article about Point 65 in Swedish paddling magazine "
Paddling". Lars founded the magazine with friend Glenn Mattsing a few years ago and have added some spice to the Swedish paddling community.
Me and Tomas being interviewed by Paddlings Lars LarssonThe afternoon was spent meeting with Tomas, Staffan (our Swedish sales manager) and
Ulf Öjebo and Mikael Jansson of
Lidingö Multisport signing a sponsorship contract for the Stockholm Kayak Marathon (web site up soon) and planning the August 30 competition which will be spectacular (more info will follow on this).
Ulf, me,Staffan and Mikael after signing the sponsorship contract. The day started with meetings with our patent bureau discussing patent applications we are filing (you will know what projects the spring of 2009)☺
Me, Tomas and Göran, the patent expert We head out to the Stockholm Boat Exhibition were we meet with our biggest Swedish account
Stadium, spending the rest of the day with them at our offices.
7 pm. Dinner with Aled Williams of
Tiderace and David Felton of
Knoydart at my favorite Stockholm restaurant
PA & Co.The delicious dinner featuring Swedish herring and aquavit ended with some brandy and PA & Co very special dessert, Gino invented by PA's owner and very good friend Niklas Ericsson. Fresh strawberries, banana, kiwi and ice-cream gratiné with white chocolate. David, runs and owns Knoydart, the exclusive Point 65 dealer in North England and was in town to inspect his coming Point 65 shipment. Aled and Dave co-founded Tiderace a year or so ago and have had a tremendous success with their britt style rough water kayaks. Aled and I are friendly competitors as I'm sure is evident from the pictures.
Tomas, me, Lina, Aled and David at PA & Co. We agreed that we would all rather be paddling -NOT
meeting with Sam Peters at
NoPicnic, our industrial design partner.
11:00 am. Meeting with industrial designer Christoffer, about possible collaboration.
1:30 pm. Meeting with school administrator regarding my daughters coming high school year.
2:40 pm. Air France flight AF 2063 takes me back home to France.
Ulf, me, Staffan and Micke sealing the 3 year sponsorship deal
Yesterday I received an e-mail from David H Johnston, making me aware of the web community PaddlingInstructor, "Professional Resources for Professional Instructors". I found this web site to be very informative and fun. There is a lot of industry news to. David had posted an item regarding my blog on his PaddlingInstructor blog. You can find his posting by clicking here.
Me, Lars, Anders and Tomas in budget meeting. I would rather be paddling...
Pelle, me, Carina,Staffan, Pierre, Tomas and Jonas with oysters. Paddling? this was ok!
Me and Tomas being interviewed by Paddlings Lars Larsson
Ulf, me,Staffan and Mikael after signing the sponsorship contract
Me, Tomas and Göran, the patent expert
Tomas, me, Lina, Aled and David at PA & Co. We agreed that we would all rather be paddling -NOT
meeting with Sam Peters at NoPicnic, our industrial design partner.
I thought Lars item was rather bizarre as there can be no doubt that my blog is not objective at all. There are tons of blogs out there, many discribing the daily trails of this or that business. Like any blog on the internet, it is my very personal view on anything I wish to express. That's the beauty of the blogging world and the internet in general. And I am very open about who I am and what I represent. The blog name spells it out and couldn't be more clear: "A kayak entrepreneurs diaries -Richard at Point 65". Looking through Lars blog I find his support for other blogs with kayak-entrepreneurs behind them, plugs for all kinds of products and links to kayak companies of his liking. So why pick on mine? Beats me.
