Joakim Båge is a highly passionate Swedish real estate expert who spent the last decade solving various business and communication challenges for leading companies and organizations in California. Joakim started out his career as a financial journalist in Sweden at Thomson Reuters, Dagens Industri and TV4. He has since then expanded his skillset over a decade in the United States at various top advertising agencies and production companies. In recent years, his focus has been on real estate and PropTech.
Joakim recently finished a top-rated audiobook for outsiders on the real estate market, "Bostadsskolan," a Storytel Original, as well as four seasons of co-hosting the popular residential real estate podcast "kvadrat" on EFN, the Swedish financial news network owned by Handelsbanken. As of 2020 he is also a real estate columnist for the largest newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet. Besides that, Joakim is also an angel investor, advisor and board member for several startups in the tech and real estate sectors.
Joakim has a Masters Degree in Media, Entertainment and Technology Management from The Gallatin School at New York University and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the School of Business and Commercial Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Thriving on being a catalyst for innovation at the intersection of content, technology, ideas and people, Joakim has been awarded Streamy and Webby Awards as well as fellowships from the Wallenberg Foundation, Investor AB and the Sweden-America Foundation.
– Right now I've invested in an "iBuying" startup in the Nordics, focusing on simplifying the residential real estate transaction, a company still somewhat in stealth mode. People rate moving between homes as the second most stressing life event after a divorce. It is also expensive and takes a very long time. This is just one area of real estate which could be dramatically improved through the use of technology. However, every market is different, both in terms of culture and tradition, but also which laws and regulations apply. So the challenge is to use the best features of iBuying from the U.S. and apply it to the different Nordic markets, says Joakim.
Joakim believes that communication is key when introducing new ideas and models on a market so that people and key players understand that it is not just a threat of cannibalizing existing revenue streams, but rather an opportunity to improve the overall experience for everyone through tech.