William Carlsen

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William Carlsen is a Norwegian entrepreneur. William started Coinpanda in 2018 and is based in Oslo.^[1]

Career

Early Career

No early career info added yet...

Coinpanda

William started Coinpanda in 2018. They detail the beginnings of their company in their Starter Story interview: ^[1]

Q: How did you get started on Coinpanda?

I have a Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Civil Engineering, and after graduating, I started working for one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. I found out very quickly that working in a large corporation to benefit the shareholders who are cashing out large bonuses was just not for me. Every day going to work, I constantly thought about starting my own business and escaping the 9-to-5 lifestyle, or the “day job of doom” as I like to call it.

Two years after graduating, I decided to start my first business with one of my best friends and a colleague at the time. We created a preppy clothing brand selling suit accessories such as bow ties and lapel pins online, but also in retail stores in Norway and Sweden. It took us six months to realize that this was not our biggest passion, so we decided to quit and move on to new projects. Long story short, for the next three years, I dedicated every waking moment to trying to figure out how to make money online. The businesses I started included selling weight loss supplements, social media marketing for restaurants, a platform for influencers to get paid for premium content, and a long list of information products, including ebooks and online courses. Even though none of these businesses ever became profitable or successful in any way, the learning experience I got from them is the single most important reason I have now successfully created a profitable company after many years of failures.

> I pitched the business idea to a few friends that were developers, but they were not very interested in working on this together. This left me with only one choice: hire remote software developers and outsource all coding.

During 2017, when bitcoin and cryptocurrencies soared in price and gained popularity, I went completely down the rabbit hole to learn everything I possibly could about the technology. I also invested some of my savings into cryptocurrencies that year, having no knowledge of the possible tax implications that would hit me hard in the face only a few months later. Soon after the bubble burst in early 2018, tax authorities required everyone to report their trading activity and also their capital gains. At this point, I was in a situation where I had been buying and selling cryptocurrencies on multiple exchanges and also investing in new projects (ICOs) with close to zero knowledge of how to calculate and report my taxes. With less than a month until the tax deadline, I decided I wanted to do everything according to the law, and I sat down to figure this out.

I researched the entire web looking for the easiest and best solution for calculating my own taxes, but I soon discovered that there were not many great products out there. I also talked to other friends and people online who were in the exact same situation as myself, and this was the moment I got the idea to create Coinpanda!

Source ^[1]

References