From founder to advisor.

The Netrounds story

In 2007, Marcus co-founded Netrounds — a B2B software company building active network testing and service assurance solutions. It was the kind of innovative product that telecoms and enterprise customers needed, but didn't know how to buy as one of the very early SaaS products in this area, which meant every stage of growth required sharp thinking about positioning, sales motion, and how to explain complex value simply.

Over 13 years, the team grew from two people working out of Sweden into a company with customers across Europe and beyond. The product evolved, the team scaled, and the company navigated every challenge that comes with building a B2B software business from zero: finding product-market fit, hiring the first salespeople, building a repeatable pipeline, working with a professional board, and eventually supporting the acquisition process.

In 2020, Juniper Networks acquired Netrounds. It was the outcome Marcus and the team had worked toward — and it marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

Why advisory

After the acquisition, Marcus stepped back and asked what he wanted to do with what he'd learned. The answer was clear: the things Marcus enjoyed most in the early years — clear positioning, disciplined product management, and structured go-to-market thinking — were exactly the things most early-stage founders struggle with. Not because they lack intelligence, but because these are genuinely hard problems that benefit enormously from an outside perspective and hard-won experience.

Marcus works with a small number of B2B tech startups at a time, typically where he has also invested early through Friman Investments, creating strong long-term alignment from day one. He brings board-level strategic thinking with the hands-on perspective of someone who has actually done it.

Philosophy

“Most startup problems are not technical. They are problems of clarity — about who you serve, why they should choose you, and how your organisation needs to be structured to deliver on that promise consistently.”

This is the lens Marcus brings to every engagement. Before asking “how do we grow?” he asks “who are we growing for, and why should they choose us?” The answers to those questions change everything downstream — your sales pitch, your product roadmap, your hiring, your pricing.

Areas of expertise