'I was close to death': Easee founder Jonas Helmikstøl on burnout, hustle culture, and his new startup

Jonas, you’ve had a pretty wild entrepreneurial journey. How did it start? 

I started in electronics manufacturing, spent time in oil and gas, and later managed Zaptec’s ZapCharger Pro, now one of Europe’s best-selling smart chargers.

In 2018, I co-founded my own smart charging company, Easee. We went from three employees to over 500 in just a few years, hitting €140m in revenue and €45m in profit. At one point, we were closing in on a million installed chargers. The growth was crazy.

Those are huge numbers — so what happened? 

In 2023, we hit a wall. It came down to documentation. Our product was complex – three products in one – and we hadn’t done a proper job documenting everything for certification bodies.

The Swedish government said “no, this isn’t safe.” It wasn’t a safety issue in reality, but we couldn’t prove it at the time. That hurt. We fixed it, but it came at a cost.

And that’s when your own health collapsed? 

Yeah. By then, I’d been running full throttle for years. Stress, alcohol, no sleep. My body just shut down. I was struggling to breathe. My organs were failing. I was close to death.

Looking back, I wouldn’t repeat it. But at the time, I would’ve rather died than give up. That’s a dangerous mindset, and I learned it the hard way.

How did you recover?

Boring stuff, honestly — but it works. Quiet time. Listening to your emotions. Therapy once or twice a week. Meditation. Wim Hof breathing helped a lot. But you’ve got to stay disciplined and keep those practices up even when your energy comes back and you’re tempted to skip them.

Also, I’ve learned not everything needs to be done now. If an email feels even 1% off, I wait before sending it. My calendar now has breathing space. That’s new for me.

There’s been a lot of noise recently about “996” culture — working 9am to 9pm, six days a week — and a glorification of the startup hustle. What’s your take?

People want a one-size-fits-all rule for how many hours founders “should” work, but it doesn’t exist. Some weeks, you need to sprint. Others, you can slow down a bit.

For me, the danger is pretending that 996 – or even going as far as 100 hours a week – is sustainable. It’s not. I learned that the hard way.

So with all that, why start another company?

Because I still believe in building, I just want to do it differently. And I want to make an impact, too.

With Starflow, we're looking to make clean energy the obvious choice by uniting EV charging, solar, and battery systems into one seamless experience.

For me, despite the political headwinds recently, investing in clean energy is a no brainer – for people, for the planet, and as a business. I believe all products should have real impact, not just exist for the sake of existing.

What are you doing differently this time around?

We're building with patience, slowing things down to get it right from the outset.

We’re starting with the customer experience, not the product specs. We’ve also brought in a former Apple design manager to help guide the process.

At Apple, the early exploration phase can take up to four years before anyone makes a single sketch. That mindset – mapping the system, understanding the needs, removing friction – is inspiring, even for startups. It’s about discipline, resisting the urge to rush, and making sure what we build actually delivers the experience we want from day one.

If you could give one piece of advice to other founders, what would it be?

Running a company is a marathon. Sprint when you need to, but don’t live in sprint mode. Listen to yourself before your body forces you to. And remember – your company can’t operate if you can’t operate.