A Norwegian tech entrepreneur who occasionally founds (tech) startups to solve his own problems, regularly helps students, startup founders, corporations, and organisations reach and exceed their innovation goals, living in the greater Dusseldorf / Cologne area of Germany since 2005.
Got Startup? Get Smart, Get Funded!
He missed his shot at becoming sitcom-famous by being thrown off the set of "Sex & the City" in NYC back in 1999, since wrote & recorded a Billboard Hot 100, and created stuff used by billions. (Well, two out of the three are actually true - so far. Can you guess which?).
His work has been featured and recognised around the world by the likes of The New York Times, CNN, TechCrunch, Business Insider, BBC, Wirtschafts Woche, and Die Welt, and his work has been seen and used by Billions.
A popular keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator (MC), he's been invited to events and conferences like SxSW, WebSummit, LeWeb, PASSWORD, RTL's Digital Shapers, TedX Hamburg, World Business Dialogue, etc. Universities like Cambridge, Stanford, KIT, and Cologne U as a speaker and moderator (MC) - as well as to keynote corporate events from well-known brands like Bertelsmann, Henkel, and Amadeus Leisure Group, or GOs like IHK, AHK, Business France, NRW INVEST, the city of Dusseldorf and the city of Cologne, and more.
A central figure in the German startup world and instrumental in the formation of the Cologne and Rhineland startup scene, Andersen's "hobby" is supporting early-stage startups and spreading education on how to build startups to students and founders as a very modest investor in super-early-stage tech startups, as an educator teaching at universities and colleges, by providing free Open Office Hours weekly since 2007, by training over 3.000 startups - and counting - how to pitch investors with his Pitching Masterclass, and the slides from his educational lectures and talks have been featured as "SlideShare's Slide of the Day" multiple times.
As an educator, he's been invited to teach and speak about startup entrepreneurship at Standford, Cambridge, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), BITS Iserlohn, WHU, Maastricht University, Cologne University, Cologne Polytechnical, NW University in Switzerland, Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey (DEU), Qazvin Islamic Azad University (QIAU) in Iran [in different times]), and more. He's also worked with USAID to help support entrepreneurship in eastern European nations, educating corporate leaders and startup founders.
And - because corporations and organisations don't stop asking - he has also been helping corporations and organisations (like Deutsche Telekom, ABInBev, AXA, Philip Morris International, Bertelsmann, Zentis, Reifenhaeuser, BARCO, Henkel, Yello Strom, Telefonica, the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), and many more) with innovation and digitalisation through his company +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES since 2013.
"Vidar Andersen, you rock." - Robert @Scobleizer Scoble
A popular keynote speaker, pictured Andersen is speaking about what marketers can learn from startups at Estonia's largest marketing conference "Password".
Andersen is a certified Lean Launchpad (LLP) Educator trained at Stanford by Steve Blank himself, here pictured teaching the LLP curriculum to students at the largest private tech university in Iran in 2015, when the world looked different.
Andersen teaching his Pitching Masterclass, pictured here teaching in Budapest, Hungary.
Pictured, teaching his Innovator Masterclass for corporates at Telefonica Germany, Munich
Andersen's keynote (view on RTL) "Why Corporate Innovation Fails" at RTL's Digital Shapers conference in Zagreb.
As a popular speaker, keynote topics from Andersen include Digitalisation, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Startups, Data-Driven Innovation, Corporate Innovation, Technology, NFTs, Blockchain, Innovation Management, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship Education.
"Crazy magnetic viking guy. [...] OK. You should come and do the talk instead of me. Stand up!"[...] - Yossi Vardi
As a popular MC, here Moderating the closing panel discussion at the World Business Dialogue, Cologne.
" [...] Vidar is what some would call "a hustler". He runs several local meetups in Cologne and works tirelessly. Easily someone I'd count among the people I'd start a company with, given the opportunity. - Named one of the five "must know" people in the German startup scene by Liam Boogar, Editor The Rude Baguette
A jury member for the Gruenderstipendium NRW in Cologne and Duesselforf since its inception, here on a panel discussion about the program so far with State Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Pinkwart.
Andersen dropped out of university (originally the plan was to study film, become a film director) to start his professional career riding the dotcom Web 1.0 boom in the mid 1990s instead. Some of the lesser known things that happened along the way so far include:
In the 15 years preceding all of the above, Andersen was an on and off employee in various leading digital development companies helping large international companies and organizations like Statoil, TeeKay Shipping, Shell, Esso, Exxon, T-Mobile International, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa, The Royal Norwegian Government, The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research with innovation and digitalisation - in between founding his own companies. The last position he held before he decided to never be an employee again was "Head of Digital" (and served as a member of the board) - at the lead agency responsible for all things digital for T-Mobile International. You can find more information about his past on LinkedIn.
*Please note as of February 24th 2022, bookings are not available to Russian owned or controlled companies, subsidiaries, GOs, etc long as the illegal invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine is ongoing, Russian troops are still in Ukraine, and Putin remains in power. Thank you for understanding.