We are turning 20 years old!
Interview with Quicksearch's founders – Jonas Malmberg and Ulf Larsson
Jonas Malmberg and Ulf Larsson are Quicksearch's founders and owners. Together, they have made an exciting journey and had the great pleasure of following the company's development. From having been sitting in a simple small basement room in Halmstad, we have now become one of Sweden's leading players in feedback.
This year, Quicksearch celebrates 20 years. In connection with this, we have chosen to find out how everything actually happened. How was the idea for Quicksearch born, what obstacles have Jonas and Ulf encountered along the way and how do they see the future?
How did you two first come into contact with each other?
Jonas: It was through the music. We both worked as disc jockeys in the evenings and studied in Lund together during the day.
How did the idea for Quicksearch develop?
Jonas: In the mid-90s, we worked as quality consultants in the hotel industry and began to study the connection between improvement work and feedback. We soon came to the conclusion that what governed and influenced everything we and the companies did was feedback from customers and employees.
Ulf: We have always liked improvement work. There is nothing more fun, more developing and rewarding than helping those around you feel good and function better! As we both had experience in the hotel and restaurant industry, it was natural to start our development work there. The method we used was traditional quality work and the "aha experience" we had during this work was that it is what your surroundings think of you that determines how successful you will be.
In the hotel industry, it was difficult to collect feedback and the compilation did not work particularly well. We were lucky to live in a time period where the first computers started to arrive and we quickly understood that these tools could facilitate our work. Twenty years later, it turned out that we were right and invested in the right area. Feedback from customers and employees has today taken the step into the finer rooms and it has become generally accepted that it is actually these opinions that determine the future of your company.
What was your ambition with Quicksearch? Where did you see a need to fill?
Jonas: After all, we previously worked in the service and entertainment industry, where the feedback from satisfied and dissatisfied guests could be quick but very unstructured. Both I and Ulf felt that the process should be improved. As I said, computers and the internet were quite new, but we saw the possibility of collecting quick feedback in a more organized format.
Ulf: My ambition has always been to do something good that I feel good about and that you can be a little proud of. Working together with good people where we all try to help improve the environment around us is something that makes me feel good and makes me proud. Our ambition is to be able to help as many people as possible and therefore we want to grow and become even better. It would also have been instructive to become even more international in our work.
What were the biggest challenges in starting Quicksearch?
Ulf: The biggest challenge in the beginning was that we lacked experience and didn't know how to think. However, we were wise enough to bring in a number of more experienced advisors who could help us avoid the biggest pitfalls.
Jonas: Missioning so that investigations could be done via the internet was of course difficult as suspicion was high. Technology development and financing were also a challenge. We had to try to find creative ways through networks and friends.
Where did you get your inspiration from then and where do you get it today?
Ulf: I am very inspired by all talented people who have created or done something good! They show that it is possible to succeed and I think it is exciting to find out how they have done it, what they have learned during the journey and how they reason. Is there something that can be learned and that we can use to become even better? I read a lot and listen to lectures as these are often the only ways to get in touch with the people you would never otherwise be able to meet. Since we can only think thoughts that we have come into contact with, it is important to fill up with experiences that we can use in our improvement work!
Jonas: We really like working with Sweden's best and most successful companies. This means that we are constantly challenged and have to develop in a way that we otherwise might not have had to. We also choose to work with competent employees who are passionate about feedback. We are convinced that feedback is what takes both relationships, teams and companies forward towards success. It applied then, applies now and in the future.
What obstacles have you encountered along the way?
Jonas: We have encountered all kinds of obstacles. In a few cases, employees did not fit in, which of course cost everything from time and money to commitment. Mistakes and investments that turned out to be not that important have also delayed our development somewhat. On the whole, we still feel that we were able to prioritize correctly and solved most things with good results.
Ulf: From the beginning we felt that we were too early. No one thought you could collect feedback via the internet. We've probably heard every argument there is for why this was madness.
The next problem was youthful exuberance when things started going well and we hadn't been through a recession yet. We learned a lot of good lessons that unfortunately you have to go through to really understand.
After this we have gone through all the problems that a growing organization can go through. Development hurts but "If it doesn't hurt, it's not worth doing"!
Today, I would say that our main problem is to be able to help as many people as possible with the natural limitations that exist in every organization. We do not want to grow at the expense of quality as we live on our customers' satisfaction and recommendations.
What is your funnest memory from Quicksearch?
Ulf: It's hard to say as I'm always equally happy with any progress.
Jonas: There are so many! Above all, I remember big steps in technology development, like when we succeeded with the first web survey. Big contracts and when we have signed important agreements are also close to my heart. Then we also have many fun memories with our wonderful employees, of course!
What made you where you are today?
Ulf: What makes us where we are today is that we work with something that is important to many and that helps create a positive development in society.
Imagine being able to take part in improving the everyday life of your surroundings by creating the conditions for the development of better products, services and workplaces.
Imagine being able to do this together with a good goal-oriented team of fantastic colleagues. All of us at QS want to be good people doing good things and I think those who want to work with us feel this.
Jonas: I have experienced that our long-term vision of the importance of fast ongoing feedback was the basis for it going as well as it did. We have also purposefully invested in bringing in the very best employees and then worked hard to keep them. We also invested early on in an advisory board with expertise from six experienced entrepreneurs, which meant that we captured several perspectives that certainly gave us a good starting point.
What are your roles in Quicksearch today?
Jonas: I would say that we are both moving towards an increasingly strategic role. My focus is to keep together the long-term work in the group, marketing and partnership. Ulf works more with structural capital and improvement work.
Ulf: I agree, we have certainly been given more strategic and supporting roles. Over the years, I have understood that lasting success is not something that comes by itself, but is something you are rewarded with if you have succeeded in your preparations. Therefore, I mainly work with building structural capital. I believe that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link and that we humans are not mind readers or omniscient. This means that we must be good at being able to gather experiences and convey knowledge to the entire organization regarding how we best help our customers.
What do you think is the highlight of Quicksearch's history?
Ulf: The highlight for me is probably our 20th anniversary! Few are blessed to be able to celebrate 20 years together. Unfortunately, the statistics are not fun for entrepreneurs, only one in 100 companies survives for 10 years. That's why it was extra big to be able to stand and watch our 20th anniversary fireworks together with everyone who was on the trip.
Jonas: In 1999 we launched the Dialog Manager software. This meant that we were the first in Sweden to use the internet for both touch screen surveys and web surveys. It might sound a bit cocky to say, but we were probably the first in the world. It was also big when we chose to start focusing on NPS. Another highlight was when we started establishing ourselves in Stockholm. During our 20 years, we've managed to do a lot of fun things, so it's hard to name just one!
What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs who are about to realize their dream?
Jonas: Dare to bet and believe in your own idea. Join an incubator program at one of the universities where you can get help with coaching and funding. Then a tip is to start an Advisory board, you gain a lot from that!
Ulf: I agree with Jonas. What you have least of at the beginning and need more than money is experience. Therefore, take the help of mentors and advisers.
Read books and talk to others about their experiences so you don't make all the mistakes yourself. The most important thing, however, is to be prepared that it won't be a bed of roses and that you don't get anything for free in this life. But above all, enjoy the journey and everything you learn along the way! Remember that if you try long enough, you can succeed at anything - provided you believe it's possible!
If you look 20 years into the future, what will Quicksearch look like then?
Ulf: Exciting question! Then we are present internationally and are a much larger player. I am sure we are still working on feedback as it is the cornerstone of all development. We will also be even better at helping the companies we work with to even more success!
Jonas: Oh.. I agree with Ulf! In 20 years we will be present internationally and will be a significantly larger company, but I think the basic idea and soul of the company will remain. Feedback from customers and employees will certainly become even more important in the future. We see a clear development already now, that what other customers think about products and workplaces is increasingly influencing our purchase decisions and where we want to work. As I mentioned earlier, feedback was relevant when we started Quicksearch and will surely be even more relevant in the future.
To go from being two students with high ambitions to today consisting of over 30 people and two sister companies is a huge achievement. The values recommendation, action and consideration permeate everything we do at Quicksearch. We are convinced that if we continue to deliver solutions worth recommending, show how much we care and constantly drive the company forward, we will continue to be a fantastic workplace and a supplier that customers want to work with. It lays the foundation for us to continue to be a leading player in feedback for at least another 20 years.
Do you want to be part of our continued journey? Contact us and tell us more!
A lot has happened at Quicksearch since 1997
22 pcs
Number of Quicksearch babies
60 pcs
Number of completed Stanley conferences
10 pieces
Number of office dogs
3760 pcs
Number of Friday rolls eaten
6 years
Average length of employment
36 years
Average age of employees
14 pcs in 8 places
Number of offices we have sat in
Sophie is the most common name among our female employees.
Martin and Magnus are the most common names among our male employees.
Jonas Malmberg and Ulf Larsson
Read an inspiring interview with the guys who started Quicksearch. From having been sitting in a simple basement room in Halmstad, they have now become one of Sweden's leading players in feedback.
Interview with Quicksearch's founders – Jonas Malmberg and Ulf Larsson
Jonas Malmberg and Ulf Larsson are Quicksearch's founders and owners. Together, they have made an exciting journey and had the great pleasure of following the company's development. From having been sitting in a simple small basement room in Halmstad, we have now become one of Sweden's leading players in feedback.
This year, Quicksearch celebrates 20 years. In connection with this, we have chosen to find out how everything actually happened. How was the idea for Quicksearch born, what obstacles have Jonas and Ulf encountered along the way and how do they see the future?
How did you two first come into contact with each other?
Jonas: It was through the music. We both worked as disc jockeys in the evenings and studied in Lund together during the day.
How did the idea for Quicksearch develop?
Jonas: In the mid-90s, we worked as quality consultants in the hotel industry and began to study the connection between improvement work and feedback. We soon came to the conclusion that what governed and influenced everything we and the companies did was feedback from customers and employees.
Ulf: We have always liked improvement work. There is nothing more fun, more developing and rewarding than helping those around you feel good and function better! As we both had experience in the hotel and restaurant industry, it was natural to start our development work there. The method we used was traditional quality work and the "aha experience" we had during this work was that it is what your surroundings think of you that determines how successful you will be.
In the hotel industry, it was difficult to collect feedback and the compilation did not work particularly well. We were lucky to live in a time period where the first computers started to arrive and we quickly understood that these tools could facilitate our work. Twenty years later, it turned out that we were right and invested in the right area. Feedback from customers and employees has today taken the step into the finer rooms and it has become generally accepted that it is actually these opinions that determine the future of your company.
What was your ambition with Quicksearch? Where did you see a need to fill?
Jonas: After all, we previously worked in the service and entertainment industry, where the feedback from satisfied and dissatisfied guests could be quick but very unstructured. Both I and Ulf felt that the process should be improved. As I said, computers and the internet were quite new, but we saw the possibility of collecting quick feedback in a more organized format.
Ulf: My ambition has always been to do something good that I feel good about and that you can be a little proud of. Working together with good people where we all try to help improve the environment around us is something that makes me feel good and makes me proud. Our ambition is to be able to help as many people as possible and therefore we want to grow and become even better. It would also have been instructive to become even more international in our work.
What were the biggest challenges in starting Quicksearch?
Ulf: The biggest challenge in the beginning was that we lacked experience and didn't know how to think. However, we were wise enough to bring in a number of more experienced advisors who could help us avoid the biggest pitfalls.
Jonas: Missioning so that investigations could be done via the internet was of course difficult as suspicion was high. Technology development and financing were also a challenge. We had to try to find creative ways through networks and friends.
Where did you get your inspiration from then and where do you get it today?
Ulf: I am very inspired by all talented people who have created or done something good! They show that it is possible to succeed and I think it is exciting to find out how they have done it, what they have learned during the journey and how they reason. Is there something that can be learned and that we can use to become even better? I read a lot and listen to lectures as these are often the only ways to get in touch with the people you would never otherwise be able to meet. Since we can only think thoughts that we have come into contact with, it is important to fill up with experiences that we can use in our improvement work!
Jonas: We really like working with Sweden's best and most successful companies. This means that we are constantly challenged and have to develop in a way that we otherwise might not have had to. We also choose to work with competent employees who are passionate about feedback. We are convinced that feedback is what takes both relationships, teams and companies forward towards success. It applied then, applies now and in the future.
What obstacles have you encountered along the way?
Jonas: We have encountered all kinds of obstacles. In a few cases, employees did not fit in, which of course cost everything from time and money to commitment. Mistakes and investments that turned out to be not that important have also delayed our development somewhat. On the whole, we still feel that we were able to prioritize correctly and solved most things with good results.
Ulf: From the beginning we felt that we were too early. No one thought you could collect feedback via the internet. We've probably heard every argument there is for why this was madness.
The next problem was youthful exuberance when things started going well and we hadn't been through a recession yet. We learned a lot of good lessons that unfortunately you have to go through to really understand.
After this we have gone through all the problems that a growing organization can go through. Development hurts but "If it doesn't hurt, it's not worth doing"!
Today, I would say that our main problem is to be able to help as many people as possible with the natural limitations that exist in every organization. We do not want to grow at the expense of quality as we live on our customers' satisfaction and recommendations.
What is your funnest memory from Quicksearch?
Ulf: It's hard to say as I'm always equally happy with any progress.
Jonas: There are so many! Above all, I remember big steps in technology development, like when we succeeded with the first web survey. Big contracts and when we have signed important agreements are also close to my heart. Then we also have many fun memories with our wonderful employees, of course!
What made you where you are today?
Ulf: What makes us where we are today is that we work with something that is important to many and that helps create a positive development in society.
Imagine being able to take part in improving the everyday life of your surroundings by creating the conditions for the development of better products, services and workplaces.
Imagine being able to do this together with a good goal-oriented team of fantastic colleagues. All of us at QS want to be good people doing good things and I think those who want to work with us feel this.
Jonas: I have experienced that our long-term vision of the importance of fast ongoing feedback was the basis for it going as well as it did. We have also purposefully invested in bringing in the very best employees and then worked hard to keep them. We also invested early on in an advisory board with expertise from six experienced entrepreneurs, which meant that we captured several perspectives that certainly gave us a good starting point.
What are your roles in Quicksearch today?
Jonas: I would say that we are both moving towards an increasingly strategic role. My focus is to keep together the long-term work in the group, marketing and partnership. Ulf works more with structural capital and improvement work.
Ulf: I agree, we have certainly been given more strategic and supporting roles. Over the years, I have understood that lasting success is not something that comes by itself, but is something you are rewarded with if you have succeeded in your preparations. Therefore, I mainly work with building structural capital. I believe that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link and that we humans are not mind readers or omniscient. This means that we must be good at being able to gather experiences and convey knowledge to the entire organization regarding how we best help our customers.
What do you think is the highlight of Quicksearch's history?
Ulf: The highlight for me is probably our 20th anniversary! Few are blessed to be able to celebrate 20 years together. Unfortunately, the statistics are not fun for entrepreneurs, only one in 100 companies survives for 10 years. That's why it was extra big to be able to stand and watch our 20th anniversary fireworks together with everyone who was on the trip.
Jonas: In 1999 we launched the Dialog Manager software. This meant that we were the first in Sweden to use the internet for both touch screen surveys and web surveys. It might sound a bit cocky to say, but we were probably the first in the world. It was also big when we chose to start focusing on NPS. Another highlight was when we started establishing ourselves in Stockholm. During our 20 years, we've managed to do a lot of fun things, so it's hard to name just one!
What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs who are about to realize their dream?
Jonas: Dare to bet and believe in your own idea. Join an incubator program at one of the universities where you can get help with coaching and funding. Then a tip is to start an Advisory board, you gain a lot from that!
Ulf: I agree with Jonas. What you have least of at the beginning and need more than money is experience. Therefore, take the help of mentors and advisers.
Read books and talk to others about their experiences so you don't make all the mistakes yourself. The most important thing, however, is to be prepared that it won't be a bed of roses and that you don't get anything for free in this life. But above all, enjoy the journey and everything you learn along the way! Remember that if you try long enough, you can succeed at anything - provided you believe it's possible!
If you look 20 years into the future, what will Quicksearch look like then?
Ulf: Exciting question! Then we are present internationally and are a much larger player. I am sure we are still working on feedback as it is the cornerstone of all development. We will also be even better at helping the companies we work with to even more success!
Jonas: Oh.. I agree with Ulf! In 20 years we will be present internationally and will be a significantly larger company, but I think the basic idea and soul of the company will remain. Feedback from customers and employees will certainly become even more important in the future. We see a clear development already now, that what other customers think about products and workplaces is increasingly influencing our purchase decisions and where we want to work. As I mentioned earlier, feedback was relevant when we started Quicksearch and will surely be even more relevant in the future.
To go from being two students with high ambitions to today consisting of over 30 people and two sister companies is a huge achievement. The values recommendation, action and consideration permeate everything we do at Quicksearch. We are convinced that if we continue to deliver solutions worth recommending, show how much we care and constantly drive the company forward, we will continue to be a fantastic workplace and a supplier that customers want to work with. It lays the foundation for us to continue to be a leading player in feedback for at least another 20 years.
Do you want to be part of our continued journey? Contact us and tell us more!
This summer we celebrated with customers, employees and friends
7280 days in 2 minutes
Quicksearch was started based on a simple idea and vision: That the companies that continuously and continuously ask their customers and employees for their opinion in relevant areas - are the ones that become both stronger, better and more competitive.
