Sverre Bengtsson — Building Viedoc, the Airport Deal & Why Europe Must Work Together

Adam Walker:I am Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed Podcast where leaders, innovators, and hidden voices in healthcare open up, no sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data protocols and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions.

Adam Walker:What drives us? What breaks us and what truths live behind the titles we wear?

Adam Walker:Sverre Bengtsson is a trailblazer in clinical trial innovation and digital transformation. As co-founder at Viedoc Technologies, he's helped shape one of the most widely adopted eClinical platforms in the world, streamlining trials across more than 80 countries, and empowering thousands of research teams to work smarter and faster.

Adam Walker:He says, an active board member of the ACDM, the Association for Clinical Data Management, reflecting a deep commitment to advancing data integrity and operational excellence across clinical research.

Adam Walker:With over three decades of experience. Sverre is also an active angel investor backing more than 30 life science ventures across Europe. Swear. Welcome to Pharma Prescribed.

Sverre Bengtsson:Thank you very much, Adam. Thank you. It's really an honor and pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Adam Walker:Your reputation precedes you, if I may, , we spent quite a bit of time together recently at various conferences, and you were one of my.

Adam Walker:Most wanted guests on this podcast because wherever I go, you appear to be there. And wherever I go, you appear to be on stage talking to people. I don't know what your secret is, but clearly your reputation also perceived you within the industry. You're a really charming man to know, and thank you.

Adam Walker:I just would love to know a little bit more about you.

Adam Walker:So , how did you get into this industry in the first place?

Sverre Bengtsson:That's a really good question. When I started at uni. I started actually started, study business demonstration and economics. And I wanted to go into the finance industry.

Sverre Bengtsson:Then there were bad times in Sweden, so I decided to study a little bit more. So I took a second degree in statistics, mathematics and programming. So still with ambition to go to the finance industry. But then, , got lured into this industry by saying, yeah, you know a little bit of statistics, can't you do things here?

Sverre Bengtsson:Then I stayed on. And for me this has been the perfect blend of business and science. So I started in the science part and then working as a statistician and data manager and then I realized after the time that there are plenty of good statisticians, but I have a skill m many statisticians lack.

Sverre Bengtsson:Social skills yeah. Ing no, they're the most priced. I went to the business side.

Adam Walker:Yeah, they're the most priced skills within this industry, as you've clearly identified. I can confirm that you do have those skills in abundance and you are continuing to expand in that particular area.

Adam Walker:So tell me a little bit more about Viedoc and how that all came about.

Adam Walker:Yeah.

Sverre Bengtsson:Oh, Viedoc as we say. Viedoc actually came out of a necessity. The the necessity being that me and my co-founder we worked at a, the CRO and they were in some bad times and they had to let people go. So we started a CRO. And and basically, yeah, we needed something to do and we thought there was a gap in the market in the Nordic market.

Sverre Bengtsson:So we started a zero and it just took like something like six months and yeah, and this was in 2003. And still most of the things were done on paper. And we thought, okay let's actually build our own. Clinical system, not for others to use, but for ourselves to use and to be more competitive and more modern in the local market.

Sverre Bengtsson:We actually looked around at different systems, we were a newly founded company, so we couldn't afford them and we didn't think they were good enough for our needs. So we started developing this software for our own needs. And then it just took a few years. And then our, even our competitors in the local market in the Nordics, they said yeah, we kinda like your system.

Sverre Bengtsson:Can't we also use it? And that was the start of expanding the voc system. So we started out of necessity. We didn't have a job so we, we found an excuse of

Adam Walker:of doing this. It's an amazing, it's an amazing point that you make there, which is we needed a system, so we built one. Not many people can just, do that at the drop of a hat.

Adam Walker:It would've been a lot harder in early two thousands as well, before the days of APIs chat, GPT, and all the other tools that we have at our easy disposal now.

Adam Walker:So how on earth did you start? Where did you start with a blank sheet of paper,

Sverre Bengtsson:more or less. We had built systems earlier. We had built them on Oracle based systems and we had built things in Microsoft Access and we had done that quite successfully in the previous company.

Sverre Bengtsson:We had some ideas. We had some ideas and 2003. Yeah. You could say it was more difficult, but you could also say it was more easy as well because it was yeah, it was a blank sheet of paper and we could do what we wanted. And so yes it was it was like. We've done this paper process now that internet is coming and it's obviously going to change the market.

Sverre Bengtsson:It was my co-founder Hendrik, and he took the initiative and made most of the requirement specifications for their early versions, et cetera. And I was more on the business side. We both saw the potential, and, this was a joint work, of course but it was truly something we saw.

Sverre Bengtsson:Yeah, this is the future. It's, it is not doing things on paper. And then we found a business model around it. And we essentially captured the northern market very quickly. And then from there. Expansion, which is a different story or a later story, but the first years we were just lo locally in the Nordics.

Adam Walker:It's amazing. It is an amazing story of success and growth and opportunity, right place, right time, right momentum. And clearly there was some skills and an opportunity that afforded itself around that time. I think I I know I started in the industry in mid to late nineties. You're right.

Adam Walker:Paper was a thing for all our audience. We used to do everything on paper. In fact, I even remember doing it on chalkboards, but no, I'm being serious. I'm being flippant. Technology was advancing very quickly then that was, early windows and various other systems that were out there in, in the market at the time.

Adam Walker:So

Adam Walker:you've seen some incredible changes throughout your career over that period of time. Are there some particular things that stand out for you as really being major points of change which drove opportunity themselves?

Sverre Bengtsson:Oh yeah, different perspectives. The when you start these things and, we came to our first clients and said, there was an accepted paper process and we actually had some clients who.

Sverre Bengtsson:Believed in us and actually said, yeah, let's try this. And you can't be thankful enough for your first clients because you come there. Yeah, we don't have a solution, but, or we have a draft of a solution or it's very early in the journey and they support you and you can't thank those clients enough now.

Sverre Bengtsson:And then of course we, we made some, major steps. We attracted one major pharma company and that was just out of coincidence. I had been in, in Paris at the conference and with a client and all that, and it worked out well. So I was sitting in a lounge in Paris.

Sverre Bengtsson:This was first of first of, november, I believe in 2008. So I was sitting there in the lounge and I saw a woman, working on a computer a few meters away and she was working on something in a PowerPoint. So I understood what she was working with and and and then I, just said, oh, I see we are in the same industry. So we started talking and after a while she said okay, show me your system. So what happened was that, okay, I demoed the system and she loved it. And she said yeah we'll see. She was working for the, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Sverre Bengtsson:We split and I thought, okay. I'll follow up. I was due to go on a vacation. Okay. So I thought, okay, I'm going to call her in two weeks time next morning on, on the Saturday morning at eight 30 in the morning, she was calling me. We said I called my bosses in New York and can we meet on Monday?

Sverre Bengtsson:I was like okay. I can't, because I was on vacation. And then my colleague and another partner, also took over. It took one year in 26 days before we actually got that that global deal with them, which was in the newspapers and everything. So it's so many things that happen and it's not it is not something I did.

Sverre Bengtsson:It is something that we did and it takes, you have opportunities and, whatever happens. It's it's the gravity, the opportunity but not to yeah. And work hard. And every time we overdelivered what they, they said, what they wanted in that process. So it was really, yeah.

Sverre Bengtsson:Take the

Adam Walker:opportunity. You couldn't have been in a better place on that occasion by the sounds of it, and you stuck to your holiday guns.

Sverre Bengtsson:I did, but we had some conversations and I prepared the first budget during the vacation. Yeah. But it was fun. One year, in 26 days, then we signed a global

Adam Walker:contract.

Adam Walker:Do you know what, that sounds about the right kind of time for a pharma company to make a decision, doesn't it? I think probably quick. Yes.

Adam Walker:So it hasn't changed in all

Sverre Bengtsson:that time either by the sounds? No,

Adam Walker:no.

Sverre Bengtsson:I remember I remember the contract and that was the first time I was doing, a contract on that level, it was like 60 plus pages and I was like what does this really mean? Of course we had attorneys helping us and, you, you need to understand things anyway.

Sverre Bengtsson:And, yeah, it took some time. That was great.

Adam Walker:So for our audiences understanding V Doc. Became a CRO that provided technology. And did the technology then advance beyond the CRO?

Sverre Bengtsson:Not all of these were easy decisions and in hindsight it's easy to say it was a rational route.

Sverre Bengtsson:And, not all of us were in agreement. And meanwhile, and we were actually three founders, one left, and then we were two founders, and then we added three more partners. It was our partner group that took these decisions and not all decisions were easy, but basically what we did, we had one company then we split the companies into two different companies.

Sverre Bengtsson:One was the CRO and one was a tech company. We furthered them and when we sold the CRO in 2018 to a local competitor. And we then we got a new majority owner in the technology company in 2019, which is a private equity focusing on business to business source source companies.

Sverre Bengtsson:And it was interesting because w we, we saw, we, when we got that major pharma deal, we saw that we had a global potential in that one. What we did. We put really tough restrictions on the CRO. The CRO could only work in the Nordic market, and that was because we realized if the CRO expanded outside the Nordics, we would compete with potential clients.

Sverre Bengtsson:CROs. Of course we're selling licenses to both s and sponsors alike ob obviously, but the, the vast majority of the work orders were of course coming through C so we limited the C and that was very frustration for our CO employees. So it was a tough one, but it wasn't until we actually sold the zero that our.

Sverre Bengtsson:That we really could expand quickly. That is because over everyone thought, okay, yeah, you still have that zero. You can steal our clients because you have insights. We had created a firewall, but one thing is of course, something you're saying and another thing is what you doing.

Sverre Bengtsson:So I think it, for us, it was the focus and it was, okay, we are selling it, and now it's a clear split. And then really vidoc took off, and that is one of the major reasons why it took off.

Adam Walker:I think the delineation of the service provision is clear and would've. Been entirely evident and necessary.

Adam Walker:I know of a couple of one particular Nordic pharma company that did something similar with an IT arm, and I can't mention them out loud, but you'll know the one that I'm talking about. And similarly I've heard conversations around that, there is a very distinct requirement to separate arms, but also.

Adam Walker:As you described, the buyout clearly facilitated that even better because it just put Oh, yeah.

Sverre Bengtsson:And it's also clear water, so the focus of the owner group as well, because services is, I have high respect for the ones providing the services because it's a difficult dentistry to be in a CO.

Sverre Bengtsson:Developing a software, the first version is typically. Relatively easy but to scale it globally and, having more, 24 7 through 24 7 support, different it centers and having multiple clients with different requirements and time zones and everything that is difficult.

Sverre Bengtsson:So the first version to serve one client. Two clients, three clients, 10 clients is relatively simple. But once you go global, that is complex. That is and so for us, it was focused. We could focus on the software on

Adam Walker:Yeah, it ma it makes sense actually. And I think the other thing that came to mind there was around the difference in skill sets as well, because as technologists, the development.

Adam Walker:Of platforms, systems, and the complexities of those are very different to the day-to-day service provision that you have in and around clinical trials and clinical research organizations. So yeah, I can see why that is a very different skill set and it's not often one that many people can bridge.

Sverre Bengtsson:No, it was a learning curve for us as well. Yeah, because we all came, our role the five partners that we were, four of us were statisticians. So we were trained in services, but we transformed. Yeah.

Adam Walker:No, it's it's brilliant and thank you for sharing that. I think that's very helpful for our audience to understand a little bit more about VOC and that transition.

Adam Walker:So as I say to my earlier question.

Adam Walker:You've seen a lot, you will have seen a lot of changes. What do you see are some of the big moving parts right now in the industry with regards to. Dare I say, technology and some of the challenges that, that are around the industry today.

Sverre Bengtsson:Oh I love that question.

Sverre Bengtsson:And unfortunately, maybe my, my, my response is maybe a little provocative now, especially for the data management thing. What I see, where I see the most transition happening right now is more in the clinical operation space. We've done, understand me, relatively easy to do the logic in forms and doing the logic of data flows. They are simpler. But right now with more and more experience in the lLMs the language models. You can do more things also with the authoring and orchestration around click trials, IE that could be protocols, but it's also how to arrange the the trial management systems, et cetera.

Sverre Bengtsson:And you can see a lot of things happening there right now. Also about around feasibility analysis around. Around black boxes around evaluation of the data continuously instead of having data monitoring committees, et cetera. So it's a lot of things happening right now. The first natural step is logic.

Sverre Bengtsson:It was data management and there is still a lot of things that can be done there. The barbecue the AI and everything. It's a lot of things to do still, but what I see right now is a lot of happening. Lot of things are happening now in the clinical operations field or Yeah, the overall management.

Sverre Bengtsson:We will see a lot of changes coming from there that will impact data management. If you author a protocol and then you have a model like USDM and then you can set up the system in minutes instead of weeks, obviously. This can only do 80, 90% and would need to do some manual adjustments

Sverre Bengtsson:but still, it changes the industry. And then you can have live monitoring, not only of the data, but also on the operational aspects of the study and how that will influence how we manage the data in studies. So it's going to have a fundamental change in the industry. Right now because the LMS are getting more and more advanced, this means this will affect data management downstream.

Adam Walker:Where do you sit on that particular point? Because we were both at the same conference recently where this was talked about being the great disruptor, and I've had various conversations both on the podcast and outside of here where people have said, yes, it's gonna be the great disruptor, and others have said.

Adam Walker:Business as usual. We're a conservative industry. Things move very slowly. Don't hang your hat on this one. I'm just curious where you, where your position is about that particular point, because there are very different opinions right now, aren't there? We are at a absolutely inflection point.

Adam Walker:I think we will look back probably in two or three years time and say. Perhaps this was an inflection, but I'm just curious where you sit on that particular

Sverre Bengtsson:I think that the I think that there will be some early companies doing, the, this on a scale and where we will learn and everyone will benefit in a few years.

Sverre Bengtsson:So as with any new technology process coming around, there will be some trailblazers that go. Into that direction and everyone will be thankful afterwards. Thank you. That, that, the experience you gained are now into the new processes, et cetera. So yes, this is not for everyone. And as in any new opportunity, there are a lot of companies flocking to this because they, they see if we can win this race, but it'll not be for everyone for another.

Sverre Bengtsson:At least three years, three to five years. So I think both are right. Yes, it will change, but. As we can see with any new process we have the decentralized clinical trials. That was the future and a lot of co companies said, yeah, never going back and everything and they are back.

Sverre Bengtsson:So we try, we tend to overestimate the short-term effects, but underestimate the long-term effects. I think we are. Between these, those two standpoints, we're somewhere in the middle. It will affect us. We don't know exactly the scale yet. But there will be a few companies investing a lot and we all will gain from that in a few years time.

Adam Walker:Yeah, thank you for sharing that insight.

Adam Walker:It's really helpful to have as many perspectives on this as possible, and I know that there will be people listening and watching this. Who will have different positions, but also there are many young people coming into this industry now, and we need to attract that new talent into this industry.

Adam Walker:You and I are fairly, a, fairly well advanced in our vintage these days and I want to encourage young people to come into this industry as much as it being a place of innovation and change. And you've described your own experiences of innovation and change and. But

Sverre Bengtsson:I think I need to challenge the industry a little bit.

Sverre Bengtsson:Go ahead. The thing is what we say now, we have the best people training the models. We have the best people, advancing science and and the new methods, et cetera. Certainly with a hope, yes, we, we can get, we can make more efficient process. We would not need as many people, et cetera.

Sverre Bengtsson:But what we'll see, and we have seen that now in, for instance, in imaging where they have AI getting more and more advanced coming out with the better conclusions, better than humans, et cetera. But then at the same time, what is happening is that the radiologists, they get comfortable and they don't get as knowledgeable in the future and.

Sverre Bengtsson:The next gen coming in maybe we don't need so many of them and suddenly we lose knowledge and we are reliant on the technology. So what we need to as an industry, we still need to attract people even though there are what potentially efficiencies in these new technologies because else we will lose in five years, in 10 years because.

Sverre Bengtsson:AI took over and we don't have the next gen coming in and they don't understand where we've been heading. So it's very important, especially for a knowledge intensive industry as ours, we need new talent all the time. To your point, train them and make them enjoy and thrive in the industry.

Sverre Bengtsson:This is super important.

Adam Walker:Yeah, it was something that really energized me when I first came into this industry. It was the fact that there seemed to be a very sweet spot around medical information, data and tech, and that was the thing that seemed to light my fire, whatever. For whatever reason, I still think that's the case, and I think what you are alluding to is really around that piece of elevating one's skillset.

Adam Walker:Even further outside of what you're learning in lecture theaters and online and on various different platforms these days it's nuanced around building on those skill sets, isn't it? It's still being the human in the loop. It's still being the expert in alignment around decision-making. That's key.

Adam Walker:There will always be a human to make the ultimate decision. I hope as long as I'm here, I hope for that to be the case. And I think moving that then forward, it reminds me of something I was listening to not so long ago where it was exactly around that point you made around effectively being lazy.

Adam Walker:We don't want the next generation to be lazy. We want them to still be curious. Yes. But actually more curious because they're gonna have to go deeper because on the surface, the data might look fine. But actually peeling back the layers, it's gonna take more strategic understanding of what's bringing it to the fore beyond these LLMs and tools and other mechanisms whereby it looks like you've got clean data.

Adam Walker:It looks like the DLS and the outputs. We've got a lovely smooth curve there and we've got a great uptake of that truck. It's,

Sverre Bengtsson:yeah, it's a little bit like the checklist. If you, yeah, we've done this magnificent checklist and yeah, I've checked all the boxes. I'm done. But you need to think outside the checklist as well.

Sverre Bengtsson:It's the same thing here.

Adam Walker:Yeah, no, I agree. I agree.

Adam Walker:Circling back to, to your earlier days, I'm just curious, were there particular mentors and friends or people that encouraged you to get into this industry in the first place? Was there anyone that really held your hand and gave you the guidance that you've given to others?

Sverre Bengtsson:Yeah. I think one of the, I mean I worked briefly at probably the first electronic patient diary, or what we would say, ePRO Company globally was a Swedish company called Mini Dock. And the founders there Penos, and they were instrumental. Attracted me to, to this interesting. And making me, wow, this is interesting.

Sverre Bengtsson:Then I had a CEO at my, my first job, ya Strom, who was also, he was he was instrumental in in. Attracting me to stay in this industry, see both the science and the business very dynamic. So yeah, in the early days they were really persons I looked up to, but there, there are so many but the, those are three per persons.

Sverre Bengtsson:I, I could definitely I'm very grateful too that they are, they were early in the industry and really, made me interested. As I said earlier, I wa I was looking at the finance industry and I'm very happy that I never ended up there. For me, I read protocols, I read articles about clinic research.

Sverre Bengtsson:I'm very interested in the clinical research and the processes. And I'm a bit of a nerd there and I can, I can't thank them enough for helping me becoming that nerd.

Adam Walker:I think you've got a very fine balance between nerd and communicator because you have some wonderful skills, and when I've seen you present and when I've seen you interview other people, interestingly, you seem to have an understanding of people and there is a warmth around which you do that.

Adam Walker:So there is a very nice alignment around that particular point. So thank you for sharing that and. It's always interesting for our audience to hear how people got into these roles and what elevated them to a to another level. Similarly, there are people that guided me along the way and and whether they be personal, professional, it doesn't matter.

Adam Walker:It's really just about following the signs, isn't it? Where are the opportunities? Who can you learn from? Who can you piggyback on the back of and more importantly, who does something really well? There have been organizations where. I have worked that have been led by companies that I didn't admire the leaders of, and I won't mention their names, but this was a long time ago and I always wondered how on earth some of those people got to the top because it certainly wasn't on their presentation skills and it wasn't on the fact that they were gregarious and outgoing and had something special.

Adam Walker:And yet when you see that in people where they do have that something special, it shines and lights the room. It does.

Sverre Bengtsson:We are very lucky to be in an industry where people really. Burn. Not just, they're burning for the ideas to develop something, but also helping people drive science and drive processes, making things better quicker, cheaper, whatever.

Sverre Bengtsson:But also in the ultimate goal of helping people. I'm so grateful to be in this industry. I, yeah it's fantastic. And that drive, some of my competitors are fantastic people. And as you said earlier I'm more on the investment and board level right now and the drive in some people and helping these startup companies.

Sverre Bengtsson:It's amazing. And you are there to, to help them. It's fantastic. The next gen, it's fantastic.

Adam Walker:We talked about earlier about the , association of Clinical Data Management and your involvement in that. I'm curious as to how you got involved in it and what your continuing interest is , in and around that, because that is a place where I see incredible enthusiasm, amazing energy, and phenomenal human beings.

Sverre Bengtsson:I agree with you. First of all I've always been working in volunteer organizations so it was natural for me to try to engage and yeah I spoke to the previous chair in Pinto on a number of occasions and he believed in me he recommended me to the board.

Sverre Bengtsson:So I'm very grateful, to Ian for this and then. There, there are so many changes in the industry and we have a magnificent board now with very diverse experiences and insights and backgrounds. So it is it's just an enjoyment to work there.

Sverre Bengtsson:We do this on a volunteer basis but the persons around it is just amazing. So for me, it was, I asked, okay, could I get involved? I think I have some experience which might be beneficial for the board level, and then he believed in me. That was my background, but I've been working on volunteer organizations all my life and I'm also part of other organizations right now where, in things I believe in and I believe in data.

Sverre Bengtsson:This is where I come from. Data-driven decisions, but also we in the local area, we all, we are all true to our industry, but we're also true to, to where you come from and support. So I'm active in an organization called cro, which is and organization for life science service vendors.

Sverre Bengtsson:Where we try to promote the European perspective. Yeah we all have our different perspectives and I do that on a volunteer basis as well. But it's fun to, to do things and give back.

Adam Walker:I couldn't agree with you more, and thank you for sharing that particular experience.

Adam Walker:I wonder, you talked about. Cro and of course the UK being outside of the EU these days. No, you CRO is for Europe. It's not, it is not eu.

Sverre Bengtsson:Ah, okay.

Adam Walker:So very good.

Sverre Bengtsson:No. So it's all for Europe and last time I looked at the map, UK was still there.

Adam Walker:Oh gosh, we shouldn't go down that political rabbit hole.

Adam Walker:When that decision was made by other people and not by my own I was commuting to Copenhagen. So I do have a very deep love for the Nordics as well. And I was working for a Danish farmer company at the time, commuting there. And I do recall. Landing the day after showing my passport and having a shake of the head by the the passport person who stamped me.

Adam Walker:And that was before we had the different, the different cues when you're coming through passport control.

Adam Walker:I think what I've learned though, from working across. Geographies, particularly across Europe and the us I'd love to hear your perspective on that, because to me, that is the rich tapestry of learning from one another across cultures, isn't it?

Sverre Bengtsson:Yeah. No I'm a European so of course I I love Europe and I, whatever I can do to help Europe. It's it's just. Necessity. It's, it comes out necessity. And as if you look at Europe in particular, we've have some challenges.

Sverre Bengtsson:We have the competitiveness of Europe is the, is on decline. Maybe we are going to change it now. It's fragmented. We have so many political levels and what's good for one country might not be as good for another country. Country. And then you have conflicts. And then we often come to decision maybe in, in the right direction, but with the least common denominator instead of seeing the greatness of Europe.

Sverre Bengtsson:So there, there are some things to work on, I think. But I think the awareness now of working together. Is strong. And whether you come from UK or Greece or Sweden, wherever you come from, we are in the same region and we need to work together. We see the geopolitical things happening right now, and we have many different regions competing with each other, and we need to work together.

Sverre Bengtsson:So I think we have many opportunities. We'll just need to agree on some things in common. And I see greatness in Europe for sure.

Adam Walker:I wholeheartedly agree on that . And we are stronger together, by the way. We are. So for sure.

Adam Walker:I'm curious, is there a question that I haven't asked you today that perhaps I should have asked A burning question?

Sverre Bengtsson:I'd say obviously I'm very much interested in geopolitics right now, so obviously the question is what happens next? For Europe. That is a burning question for me. And we have some challenges now geopolitically and how are we going to solve that?

Sverre Bengtsson:That's high on my agenda right now. And to say at the same time, we are one region outta many globally. We need to find ways to work together. We are, as a world much stronger together. As a CDM has a lot of members outside Europe, so we can't just be a European organization.

Sverre Bengtsson:We can't so we need to work together globally and find the best in each of us.

Adam Walker:I think there's a message there that perhaps the A CDM could be the route through the geopolitical challenges. If we were to apply some of the principles of the A CDM, perhaps the world would be a better place. I'm gonna play that one back to the A CDM board, and I encourage you to do the same

Sverre Bengtsson:for sure.

Sverre Bengtsson:No I think we've covered, covered things or the or the most important things. So

Adam Walker:it's fun. Thank you. As I say, I really appreciate your honesty and your transparency and the manner in which you deliver. That's fair. So

Adam Walker:at this point in the conversation, I always like to finish with a quick fire round.

Adam Walker:Oops. And I'll warn you. What is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Sverre Bengtsson:I've always been someone who's been. All over the place. For me it would be focus because yeah. At university I was doing all things and nowadays I'm engaged in, in, in many different activities. So I guess and I think my wife would agree to that is focus.

Adam Walker:Very good. What are the top three qualities you value most when building a team?

Adam Walker:Willingness to chip in

Sverre Bengtsson:honesty, transparency.

Adam Walker:Yeah, that's a great phrase. By the way, I know you spent a lot of time with Brits. If you're coming up with a willingness to chip in, that's superb language. I can't translate that in Swedish, but you could do that for your audience. What is your favorite thing outside of work?

Sverre Bengtsson:Oh my family, and that includes my dog Molly. And maybe you heard some sounds when she was roaming around here trying to get my attention all the time to play. She's been home with me all day now and she wants to go out walking yeah. Family and dog exercising. I have a super fun job right now.

Sverre Bengtsson:I'm helping startup companies. I'm investing and everything. So it's super fun. Yeah I enjoy life

Adam Walker:now. I enjoy life. It cer it certainly sounds like you are living your best life. And finally, what is your number one golden rule for life and for business?

Sverre Bengtsson:Good one. Be humble. Do your best.

Adam Walker:Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So we've covered an awful lot of ground I think in this conversation sphere. It's been a pleasure to spend time with you. For any of our audience, if they wanna make contact with you, what's the best way to reach out

Sverre Bengtsson:LinkedIn. So sometimes I'm an addict to, to LinkedIn and then I need to detox myself. But the, don't worry, I'll be back again.

Adam Walker:My favorite ones are when you're walking through an airport and you are filming yourself. Those are the ones I prefer the most. Yeah. Yeah. They're the ones that seem to get the most engagement from me.

Adam Walker:Yeah.

Sverre Bengtsson:They, they do. I was in Bruss this week, and I failed to take a photo, but, I've been on the conveyor belt as well, taking films and everything. So I tried to do something extra, but I forgot it this time. So maybe I should take a video now.

Sverre Bengtsson:Walking my dog here. I don't know.

Adam Walker:I think Molly could be the next star of the show and certainly the next star of the A CDM conference. It's been an absolute delight speaking to you today, so thank you for taking the time and thank you for being on Pharma Prescribed.

Sverre Bengtsson:Thank you. It was an honor to be talking to you, Adam, and I wish the best of successful prescribed.

Sverre Bengtsson:Thank you very much.