Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 18

I went from never
dreaming about making
games to making games
in two days.
“Every month before the release
of Juice Cubes, we considered
pulling the plug,” Lykkegaard says.
The company needed a serious
injection of cash to survive, and in-
vestors weren’t taking the bait. “We
gave 30 pitches to investors in differ-
ent countries like Singapore, Thailand
and Hong Kong. They were afraid of gaming
in general because Facebook gaming had just
crashed. They didn’t believe in the team, the game or how
we could pull it off.”
Then Rovio, the company famous for the addictive
Angry Birds app, offered a juicy offer they couldn’t refuse.
Considering the cash-flow problems (and feeling star-
struck), the Playlab team shook hands with Rovio to rescue
their struggling gaming studio.
Looking back, Lykkegaard isn’t sure if the Rovio hand-
shake was the best business move. “We might have been
better off today if we didn’t take that offer,” he says. “They
made a great deal but didn’t help with anything. It just
felt really good at the time.”
Regrets or not, Juice Cubes continued to see success
and so did Lykkegaard. He’s even encountered some of
the investors who didn’t believe in him at the outset: “I’ve
been on stage at events with a few of those investors
now — which is fun,” he says with a smile.
A NEW LIFE IN THAILAND
At just 29, Lykkegaard has seen financial success ahead of
many of his peers back in Denmark. He sold his first com-
pany in his mid-20s, when most people he knew were still
studying, and now he’s set to be an entrepreneur for life.
18 WANDERLUST
This difference in lifestyle
means he’s lost touch with old
friends. Experience and geogra-
phy have pushed them apart. “I
have very few friends from back in
school who I can relate to,” he says.
“Most of my friends are five to 10 years
older than me. They have more experi-
ences, and it’s also very important to figure
out who can mentor you, because, as an
entrepreneur, you will often encounter situations
for which you’re not prepared.”
He doesn’t feel that his life an expat makes his
overall friend situation worse, though. On the
contrary, it probably makes it better. Most of
the people he knows in Thailand are en-
trepreneurs. He suspects there’s a link
between those drawn to start-ups
and those who up and go: “You
need some balls to move across
the world,” he muses, “and that
filters out a lot of people.”
He’s happy with his
circle of entrepreneur
friends in Thailand. I ask
him if he would ever
consider moving
back to Denmark.
“For summers?”
he says, and flash-
es a telling smile.
It seems this expat
entrepreneur may
be here to stay.
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