About August Kring

My story

I went to a Waldorf school growing up, where creativity and learning through experience were central. In my teens, I began writing school assignments about innovation and technological change. Friends and I also spent our spare time working on business ideas. That was when I developed a passion for these subjects.

At 18, I left high school to run a VR venue in Copenhagen, where I had worked part-time. In a lean startup environment, I became responsible for a small team and most of the business, from finance and marketing to IT and daily operations. The role gave me a practical business education I could never have had in a classroom.

I also got to do what I enjoyed most: build new business initiatives, including a VR rental model and a loyalty programme, which helped us reach new customer groups and grow revenue. For the first time, that passion became part of my work.

But I had taken on too much, and I burnt out. Recovery took a long time and made me rethink how I wanted to live and work. I spent much of that period looking inward and trying to understand myself better, both mentally and spiritually.

I returned to work as a manager in a professional kitchen, choosing a completely different environment while I rebuilt my capacity.

As generative AI began to take off, I became increasingly interested in what it could mean for businesses. I took online university courses and began building programs of my own to understand it better.

I later joined KRING to learn from people with deep experience in venture building who were also at the forefront of agentic AI. There, I worked on product development and gained a much deeper understanding of how AI can be used to build and run a startup.

That experience changed how I think about building companies in the AI era. AI can make companies more agile, adaptive and capital-efficient, and help them bring ideas to market faster. It also changes how they need to be built from the start.

That's where my focus is now: building AI-first companies.

For the full chronology, see LinkedIn

Skill set

Agentic AI & Strategy

Strategic Innovation

Business Development

Product Development

Market Validation & GTM

Mindset

Entrepreneurial

Strategic

Curious

Adaptive

Connective

Principles

Think big. Start small. Scale fast.

Aim high, but start small enough to test the idea. When it works, there's a reason to move faster.

Execution over fear.

Move before everything is certain. Take the next useful step, learn from the result and adjust.

Learn, unlearn, relearn.

Stay curious, question what you know and be willing to change your mind when the evidence changes.

People, planet & profit.

Build for commercial success without overlooking people or the planet. All three shape how the business works.

Different lenses

I'm drawn to new ideas and enjoy being around people, but I also value order and clear expectations. I'm comfortable speaking my mind, even when that means disagreeing with someone in charge. I don't find agreement especially useful when a question still needs an honest answer.

That combination can make me enthusiastic and decisive, both at work and among friends. It can also make me impatient with disorder or hesitation, and my directness doesn't always leave enough room for someone who sees the situation differently.

I naturally look for the bigger picture and how different ideas connect. I enjoy seeing potential in people, helping them develop and getting new things moving. Learning something unfamiliar is part of the fun, and I don't usually mind taking the lead or challenging a decision.

I can bring direction and momentum when others feel stuck. The same drive can become impatience when conversations go in circles, progress is slow or someone isn't making use of an opportunity I can already see. I can forget to slow down.

I'm interested in finding fresh ways of looking at things, and I enjoy learning even when there is no immediate use for what I discover. I notice beauty and skill in all sorts of places, from something thoughtfully designed to a small moment in everyday life.

Meaning matters to me as much as the result. I like asking why something deserves to exist, not only how to make it work. That can lead me into big questions, and sometimes I spend longer exploring an idea than the decision really needs.

I have plenty of energy when I'm involved in work that genuinely interests me, and I can move quickly once there's something concrete to respond to. I don't need to manufacture a reason to begin; getting involved in the right thing can create its own momentum.

I've learned not to make every decision at the height of a strong reaction. Giving things time to settle, or simply changing my surroundings, often helps me see them more clearly. Frustration is usually a sign that I'm forcing something.

I enjoy meeting people, swapping ideas and discovering possibilities I hadn't considered before. Conversations often send my thoughts in unexpected directions, and I find it easy to become excited by a new project or a different way of doing things.

What matters to me isn't only whether an idea could work, but whether it feels worthwhile and right for the people involved. I can be spontaneous and adaptable, although routine tasks and too many competing interests may make it harder to keep my attention on one thing.

Freedom, variety and the chance to try something new appeal to me. I like having choices and tend to meet an interesting possibility with energy rather than caution. I also value independence and can be outspoken when I want to make something happen.

The difficult side of having so many interests is knowing which ones deserve my time. I can take on more than I need to and feel tempted to move on when something becomes repetitive or uncomfortable. Staying with a choice can matter more than finding the next one.

I can become deeply absorbed in something that interests me and move quickly once I feel drawn into it. At the same time, I need periods on my own, even though people I know can be the reason a new opportunity enters my life.

The profile also points to a tendency to race ahead and discover later that I've missed a step. Giving a decision time to settle, rather than acting at the height of excitement, is another part of this picture. These are interpretations from Human Design, not measured personality traits.

Hi, I’m August.