Who's standing behind Sprend?

Arne Evertsson

If you would like to know who's the captain of Sprend, here is the answer. It's Arne Evertsson, a developer speaking Esperanto and Croatian (one of the hardest languages in the world). Since always, he had a wish, to make a business of his own. As they say: "Fortune favours the bold" and he made it. Today, Sprend is expanding, having a Stockholm and Pula office. 

Who is Arne? To know that, the best way it would be reaching in his childhood, but we'll skip that for now. In his early twenties, at the university, Arne made an educational game "Metris". He had his first job in 1995. and he was a freelancer in 1998. His first file-manager application called „UploadFolder“ was made in 2000.

But except for knowledge and talent, Arne likes to mention the ones who were together with him on the path of creating Sprend. Some of them working with him for shorter periods, others for longer but in the end, he managed to create Sprend - a company for sending large files with great business philosophy. Christoffer, Joakim and Stefan were those people, standing beside Arne at one point. Everyone who ever wanted to build something by himself knows how support is requisite. Tanja Evertsson was this strength all the way. 

Today, Sprend's team of five is working with motivating business philosophy, in a stimulating, stress-free surrounding with a lot of humor. The one who brings it is in most cases is Arne himself. 

“Metris” educational game Arne made in 1993.

T: Was it hard to let other people in Sprend?

A: No, not at all. I was searching for people for years. Sometimes I think that I spent too much time on that. Finding them, taking time to meet them, but in the end, very few were the right ones for Sprend. Maybe they didn't find the idea interesting enough (laughing).

T: Can we talk a little bit about leading people? I need to say, I noticed at our meetings that there are always much more things you have done than you are saying out loud. In general, people do the opposite.

A: Is that a question?

T: No, you're right, it's not. It's my noticing, and I know you would never say it for yourself. So I needed to. Do you find it easy for people to work with you?

A: Not at all. There were people who didn't like it. I'm very stubborn. And I'm a perfectionist. But also, I believe that in companies the hardest thing can be when the small problems became big problems. Like: "I'm the owner and I have a demand". Then you have classical "us" and "them", the owner and the employees.

T: What is your way then?

A: My golden rule is to behave toward others as you would like them to behave to you. Honesty is the quality I appreciate. Always stay honest. Things can be simple. When I speak with my customers on the phone, if they have some obstacle, I'm always trying to help and if that doesn't work, I offer them money back. You know, when someone is completely honest, people can feel it. In general, they never want their money back and in the end, we always find a great solution. You have many services when you get no reply emails, why? Is that polite? If you have a problem is it good to send a message: "Thanks for contacting us, but we don't want to speak about it now". We need to be available.

T: You're letting people make mistakes, not expecting perfection in every step of a working process, why is that?

A: By making mistakes people learn. It's very human to want to avoid pain, if you know there'll be punishment, you'll try to avoid it. But be able to talk to your boss, that's something.

T: How would you describe Sprend to someone who has never heard of it?

A: When you are feeling lost and lonely and a stranger turns to you, smiles, and says, would you like to join us? But in simple boring terms: Sprend helps you send files that are too large to fit in an email.