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‘We’ve done everything, with no money at all’

Helping foreigners to keep fit while they're working or living abroad is the key goal of Adam Webb, 34, a British entrepreneur who's just launched a new sports business in Stockholm on a shoestring budget.

Published: 14 September 2015 08:00 CEST
'We've done everything, with no money at all'
Adam Webb with his business partner Paul Stallwood. Photo: Private
 
Working out is supposed to reduce stress. But when Adam Webb tried to relieve some of the pressures of moving to a new country by training at a Swedish gym, he instead found his blood pressure rising.
 
“It was very hard to join a gym without a Personal Number in Sweden, and to get one of those you need a bank, and to get a bank you need an address and to get an address confirmed takes a long time. Plus I didn't know if I was staying for a week, a month or a year, so I couldn't find a place to accommodate my situation,” he tells The Local.
 
A year on, he's now the co-creator of an online company designed to help international expats, students and business travellers to find places to work out, without being asked to climb a mountain of paperwork first.
 
Gymgo allows users to buy temporary passes to access different gyms or fitness class facilities across Stockholm.
 
“You have no contract, no need for a Personal Number or address. All you need is a credit card to pay online. You get emailed your pass and away you go,” explains Webb.
 
Customers can currently choose from 25 different locations across the capital, including sports centres offering yoga, pilates, Jiu Jit Su and kickboxing. 
 
Most are small local businesses, with Webb explaining that his team is “keeping away from big chains” until the start-up has a bigger user base.
 
While the company is still what the Briton describes as “in the very early stages”, he says its aim is eventually “to be like the Booking.com of sport”. The idea is to encourage customers from anywhere in the world to sign up for and rate gyms and sports activities across Scandinavia in the same way that they can currently pick and choose hotels and hostels.
 
Gymgo has already impressed judges at Sting, one of Stockholm's biggest start-up incubators, reaching the final 20 firms being considered for funding earlier this year.
 
“We missed out because at that stage we didn't even have a website or any users, but they have asked to talk to us again in January,” he explains.
 
 
Until then, Webb is practising lean living in order to realise his dream. He is currently studying a digital entrepreneurship course at Hyper Island business school in Stockholm, for which he receives funding from the government, having given up a job in sales to focus on the business.
 
“The CSN [study grant] is about 9,000 kronor a month but then my rent is 8,000,” he laughs, before adding that he also has a “very small income which pays for food and stuff” from renting out a property in Brighton, his home city.
 
“It's challenging…we have done everything, with no money at all!”
 
Webb's business partner Paul Stallwood, 39, is a fellow Brit who works full-time on Gymgo, supported by his wife who has a job at a Swedish broadcaster.
 
The pair became friends after a chance encounter while they were both out walking in a Stockholm park and fleshed out their business idea on lunch breaks when they later ended up working together at CEO Magazine. 
 
Neither of them yet speak good Swedish, with Webb citing Almi, a state-owned, privately run service for new businesses in Sweden, as a key source of legal and financial advice in English.
 
Gymgo has also drawn on the resources of Webb's twin brother, a designer who lives in London, to help create the brand's launch website, which he says will develop as Gymgo expands.
 

Adam Webb with his daughter Mabel. Photo: Private
 
Currently aged 34, the entrepreneur is no stranger to living in different cities, having also spent time in the British capital following an eight-year stint in Paris working for the UK's Immigration Service.
 
After having a daughter with his Brazilian-Swedish girlfriend, the couple moved to Stockholm a year ago, but split up soon afterwards. However Webb says he's “going nowhere” and is clearly passionate about creating stability in the Swedish capital for the pair's child Mabel, who is now two.
 
“Everything I am doing is to provide a better life for Mabel, she is why I am here,” he explains. 
 
“But I like a new city, new people, a new challenge…and I have quite an entrepreneurial spirit.”
 
And while Webb describes himself as the kind of person who could “live anywhere”, he appears to feel at very at home as part of the Swedish capital's growing tech scene.
 
“I need to be in charge of my own time, my own schedule without someone telling me 'sit at that desk for eight hours',” he smiles.
 
With learning Swedish a high priority for 2016, Webb's current focus is on expanding his business ahead of Sting's next pitching round in the New Year.
 
“I like these tests. It would be great to have thousands of pounds to say 'do, this, do that' but its also a real challenge to have no money. Here in the industry we call it 'growth hacking', creating something from nothing…I love that.”
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READER INSIGHTS

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who’ve been there, done that

The Swedish job market poses unique challenges for newcomers. The Local's readers share their best tips for cracking the career code.

Published: 10 April 2024 11:32 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2024 15:50 CEST
How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who've been there, done that

Network, network, network!

A statistic that often gets tossed around is that seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are obtained through personal connections, and there’s no doubt that a good network is crucial to your job hunt, making the labour market extra challenging for newcomers to the country.

In fact, networking was the main tip mentioned by The Local’s readers.

“The job market is quite hot in Sweden, and talent is in short supply. People hiring do not have a lot of time to find the right talent, and tips from friends, colleagues and former colleagues are the way to first, find out organisations are hiring, and secondly, get your CV on the short list,” said Kyle, a Canadian reader who works in innovation management in Gothenburg.

“If you are going for a major employer like Volvo, network gets you in the door, as HR does not have much to do with hiring… the hiring managers do all of it and have no time, due to the insane number of consensus meetings. If you are looking for smaller organisations, they have even less time to find people, and networking is their primary way to find talent,” he added.

NETWORKING IN SWEDEN:

Some of the networking tips readers mentioned were going to job fairs, getting an internship to help you establish connections in your preferred field, joining clubs (this could be anything from your local gardening association to meetups for coders, but focus on clubs that may be popular among people working in your chosen field), and drawing on your organic network of friends, neighbours and others.

Don’t neglect the groundwork

The saying “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is getting worn out (and people may look at you funny if you turn up to interviews in a Batman suit), but there’s truth to the notion of making sure you know what you want – and preparing for it.

In other words, don’t wait for a job ad to appear before you start to customise your CV and figure out what skill set you need. Create your CV now so that you’re ready to tweak it to your dream job – you could even have a general look at job ads in your field to see what requirements are needed. And don’t forget to spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that it fits with your career goals.

“I believe that several factors contribute to successfully landing a desirable job in Sweden. It’s essential to prepare to meet the requirements beyond just having a university degree. Many individuals realise these requirements only after completing their studies when they start searching for a job, which can be too late,” said Adnan Aslam from Pakistan, who works as a food inspector.

“I recommend identifying the job advertisements for positions you aspire to hold in the future and then preparing for those requirements during your studies. For me, acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the Swedish language and obtaining a Swedish driving licence were crucial. I pursued these goals during my studies and was able to secure a desirable job before graduating,” he added.

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Felipe Cabral even has a GPT assistant trained on his own CVs and old cover letters, and said the set-up only takes ten minutes if you already have your documents. “With that in place, you can give instructions like: Read this job description and create a tailored version of my CV and letter for it. (…) Remember to always review and ask it not to create data aside from your documents.”

Be flexible and ready to adapt

Moving to a new place inevitably means having to learn not just the practicalities such as how to write a CV or which websites to use to look for job openings, but also learning how to navigate a new culture with all its unspoken expectations.

Swedish workplaces are generally less hierarchical than many other countries, but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want without anyone raising an eyebrow. Swedes are usually direct, but be careful of being too abrasive or boastful: raising your voice, even during a spirited argument, or banging your own drum to show off your skills may not go down well.

“Talk, deliberate, complain like a Swede and you’ll come across like you know what the job entails, so your trustworthiness increases,” said an Indian data analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Office politics are just as strong in Sweden as anywhere else. The flat hierarchy is deceiving as social hierarchy is enforced quite a bit in that lack of formal hierarchy. Take your time in learning these dynamics wherever you work before revealing your talent and capabilities. Expect those internal politics to happen, and they won’t hurt so much when they do,” said Kyle, the Canadian reader in Gothenburg.

This article about Swedish office politics may be useful.

Stay true to yourself

Adapting to your surroundings is one thing. Completely changing who you are is another.

For one thing, your happiness is as important as your career progression, and for another, your foreignness need not be an impediment: it’s also a skill that sets you apart from the rest. It means you have unique experience, and also, in the right setting, provides an opportunity to sometimes violate those social rules we mentioned above, because people assume you will, anyway.

“Trust is key. Build trust in your network, work with integrity. It’s OK to violate jantelagen if you are maintaining integrity. Sometimes your outsider and more honest/open opinion will burn bridges, especially those that may feel threatened by talent. But it will build trust with other colleagues who see it as brave and more trustworthy to work with,” said Kyle from Canada.

Hunker down for the long haul

We don’t want to scare you, because there are plenty of examples of people who quickly find their dream job in Sweden and settle into their new workplace, enjoying perks such as long summer holidays, generous parental leave and the famous work-life balance.

But if you do find it tougher than you expected: know that you’re not alone.

Several readers who responded to the survey said they were still trying to find a job in Sweden.

“I found jobs all over Europe but not here. They say they have a lack of experienced senior engineers but the don’t seem to be doing much to solve this,” said a Brazilian in Gothenburg.

A reader from Bangladesh said she was “at a loss” as to how to make a career change from her current AI role in Stockholm, despite many years of experience as an IT project manager.

“Over the past 18 months, I’ve submitted over 600 applications to various organisations. Unfortunately, despite being overqualified for some positions, I’ve faced rejections at every turn, from both large and small companies. The job market here, especially for foreign-born women, feels overwhelmingly challenging,” she said, adding that the struggle had impacted her mental health.

The Local has on several occasions reported on foreign residents’ struggle to get a foot on the Swedish job ladder, with many facing hurdles such as employers’ unfamiliarity with international degrees, discrimination, or a lack of network that can provide paths into a company.

So during the job hunt, don’t forget to care for yourself. Share your concerns with fellow job-seekers, ask for help and join networking groups – this is good not just for creating new contacts, but also in terms of your social well-being and meeting people who are in a similar situation.

And finally, as one British reader in Stockholm advised, keep looking: “Be open-minded with the opportunities that present themselves. It isn’t an easy market to enter and doesn’t feel inclusive.” But he added, “don’t give up”.

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