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<aside> 👤 Name: Thomas Sveum (30) Nationality: Norwegian Location: Oslo, moving to Copenhagen in March Education: Financial Management at University of Essex Experience: Product management, marketing and business development at Startupmatcher, uWork and Superside. Current role: CEO at The Hub Interests: Startups, product design, product marketing, football, gin, hiking, horror movies.

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I remember launching Startupmatcher in Oslo in 2015, shortly after tumbling oil prices had unleashed a wave of entrepreneurialism throughout Norway. Surprisingly, almost one in four startups fail because they are unable to hire the right team. Inspired by Angellist’s impact on the US startup scene, my mission was to facilitate new opportunities for startup teams and talent in the Nordics by developing the region’s first startup-only job board. The traditional application process was replaced by one click applications that instantly generated chat threads between job seekers and founders, and the platform quickly gained massive popularity amongst Norwegian founders. Things were looking good, but as with any true startup journey, light quickly turned into darkness when The Hub launched out of nowhere in Copenhagen just a few weeks after we went live. Fuelled by Danske Bank and Rainmaking, The Hub was a better-looking service with a vastly superior UX, a bigger team and a more generous marketing budget. David vs. Goliath.

Ever since their inception, Startupmatcher and The Hub have co-existed as key contributors in the Nordic startup scene — bridging startups teams and talent like no other in Europe. The Hub has certainly been the bigger sibling of the two. It has a deep presence across all Nordic countries except Norway, where Startupmatcher’s strong standing has blocked its entry. The Nordic startup scene has matured a lot since the two services were founded, and we would like to evolve with it.

Today, I’m excited to announce that Startupmatcher and The Hub are joining forces with a joint goal of taking the Nordic startup ecosystem to new heights. Our shared vision has brought us together and we can’t wait to continue supporting the Nordic startup scene, operating with a single unified platform.

What we have achieved

Over the last seven years, we’ve experienced first-hand that talent is increasingly gravitating towards companies with a bold and impactful mission and we’ve seen it directly in the number of job applications and job listings on our platforms.

Startupmatcher and The Hub have:

As of today, we have migrated Startupmatcher’s users onto The Hub, which will continue to be the brand name of our new and revamped platform. We are guided by the belief that finding a job on The Hub should feel more like finding a purpose in life.

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The Hub and Startupmatcher’s merged team

What’s next for The Hub?

Startups come in all shapes and sizes, and moving forward, our product offering will reflect the different hiring needs of companies at vastly different stages. In the coming days, weeks and months, you’ll experience new additions to The Hub’s product. Recent examples include;