Jonas Falck eat, sleep and breath Halon. As a co-founder, product developer and evangelist, he is essential to the team. But he is also the acting enfant terrible of the group, the one with the most unread email in his inbox and constantly trying to figure out how to handle his current renovation project at home. But make no mistake, this is a true tech nerd. At the age of six, his father would sit him down to learn binary numbers, laying the foundation for a great interest in computers and programming.
I want to work for myself, as egoistic as it may sound. I want to be a creator.
In 1986, when Jonas was 12, his fathers work brought the family to Houston, Texas. And it was a new world to Jonas, who discovered how much further the American schools had come in bringing computers into the classrooms. While his brother, and later Halon co-founder, Peter was hooked on flight simulators, Jonas got his first PC.
Fast forward to the mid-nineties, where the young IT consultant Jonas is getting restless as his employer won’t let him move forward the way he wants. He knows that he loves tech, a self-taught programmer, and he likes the entrepreneurial life. The fact is that he has already started a business together with his big brother Peter, importing environmental-friendly golf pegs, made of corn. And from corn to keyboard, in several sentences.
Jonas and Peter kick off an IT consultancy company, with Peter still working 9 to 5 as a salesman in another company and Jonas doing part-time building sound systems for musicians. A trade which might have satisfied him as well, being an eager music fan and owner of both guitars and synthesizers.
And along that road he found a gap to fill product wise. A software that wasn’t as static as the ones he would install for his customers. The brothers had employed Anders and Erik, not yet out of school, as programmers. Together they set out to create Halon.
My vision was to create a product that the customer could adjust to their needs and decide how to use.
Jonas Falck is convinced that Halon will make it big, that the product has the greatest prospects. All the previous products, hardware as well as software, and every iteration has contributed to Halons status as a truly well-designed SMTP MTA.
When we signed One.com as a customer, it was a huge stepping stone, and I think we are extremely close to make another one of these steps. A moment to look back on with a smile.
Today, he is still teaming with Anders, now the CTO, and Erik, lead software developer, when it comes to product development. And he insists that Anders and Erik have taught him a lot about technology, and they have made him go out of his comfort zone, to the extent of actually leaving the Windows world in favor of Linux! But he is just as much into sales and business development.
I love to be involved in everything. For better or worse, I want to contribute to all the different parts of the company. I’m open to the fact that this might have to change as the company grows, but it’s really the role that suits me the best.
I have 100 percent focus on Halon. My brother-in-law is a serial entrepreneur, and he’s constantly nagging me that we should be in business together but I always turn him down. Also, I promised my wife to stick to one thing.
Jonas’s wife has seen just how far his dedication can take him. For 14 years he has been working on the house they bought together, and that house have had Jonas literally up to his knees in dirt. At times, there has been a trail of mud through the office to Jonas’s desk. But this is a persistent guy.
Ok, I regret spending that huge amount of time on the house and I’ve become better at hiring professionals for the things we need done. Still, I’m proud that I dared taking on tasks that I never tried before.
And lastly, is there anything that scares him?
I fear the feeling of not being useful, and if the company would loose pace and willingness to improve. I have put everything I have into Halon. It’s sort of my extra child, and that makes you want to win.