The Comeback Kid?

When things were going well early last year, a business magazine compared Internet entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson to the Messiah. But when the share price of his Web consultancy Framfab sank 98% and the initial public offering of broadband service provider Bredbandsbolaget (or B2) was postponed indefinitely, another publication portrayed him as Jesus nailed to the cross. The 29-year-old Swede is nonplussed. “The remarkable thing about Jesus was not that he agitated people or that he was crucified but that he rose again after Easter,” says Birgersson. “There are lots of interesting things left to be done.” He has resigned from management positions at Framfab and B2 (both named in Time Europe’s 50 Hottest Tech Firms last year) and is now concentrating on new ventures. Among them is Trygghetsbolaget (known as FeelSafe in English) which combines missile guidance technology and a specially developed software and hardware platform to create broadband-powered advanced alarm and security systems for the home. There is more to come. Birgersson — and 100 of his favorite programmers — are tinkering away in a new entity called Framfab Labs, which aims to develop the services that will drive the broadband revolution he still believes is coming.