About us
Skyra was founded in the spring of 2023 to make user insights a natural part of working with websites and digital services.
Jon Gustavsen
Co-founder and point of contact
Jon has helped over 100 Norwegian businesses succeed with top tasks and user insights. With eight years of experience in technology, he has worked closely with Netlife Design, various startups, and independently as a consultant. Originally trained as an electrician, Jon pursued a bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship and eventually transitioned into tech and startups.
Raymond Julin
Co-founder and technologist
Raymond has 20 years of experience in tech. He has previously worked at companies such as Netlife, the Cutters chain, and is a former co-founder of Task Analytics.
Alexander Iversen
Developer
Alexander wrote his master's thesis on cryptographic Boolean functions at the University of Bergen but left to join us at Skyra. As a developer, he works closely with Raymond to create continuous new functionality. He is skilled at many things, including cooking and climbing!
Tor Bollingmo
Designer
Tor is a master in both design and product strategy with international experience from several other startups. Over ten years ago, Tor and Raymond were colleagues. Additionally, he has an overly extensive stamp collection that is never fully cataloged.
Skyra in the news
Shifter, Sept 20 2023
The founders of Skyra combine analysis and user surveys for the public sector.
Read article
Shifter, April 26 2024
The analytics startup Skyra brings in a newcomer and a startup veteran as they double their size after one year of operation.
Read article
The story
Raymond and Jon were former colleagues and also worked as consultants in user insights and development. Jon observed a need in the market for a "better tool" for user insights. The reason was that services should be built with the end user at the center, resources used as efficiently as possible, and user satisfaction reported with clear metrics.
People couldn’t find the tool they needed. It was difficult to get data and reporting aligned with popular methodologies. Additionally, the requirements for privacy, security, and accessibility posed challenges.
The startup
In early 2023, Jon and Raymond decided to start what would become Skyra. The goal was to sell the product before it was finished to validate it with customer feedback right from the start. In his spare time, Raymond built an MVP (minimum viable product), while Jon booked meetings with both the public and private sectors. The first meetings were held without the product’s name. It was called "a new tool for user insights."
The first meetings and GDPR
At the very beginning, Are Halland sent out a newsletter about "a new tool for top tasks..." More inquiries came, and the number of customer meetings increased. Everyone asked the same question: "Do you have American subcontractors?" There was a lot of uncertainty around Schrems II and later concerns about a potential Schrems III ruling that could cause problems. Therefore, we chose to build the product on a European cloud provider with data storage in Europe and developed functionality for easy handling of privacy concerns.
More inquiries
Until June, we had no website and no marketing. Still, more people reached out because the word had spread. What were people asking?
"Hi! I heard from someone else that you're working on a new GDPR-friendly top task survey."
"We’ve of course heard of Skyra and are curious about what you’re developing. The website is full of self-service tools, but we need insights into user needs. What task have they come to solve, and were they able to do it?"
"We want to check the status to see if we’re on track to meet the goals we’ve set."
The name became Skyra
The problem customers wanted solved could be summarized as easier clarifications based on user insights. Clarifying user needs, but also clarifying how effectively the website meets those needs. We chose to call "the new tool" Skyra (with a K) – an Icelandic word for clarify. It is also used to explain, elucidate, and make something clear.
Focus on the public sector
There is enormous digitalization happening in the public sector. There is much talk about user needs driving the development of digital services, but many find it difficult to find practical solutions for such governance. Therefore, we saw the public sector as an important customer group. For easier sales and the opportunity to work with the right customers, we offered a paid trial period (pilot), priced below the procurement threshold.
The first customers
In May 2023, the University of Agder became our first customer, using Skyra on their website. In the weeks that followed, several new customers joined, including Miljødirektoratet, Patentstyret, Vinmonopolet, and many others. The product was in its simplest form, and much was still unfinished, but it worked. Close customer dialogue was essential for us to develop the right features based on real customer needs. After the summer, we had enough customers and resources to work full-time. Skyra joined StartupLab's incubator and established offices in Oslo and Bergen. We ended 2023 with 17 customers from both the public and private sectors, in addition to interest and ongoing discussions with many more.
2024: Growth and Collaboration
We needed a larger team to develop faster. In March 2024, we added two fantastic talents to our team: Tor Bollingmo for design and Alexander Iversen for development.
2024 was a year where we both grew and built a foundation for further scaling. We doubled our team from 2 to 4, doubled the number of customers, and increased sales volume compared to the previous year. Strong partnerships helped us achieve several milestones, contributing to increased market visibility. Skyra launched a new website, hosted a breakfast seminar, and became a sponsor of Y-Oslo. Through ongoing dialogue and customer insights, the platform was further developed with a new design system, many small improvements, and several major new features. Another key focus was developing help articles to increase self-service among our customers.
Some of the people we’ve worked especially closely with since the start are Torstein Norendal and Are Halland. Thank you so much for the valuable advice and support along the way!
