Six strategic takeaways from Nordic Tech Week 2026

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Woman with long, ginger hair. Shirt with elaborate pattern. White linen pants. Stage with an electronic screen in the background. Some trees. — Mimmis Cleeren at Nordic Tech Week 2026 in Kungsträdgården. Photo credit: Alexander De Groot

Nordic Tech Week 2026 brought together thousands of tech founders, executives, growth leaders, VCs, and tech nerds for a free open-air tech festival in Kungsträdgården along with 300 side events across Stockholm last week.

The panel discussions covered a wide range of topics related to entrepreneurship, the scale-up journey, go-to-market (GTM) execution, internationalization, AI adoption, hackathons, scaling traps, marketing and how to build a brand for growth.

Here are six of my own strategic takeaways from attending Startup Day and Growth Day.

1. Brand & creative execution: Emotional connection beats pure rationality

Engineering-heavy tech scaleups often fall into the trap of selling features and technical specifications rather than outcomes.

The marketing angle: Building a memorable global brand requires strong visual identity and emotional appeal rather than an exhaustive list of rational facts. As highlighted by leaders from Klarna and Legora, executing bold ideas requires simple concepts and tight creative decision-making ("creative dictatorship") to avoid diluting the message through endless internal reviews.
The AI warning: While AI tools can lower the barrier to creative experimentation, relying solely on unguided AI outputs results in generic "AI slop". Standout creativity still depends on sharp human direction.

Stage with four people seated. Flower arrangements. Large screen with names and photos of panelists in the background. — Panel “How to Build a Brand for Growth” at Nordic Tech Week’s Growth Day in Stockholm. From left to right: David Ahlin (Moderator), Mimmi Grafström (Legora), David Sandström (Klarna), Linnea Falck (Einride). Photo credit: Mimmis Cleeren, SUNMICO

2. Lessons learned from international expansion: Export your culture, don’t just hire locals

Stage with five people seated. Flower arrangements in glass vases. Large screen with names and photos of panelists in the background. — Panel “The Scaling Trap” at Nordic Tech Week’s Growth Day in Stockholm. From left to right: Adrian McDonald (Moderator), Lukas Saari (Tandem Health), Kristina Kockum (Business Sweden), Slavash Habibi (Team Scaleup), Andreas Jansson (Cloudflare). Photo credit: Mimmis Cleeren, SUNMICO

When scaling into new geographic markets, it may be tempting to hire a local Country Manager. Experience from fast-growing scaleups like Tandem Health reveals a different path.

The GTM angle: When expanding quickly into new countries, send an original founder or key expert from your HQ team to work alongside local hires. Transferring your core DNA, entrepreneurial spirit and operational speed is critical when entering new territories.
Strategic pacing: Expand globally, but do not attempt to conquer every market at once. Ensure your product-market fit and operational model are proven before expanding your footprint wide.

3. Fix complexity before you scale: You scale problems, not just revenue

Rapid growth acts as a giant magnifier for existing operational weaknesses.

The leadership angle: When you scale your business, you also scale underlying problems and complexity. Sorting out internal bottlenecks, product reliability, and alignment before accelerating growth saves substantial capital and time.
Lean vs. bloated teams: Bigger isn’t always better. Keeping teams lean and hyper-focused on product excellence often outperforms accumulating heavy layers of senior executives who lack hands-on product passion.

4. Category ownership & "sticky" revenue trump past Unicorn credentials

For AI-native startups and new tech ventures (such as AI-native audit firm Repodo), the fund-raising and valuation environment has shifted.

The investor perspective: VCs are increasingly evaluating the category and problem space over past founder credentials. While prior unicorn experience demonstrates work ethic and execution capability, investors are predominantly looking at capabilities for rapid market expansion, high category relevance, and, above all, sticky, predictable revenue.
Strategic focus: When considering expansion and scaling your product, you generally have two options: go wide or go deep. Consider what fits best with your platform or technology, and the types of problems it solves. Sometimes, expanding broadly across customer needs early on can create a stronger moat for your category than going overly narrow too soon.

5. Modern PR strategy: Lead with contrarian views and owned media

Stage with four people seated. Flower arrangements. Large screen with names and photos of panelists in the background. Stage lighting. — Panel “Hacking the Headlines” at Nordic Tech Week’s Startup Day in Stockholm. From left to right: Rachel, Nara Communications (Moderator), Mimi Billing (Sifted), Henrik Ek (Reporter, Di), Emil Widhagen (Breakit). Photo credit: Mimmis Cleeren, SUNMICO

Securing media coverage and building brand trust requires a fundamental shift in how tech leaders approach PR.

The media angle: Relying solely on traditional press releases or VC funding announcements is not enough. Journalists look for unique perspectives, industry data, and commentary on broader market shifts.
Building thought leadership: Publish owned content that answers pressing industry questions, write opinion pieces with contrarian views, and build direct relationships with journalists. Niche newsletters and industry Substacks are often just as valuable for targeted reach as mainstream business media.

6. Human-centric AI development & cultural resilience

Stage with five people seated. Flower arrangements. Large screen with names and photos of panelists in the background. Stage lighting. — Panel “The 10-Person Unicorn” at Nordic Tech Week’s Growth Day in Stockholm. From left to right: Maja Lehbert (Moderator), Alexandra Malmberg (AWS), Mats Stellwall (Snowflake), Emil Ahlbäck (ex-Lovable, now Energy), Kalle Hansson (Normain). Photo credit: Mimmis Cleeren, SUNMICO

Despite the rapid increase of generative and agentic AI, building products that humans actually use requires deep human involvement.

The execution angle: AI is effective for workflow automation and scaling ideation, but it struggles to design human-centered user experiences independently. Successful scaleups maintain a strict "human-in-the-loop" approach across customer support, product design, and change management.
Fostering innovation: To stay agile in a rapidly changing tech landscape, organizations must build a culture that tolerates failure and encourages rapid experimentation, giving teams the safety to test, learn, and iterate quickly.

Summary – Scaling up lessons

Scaling a tech company in 2026 isn't just about moving fast – it's about moving with strategic clarity. By grounding your brand in strong emotional storytelling, maintaining lean execution, exporting your core culture during international expansion, and keeping humans at the center of your AI strategy, you prepare your tech scaleup for sustainable, long-term growth.

Additional scaling up tips and resources

If you are interested in more scaling up tips, lessons learned and resources related to growing a tech business, here's a comprehensive list to get you started: