Jens - aka "Mr Cool" - Raun is the founder of The Startup Guide. Jens is a Danish-Australian. He started calling Australia home back in 1989 and he is at present living on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland. He studied economics at the Copenhagen Business School in the early seventies. He has an IT background (Project- & Program Management as well as Sale & Marketing and Business Development on an international scale). Jens has been doing internet businesses for years and loves using WordPress for his business web sites and he is an Apple enthusiast. He loves new challenges and he has as a consequences worked in many parts of the world in different areas such as: IT hardware sales, IT software development, IT Project & Program Management & IT Consultancy. Jens is a true serial entrepreneur since he has been engaged in startup’s (and failed a lot) since 1998, he has been self-employed since 2002. Jens was introduced to – and inspired to use – the Lean Startup methodology back in 2011 after reading:
“The Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steven Blank (2006)
“The Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur (2010)
“Running Lean” by Ash Maurya (2010)
“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries (2011)
Jens has also enjoyed – and been an active participant in – several Google Startup Weekends in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. Jens should have retired by now, but he loves helping people, small businesses and young entrepreneurs. He is NOT a man that act his age, he is VERY young at heart, loves technology, gadgets, social media & house music! When living and working in Thailand he learned about the principle of “giving” rather than “gaining” and he now practice “pay-it-forward”, so if you got a problem or issue with your startup or small business then he is ALWAYS happy to give you advice and assist you moving forward. Should you be in need of a co-founder who is a 70% “Hustler” (the salesperson), 20% “Hipster (the UI/UX designer) & 10% “Hacker” (the programmer), then he is ALWAYS happy to explore the possibilities of creating a startup together. Jens has worked in many different “virtual” business setup’s so he knows the only true limitation will be the lack of internet access although he find a meeting in person now and then can be very beneficial – so please don’t hesitate to get in touch, you never know what it might lead to! Jens’s contact details:
As a result of a heart attack – that should have left him dead back in 2007 – his view on life changed; Jens now lives by his motto: “Enjoy EVERY day, you never know when it is over – life’s journey is NOT about arriving safely at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn-out, shouting ‘Holy Shit’! What a ride!!!” Jens’s priorities in life are simple: 1) HELP people, 2) have FUN & 3) make MONEY (in that order).
For a bit more info about the professional background of “Mr Cool” please take a look at Jens’s Linkedin profile https://au.linkedin.com/in/jensraun (he has 2,500+ business connection on Linkedin).
Why “Mr Cool”? When working in Thailand most Thai’s could not pronounce Jens correctly, instead they said Yen. Yen in Thai means Cold so Jens got the nickname “Mr Cool” which he found to be … pretty cool :-)
