2024 Year in Review

In 2024, life threw everything at me at once: welcoming our smiling third child, rebuilding strength after shoulder surgery, and taking the biggest leap of my career. After 14 years in consulting, I found myself helping build a bank from scratch, all while somehow managing to ship three passion projects in the margins of life. It was a year of pushing limits and finding new rhythms. Here’s is a look back at my 2024:

Work

After almost 7 fantastic years at Stacc, 2024 brought significant changes. What began as Stacc X - a project division I founded with Robin Sandborg and Espen Sæverud - evolved into something remarkable. Under Stine Neteland’s skilled leadership, Stacc X and our sister company Stacc Flow had grown increasingly collaborative. In March, we merged to form Stacc Link. The merger felt less like a corporate restructuring and more like making official what was already happening in practice - the natural next step in a story of shared successes.

2024 was also a year of saying goodbye to key team members: Stine moved on to play an important role at Frendegruppen, Helene Sofie Borthen Stenstadvold (our superstar designer) became the first designer at Norges Bank Investment Management, and Erika Iden Steen (our circus artist turned awesome designer) returned to her hometown of Trondheim to join Sparebank1 utvikling. While these changes were bittersweet, they reflected some of the incredible talent we’d gathered at Stacc X and the exciting new chapters that opened for each team member.

In October, I made the most transformative change of my career when Robin and I embarked on a new adventure together at Heder Bank. After working together across four workplaces - spanning my entire career - we decided to take on the challenge of building a bank from scratch. The transition from consulting to an in-house role felt right after 14 years, though leaving Stacc - an incredible workplace with the most talented and friendliest people - wasn’t easy. The opportunity to create something new in the banking sector proved too compelling to pass up.

Heder Bank

The vision for Heder Bank emerged from a simple observation: Norway’s most financially responsible customers are often its most underserved. While banks compete fiercely for high-risk customers with premium rates and perks, those with strong finances and low loan-to-value ratios get surprisingly little in return for their stability. We’re changing that, starting with mortgages at 50% of property value and competitive savings products. It’s banking redesigned from first principles, with technology and customer experience at its core.

Working in a lean startup environment with a small, dedicated team has allowed me to leverage everything I’ve learned over the past 14 years. Since joining in October, we’ve moved at an incredible pace. In just 80 days, we transformed an idea into reality, reaching a major milestone just before Christmas: issuing our first mortgage loan.

Rather than spending a year building an elaborate banking system, we focused on quick, practical results. In about two months, we created our brand, established our technology infrastructure, maximised existing systems, and launched a digital loan application. While the process wasn’t perfect, it proved our concept works. This rapid progress came from our nimble team of three founders, an experienced banking team, and two pragmatic design technologists. I’m incredibly excited to see what we can accomplish and how fast we can move in 2025!

Hopefully, this also means that I can share more from the process (if I get time 🙈) as I’m not as bound by NDAs as you are with clients!

Side projects

While building a bank by day, my nights and weekends yielded their own breakthroughs. After years of tinkering with various projects, 2024 brought what I call the “ketchup effect” - when everything suddenly pours out at once. Suddenly I launched 3 side projects the same year:

Pie Menu

Pie Menu reimagines how we interact with our computers, replacing keyboard shortcuts with an intuitive radial interface. Since launch it has gotten multiple updates driven by user feedback. I’ve documented the entire journey, from initial concept to current development.

Hot Corners

The development of Pie Menu yielded an unexpected bonus: core technology that could power another productivity tool. Hot Corners transforms your screen’s corners into powerful app launchers. By moving the cursor to the corner of the screen you can launch whatever app you want. I had especially fun creating the website, collaborating with the great illustrator Etherbrian.

Baby Leaps

During my summer vacation, I started my first iOS development journey with Baby Leaps - an app born from the chaotic joy of becoming a father for the third time. It helps parents track developmental leaps, those periods when little ones seem extra fussy or suddenly develop new skills. Built with SwiftUI and fueled by early morning coding sessions in our cabin (often with lukewarm coffee and a kid watching iPad beside me), it embraces a raw, hand-drawn aesthetic that mirrors the beautiful mess of early parenthood.

Thanks to the RevenueCat Ship-a-ton challenge providing motivation and a deadline, I transformed those bleary-eyed coding sessions into a finished product. While there are more polished baby tracking apps out there, Baby Leaps aims to be the trusty pocket knife of parenting tools - simple, reliable, and available during those 3 AM moments when any explanation for a crying baby feels like a lifeline.

Blog and newsletter

In 2024, I’ve published 12 blog posts (triple last year’s output) and 5 Fintech newsletters. I’m happy with this increased productivity, but I have many blog ideas and side projects in the pipeline. I’m particularly excited to share more about Heder Bank’s development and two ongoing side projects – including one I’m building with my daughters, which they currently use daily.

Podcast

An appearance on “Simen Spør” forced me to articulate something I’d been struggling to explain: how to build side projects while juggling a busy family life and job. The conversation went beyond typical productivity advice, diving into specific strategies like my use of AI “board members” for decision-making and techniques for making the most of small time blocks. Through discussing projects like iSecrets and Pie Menu we explored a central theme: the power of consistent, small actions in creating something significant. For listeners pursuing their own side projects, the episode offered practical strategies for turning spare moments into meaningful progress.

The Good Parts

In a year of professional milestones, nothing compared to welcoming our third child. Her perpetual smile (earning her the nickname “Smiley”) brought joy to our home, now happily chaotic with three kids aged 7, 4, and our newest addition. Her arrival also inspired Baby Leaps, proving that sometimes the best products come from life’s biggest changes.

Travel

With a newborn in tow, we traded distant adventures for local discoveries this year. Our summer became a Norwegian travel diary, starting at Mikkelparken where our older kids discovered the joy of amusement parks. At Hotell Ullensvang, we found unexpected luxury: the sauna might have the world’s most spectacular fjord view, and our kids were in heaven with the multiple pools and dedicated play areas.

The heart of our summer unfolded at our cabin in Mjølfjell. Between early morning coding sessions and family hikes, I discovered something surprising: the limitations of traveling with three kids actually enhanced our experience. The mountain rivers reached an unusually warm 18°C, turning our “backup plan” destination into the perfect summer retreat.

An impromptu weekend trip to Vestlia Resort in Geilo with friends proved to be another highlight. The kids were thrilled with the swimming pools and slides, while the adjacent climbing park gave us all a taste of adventure. What started as a spontaneous getaway became one of our most memorable family weekends.

The year’s travel story concluded in Oslo, where my new role at Heder Bank became a family adventure. While I worked on launching a bank, my family explored the city’s treasures—from interactive exhibits at Popsenteret to quiet corners of the public library. These small adventures showed me how work transitions can create unexpected family memories.

Saying goodbye

In November, we said goodbye to my grandmother, who passed away at 92. She was a remarkable woman who embraced life with unmatched enthusiasm and curiosity until the end. While her peers viewed technology with suspicion, she mastered Snapchat and ordered groceries online. I was fortunate to visit her the evening before she passed away, a final moment with someone who was genuinely one of the coolest people I’ve ever known.

Health

I started 2024 on sick leave after my shoulder surgery in December 2023. My spring involved taking it easy with my shoulder and barely using a computer for months. I actually got really good at using one hand on my Mac and testing speech recognition software. While on sick leave, I cycled a lot on my erg-bike while watching movies, totaling around 1 000km on my erg with my arm in a sling.

In spring, I worked with a physiotherapist to regain my shoulder’s range and strength. I needed to train differently and buy a safetybar to continue squats since I couldn’t position my shoulder under a regular squat bar anymore. By year’s end, though some shoulder mobility remained limited, my adapted training had made me stronger than ever—leading to an unexpected need to update parts of my wardrobe. Considering the year started with a newly operated shoulder and a baby I’m quite pleased with the consistency of the training this year.

Trolljegerprøven

Despite my shoulder injury from last year’s OCR event, I couldn’t resist returning to obstacle course racing. This time, I made it a family adventure with my two oldest daughters. We participated in Trolljegerprøven at Fløyen in Bergen, with my 4-year-old confidently joining us (despite technically being under the age limit!).

What followed was a memorable two-hour journey through pouring cold Bergen rain, conquering obstacles, wading through mud, and climbing walls. Halfway through, we had to make a tough call when my 4-year-old got too cold, resulting in a strategic retreat to warm clothes and hot chocolate. Far from discouraging her, she was already planning “next year’s complete run” over her hot chocolate at the café afterward. This experience perfectly summed up what I love about these events: they’re not just about physical challenges, but about discovering what we’re capable of, supporting each other, and creating lasting family memories - even in typical Bergen weather!

Wonderful things from 2024

This year’s most impactful purchases ranged from digital real estate to sleep “technology”:

Purchases

Hauken.no After years of hoping, I finally secured my dream domain. The transition from hauken.io felt like moving into a digital home I’d always wanted, arriving just in time for my growing collection of projects and writing.

AirPods Pro 2 revolutionized my mobile lifestyle with their superior microphone quality. I’ve used the older version for years, but now I can take Teams calls and record voice notes while biking, with clear audio even in windy conditions! tech

Omnia oven - Who knew a portable oven could change family adventures? From fresh pizza at the cabin to warm cinnamon buns on mountain tops, this simple device turned our outdoor meals into memorable experiences. Our kids now expect gourmet dining wherever we go! gear

A buckwheat pillow - The strangest purchase of the year became one of the best. Despite its unusual texture and subtle rustling sound, this pillow’s perfect moldability and hygienic properties have transformed my sleep. (Pro tip: Skip using this for pillow fights - the weight of this pack quite a punch!) home

Habits

The most impactful habit I developed in 2024 was turning my monthly reviews into “mental board meetings” with AI. These structured sessions became a powerful forcing function for progress—each month, I’d sit down with my AI “board members” to evaluate achievements and set new priorities. As I detailed in my blog, these reflections helped me ship three products while maintaining focus at work and home. The practice proved especially valuable during my transition to Heder Bank, helping me balance startup intensity with ongoing side projects.

Media

During evening wind-down time, I enjoyed some great media this year. Between shows, books, and stories, these were the ones I found myself eager to return to return each evening:

Slow Horses has delivered exceptional storytelling in the British spy thriller genre. It follows the misfit MI5 agents of Slough House. The blend of intelligence service drama and dark humor keeps us engaged. TV show

Shrinking. We’ve loved watching Shrinking this year. It’s short between the laughs, with a character gallery you can’t help but love - especially Derek, who steals every scene! TV show

Slow Productivity by Cal Newport revolutionized my work management through a thought experiment: imagine writing reports taking seven hours of focused work plus one hour of daily overhead (emails, meetings, mental space). Working on one report at a time lets you complete one daily, but juggling four simultaneously means half your day on overhead tasks, doubling completion time for each. This insight, along with advice like booking compensatory time for yourself when others schedule meetings, transformed my approach to task management and deep work. Book

Scarcity Brain by Michael Easter transformed my understanding of why we chase more - information, rewards, or possessions. The book reveals how humans are wired to consume vast amounts of information as a survival strategy, trapping us in “scarcity loops” of endless seeking. Recognizing these patterns in my life has been revealing, and Easter’s mantra of embracing short-term discomfort for long-term gain has stuck with me. Book

The Perfect Match by Ken Liu, published in Brave New Worlds, is a short story about humanity’s growing dependence on technology. I’ve come to love short story collections, particularly in science fiction after enjoying Ted Chiang’s work. I recently discovered Ken Liu in the sam genre. Liu’s “The Perfect Match” is a compelling story exploring humanity’s merging with technology, as our minds integrate with digital systems: “Churchill said that we shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. We made machines to help us think, and now the machines think for us.” Book

Echo Wolf I've been obsessively listening to this synthwave/retrowave project by designer Trent Walton while working this year. Music

Apps

2024 marked my deep dive into AI tools. What started as curiosity evolved into essential workflows, leading to a significant monthly AI budget. But the investment paid off through increased productivity and creative possibilities. Here are the tools that earned their keep:

Claude became my daily workhorse in 2024. If someone had told me in 2023 that I'd mostly use something other than ChatGPT, I would have laughed. However, Claude's code understanding, artifacts, and custom projects where you can add reusable files for context made it indispensable.

ChatGPT's voice mode revolutionized my mobile workflow. While Claude handles the heavy lifting, voice mode turned previously "dead" moments—biking to work or walking between meetings—into productive brainstorming sessions. The automatic conversation summaries ensure no good idea gets lost in transit.

Cursor elevated my coding efficiency to new levels. Its context-aware autocomplete feels almost telepathic, while its ability to reference documentation and multiple files simultaneously has dramatically accelerated feature development. I'm still discovering new ways to prompt it better to be more effective!

Midjourney's ability to transform text prompts into precise visuals is powerful. For designers, writing a few words and getting an image resembling what you're after is highly addictive. In 2024, I've spent countless hours in this tool learning to prompt, training it for my taste, and generating illustrations and graphics for projects.

Chalk Performance Training, created by Ryan Fischer, launched its first app this year. As a long-time user of his training programs, I'm excited to see them in app form. It offers two main options: three ongoing daily workout programs or structured 6-12 week training plans. I rotate between programs twice yearly to maintain variety in my fitness routine.

Plans and goals for 2025

As I look ahead to 2025, I’m excited about the opportunities ahead. While 2024 was a year of changes and achievements, I believe 2025 will be a year of building and growth. I’m focusing my energy on a few key goals:

• Create the world’s best mortgage process for Heder Bank. Apply everything I’ve learned from 14 years in fintech to create something extraordinary at Heder Bank.
• Launch another side project. I’ll continue developing Pie Menu, but I have something special in development with my daughters: watching them use our early prototype daily has been incredibly motivating.
• Write to learn in public. This year taught me that writing clarifies thinking. In 2025, I’ll share more about building a bank from scratch, developing products, and finding that tricky work-life harmony.
• Create more family adventures. As our youngest grows, we’ll explore Norway’s outdoors together, from hiking trails to bike trips. In autumn, my parental leave will give us quality time to bond, just as I did with her sisters.

I’m excited to see what 2025 brings. 🚀