– Pretty magical things – E24

– I thought it looks completely, completely cruel.

This is how the entrepreneur Karen Dolva sums up in No Isolation how she saw the entrepreneurial life of those who worked with start-up companies in the incubator that Startuplab lived. She herself was a part-time “potato” at Startuplab alongside computer science studies, and did everything from fetching coffee to recruiting more people and events in the incubator.

– But it also seemed a bit funny. What I think happens to your head when you are surrounded by a lot of people starting things is that you start to see problems and solutions. You get an “Oh, you could solve it like this” mentality.

Fell for computing

From elementary school, the plan was to become a dentist. Then came chemistry classes in high school. The plan shifted to something related to finances: maybe the stockbroker, as her mother had been when she was little, was something for her too?

– Nothing for me is a half plan. So when I didn’t get into NHH, which was plan one, I applied to Edinburgh and had to start there around the same time I applied, says Dolva.

Hear the full interview with Karen Dolva on the Adult Points podcast where she often listens to podcasts, or on the player below.

After the lecturer said debit and credit for the umpteenth time, she realized that finances weren’t for her. After four months, she returned home, started factoring at DNB, and received good advice from a friend who studied computer science at the University of Oslo; he definitely thought that Dolva would love it.

There, the friend was right.

– He was not particularly good and did not understand much of the computer world. But it’s a pretty magical thing – you can sit down and invent things and then learn how to make and design them, says Dolva of studies.

She describes it as the construction of skyscrapers, only they are not visible, made of numbers and processes.

– I liked that it was so tangible – a bit like “Now we’ve learned this, and we can use it for this here.” I think it is not often that our education system has such an immediate understanding of why this is useful.

Read about loneliness

There are still 10 credits to go for it to be a computer science degree, a slightly annoying stain on the CV, Dolva admits with a smile, wondering if there isn’t a scheme in which she can get the degree based on the company’s experience .

Part-time work at Startuplab led to a consulting startup within ux design. There was too much work to prioritize the last credits.

Browse the gallery to read Karen Dolva’s school journal.

A year later, he left his first business project. The beginning of No Isolation came soon after. Dolva and the co-founders had read about statistics and research in the field of loneliness and thought they saw more problems that could be solved.

– Have I read that the idea arose from the fact that you yourself have felt alone?

– It is not entirely correct, but it has ended up looking like that in the media. But the fact that I have felt lonely makes it easier to dedicate myself to the problem and see what happens to the groups we work with. Why are there cruel statistics about loneliness, with higher mortality, higher risk of dementia and heart disease? Feeling lonely over time obviously makes it unhealthy, says Dolva.

Mouth and love

After years of working around the clock and creating two products targeting different groups that are particularly vulnerable to social isolation, the company has grown, gone through downsizing, and grown again.

In all of this, Dolva has remained a leader, without any prior knowledge or leadership training to rely on.

– It has been exciting, painful, funny and cruel. All emotions have followed.

One of the co-founders came to the company with more management experience and “cleared” his head, he says.

– She has taught me to be generous, which is perhaps the most exciting thing that I have realized that I am not necessarily so by nature. I’ve never been stingy, more or less, but … I realize that people need different things and deliver them in different ways. There must be space for everyone and you must treat them with space, there has been a lot of learning.

– Have you been quiet a lot?

– A lot. And a lot of love, both together.

Dolva attributes much of the reason the company has been successful so far is communication between the founders – that there is room for praise, silence and discussion. And that she has not been alone at the top. This is an example that advises other new leaders to follow.

– I recommend you have at least one or two who are at war with you, so you don’t think you have to do everything alone. You will probably get it, but it will hurt twice as much.