by Sidsel Lindsø, CEO of ExploCrowd

Spring 2021: We have survived the famous neck-breaking 2020 without severe financial losses. The future is finally looking bright. My phone rings, and on the other end is a classic salesperson having the ungrateful job of convincing me to buy something. Our conversation is as follows:

Him: “Hi! I have the most amazing news for you!”
Me: “I’m afraid that I might not be interested.”
Him: “But your company is among the 12 percent best performing companies in Norway! Same as Equinor!”
Me: (laughing) “... that is very sweet, but no thanks”
Him: “But your company has everything in order, the board is solid, you are paying your bills on time, it has nothing outstanding, and the economy is healthy. That is quite rare.”
Me: “It is? Really?!”
Him: “It actually is.”
Me: “Well, that is interesting, and I thank you for telling me this! To be honest, I don’t really have much to compare with. It is my understanding that it is a rare occasion that female founders like me succeed. And you just told me that within this measure, somehow we have.”

We have achieved the highest possible rating!

Of course, we just had to check this out. We are curious souls here in ExploCrowd, and as I said to the poor salesman, it is difficult to compare achievements in a startup world where you are the odd one out. We found out that ExploCrowd has an AA credit rating – the highest a company can achieve when it is less than 10 years old. This means that already in the spring 2021 the economy was solid, and according to Dun & Bradstreet we had an estimated risk of bankruptcy of only 0.29 percent.

Does this achievement make us proud? Yes!

Let me guide you through three business myths to give a further understanding of why this means so much to us.

Business myth no. 1: Female founders almost never succeed

The truth is: Half of new startups, regardless of the founder’s gender, break their necks during the first year. It is regretfully only 27.6% of startups that still exist after five years of being in business.

During our first five years, ExploCrowd has survived:

An oil price crash in end 2018
A legal dispute with a former client who refused to pay us for our work
A combined Covid-19 // OPEC+ induced collapse in our industry

Against all odds, we are still in business!

And we are doing well.

These are the main reasons most startups fail, by the way, in case you are curious:

Business myth no. 2: Men get all the funding

Unfortunately, this is very close to true. Access to funding for female founders is ridiculously low, as the numbers below present so clearly. The latest report from Unconventional Ventures states that in 2020 all-women-founded startups raised just 0.7 percent of investments in the Nordic countries – while all-male-teams raised 92 percent …

Had I known this back in 2016 I would probably not have dared this endeavor. Apparently, all odds are against female founders like me, according to this Female Entrepreneurship comparative study by Nordic Innovation.

Business myth no. 3: Societies are missing out on value creation

Also, true. I can’t imagine all the innovation and potential value creation our societies are missing out upon, if access to capital is a challenge because of one’s gender, skin color, religion, age, sexual orientation or other.

Our societies need good ideas and diverse value creating companies in the future who can move fast and adapt to rapid changes. My hope is that more people from various backgrounds will grab the courage and just go for it.

Solid economy – despite everything!

Thanks to investment facilitator Halvor Øgreid, we overcame the investment challenges, and out of the Top 20 reasons that startups fail we have conquered most of the hurdles!

In 2021 we decided to celebrate every positive thing with a glass of bubbles, after the disastrous 2020. The AA credit rating is just one of all the great things that has happened this year, and we can meet 2022 with a big smile.

We have a great team, we have demonstrated that we are needed in the market and our products and services are useful to clients, we have not been outcompeted (yet) and we have been so careful in our dealings that we have not run out of cash. And we can safely say that it will be a while before we run out of passion for what we do.

Based on the numbers and studies above, we dare to make the following bold statement: When female founders succeed – they build rock solid businesses.

Maybe this can become a new business myth that can inspire others?

Check out our live financial numbers!

You can always access our live financial numbers via this link or you can find it via the bottom part of our website. To non-Norwegians: If you are puzzled by the full transparency, we can assure you that the information is publicly available by Norwegian law. The transparency is building trust, which is a core in the society that enables more possibilities for all.

Also: I’m happy to share our learnings from our own journey, in the hope to inspire others to be first movers and open doors for the next batch of courageous souls. Just get in touch.

Startup life: The AA credit rating story