Kollaboration ApS 2007

IT ALL STARTED IN DECEMBER 2006, WITH A CRAZY PHILOSOPHY STUDENT

The start of THIRDROOM is rooted back to December 2006, when Alfred, a young man studying Philosophy at Copenhagen University, wondered:

How is philosophy actually useful in the society of today?

The core of philosophy is studying the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, but all of that is very theoretical, and Alfred's lack of patience led to questions such as:

How can that actually be useful?

What value is created, and for whom?

A paradox formed, since in our (post) modern society we are more and more divided into silos, but grand challenges, such as climate change, can't be solved in isolation, or within one specific field. However, who is connecting the dots between the different fields of science, but also, between universities, politics, business, NGOs and startups? 

This led him into creating a start-up called Kollaboration, with the mission of trying to create new radical and untraditional partnerships across cultures, sectors and people. In January 2007, he got a seat in the first start-up incubator at Copenhagen University, called Katalyst.

After 80 coffee-meetings with business leaders, researchers, students and possible customers, the company Kollaboration ApS was founded. After a few months, Alfred's mission spread. Designer Hamayun Butt and philosophy-educated yoga master Simon Krohn joined. Later, aspiring writer Jakob Kærgaard, climate expert Kasper Dam Mikkelsen and law student Jakob Wested became partners in close collaboration with, among others, Jeppe Lajer, Karin Dam Nordlund, Pouline Middelsbo and Lotus Turell, all of whom you can see on the picture above.

Collaborate with your Competitor

In 2008 Jakob Kærgaard and Alfred wrote an article about radical collaboration, and why working with your competitor, or even your enemy, can be a good starting point for progressive and radical innovation. The NGO, the competitor, or others who were previously considered adversaries, can become valuable partners for a company. This is because both society and the problems to be solved are becoming increasingly complex. The more relevant knowledge a company can bring into play, and the more actors with new and different perspectives can collaborate, the greater the probability of creating a solution that really works.

https://www.kommunikationsforum.dk/artikler/fjendskab-er-fremtiden

The Future of Capitalism

In 2008 our start-up, in collaboration with Mandag Morgen and Turbulens, was able to get Nobel-prize winner Muhammed Yunus to Denmark. Jakob Wested and Alfred wrote this article about the conference with Yunus around social entrepreneurship.

https://www.information.dk/debat/2008/12/fremtid-kapitalismen