KrafftIT
Interview with CEO Fredrik Krafft
WHO THEY ARE
Fredrik Krafft, 31, was born in Sweden and graduated with an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from USC in 2015. He created the Swedish version of KrafftIT during his military service in 2004. He registered KrafftIT Inc. in Delware in 2014.
WHAT THEY DO
“KrafftIT is a health tech company that wants to solve the obvious problems that haven’t been solved yet. For example, air quality. People don’t think about it because it’s not as tangible. We want to fix the problem, not just inform you that there is a problem. Our app “Inhale” makes predictions for air quality, for up to four days in advance, so you know when the best time to be outside is.
If you work out outside for one hour at five o’clock, how is that relative to all other times you could work out? We have pollen predictions too. Pollen predictions give a much higher value to people in the United States because of allergies. If you’re far away from the major cities, there’s still an issue with air quality, not because of pollution but because of pollen.”
HOW KRAFFTIT WAS BORN
“I was running around campus with one of the triathlon team members. He’s running full speed and it’s a short track on campus, but halfway through I’m dying. Sure, he’s a triathlon guy, but I should at least be able to get around campus. It was one of those really polluted summer days and there were cars all around us. It got me thinking, “when should I have been running? I wish I had an idea of when that should be,” but there was no solution out there. So I thought, ‘ok, I should do something about it. ’”
MOST REWARDING STARTUP EXPERIENCE
“Creating something new. Being your own creator of success. I don’t know if in America this is a common expression, but in Sweden, the saying is “you are your happiness blacksmith,” so you make your own happiness. By doing something on your own, well in a team of course, where you share a common goal with your teammates, what you do makes a huge difference for the success of the company. Everyone has a part in this and what they do will influence the success enormously.”
Director of Business Development Matt Kasten said: “It’s very fun, it’s very chaotic, it’s very rewarding. It’s an experience that I think we’re all looking for coming out of school. Instead of going to work for perhaps a big company, we’re really looking to create something for ourselves, for communities, for Los Angeles, for the world, that’s going to be a really helpful tool going forward.”
“If you don’t have a bigger vision of why you want to do something, it doesn’t make sense to do it. Why are you putting in all this work if, ok you might have the vision to get rich, but money has no real value right? It’s nothingness.
Seeing people happy, solving a problem, helping someone. I strongly believe that everyone needs to do something where they feel like they’re making a difference, and that’s what makes you happy.”