Today marks Klarna’s 15th anniversary. Throughout the years, thousands of employees have made Klarna what it is today. Though we have changed the way we look or operate, as a company we’ve always embraced change and taken the irregular path surrounded by incredibly talented individuals who are keen to make a difference.
And some of Klarna’s employees have been there throughout the whole journey. We’ve asked them to share their account on what the journey has been like for them:
Timo, Engineer – 15 years at Klarna
“Having joined SOFORT – which was later acquired by Klarna – as a working student in 2004, I’ve had the opportunity to experience two very different startup environments. In the beginning, as part of SOFORT, we were a very small team of around 10 passionate people and sitting together in two available rooms in my manager’s private apartment. Joining Klarna’s 1000 employee strong team in 2014, the challenges and opportunities got even bigger and better, with more exciting products that we were able to build for our consumers and merchants. And it still feels like a startup in spirit and speed, because of the way Klarna is organized and how the company transfers the responsibility of the products to their teams. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved and can’t wait to find out what Klarna will achieve in the next 15 years.”
Cecilia, Commercial Manager – 11 years at Klarna
“The positives in being able to follow a company from a small startup to a global bank is that even though there are more rules and regulations to follow, we still have maintained the same feeling that the sky’s the limit. The fact that everything can change from one day to another, makes Klarna such an exciting place to explore. On a personal note the biggest difference was that back in the days, when we were approximately 35 employees, you knew everyone’s first and last name. Nowadays I am happy if I just recognise one face by the coffee machine. To be able to know your own and your colleagues’ employee number is probably very unusual today.”
Simon, Marketing Associate – 10 years at Klarna
“What started out as a day job that I was willing to give a year at best turned into a 10 year journey of fun, fast pace and high rewards. Back in 2009 it was waaay different company with about 150 employees all sitting back to back in one building. This made for some interesting encounters; you could chat with the CEO at the coffee machine (seriously, a new guy casually struck up conversation by asking “how long have you been working here?”). The staff meetings fit in the kitchen and if you had technical problems with a customer on the line, you could simply walk past a developer with a smile (and perhaps a cinnamon bun) and they’d help you out. Across the company, we had a sense that anything and everything is possible along with a strong feeling of being an underdog that brought everyone together. That has truly stayed in our DNA.”
Lovisa, Service Delivery Manager – 9 years at Klarna
“Before joining Klarna, I had a lot of friends working here and they were telling me about this amazing fast paced company that really valued each individual employee and offered breakfast every morning as well as offered an impressive amount of candy on Fridays – who can say no to that?! Back then, we were about 300 people and everyone was helping out with basically anything – as it should be at a startup. Now in 2020, gone are the days when you could “bribe” a developer with a chilled coke to get your development prioritized or cram everyone into one room for monthly business updates. But that hasn’t changed the truly exciting company culture within Klarna. This is really a place where you can grow and develop with the speed of the company.”
Read more about Klarna’s 15 years celebration on our website.
What does the future hold for Klarna? We’re excited to see what the next 15 years will hold. Do you want to be a part of our journey?
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