Martin Lorentzon

Martin Lorentzon was born on 1 April 1969 in the south of Sweden in the village Åsenhöga in the Gnosjö region of Småland province.[3] In February 1970,[4] his family moved to Borås, and he grew up in the Hestra quarter.[5]

His mother, Brita (born 21 September 1936), worked as a teacher, and his father, Sven,[6] (born 1 July 1932) as an economist. Lorentzon has two older siblings.[7]

He has lived in Vasastan, Stockholm, since 2005. He owns an apartment at the ski resort Åre.[7]

Since 2017, he has been in a relationship with a Swedish entrepreneur of Iranian origin, Tara Derakshan. He is also an investor in her startup, Sniph, a perfume subscription box.[8]

Lorentzon suffers from Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[9]

In 2013 he joined Prince Daniel's Fellowship project and now visits upper secondary schools, universities and university colleges around Sweden to inspire young people to get involved in entrepreneurship.[10] In 2016 he was elected as a member of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences under the Department of Education and Research, which promotes contact and exchange between business, research, and government.[11]

In April 2013, media debated Lorentzon's relationship with Swedish tax office. Lorentzon's companies that are affiliated with Spotify and Telia are situated in Offshore financial centres: Rosello is registered on Cyprus, Amaltea is in Luxembourg.[12] In 2005, he re-registered TradeDoubler on Cyprus and thereby reduced the tax payment by $9 million.[13] In 2006 he paid 1.4 million euro as taxes.[14] Spotify was also re-registered by that time in Luxembourg, where income tax is low. According to media reports, Martin owes the Swedish tax office 6 million euro for 2007–2010, during which he filed a zero-income declaration. He responded by claiming that it is difficult to attract venture capital to his ideas in Sweden, as well as pointing to the taxes he and his company pays in Sweden.[12]

As a result, in 2014 Lorentzon was named International Swede of the Year[15] and in 2015 got an award Affärsbragden (The Business Achievement) from the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.[16] In the spring of 2015 Lorentzon was given an honorary doctorate at Chalmers University of Technology.[17][18] In April 2019 Lorentzon was assigned an immigrants' integration issues expert in a Moderate Party commission New Swedish Model created by Ulf Kristersson.[19][20][21][22]

While back in primary school, Särlaskolan in Borås, Lorentzon was telling classmates that he wants to sell one match box to every Chinese and became a billionaire.[23] In high school he attended technical department of Sven Eriksonsgymnasiet where liked to visit all parties but always put education first: before a test he lied that got sick and have to stay home.[3]

In 1990 he joined Chalmers University of Technology where studied Industrial Economics and where later finished master's studies for Civil Engineering.[24]

Simultaneously in Gothenburg he attended economics courses at Business School and had internship at Volvo Torslanda.[24][3]

In 1995 he found an internship at a telephone company Telia,[3] build a great relationship with his boss[24] and thanks to this moved to San Francisco in the AltaVista office. In Silicon Valley he met best web-entrepreneurs and found a job at investing company Cell Ventures, where met a Swedish clothing line Joy owners' son — Felix Hagnö.[3] Hagnö told that it's hard for a small company to find consumers online and they decided to solve this problem. In September 1999 Lorentzon and Hagnö founded Netstrategy which would later become the leading European marketplace Tradedoubler.[25] The company soon became commercially profitable and socially acclaimed: in 2001 it won the Swedish Guldmusen prize for "IT-rookie of the Year",[26][27] in 2002 the Swedish Trade Council in the United Kingdom prize "Achievement Award" for Swedish companies that have been the most successful in the UK during the past year,[28] in 2004 Swedish "Export Hermes" prize as the best Swedish exporting company.[29] It was then when Lorentzon learned negotiation with possible investors. He moves to Germany. Web sales are on peak and in 2005 he sold his Tradedoubler option for US$70 million. He admits the role of luck in this success.[23] He moved back to Sweden after ten years abroad. In March 2006 Tradedoubler bought advertising service Advertigo that was created by young Daniel Ek. The two quickly became friends and found they both experienced depression because of unexpected wealth and a lack of purpose. One year later since moving in a new apartment in April 2005[30] Lorentzon has bought only a mattress and an IKEA chair.[31]

He studied Economics in Stockholm School of Economics and took courses in rhetoric and argumentation in Stockholm University.[24]

During April 2013 — March 2018 Lorentzon has served as a member of the board of directors at Telia, his first job where he also owned 230 thousands shares.[13] He said that he stepped down due to lack of interest although before Telia tried to sell its entire holding in Spotify prior to their stock exchange listing that would harm the company.[32]

He is one of investors for student.com — a service that helps students find accommodation.[8]

In April 2006 Ek and Lorentzon decided to start a new company that they won't sell. Martin left the board of Tradedoubler and sent one million euros to Ek. In June of 2006 Spotify was registered — A music streaming service that earns profit from online advertising, a business that they both knew very well.[33]

Martin spent his own money on developers' salaries, offices and renting music licenses. They tried to attract investors' money, but Martin was not satisfied with the conditions on which they were offered to cooperate. Because of these unplanned expenses, Martin's share in Spotify turned out to be the largest — his option is estimated at more than US$ 4 billion,[34] he holds 43.3% voting rights[1] and owns 12.7% shares.[35] Hagnö who decided to help the new idea of the former colleague owns 6.6% of the shares worth US$1.5 billion.

Lorentzon was a Chief Executive Officer 2006 — 2013 and a Chairman of board of directors 2008 — 2016, until Ek took these roles.[36] In interviews they claim that they are best friends and there has not been a day since 2006 when they didn't speak at least once a day.

Martin is responsible for developing the company's future goals and development strategy, budget, salaries,[37] verification of legal and annual financial reports.[38]