By Morten Andersen*

Long gone are the days when investors were throwing their money into any new business with a dot.com smell. Still CEO Mette Vesterager and her five colleagues in Cryptico, a company devoted to creating the next generation of encryption, has managed to make a way for themselves in today's tough investment climate.

"Undoubtedly we could have raised twice as much funds with half as much effort, had we started Cryptico some four-five years ago", she says.

"But then again... I think that by working hard on a daily basis to secure our future, as we have to, we are learning lessons that will benefit us in the near future. After all our aim is to compete with "the heavy guys" in the US".

Cryptico is one of many emerging IT companies located at the science park Symbion in Copenhagen.

Mette Vesterager holds a M. Sc. degree from the Danish University of Technology (DTU) in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen. During her studies she ran into another student, Martin Boesgaard. Together they started to develop a new encryption method with inspiration from chaos theory. The method promises a speed several times higher than the systems currently use.

No shopping for TV

By spring 2001 they founded Cryptico. For Mette Vesterager this meant giving up her position as a Ph.D. student at the University of Technology. Her field was the use of mathematical models for the study of certain cells in the human body.

"As I have always been a very focused person, I didn't feel too good about not completing my Ph.D. But sometimes in life you are confronted with opportunities which you have to exploit right away. If we wanted to commercialise our idea, we couldn't wait too long".

At that time Mette Vesterager was only 25. The world is not exactly crowded with young female CEO's and she has given several interviews for printed press plus appeared once on national TV.

"That is a part of my job. However I do have my limitations. You shouldn't expect to see my private home or, as the TV station wanted, to see me go shopping in a supermarket", she smiles.

The two young company founders did not draw lots for the CEO position.

"We were keen to secure that we had the right team from day one, so we decided to have personality tests carried out. That was also a wish from our investors".

The tests came out recommending Mette Vesterager for the role of the CEO. At first she was a bit surprised, coming as she was from an academic research position.

"But the test was right, I quickly learned. I have enjoyed moving into the business scene".

Building sales

Meeting the demands of her position, Mette Vesterager has taken up classes at Copenhagen Business School in her spare time and is no longer active in the development of the company's product, Crypticore.

At present she is the only employee not engaged in development, but soon the company will be hiring people of commercial background.

"Scientists on the one hand and investors and sales people at the other are thinking in different modes. The challenge for me will be to use my understanding of both worlds and link them".

Crypticore has just been presented at an international conference, the Fast Software Encryption Conference. Several business partners will now be testing the product. And the main focus of Mette Vesterager will be to build a sales organization and expand, primarily by introducing the product in the United States.

Mette Vesterager was only 25 when she co-founded Cryptico. Now, two years later, the science park based company is ready to expand internationally.

This article was originally published by Øresund IT Magasine (Spring 2003).

*Morten Andersen is a Danish journalist based in Copenhagen.