Hans Kristian Furuseth

Co-Founder at Torg

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

About

Experienced e-commerce founder and CEO (Zalando, Farmasiet, Rocket Internet) with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master in Finance from the Norwegian School of Economics. I founded Torg based on my experience of how unnecessarily challenging it was to run the process of launching a product. There were several friction points that are much better solved through a SaaS-enabled marketplace than the current process of googling, emailing, and attending fairs. We are now building Torg to empower retailers, wholesalers, D2C brands, and food service players to connect with thousands of verified suppliers and streamline the entire process from product idea to launch.

Experience

  • Co-Founder and CEO at Torg GmbH
    2021 - Present · 5 yrs 6 mos

    Torg is where retail & wholesale buyers find and connect with 100,000+ verified food & beverage manufacturers in Europe across private label & foodservice categories.

  • Chief Executive Officer at Farmasiet
    2019 - 2021 · 2 yrs

    Farmasiet is Norway's largest online pharmacy. - Turned revenue decline to 100+ percent growth, while improving margins by more than 2 percentage points - Ran a complete transformation of the business including rebranding, hiring a new management team, opening two new warehouses, developing a new website and ERP system, starting TV advertising and changing logistics carries, wholesaler, and set up for online marketing

  • Head of UK, Head of Nordics at Zalando SE
    Jan 2016 - Jul 2017 · 1 yr 7 mos

    Zalando is the market leader of online fashion retail in Europe with €10bn in revenue. Head of Nordics with full responsibility for the €500M+ P&L and managed 60+ employees. Promoted to Head of UK. - More than doubled the UK business in the first year. Focused on improving profitability in the second year and grew 50% by improving customer retention based on improved experience and targeted marketing - Improved Norwegian customs process to reclaim €5m and reduce yearly customs costs by €2m

  • Co-Founder & Global Co-CEO at Vaniday
    2015 - 2015 · Less than a year

    Vaniday is an online marketplace to find and book beauty & wellness services. Customers can discover new services and professionals and book appointments online. - Raised €16m from four institutional investors - Grew the team from 0 to 100+ employees across nine countries and four continents

  • Managing Director at LYKE - Global Mobile Marketplace Services
    2015 - 2015 · Less than a year

    LYKE was a one-stop fashion marketplace in Indonesia with over 150.000 products in one app (iOS, Android and Web). LYKE was featured on Google Play Store in 2017 and reached 1.6 million users before it got acquired by Jollychic in March 2018. - Turned company around from sales decline to hyper-growth at 45% week over week, while reducing burn rate by 20% - Raised €2.5m and shifted non-tech positions to Singapore