Interview with the Danish dynamo who brought Singularity University to the Nordics: It’s a killer cocktail – Business Insider Nordic

Singularity University, the famed think tank and tech education program in Silicon Valley, recently opened a Danish branch, marking the first major foreign expansion. SingularityU Denmark's founder and CEO Laila Pawlak sees a step-change in the regions tech and social impact on the horizon. Frankly a killer cocktail.

Shortly after announcing the world's first tech ambassadorship, Denmark landed another major milestone when, 1st of March, a new branch of Singularity University (SU) opened in the country.

SU's mission is to bridge the gap between global challenges and technological solutions.The Silicon Valley program has attracted tech executives and entrepreneurs from around the worldsome of them 150 from the Nordics.

One of them is entrepreneur Laila Pawlak, the Danish organisation's founder and CEO.Pawlak later worked as faculty in Silicon Valley before taking on the commitment to bring it to the Nordics, together with her partner,Kris Ostergaard, also a former SU faculty.

Pawlak likens the effect of the SU education with "eating the red pill" ( la Matrix), and seeing the opportunity of using technology in a whole new light.

Housed in a 5000 sqm campus, SingularityU Denmark will offer various educational and innovation programmes that combine the latest within exponential technology with future business areas.Key subjects are artificial intelligence, computing, biotech and robotics, as well as Global Grand Challenges which will be part of all programs.

While the Danish branchs intention according to Pawlak is to democratize access to the insights and activities that were previously only anchored in Silicon Valley, she points out its not going to be a copy paste of the original, with many original initiatives in the pipeline.

Pawlak, who drew on her experience founding innovation network DARE2mansion, adds that bringing SU to Denmark was an 18-month long, olympic process that wouldn't have been possible without local support in Denmark.

Theres been massive support from near and far - its really extraordinary.

So what is the true purpose of Singularity University?

We believe there are big global challenges that affect one billion people or more, and that these challenges can be solved, and provide huge opportunities for businesses.

What we focus on is these big problems that a lot of people suffer from, where business and technology can actually make an impact. We believe the best way to impact the world is leveraging exponential technologies. Thats the foundation of everything we do.

We encourage startups to think bigger, to think more impact. So that the technologies they are working with can be used in much bigger contexts.

And you are going to host startups in Copenhagen?

We already have about 200 people from a number of startups occupying our offices and more will be moving in. Weve had more than 100 startups reach out to us within the first week. And were already negotiating 2000 sqm more space.

Tell us what was your vision of bringing SU to the Nordics?

Even though we are going to be based out of Denmark, it is quite natural to think of us in terms of a Nordic SU branch. For one, weve just brought in the first eight mindblowingly awesome faculty, who have been recruited from all the Scandinavian countries.

From a Nordic perspective Im extremely excited, because weve been working on this in stealth mode for a year and a half, day and night. We played all the cards for Scandinavia that we have a lot of things going for us, the rising startup environment being one of them. Were stable countries that have come a long way to figure out a societal model that takes care of people, but at the same time is at the technological forefront; and takes care of the environment while also growing businesses.

So one of the reasons I made this my full-time commitment, and sat up night after night, is that I honestly truly believe that in the Nordics, we have the potential of showing the world how to do this in the right way. And I want to be part of making that happen.

We can show the world that we can foster prosperity and growth and happiness and positive impact, while at the same time doing it in a decent, right way. If we leverage all the strengths of our history, competences and education, and we add on top of that a strong technological insight and engagement, then were unbeatable. I genuinely believe this.

What I see in Silicon Valley is enthusiasm and optimism - hey lets try it out. And I really want to bridge that, and combine it with all of the strengths we have in the Nordics that they dont have in Silicon Valley. Then we have this killer cocktail to bring us to the next level. And we can truly be a role model to the rest of the world.

What are some of the challenges that Nordics have in doing this?

Weve kind of had an industrial way of looking at success. It is traditionally having a lot of employees in a company. But perhaps thats not the right way to measure success, maybe it should instead be how many people you positively impact.

For example, it could be a smartwatch for ADHD children to help them work from home and cope with their daily life. It might not be the best financial business ever, or have as many employees, but is that not at least equally - or an even more successful company?

The notion is that we can create companies that have a sustainable business and a lot of impact. Thats what were going to look at. I think we need to create new measures for what is a successful business.

What are some ideal outcomes from establishing SU in Denmark?

For me its all about impact. My dream scenario is startups being extremely successful impacting millions of people around the world. It is startups that met at the hub. Corporates that change their business model to positively impact people around the world. It is students being inspired to create a dream where they are technologically inspired to go out and start new businesses.

Impact is what we get measured on. Its all about that moment when people come back to you: the reason we are doing this, is because we met through this program and were inspired.

What was your own best experiences from SU?

I want to use a Matrix analogy. Participating in an SU program, its kind of taking the red pill. You see the world in a whole new light. And when you start seeing these possibilities, and understand what technology can do, then theres no going back.

I had moments when I discovered biotech. Suddenly, I had this feeling of a whole new world opening up to me. I think everybody, no matter what perspective or background they enter SU with, theres an area they dont know lot about, and suddenly all of these technologies converge. If Im in pharma, then I may be looking into AI. If Im in networks and computing I might look into biotech. I discovered all these new tech opportunities.

The second is the sense of community, of finding my tribe. I instantly felt like this is where I belong. A lot of people thought I had been crazy talking about purpose and profit, and scalable, positive impact. But when I came to SU, people just said yes, this is how we roll. Afterwards I felt committed to the responsibility of sharing that with more people.

Singularity hints at the point when robots will have surpassed human intelligence. Whats your personal view, are you afraid of robots?

I dont believe in the terminator scenario. For me its all about people.

How can we make a positive change for people? If we can leverage tech and robots to create a better life for people people that need help walking, lifting, whatever they need help with by all means, lets do it.

There are people that have an untapped potential that we dont see, because theyre doing things that robots are soon going to be able do. I dont think that potential has been fully tapped. If we play our cards right, in the Nordics and as a whole, I think we can set free that potential, and create a lot of entrepreneurships and creativity to create even more potential.

So we need to educate people to be enthusiastic about technology and understand it, so that people are not afraid of it.

So young entrepreneurs who want to get ready for the future might find something interesting at SU Denmark?

I would figure so! By the response weve had, it seems that a lot of people can strongly connect with our mission, and that makes me really proud.

And we want to make sure we target people in all levels of the organization. Many executives who have gone to SU in Silicon Valley, and try to bring their ideas home are met with resistance. We have high-level education executive level, but also at other levels.

Thank you!

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Interview with the Danish dynamo who brought Singularity University to the Nordics: It's a killer cocktail - Business Insider Nordic