Timestamps:

00:45 – Petter’s Journey Into Startups

14:29 – Bringing More Founder Energy to Europe

24:26 – Europe’s Next Big Opportunity

39:24 – The Cost of Founder Obsession

Episode description:

Petter Made is a founder, operator and partner at EWOR. He has spent more than 25 years in payments, fintech and company building, including as part of the founding team behind SumUp. There, he helped build a simple idea into a global payments company used by millions of small businesses. Today, he is back at the very beginning of the founder journey, working with early-stage entrepreneurs at EWOR and helping them avoid some of the mistakes he made himself.

In this episode, Petter looks back at the early days of SumUp and explains why the first three years can shape so much of what comes after. He talks about why zero to one is still his favourite stage, why speed mattered so much at SumUp, and what it cost him personally to run at that pace. One of his biggest reflections is also one of the least glamorous: they might have built the company faster if they had slept more.