It might be pure luck, or even written in the stars. I don't know. All I know is that a couple of people for the past months have showed up and given me valuable fuel in starting up the Fjording Nordic Cream adventure.
Alejandro Tola Alvarez (called Alex)
Alex's son is a kindergarden friend of my own son. When I first pitched my idea to him in the spring of 2016, and told about my plans about contributing to the welfare of fjord horses, he met me with total understanding and plenty of curiosity.
Not only because he had worked with business development and food production his entire career, but also because he has a genuine passion for biodiversity.
He had just finished a MBA thesis at University of Exeter Business School called "Market Driven Initiatives for Conservation of Indigenous Livestock Breeds". That got me thinking: "Spot on, I need to team up with this guy". And that's just what we're planning to do with the realization of The Nordic Ark Foundation and here in Fjording AS (PS! Alejandro has recently joined the company board - June 2017).
Nicolas Alvestad Lopez
Summer of 2016 I moved to a new area in Oslo. My next door neighbor proved to be the father of another kindergarden friend of my son.
I soon pitched my idea, and Nicolas - who has tons of experience as head chef - started to ask me about my liqueur recipes, and contributing with lots of cool ideas.
I invited him over to join me in a product development session at my kitchen. And boy, it's a lot more fun to test recipes and drink liqueur when being two! :)
Nicolas brought in skills and even provided me with special ingredients. But most of all, it was his open-minded attitude towards the project that I valued the most. It has definitely made me believe stronger in my concept.
Ole Tom Risøy
Ole Tom is an old friend of mine. He also grew up at Nordfjordeid, but I first got to know him well after we started working together in a web consultancy firm back in 2003.
Ole Tom is a great guy to discuss creative matters with. Not only design work, but also business ideas, music, and whatever. The really cool thing about Ole Tom is that he doesn't only discuss - he's a great "doer" as well.
So I asked him as politely as I could if he wanted to help me with some basic sketches of a potential bottle design. What I received blew my mind! When seeing "Fjording" as brand name on the bottles (a thing I hadn't asked him to do) I knew I had to go for that name.
A few days later I bought the rather expensive domain name; fjording.com, and a giant leap towards deciding to go all-in on the project was taken.
“Guys, I owe you! You’ll be guests of honor at the Fjording launch party.
Thank you so much!”