Rune Røsten Email & Phone Number

Oslo, Norway

Oslo, Norway

As Country manager of Schibsted Ventures I was responsible for the Norwegian investments, portfolio and team. Currently Schibsted Ventures is one the most active and renowned VC players and the portfolio consist of nearly 20 companies, including startups like Tibber, Homely, Firi, Fixrate, FundingPartner, Askin, Bookis, Dintero, Nomono, Inzpire.me, Tillit and Tørn.

I was part of a small team that initiated and launched Schibsted Ventures in Norway, one of the very first corporate VC players. Schibsted Ventures invested and later acquired startups like EasyAd, Kickback, Ebok.no and Eiendomsmeglerguiden. Schibsted Ventures was also responsible for launching Lendo, Prisjakt and Letsdeal in Norway.

VG Nettby.no was Norway's largest social network with approx. 1 million members and almost every teenager in Norway was using VG Nettby. The business was hugely profitable through a combination of ad sales and a premium subscriber service. The service was also launched in Sweden and Spain. In the end we decided to close down the business due to increasing competition from Facebook. More than 10 years later I still regularly receive messages from users asking if VG would consider to relaunch the… Show more VG Nettby.no was Norway's largest social network with approx. 1 million members and almost every teenager in Norway was using VG Nettby. The business was hugely profitable through a combination of ad sales and a premium subscriber service. The service was also launched in Sweden and Spain. In the end we decided to close down the business due to increasing competition from Facebook. More than 10 years later I still regularly receive messages from users asking if VG would consider to relaunch the service. Show less

As CEO and Editor of Dagbladet.no I was part of both the executive management team and top editorial team at Dagbladet, reporting to Group CEO and Dagbladet's editor-in-chief. During my period at Dagbladet.no I turned the business from unprofitability to double-digit millions in EBITDA and increasing the readership to par with the largest newspaper in Norway, VG.no.

Dagbladet.no was the first newspaper in Norway that launched an Internet edition, March 8 1995. In 1997 they decided to make Dagbladet.no a proper business unit and I was one of the first they hired to accelerate the development. As Head of R&D I was responsible for product and tech, including Dagbladet.no's own publishing platform. My team launced a bunch of innovative services like the immensely popular football manager game Mitt drømmelag, Norway's first video service Dagbladet webtv, the… Show more Dagbladet.no was the first newspaper in Norway that launched an Internet edition, March 8 1995. In 1997 they decided to make Dagbladet.no a proper business unit and I was one of the first they hired to accelerate the development. As Head of R&D I was responsible for product and tech, including Dagbladet.no's own publishing platform. My team launced a bunch of innovative services like the immensely popular football manager game Mitt drømmelag, Norway's first video service Dagbladet webtv, the innovative niche service Dagbladet litteratur, and Start.no, an Internet portal that provided Norwegian users with free email, homepages and internet access. Show less

Telenor and Schibsted joined forces and relaunched the Internet portal Sol.no - Scandinavia Online in January 1997. I was head of the project group responsible for the new look and feel of Sol.no and part of the editorial group that was running the front page of Sol.no. Back in 1997 Sol.no was by far the most popular starting page for Norwegian Internet users.

I was part of the team that launched Telenor's yellow pages (Gulesider.no) and Origo.no, one of the first Internet portals in Norway. I was responsible for the search service Origo Index, at the time the largest web directory in the country.