Mati Szeszkowski
Founder, CEO
Mati is the Founder and CEO of Norland. Mati has been building and investing in technology companies for over 20 years – having made his first software investment in 2000 – with a career spanning BCG, Orange Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and heading-up KKR’s tech private equity business out of London for over half-a-dozen years where he sourced and led KKR’s buyout of Visma – the largest ever software buyout globally ($18.9 bn). Mati has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from the University of British Columbia.
Start in tech – 1982. My mother signed me up for a summer computer program at a nearby elementary school. I started coding in Pascal and Fortran on a Commodore VIC-20.
First job – I joined The Boston Consulting Group in August 1995 – which for me was also the birth of the modern tech era as that month Netscape went public and Windows 95 launched. My first big project was helping Ford in Detroit build a software maintenance reminder system.
First investment – I made two investments in 2000 – one in software in San Francisco and one in telecom equipment in Boston – straight out of graduate school and I made a lot of mistakes. It really hurt when both companies went bankrupt a few years later.
Most memorable investment – Visma. Largest ever software buyout globally. I spent over 3 years building a relationship with the CEO/owners before leading the investment at KKR.
First entrepreneurial experience – I started a gardening business and painted houses to pay for university. I learned how to knock on doors and realized the value of doing things right: happy customers come back to do more business and refer you to others.
Why entrepreneurship – I enjoy the entrepreneurial challenge of building businesses: growing KKR’s tech PE business, helping to set-up BCG’s Warsaw office as a 25 year old kid, starting Orange Ventures with a partner after grad school, or expanding Goldman’s tech business in Europe.
Key lesson from previous jobs – If you are going to do something, do it right, was ingrained in me at BCG, Goldman, and KKR.
What changed me the most – As an immigrant, I internalized 2 things – short-term pain for long-term gain and having no downside liberates you to just go for it!
Toughest experience – I only saw my father twice since I left Poland in 1982 and he passed away when I was 17. I matured fast. I take nothing for granted and really do try to live each day in full.
Biggest frustration – People playing games and not having 100% integrity. Other frustrations include: bureaucracy, office politics, and committees.
Biggest excitement – Building Norland, a unique investment firm, for decades to come.
Most memorable childhood experience – I grew-up in 2 different worlds. I immigrated from dark-gray, communist Poland with nothing on the shelves and tanks on the streets when martial law was declared. I arrived in Vancouver, Canada with my mother and two suitcases. I did not speak a word of English, behaved differently, and needless to say, I was teased quite a bit. My mother, who spoke 5 languages and had 2 degrees, started out as a cleaner. We were not well off. I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility for her and never wanted her to worry about me.
Family life – I am very lucky to be married to my wife for nearly 20 years. We are blessed to have 4 healthy, amazing kids who speak our native languages – Polish and German. We all very much enjoy our beach walks in California with our dog, a Vizsla.
University – I was very fortunate to get into Harvard Business School and to study economics as an undergrad at UBC in Vancouver. I always loved math and statistics and spent a lot of time in the computer science lab pulling census data from government of Canada mainframes for my thesis project.
Best advice received – I learned much while working at KKR for George Roberts and Henry Kravis, two pioneers of the private equity industry who having been building KKR since 1976. Two pieces of wisdom really resonated with me – “innovate, do things differently” and “it is relatively easy to buy a business, so it is how you behave after and what you do with it that really matters.”
Advice to founders considering an investor – Choose your partner carefully! I think it is very hard to understand and work with founders and entrepreneurs, if you have not been one.