Case Study: Done Deal CEO Fred Karlsson
Fred Karlsson – Done Deal
Fred Karlsson is a Swedish entrepreneur and co-founder of DoneDeal.ie along with his wife Geraldine, a native of county Wexford where the business was founded and is currently situated. Karlsson is a self-confessed 'techie ' and was involved in the creation of video games alongside a childhood friend from as early as 14 years of age. Upon graduation from the University of Lund with a diploma in Computer Science in 1997, Fred moved to Ireland for 3 years where he met his wife-to-be before relocating to Australia for a year and Sweden for a further 3 before returning to Ireland in '04. (Karlsson, 2012)
The idea for an Irish online classified ads website emanated in 2005 when the couple wished to purchase second-hand furniture online from a local source as was readily available in Sweden and found that no such website catered for these needs in Ireland. In typical entrepreneurial fashion, the pair realised that there was a large gap in the market to establish an online classifieds website as Ireland 's closest equivalent at the time was the 'back-of-the-paper ad ' often unaccompanied by illustration so the consumer was blind as to what they were purchasing. Ergo, DoneDeal.ie was born in June 2005. (Done Deal, 2011)
Since Done Deal’s inception, the enterprise has been a roaring success. Only seven months online, the site hosted over 2,000 ads across a variety of categories, a figure which stayed relatively constant for the following year (circa. 2,257 ads carried in Dec. 2007). However, that number snowballed in the subsequent months as traffic (grew by an average of 10% monthly) and advertisements (2008:269% and by a further 923% in 2009) had ameliorated vastly, as detailed in the tables below.
[pic] (Done Deal, 2011) - Ads growth between June 2007 and December 2009
[pic]
(Done Deal, 2011) - Site traffic between June ’06 and Dec. ‘09
The firm
Fred Karlsson is a Swedish entrepreneur and co-founder of DoneDeal.ie along with his wife Geraldine, a native of county Wexford where the business was founded and is currently situated. Karlsson is a self-confessed 'techie ' and was involved in the creation of video games alongside a childhood friend from as early as 14 years of age. Upon graduation from the University of Lund with a diploma in Computer Science in 1997, Fred moved to Ireland for 3 years where he met his wife-to-be before relocating to Australia for a year and Sweden for a further 3 before returning to Ireland in '04. (Karlsson, 2012)
The idea for an Irish online classified ads website emanated in 2005 when the couple wished to purchase second-hand furniture online from a local source as was readily available in Sweden and found that no such website catered for these needs in Ireland. In typical entrepreneurial fashion, the pair realised that there was a large gap in the market to establish an online classifieds website as Ireland 's closest equivalent at the time was the 'back-of-the-paper ad ' often unaccompanied by illustration so the consumer was blind as to what they were purchasing. Ergo, DoneDeal.ie was born in June 2005. (Done Deal, 2011)
Since Done Deal’s inception, the enterprise has been a roaring success. Only seven months online, the site hosted over 2,000 ads across a variety of categories, a figure which stayed relatively constant for the following year (circa. 2,257 ads carried in Dec. 2007). However, that number snowballed in the subsequent months as traffic (grew by an average of 10% monthly) and advertisements (2008:269% and by a further 923% in 2009) had ameliorated vastly, as detailed in the tables below.
[pic] (Done Deal, 2011) - Ads growth between June 2007 and December 2009
[pic]
(Done Deal, 2011) - Site traffic between June ’06 and Dec. ‘09
The firm
Bibliography: Cullen, C. (2012, January 30). 8 beliefs that make an online phenomenon tick. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from Conor Cullen Web site: http://conorcullen.com/tag/donedeal/ Done Deal. (2011, January). Done Deal Case Study. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from Done Deal: https://blog.donedeal.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/DoneDeal-Case-Study-Jan-2010.pdf Karlsson, F. (2010). Fred 's Talk at the 2010 Dublin Web Summit. Karlsson, F. (2012, October 15). Karl Fitzpatrick interviews Fred Karlsson from DoneDeal.ie. (K. Fitzpatrick, Interviewer) Linzmayer, O. (2006, March 29). Steve Jobs ' Best Quotes Ever. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from Wired: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512?currentPage=all