3 things that turn a pilot into a contract. Anna Turvoll on turning Völur around after saying yes to everything
Operators · 29. sep. 2026 · 56:02
Operators · 29. sep. 2026 · 56:02
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This week's guest is Anna Turvoll, CEO of Völur, which builds AI for production planning in the meat processing industry.
The company was founded in Oslo in 2019 and has customers and pilots in Europe, North America and Australia.
When she took over in 2024, Völur had 30–40 employees, fresh money from a funding round and several pilots that weren't turning into contracts. Previously she worked ten years at Goldman Sachs in London and protein startups in Australia.
In this episode:
– The customer pitch that missed completely. The day before a meeting meant to turn a pilot into a paying customer, she saw what the team was actually about to promise, and what it would have cost them
– Three things a pilot needs before it can become a contract, and why keeping things vague to avoid overpromising backfires
– Value proposition 2.0. Why they stopped presenting themselves as an AI company, what they say instead, and how they calculated the gains when all they had were pilots
– Downsizing as the new CEO. She saw no way to grow revenue fast enough. How she separated the business-critical from the rest, and what she does differently today
– What Norwegian companies can get better at when going global, and why she would still invest in Norwegian startups
+ much more
Host: Lucas Weldeghebriel, founder of Operators.
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📄 Playbook: the operating system for repeatable sales. Six modules with templates and checklists, distilled from the episode with Espen Sjaavik. Download it at operators.no/salg
