Column by Natasha Hougaard, DTU student and co-founder of Skjoldet, and Lorenz Flechtenmacher, former DTU student and co-founder of Dewa. Published in Sjællandske Nyheder on 30.05.2025.
We’ve seen her on Dragon’s Den, met him on Instagram, and heard the heroic story about them from people and media we admire: The story of the successful entrepreneur who devotes all their time and energy and sets aside everything else in their life - including family, friends, and education - to realize their dream.
It’s a story that can end up severely dampening the spirits of young people dreaming of an entrepreneurial career as well as a university degree. But worse still, it’s a story that glorifies a way of life where stress is a given and education is a necessary sacrifice. Business psychology adviser Cecilie Willer recently highlighted the consequences of this in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, reporting on the increasing pressure on young entrepreneurs—and the widespread stress it is triggering.
At a time when the level of innovation in Europe is facing intense pressure from both the US and China, we need to tone down the narrative of the all-sacrificing entrepreneur and instead focus on stories that inspire hope, courage, and positive action.
Personally, we don’t know many young people who dream of working day and night and sacrificing everything else that matters in life. But we know many young people who are keen to make a difference in a way that is sustainable—for them and for those around them.
Accelerating your ideas
Our own stories are examples of how this can be achieved. Studying and entrepreneurial dreams can go hand in hand. In fact, the two things can co-exist in a way that makes the dream of starting your own business feasible, even if you’re ‘just’ a student.
This has been possible for us while studying at DTU. Our time at university and the people we have met during that time have contributed to generating business ideas and accelerating our dreams. Thanks to innovation courses offered by the university, advice and support from professors, mentors, and industry partners, and the option of writing our MSc thesis based on our own business, we both found the courage to pursue our ideas while still studying.
For me, Natasha Hougaard, it meant that, based on my Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data, I started my business ‘Skjoldet’ together with fellow student and software engineer Magnus Stjernborg Koch. Skjoldet is an AI-based solution for stopping cybercrime by warning citizens and businesses about phishing and digital fraud in real time. Today, we have more than 14,000 active users, and in May we were celebrated as Student Startup of the Year 2025 at DTU by fellow students, employees, partners, and HM Queen Mary.
For me, Lorenz Flechtenmacher, an idea for a digital student ID card, which my fellow student Thomas Gammelby Lodberg and I came up with while standing in line in the DTU canteen, became the company Dewa. Through the X-Tech entrepreneurship course and the X-Tech+ competition, we developed the idea, won first place and DKK 100,000—and a year later, we entered into a close strategic partnership with e-Boks entailing the possibility of a significant investment.
New role models
It may sound as if we just sat back and let it all come to us. But it would be a lie to say that it hasn’t taken hard work to get to where we are today.
We can look back on this journey with a sense of accomplishment and perspective, but only because we have never been alone. Our strongest assets are our knowledge and creative power, while everything to do with administration, law, networking, and investors was unchartered territory for us. While navigating the unknown, we’ve been surrounded by a professional, supportive community that has helped us grow and lifted our ideas up and out into society for the benefit of people’s everyday lives. Without all that help and support, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to move so quickly.
In our experience, entrepreneurship really can be a team effort - an experience that contrasts starkly with the narrative of the all-sacrificing, solo entrepreneur who shoulders every responsibility single-handedly, sleeps at the office, and is about to break their neck.
We’re not saying ours is the right path for others to follow. But with our stories, we can serve as alternative, more stable role models for young people to look up to.
If the media and opinion makers continue to feed the narrative of the entrepreneur as somebody who has to give up everything to achieve their dream, we risk scaring away promising talent. This would mean missing out on strong ideas and solutions to all the major problems facing society. And that would be a huge loss for society and for us all.
