Daniel Nilsson
I run Up Strategy Lab, a B2B design and strategy studio in Gothenburg, and MuchSkills, a Red Dot-winning skills intelligence platform that came out of it. I also write The Visibility Edge, a newsletter sent when I have something tested and worth sharing.
What I do
The studio
We decode the business before we design anything. B2B design, brand, and product work for funded founders with complex technical products. We have built our own products, so we know what it costs.
The product
A skills intelligence platform that has mapped 100,000+ professionals. Red Dot Design Award winner. Recognised as a Major Contender in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix®. Built inside Up Strategy Lab.
The writing
A newsletter for doers on what I have learned building real B2B companies. Sent when there is something tested and worth sharing. No hot takes. No fixed schedule.
Most B2B growth problems are visibility problems. Buyers cannot buy what they cannot see. Teams cannot grow what they cannot see. Founders cannot scale what they cannot see.
Essays and playbooks
Winning clients
The whole method in seven steps, from who you want to how you keep them. With a calculator and plenty of stories.
Visibility
Why most B2B companies get stuck, and why the fix is almost never what founders think it is.
Partner programmes
The actual playbook from closing 100 operators in 40 countries with a team of 1.5 people.
Positioning
What happens when a serious buyer lands on your homepage and still cannot tell what you do.
Product
From a Google Sheet to a Red Dot-winning platform that has mapped 100,000+ professionals. Honestly.
AI
AI starts every day knowing nothing about your work. How to give it the context a good new hire would need.
Free playbooks
Customer profiles, value proposition, sales process and partner programmes: the methods we use in client workshops at Up Strategy Lab, as editable PowerPoint playbooks with workshop canvases. And the Second Brain kit we run our own work on.
From readers
Manish Malik, on the issue about AI in sales
“Brilliant as always”
Casper Gerner
“I just wanted to thank you for making your work public. I got our partner program presentation from slideshare.net and have used it as inspiration for further development of our company's partner program.”
Mary Samson
“Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for.... just started heading up sales at an agency and trying to craft their story, needed some basics and these are just what the Dr ordered!”
The newsletter
A newsletter on what I have learned building B2B companies. Sent when there is something worth your time. No filler. No schedule. Sign up and you get all five free tools at once: four PowerPoint playbooks and the Second Brain kit. Join 7,000+ readers.
Work together
If you are a funded founder or a senior operator with a complex product or a commercial problem worth solving, I would like to hear from you. Up Strategy Lab engagements run from short retainers to full build projects. Current prices are on upstrategylab.com/pricing.
Leadership
You did the work to understand your customers, and it lives in two people's heads and a forgotten folder. How to build a simple customer training programme, and keep it true as you grow.
Marketing
The whole experience of working with you starts long before the contract and goes on long after it. How to map your B2B customer journey in an afternoon, find the pain points and fix them.
Sales
Most companies spend everything on winning clients and very little on keeping them. How to calculate churn, find out why clients really leave, and build a retention plan you will actually run.
Daniel Nilsson is a Swedish B2B founder and operator based in Gothenburg. He is CEO of MuchSkills, a Red Dot-winning skills intelligence platform that has mapped more than 100,000 professionals, and co-founder of Up Strategy Lab, a B2B design and strategy studio. He writes The Visibility Edge, a newsletter with 7,000+ readers.
Daniel Nilsson co-founded Up Strategy Lab and MuchSkills with Noel Braganza, and co-founded the ventures HardSkills and ProtoAnything. Earlier he was COO of Cryptzone (now part of Appgate), CMO of Mentice and chief commercial officer of Appland, which OnMobile acquired in 2018. His first company, Metro Student Magazine, was acquired by Metro.
Daniel Nilsson is known for building partner programmes and for the idea that most B2B growth problems are visibility problems. At Appland he signed mobile operators across 40 countries with a team of one and a half people, and his guides on value propositions, sales processes and reseller partner programmes are widely used by B2B founders.
Most of Daniel Nilsson’s commercial work runs through Up Strategy Lab in Gothenburg, Sweden, from retainers to full build projects. He also advises a small number of founders directly and speaks at B2B founder events. The easiest way to start is to book a 60-minute call through daniel-one.com.
