WIT Day One – Rebel with a focus
19/10/2010 by Zubair Ashraf

He’s irreverent, brash and peppers his language with the “F” word, but today at WIT Morten Lund (pictured right) played it cool. He is the guy who said no to Twitter, who made and lost over US$200 million in his twenties, who says his weakness is a love of life that has led him into some weird situations, spoke about how he’s investing in revolutionising the travel industry.

Everbread is the company he’s investing in. He says, “You have to get used to the blank stare,” adding that  people he has talked to about the technology have left the meetings, saying “You are fucking insane.”

He repeats, “You have to get used to it. That’s not the nature of the human brain.” That is, to accept something so different to the norm.

In Asia people are closer to the rice fields. Coming from a country with endless welfare, where the government will always take care of you, he believes that they “need a little more of Singapore in Denmark”. That is to be responsible for your actions”.

He also tells people across the Western world to “watch the Chinese because they are going to eat you like sushi.” But he honestly says that he cannot tell whether it would be better to invest in China or India. But he likes Singapore, because in it is between both, and he thinks, an amazing place as well as financially stable.

When he invests, he goes in with the purpose of changing industry. He thought Twitter was a stupid idea and that no one would want to say things in 140 characters. But he did put US$50,000 in Skype because the founders needed to pay their rent. Against phenomenal odds – AOL, Yahoo and MSN, when he divested his initial investment was worth infinitely more.

So how will Everbread change the industry he was asked?

“It’s simple” he says, “It will make search what it should be. Detached from everything else, faster, better. Ultimately, average people will be able to buy a cheaper ticket.” The layers of the industry, who pays who interferes. “Everbread will change how we do search.” 

Featured image credit (Fist): Ockra/iStock

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