With Nordea present on the sideline – poster company chasing the American dream

The idea came up in a small first floor flat at Frederiksberg in 2016. Childhood friends Kevin Agerholm and Danni Wegner wanted to sell and frame posters for artists:

“My partner Danni bought some posters and frames as a birthday present for his mother. But the frames came as an assembly kit and he managed to break the frames and ruin the posters before he had framed them. This made us wonder if this couldn’t be done in a smarter way,” says Kevin Agerholm, who is the co-founder of the startup Poster & Frame. 

And it did not take long to put the idea into action. They bought a good Epson printer and developed a system that could handle many poster artists in a quick and easy way at a good price. Shortly after, Kevin Agerholm and Danni Wegner were framing posters on a drying rack and sending their parcels from the nearby chain store Føtex.

Nordea quickly saw the potential

The two partners relocated their production to an old farm in Roskilde next to a scaffolding company. They remained there for three months and then took over the premises of the scaffolding company as things quickly developed from a hobby project into an actual business with several employees.

"It was pretty crazy. We were really lucky that this service didn’t already exist, and on top of that the timing was just perfect. Interest in posters has been on the rise over the past 7 to 10 years.”

With a rapidly growing company at such an early stage, it was obvious that Poster & Frame had huge potential. They were put in touch with Nordea’s Startup & Growth unit which provided advice and help to ensure that the company was able to scale up operations in tandem with the rising customer demand.

“We had never expected our bank to go beyond the traditional advice, accounts, transfers and financing, but the Startup & Growth team has been fantastic at understanding our business and our needs,” says Kevin Agerholm.

When the customer orders, the printer starts 

Massive growth once again necessitated larger premises and the company is currently located in a 4,000 sq m concrete building in Taastrup. Production has been automated and is on demand, meaning that the printer automatically starts when a customer places an order.

“We decided to produce everything ourselves. So now for example, we make the frames and have had a cardboard box robot developed that can make the cardboard box size needed. This means that we no longer have any major logistical challenges.”

Today Poster & Frame’s largest business is its B2B set-up with more than 1,000 artists and companies onboarded. Recently H&M joined the platform.

Chasing capital and an unexpected message on LinkedIn

The next dream of Poster & Frame was to open a factory in the US in 2024. But to succeed, capital was needed. Last year they consequently participated at Nordea Investor Speed Dating – the event driven by the Startup & Growth team. And here the two partners were really put to the test. 

“We did get to sweat a bit. We had never raised capital before, and the investors asked detailed questions about various concepts that we didn’t know, and we couldn’t tell them what our customer lifetime value was. We learned a great deal by participating and now know what investors find important when they assess a business.”

The investor interest was significant but it still did not end up with any investment. However, the two partners refused give up on their American dream.

Through Nordea, Kevin Agerholm joined the networking group North Star for growth companies with annual sales of DKK 10-200m. At one of the meetings he told about the company and that they were considering opening another factory. And then suddenly something happened. Later that evening there was a message on LinkedIn from one of the other participants:

“He said that he was one of a group of investors and wanted to invest in Poster & Frame,” says Kevin Agerholm and continues:

“It was so cool. That was a really good way to get an investment. I didn’t feel that I came cap in hand. I presented the options and challenges we were facing and didn’t try to hide anything.”

Nordea present on the sideline in the US

For Kevin Agerholm it’s of great significance to have Nordea’s Startup & Growth team present on the sideline – especially now that they are facing the US market.

“It actually means much more than I would have imagined. It puts your mind at rest to know that Nordea is there to provide advice and as a strategic sounding board if we need it. Expanding your business is a huge risk you take, so it’s decisive that they know us and the company.”