Start-up made classes more meaningful

The idea of creating Arriber came to Frederik Riber Larsen in class during his first semester at CBS. He looked at his classmates and thought that, with their combined knowledge, they could do a lot to help companies expand to other countries.

However, it was not until he took a gap year between his bachelor’s and master’s degrees to work at the Trade Council at the Royal Danish Embassy in Barcelona that the company was started. Frederik called one of his friends from CBS, Simon Holm Madsen, who was doing a similar internship at the Trade Council at the Royal Danish Embassy in Berlin. Simon agreed with Frederik that they could help other companies expand to new international markets through their own consulting company. Now they help companies to validate the potential of new markets, get their first clients and establish subsidiaries.

For Frederik Riber Larsen, starting his own company made his classes much more relatable to him.

“I have ADHD, and I lose focus quickly if the subject in class doesn’t interest me. Starting Arriber helped me find more meaning in my classes since I always think of how to use what I am learning in Arriber. It has made my education more meaningful, and my development as a student has been incredible because of it,” he says.

Explore your start-up in class – even if it’s only an idea

Because starting his own company has been so valuable for Frederik Riber Larsen, he encourages other students to follow suit, even if they are only remotely interested in the idea.

“You don’t need a company registration number (CVR-nummer in Danish). You can start by exploring an idea you have and use the knowledge you gain in classes to make it more tangible,” says Frederik Riber Larsen.

Christopher Trunk-Black seconds this, adding that even if you only have an idea, you are still more than welcome at CSE.

“At one of our recent bi-weekly kick-off meetings for startups, there was one guy who had nothing but a lot of yellow post-it notes about his idea on his wall at home. This is just to say that you don’t need a well-established startup to receive guidance and mentoring at CSE and even if your ideas come to nothing, you will still have learned a lot by exploring them,” he says.

Work as an intern at your own company

One of the ways that the students affiliated with CSE can explore their companies is by doing an internship at their own company. Frederik Riber Larsen did this last year (2022), and his co-founder Matias Vidal Andersen has an internship at Arriber scheduled for autumn 2023.

“Doing an internship at my own company meant I had a lot more time to work on Arriber and gained better insight much quicker. It was invaluable to be able to do this,” he says.

Frederik Riber Larsen adds that he could write the mandatory end-of-semester internship report in only 16 hours because it was about his own company. He had access to all the knowledge required and all the relevant data close at hand.

After he graduates from CBS this summer, he will work fulltime at Arriber and has, in effect, created his own job while at the university. Which he sees as another benefit of starting a company while studying:

“Instead of looking for a job or starting from scratch with a company, now we have a company that is already up and running and where we are earning money. Another great thing about Arriber is that we are now four co-founders, and in January 2023, we established the ApS company, meaning that we have a much better foundation for future growth.”