By Mei Li Ng
Norwegian Bjoern Fredriksen epitomises the entrepreneurial spirit QUT instilled in him during his four years at the university, by creating and growing a successful online business.
Bjoern came from Larvik, south of Oslo, eight years ago and graduated from QUT in 2004 with a double degree in Information Technology and Business Management.
Together with his business partner Mark Farrington, also a QUT graduate, they started a global e-business company Glolance.com in May this year, applying the theories they learnt in the classroom to their real world IT and business venture.
Glolance is aimed at facilitating a secure trading environment by being a matchmaker for companies who require online services and for individuals who provide them.
“The large Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and IBM were outsourcing to countries like Vietnam and India – they have the resources, but not SMEs,” he says.
This lack of outsourcing opportunities for SMEs (small and medium businesses) fuelled the startup of Bjoern’s entrepreneurial flagship, and the idea is straightforward and powerful.
Companies who require a service lodge their budget and job requirements – such as a new website, logo design or translation – while service providers from around the world, be it graduates or professional freelancers, log on to Glolance to bid for the job and post their portfolio.
Bjoern says it gives opportunities for fresh graduates to build their portfolio while obtaining a gateway to the global market.
Bjoern’s acumen and foresight has paid off since the website has experienced a steady growth of 10 per cent every week in number of jobs posted, and regular users hail from Australia, India, Romania, Belarus and the United States.
“I wanted to start and create something. I knew I wanted to do more and I just didn’t want to be anyone ordinary,” Bjoern said.
Bjoern has shown he’s anything but ordinary, having even imported two tonnes of Norwegian ‘lerum’ jam to Brisbane shores in his earlier business days, but he can now look forward to an exciting future as a young entrepreneur at the forefront of business and IT. | 
