Carsten Kronborg
Member at Keystones
Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark
Overview
Work Experience
Startup investor and advisor
2021 - Current
I pay it back by providing advisory for startups and scaleups. I am available for business development advisory, board work and part time roles. I provide inspiration and advice, challenge strategies and plans, and participate hands-on in the work if relevant. I work on a part time basis, in the form of board work, consultancy/advisory, or short term assignments. My contribution to the development of the business is on pro bono basis as a starting point. Depending on the amount of time we jointly agree that I spend, a fair fiscal renumeration in some form could become relevant (eg. fee or equity). I spent my 30+ year career in Global Tech companies like Nokia, Heidelberger Druck, Siemens, Hasselblad, Jabra, and Brüel & Kjaer. Most of the time (25 years) with P&L responsibility in international and global leadership roles in After Sales. I have vast experience in scaling products and service related businesses, stakeholder management, leadership, and market analysis. I more than once headed up implementation of a globally aligned go-to-market strategy in a formerly regionally focused business set-up. I also headed the development and global implementation of new service contract concepts on several occasions.
Interim COO
2025
Acezone is a scaleup, and offers a range of high-performance gaming headset for professional- and leisure gamers. In my role as interim COO, I support Customer Support, After Sales, Finance, and Production in building robust and scalable structures and processes. I also support the building of more comprehensive internal performance reporting.
Board Member
2022
Reprensenting the Keystones investor syndicate in the Board. Providing strategic and operational advice and assistance to the founders within the commercial and Service & Support sphere.
Member of Mentor corps
2023
Supporting deep tech startups with advice and mentoring. DTU Skylab is housed in a facility of 5500 square meters, complete with labs, workshops, auditoriums, open spaces and project rooms. We are a cross-disciplinary learning environment used by various institutes at DTU, and we also offer soft funding, business acceleration, prototyping and a space to grow for deep tech start-ups and pre start-up projects.
Student Mentor
2022
Conflux is a student-driven mentorship program for STEM students. Matching students with seasoned professionals, helping them learn and grow.
Member of e-corps, Open Entrepreneurship DK
2021
Open Entrepreneurship is a collaborative initiative catalyzing the development of university research ideas into commercial products. Danish partner universities are Aalborg University, Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School, IT University of Copenhagen, Roskilde University, Technical University of Denmark & University of Copenhagen. Californian UC Berkeley is the strategic partner. Together we utilize our extensive networks to build bridges between industry, universities, sectors and national borders. Open Entrepreneurship is powered by the Danish Industry Foundation.
Member of Keystones
2018
Venture Capital & Private Equity
Advisory Board Member
2023 - 2025
Autonomous multi-purpose rovers for large-area maintenance – indoor and outdoor.
Services Business Development Manager
2019 - 2020
As a result of the merger of HBM and Brüel & Kjær, the HBK Services Business Development function was established January 2019. Responsibility: Accountable for identifying opportunities for growth in the Service business of the newly merged Hottinger, Brüel & Kjær. And supporting the organization in meeting the set growth strategy. Achievements: Set up processes to support active funnel management for identified new service opportunities Defined KPIs and revenue targets for the Service Opportunity funnel Defined Target Operational Model for Services Business Development Shortlisted the high-potential current services and agreed a go-to-market plan with Sales and Marketing Global Program Manager for implementation of Net Promoter Score surveys globally in HBK. I handed over the role during the first part of the implementation, as a result of my resignation from HBK.
Global Business Development Manager, Calibration services
2015 - 2018
Responsibility: Global business head of Calibration services (calibration, repair, extended warranty). Secure growth in the Calibration business via operational improvements and enablement/motivation of Sales to sell Calibration proactively. Responsible for the Global revenue generation for Calibration Services (11 MEUR) in 10 calibration labs world wide. 11 MEUR business. Achievements: • Secure revenue stream by growing multi-year contract sales by 100%. • Enabled Sales to sell calibrations and service contracts via new sales tool-box and a structured approach to lead generation • Reduced the number of orderable service items from 500 to 15 making the products simpler to sell and deliver globally. • Introduced online services making easy customer access to documentation and online ordering possible. • Delivered high Net Promoter Scores (US 75, EU 55) thus delivering high customer loyalty. • Changed the calibration system business from labor intensive project deliveries into standardized systems which are easier to sell. • Reduced delivery time for calibrations significantly