Quit his PhD to Build a Startup
Olav Haugå had planned to complete his PhD in machine learning and statistics, but seeing the potential of how this field would impact all types of industries in the coming years, his plans soon changed. While working on the PhD, he landed a consulting contract with DNB to help them out on their data and machine learning journey. Shortly after, he left his PhD and founded what today is known as Deepinsight.
Olav wanted to create an exceptional environment in mathematics and programming, by gathering a bunch of smarties under one roof. And it worked out well. Deepinsight has made a profit every year since its inception, and the company has grown from a one-man show to 14 employees with backgrounds mainly from math and physics.
Deepinsight did well as a consulting company for several years, but when the pandemic hit, everything changed almost overnight. Monthly turnover plummeted from 1.3 million to 50,000 kroner, and Deepinsight had to temporarily lay off most of its employees.
Read more about Deepinsight's inception and how the company got through the pandemic in one of Norway's leading tech & innovation newspaper, Shifter: https://shifter.no/nyheter/menget-seg-med-de-glupeste-pa-cern-men-ingen-matchet-ntnu-olav-droppet-doktorgraden-for-a-bygge-startup/194351