Author: Rasmus Møller-Nielsen

  • AI-native companies require us to build and assess in new ways

    AI-native companies require us to build and assess in new ways

    Agentic workflows are no longer just features or add-ons to existing products. They’re becoming real product infrastructure for a new wave of companies. This changes how companies build, how teams operate, and how investors evaluate technical maturity. It also signals a new type of company emerging in the ecosystem and a wave of changes to how we assess products, companies and investment opportunities.

    Workflow automation is becoming the new norm

    More teams are moving from simple LLM features to multi-step workflows that execute reliably on their own, embedded directly into their products. The value proposition is shifting from “AI-enhanced tasks” to “multi-step workflows that execute reliably on their own”.

    We’ve long seen AI-assisted research tools that help teams draft user interview guides. Now, we’re seeing companies offer an agent that designs the study, recruits participants, runs adaptive interviews and delivers a full insight report you can trust. Similarly, many teams are used to AI-generated meeting summaries, but now these AI-native companies are offering services built on agentic workflows. Instead of simply summarising a meeting, the agent takes standup notes, turns them into tasks, schedules follow-ups, assigns owners and updates the weekly plan from start to finish.

    Rising technical maturity is enabling the next wave

    Large language models have improved to a point where they can take context, make decisions and move through a sequence of steps with far fewer errors than just a year ago. At the same time, the tooling around orchestration – like retries, fallbacks, monitoring, evaluation and workflow control – has become more stable and easier for teams to use. These shifts open a new competitive playing field for companies that want to use AI not just as an enhancement, but as the core engine for how work gets done.

    The lower cost of production pushes companies to automate deeper layers of work, not just surface interactions or isolated tasks. Instead of using AI to improve a single step, teams are starting to automate the whole process behind it. It allows companies to automate the “hidden work”: repetitive tasks, checks and small decisions that traditionally slow teams down.

    There’s a lot of fluff, a lot of non-work happening in teams. We’re building an AI teammate that understands the company, the process, the routines and where the team is heading – and helps eliminate that non-work.

    Steffen D. Sommer, CTO at Palette


    This new wave of AI-native companies isn’t adding small AI features on top of existing workflows. They’re building products where the agentic workflow is the product. Instead of improving one step in a process, the core value comes from orchestrating the whole workflow from start to finish.

    When the core value of a product is delivered by an agentic loop, everything changes – the architecture, the roadmap, and even the definition of stability.

    Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, Managing Partner at Lab08

    Some companies offer dynamic interview agents that adapt questions based on context. Others automate team coordination by converting standup updates into tasks and follow-ups. Some tools use multimodal evaluation to analyse images or video in real time. Others build domain-specific agents capable of taking a problem, interpreting context and delivering a full outcome without manual intervention.

    New risk categories and why they matter

    So what does this new wave of AI-native companies mean for technical risk? When the cost of production drops and technical capabilities rise, the risk profile changes too.

    Agentic workflows introduce behaviours that didn’t exist in traditional software, and this means we need to assess these products in new ways. Reliability becomes more important because – in short – agents chain actions together.

    Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, Managing Partner at Lab08


    Uncertainty handling and guardrails must be built into the system. Evaluation pipelines and monitoring need to be continuous, not occasional. Versioning and observability become essential, because small changes in prompts or models can impact the entire customer workflow.

    Agentic systems amplify both the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying architecture.

    Traditional due diligence asks whether a company uses AI or not. Modern due diligence must now start to ask questions about how agents behave inside the system. Technical maturity now shows up in orchestration quality, uncertainty handling, data flow discipline, and the company’s ability to monitor and control multi-step behaviour.

    These signals – and others, help investors understand whether a product can scale safely.

    The new generation of AI-native companies are building deeper technical infrastructure, not just AI features. They change the expectations we have for product quality, internal tooling and due diligence. They pull founders, engineers and investors into the same conversation: how to build products that act reliably, not just answer.

    For startups, this creates new opportunities to build differentiated products with real leverage. For investors, it introduces new signals of quality, stability and risk. And for the wider ecosystem, it marks a shift in how tomorrow’s software companies will be built – and how we should assess this type of business.

  • What to expect from Technical Due Diligence

    What to expect from Technical Due Diligence

    All tech ventures raising capital or looking to exit their business must undergo technical due diligence (Tech DD). As with commercial due diligence, this will be towards the end of an extended funding or M&A process, and it might seem like a formality just before signing the dotted lines. However, there is excellent reasoning why VCs require a tech DD. This is the first time they will open the hood to your engine room, and there is a real risk of issues appearing that could lead to renegotiations about the agreed valuation. In the worst cases, we could be looking at dealbreakers.

    At Lab08, we have both been the subject of tech DDs, while we have been performing tech DDs on behalf of VCs looking to invest in tech-based scale-ups. In this article, we will share our framework for conducting a tech DD and what you should be aware of if you engage in one at any point.

    What is technical due diligence?

    Tech DD includes an evaluation of the technical strategy, the team, the development process, product and code quality, and the system architecture and security.

    Why do VCs want this?

    For any tech venture, the actual technology must align with the demand for commercial performance and growth targets. A legacy (old) platform or product requires significant investment in competencies and time to modernize, which might not be accounted for in the presented investment plan. VCs are aware that legacy platforms come with slower development and higher turnover in the product team. Also, significant security issues might lead to a data breach or similar risks that VCs are unwilling to take. 

    How to do technical due diligence?

    Technical due diligence requires access to the company’s data and technical setup and management, including the CPO and the CTO. It will be performed by people with expertise in all areas relevant to the tech DD mentioned above. Typically, tech DD takes 2 to 4 weeks and will result in a rapport indicating potential risks in the above-mentioned areas. 

    Lab08’s framework for technical due diligence

    There are multiple ways to go about a tech DD, but any process will cover roughly the same topics. The big difference is how deep you go in each area. A “light” tech DD could be based on a few interviews with the CTO and a high-level architecture review. A proper tech DD will thoroughly examine the team, processes, code, and security to uncover potential hidden red flags in the software and infrastructure.

    In Lab08, we are doing proper tech DDs, and we have developed a framework to cover and rate all the relevant topics in a way that is useful for investors and the subject of the tech DD. 

    Product and tech strategy

    • Current product goals in alignment with business strategy and plans to scale?
    • Strategic roadmapping connected to strategic planning in the business?
    • Are the right technologies in place to scale as planned?

    Leadership and team

    • Are the current tech and product leadership in place to execute the strategy?
    • Does the hiring road map reflect the current plans to scale the business?
    • Is the hiring plan based on realistic timing and cost assumptions?

    Product Quality

    • Is the code written in a well-structured and documented way?
    • Is legacy code at the expected level compared to the age of the product?
    • The level of automation, code coverage, and ability to catch bugs upstream?

    Ways of working

    • Ability to deliver quality on time to meet the roadmap and strategic goals?
    • Are well-established processes for release and sprint planning in place?
    • Effective setup for handling bug backlog and feedback on the product?

    Infrastructure and security

    • How are deployment processes compared to the current state of the business?
    • Scalable infrastructure to accommodate the business and product strategy?
    • Any major security breaches that need to be addressed?

    Evaluating a tech due diligence

    All tech companies have issues to deal with, and this should be no surprise to investors! The most critical output is to understand if there are unknown red flags and if the right plans are in place to address the issues. 

    The best case is if the issues that have been shared during the investment process are already known. However, suppose the critical problems are new to both the subject of the investment and the investor. In that case, it could lead to a discussion about a need to increase investment in R&D to solve the issues or potentially a discount in valuation if the problems are severe enough.

    How we evaluate a company

    There is not only one way of presenting the conclusions of tech DD; this is just as much an exercise of making the findings easily accessible and understandable for the target audience. In Lab08, we are doing tech DDs for VCs and investors, and we have created a dashboard to quickly understand the conclusions for a non-technical target audience.

    Example of the model used in our executive summary to summarize findings.

    Each area in the due diligence is scored on a scale from 1 to 5 based on multiple interview sessions with the CTO, interviews with all team members in product and tech, code review and desk analysis of the shared information and a Penetration Test. 

    The Baseline score is created by evaluating the current situation compared to the realistic expectations for the product and tech operation in the given growth scenario. By comparing the actual situation with the baseline, we can recommend which areas are in the most urgent need of attention to support the plans for scaling the business.

    In an actual due diligence report, each of the five areas will be analyzed and described individually for the investor to have as many details as desired. Also, for the subject of the tech DD to have an actionable plan to work on post-investment.

    In our experience, this executive summary combined with the more detailed report is what investors need to have the necessary information and confidence when investing in a tech start. This is how to avoid surprises after investing, which is in no one’s interest.

    Get in touch to learn more

    We hope that this has helped you to get a fundamental understanding of tech due diligence. What it is, and why it is needed. You are always welcome to reach out to us if you are an investor needing a partner doing tech DDs on your behalf or if you are a tech company preparing for future due diligence.

    Rasmus Møller-Nielsen

    Managing Partner in Lab08
    Linkedin

    As CEO, Rasmus scaled Komfo from 0 to 70 employees, delivering a market-leading SaaS B2B solution for social media. Sold it to Sitecore.

    Co-founded Lab08 on the belief that while we don’t have all the ideas of how to solve tomorrow’s challenges, we know how to scale the technology powering these ideas.

    Be sure to follow us on social media to receive updates about other similar content!

  • Andreas Rasmussen joins Lab08 as partner

    Andreas Rasmussen joins Lab08 as partner

    10 years ago, we were direct competitors, and it was certainly not in the cards at the time that we would one day become business partners. In recent years, we have mutually benefitted from one another as sparring partners, and so the step we have now taken has seemed an entirely natural one. We are delighted to welcome Andreas Rasmussen as partner at Lab08! 

    Andreas is the co-founder and former CEO of Nodes (now MonstarLab). He is also one of the founders of Ironman in Denmark, and today he is active in eight different companies as an investor and board member.

    We believe that Andreas is the right investor and partner for the journey we have embarked on at Lab08. First and foremost, he has been on an impressive journey with Nodes, which he helped develop into a market-leading software and consulting house with 140 employees in offices in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Dubai and Prague. Nodes was sold to Japanese MonstarLab in 2017, and Andreas stepped down as director of the company earlier this year.

    In addition to Andreas’ obvious entrepreneurial experience, over the years he has helped design world-class software for Nodes’ customers and created a corporate culture that greatly resonates with our values at Lab08.

    For us, there is no doubt that with Andreas’ experience and investment, we have created even more favourable conditions for fulfilling our ambitions for Lab08, while also strengthening our role as a partner that can help accelerate our customers’ development.

    We know that from Andreas’ perspective, a key element in our conversation regarding the synergies between us has been that Lab08 has the potential to play an important role in the development of the companies in which he is already involved, as well as the companies he will be involved with in the future.

    We are excited that our relationship has now evolved from sparring partners to business partners, and we look forward to realising the potential of our collaboration in the years to come!

  • 3 learnings from the startup scene at CES

    3 learnings from the startup scene at CES

    CES is the biggest consumer electronics show in the world with close to 200,000 participants visiting the entertainment capital of Las Vegas, where the event has been hosted for decades. According to reliable local sources (taxi drivers), the CES week is the busiest week all season in Las Vegas.

    This year it took place January 7-10, and major companies like Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google used the show as a place to introduce their latest and greatest products. Most reports from the event have as well been about the news from the industry giants showcasing the latest within flying busses, self-driving cars, robotics and foldable screens.

    I represented Lab08 at the event with a focus on the startup scene, as CES is also one of the world’s biggest tech startup events with more than 1200 tech startups from every corner of the globe participating. Below are the 3 most interesting things I brought with me home.

    5G as an enabler of IoT innovation

    Before leaving for CES I, of course, knew about 5G – but more at a level, where I thought it was just a faster version of 4G. It is clear to me now how important an enabler 5G is for all sorts of startups and innovations – especially within IoT and mobility. So many innovations depend on reliable and fast internet. WiFi and 4G haven’t been a viable solution so far – just think about how often you can’t get online in crowded places such as conferences and concerts.

    Lacking connectivity would be disastrous for self-driving cars as an obvious example. 5G is the infrastructure that enables any IoT innovator to bring better and more liable products to market, so as 5G is rolling out all over the world in the coming years we will no doubt see an accelerating pace of IoT startups in the market.

    Face recognition and smart cities

    I visited many startups with new ways of tracking faces and movements gathering a lot of data to be used for the purposes of security, mobility and marketing. It raises a lot of privacy issues, and not surprisingly it was Asian startups dominating these categories. It seems we are not far away from actual “smart cities” where you have a very detailed overview of what’s going on in the city at any point in time – primarily on an aggregated anonymous data level (according to themselves).

    In Seoul, startups are far in realtime data tracking providing an actual Smart City Platform

    Health tracking

    There were a staggering amount of startups and devices specialised in health tracking and improvement. No doubt that the tech invasion of the most private part of our lives is only accelerating. It seems the notion is that we shouldn’t make decisions about our health without having data to understand what is actually happening. I am a big fan of this trend, but not without being worried about data protection and privacy, which still seems to be lacking behind – especially in Asia and the US where most of these startups, I met at CES, were from.

    GoBe3 allows automatic tracking of calorie consumption

    The dark horse  – The Smart Potato

    It was a very convincing display by founder Nicholas Baldeck, who explained how his device turns any potato into the organic equivalent of Alexa and Google Home. His pitch to me was: Imagine if you could ask your potato anything you want. He has a point.

    It was by far the biggest laugh at CES, but somehow among all the other more or less useful gadgets it didn’t seem too far out. 

    They currently have an active Indiegogo campaign, where you can also see a video demo of their Smart Potato invention: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-s-first-smart-potato-smartpotato#/

    When I got back from CES I discovered that his project and the booth at CES are an attempt to show how many ridiculous “inventions” that are out there, and he claims that his Smart Potato has a better chance of survival than 60 % of the startups present at CES. I tend to agree with him in this statement, but with more respect for the 60 % as they are all on a serious entrepreneurial path that might lead them to a better – and more scalable – idea as a direct consequence of what they are showcasing today. 

    My overall conclusion on CES and their startup scene is, that it seems like Asian startups are dominating the innovation categories of mobility, smart cities and health tracking. When it comes to sustainability and climate-friendly inventions it seems there is limited interest from the US and Asian startups, which gives startups in EU countries an opportunity to be at the forefront of this area of innovation.

    For tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs considering CES 2021 – I can definitely recommend it. It takes planning and network to get the most out of the event, but even as a “CES tourist” you will be inspired and meet great people around every corner. You are welcome to connect with me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusmn/ if you have questions about CES or the topics of this post in general.

  • 8 tips for the Nordic tech scaleup considering software development abroad

    8 tips for the Nordic tech scaleup considering software development abroad

    Most tech founders and executives that I know would have liked to keep the entire product team united under one roof. To be honest, I, more than once, had the same thought during my 10-year spell as CEO in the SaaS company Komfo, where our product team of 50 people was divided across Copenhagen and Sofia.

    • Under one roof, it is easier to communicate and build the desired culture,
    • you have fewer misunderstandings on urgencies and priorities
    • and knowledge is more naturally shared between commercial and product people.

    So why even consider a location abroad for your product team?

    There are multiple reasons, why having a foreign location is a good idea when you are scaling a Nordic tech company.

    1. Access to larger talent pool when hiring

    Software talent is a scarce resource in the Nordics. When you stop receiving qualified applications on your job ads, it is a natural time to think about having another location. Having a tech office in a market with a larger talent pool of software developers is the most common reason for setting up a new location.

    2. Save time and stay focused on product development

    When you finally, get the required funding or budget for hiring the people you need to deliver on your road map, then you basically want them as fast as possible. Having a foreign location often means working with a professional local partner handling hiring. This allows you to keep focused on product development instead of time-consuming hiring processes. 

    3. Preparing for scale culturally and financially

    When thinking long-term most Nordic tech founders will agree that it is not likely to keep product development under one roof. The sooner you get to experience what it means to have a product team across two locations, the faster your culture and work methodologies will adapt. Moreover, it will be very expensive to hire everyone in the Nordic market (assuming you can find the talent). It will most likely not be cheaper in the first phase when setting up the foreign location, but at scale, there will be significant financial upside.

    Things to consider before on-boarding a foreign software team

    4. Assess your own team

    You need to have an overview of your own team’s capabilities when it comes to product development and you need a plan for which competencies to have in which location. Which part of the product development do you want to keep closest to you down the road? You should consider your team’s current strengths in product leadership, UX, UI, design, system architecture, software development (coding), data science, quality assurance and DevOps. 

    5. Have a plan to deliver on UX and design

    Scaling your software team means increasing demand for specified, designed and tested product user stories. In the Nordics, we have a great UX and design tradition and in most cases, it makes sense to design the user experience in the Nordic HQ in collaboration with the customers and relevant partners close to the market. In other words, you need to make sure you have the right people and partners in place to keep up with the increasing software delivery capacity, as the foreign team gets up to speed.

    6. Be comfortable with agile methodologies

    In order to be agile and react fast on market demand, you need to be comfortable with agile development methodologies. This is the case in most tech companies, but especially when having a foreign location it is important to have a constant dialogue across borders about what’s being developed and why.

    7. Allow the entire team to work on the core

    A common way to think about a foreign location is to design the road map so the foreign team will work on isolated and less important parts of your product, allowing your local team to focus on the core. This might be good practice for some enterprises, and for scaleups, it is often a good way to get new colleagues up to speed in a safer way – both at home and abroad. However to get the full potential of your new foreign colleagues the natural ambition should be to get them to contribute to the most valuable part of the road map as fast as possible – including the core of your product. The Product team needs to work as one united team.

    8. Choose an EU location for your team abroad

    You need to be in an on-going dialogue in your team so for practical reasons choose a location as close to your own time zone as possible. Nordic scaleups often choose Eastern Europe, where there is a great tradition for software development and a large talent pool at lower salary rates than in the Nordics. With all the attention on privacy and data protection, good advice is to choose an EU destination to making sure partners and developers are familiar with the GDPR.

    If you consider a foreign location for software development, or if you are struggling with getting your current setup across multiple locations to work, then I hope you will be able to use these 8 tips. 

    You are welcome to connect at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusmn/ if you would like to discuss some of the topics above.