99x recently appointed Kari Bente Skarbø as its Director of Business Development. Based in Oslo, Norway, she will focus on growth, business expansion, strategic partnerships, and increased profitability.
After studying business and administration, she started her career in a product company, helping it transform from startup to unicorn before moving on to another product company to help it scale overseas. That was an exciting period for her as those were early days for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in a Software as a Service business model. During this period, she also worked closely with Gartner Group, defining the Magic Quadrant for marketing technology.
Kari Bente then moved to management consulting, supporting larger enterprises in formulating and executing strategies, holding roles as Director of Business Development, Partner, CEO, and Head of the Board of Directors. She was awarded the title Consultant of the Year in Norway in that period, for establishing a new standard for how strategies are made available and internalised for leaders and employees by using technology as an enabler.
In 2019, she moved back to the hard-core technology industry, joining a Norwegian logistics technology company in the scaling phase to help realise their international ambitions. That was also when she first encountered 99x, part of the company’s virtual development team, counting some 100 techies in total.
Kari Bente was deeply impressed with the maturity, capabilities, and culture of 99x, and when the opportunity to join 99x opened, she grabbed it. In this interview, she explains why 99x has the winning formula to succeed in the Nordic region and why she is so excited to head business development for the Colombo based tech company.
As the Director for Business Development at 99x, how do you view your purpose?
99x is a software company with about 400 techies, working for the last 15 years with product and platform companies (Independent Software Vendors or ISVs). The foundation of competencies in this company truly excites me. My background in product and consultancy places me in an ideal position to bring the consultancy approach embedded in 99x to the Nordics. The Nordics, comprising Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, has a tremendous need for that competence, not only on the consultancy side but being able to execute it, to comprehend the bits and pieces you need to bring endearing products into the markets.
99x has perfected working with product companies, and I think we should continue to serve ISVs. But two more target groups are mature and ready to be engaged by 99x. And that is the enterprise market and the public sector because digital technology is core to any business.
Enterprises of all shapes and sizes are focusing on building their digital tech competencies as a means for growth and reaching out to a growing base of increasingly discerning and sustainability-conscious customers who are demanding new experiences, especially after the pandemic. The public sector in the Nordics is immense and getting digitised to a great extent as they look for ways to improve their services and better discharge their obligations.
My work will revolve around strengthening 99x’s foothold and taking the pole position in the Nordic markets as the leading competence centre for ISVs. Our mission is to be the trusted long-term advisor and preferred partner of fair-priced high-quality digital work to realize game-changing digital ambitions for ISVs, enterprises and the public sector in the Nordics.
What is your outlook for 99x in terms of growth and unlocking potential?
The growth potential for 99x is immense.
The focus on cost arbitrage for Nordic companies is decreasing as the demand for tech professionals is far greater than the supply. They are in search of partners that can bring value to the table and help them build scalable digital products. For instance, ISVs have historically looked for arbitrage to create as much as possible with as little as possible, but they now know that making winning products is much more than coding. You need to have your product focus and understand what your product is all about. You need to understand your target market and be aware of emerging technologies and how the competitive landscape is evolving. 99x brings all that and more to the table.
99x has sustained growth in the Nordics by doubling the size of its team since the outbreak of Covid-19 two years ago, and there is room for more growth because there is an insatiable demand for talent in the region. The spurt in demand in those markets coincides with the next phase of 99x’s evolution, moving from the engineering side into the consulting side, bringing the holistic perspectives inherent in all the people currently working in 99x.
We recently acquired a consultancy business in Norway to consolidate our 99x presence in the region as a consultancy in digital technology and are working with academia to share our expertise and experiences accumulated over the years with the next generation of product developers and managers.
No one has done this in the Nordic region, so that position is wide open, and it is a need. 99x has built over 150 products over the last 15 years, translating into a trove of accumulated experiences, deep expertise and domain knowledge in building digital products for companies across many industries, including fintech, edtech, logtech and CRMs. We will collaborate to improve curricula and give them the frameworks and methodology used by 99x to support the next generation of product people.