Katarina Bonde: Are you scaling, or just burning cash?

Scaling a company is not about chasing headlines. It’s about proving customers care.

In this episode of I by IMD, Katarina Bonde shares hard-earned lessons from decades in venture-backed tech, board leadership, and global scale-ups. She challenges founders to validate demand before celebrating growth: “If no one is… spending money to buy it, you actually don’t have a product.”

Bonde, who served as board chair and CEO in various venture-backed tech firms across the US and Europe, also reframes the AI discussion. The opportunity isn’t in the current bubble, but in the smart use of data – “the real gold here.”

For rapid-growth startups, so-called scale-ups, who are tempted to prioritize land grabs over margins, Bonde offers a grounded reminder: “You have to show that you have a business model that can pay for itself.”