🚀 From Paper to Profit: How reMarkable Built a $1B Business by Ditching Distractions

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Some startup stories are all about speed, viral growth, and aggressive expansion. Not this one.

Meet Magnus Wanberg, the Norwegian entrepreneur who built a $1 billion business by creating a tablet… that doesn’t do much. And that’s exactly the point. 🤯

The Birth of an Idea 💡

As a tech-obsessed kid in Norway, Magnus wore out the keys on his IBM PC and Nintendo Game Boy. By 18, he was already running a small business, building and selling computers out of his dad’s garage. 👨‍💻

Fast-forward to 2013, Magnus was in college and drowning in digital distractions (we’ve all been there, right? 😵‍💫). His solution? Ditch the computer and go back to pen and paper. But constantly printing documents was a hassle, and that’s when the lightbulb moment struck:

📝 What if there was a tablet that felt like paper but worked like tech?

Slow & Steady Wins the Race 🏗️

Instead of diving headfirst into the chaotic world of Silicon Valley, Magnus took the Scandinavian approach—slow, deliberate, and focused. He built a small team in Oslo, secured early funding, and spent three years perfecting the hardware. No rushing. No cutting corners.

By 2017, they were ready to launch the first product: The reMarkable 1.

The Price Tag Shock 😲💰

At $499, the reMarkable tablet wasn’t cheap. Many doubted whether people would pay that much for a single-purpose device. But Magnus knew his audience—writers, academics, deep thinkers. People who valued focus over features.

And boy, was he right.

🚀 Within days of launch, reMarkable pulled in $10M in pre-orders!
📈 By the end of 2017, they had sold 45,000 units, generating $23M in revenue.

The Billion-Dollar Climb 🏆

• 2019: Raised a $15M Series A to develop the next-gen reMarkable 2.

• 2020: Launched reMarkable 2—thinner, sleeker, and faster.

• 2021: Raised $300M at a $1B valuation, making it Norway’s first hardware unicorn. 🦄

Since then, over 1 million devices have been sold, and reMarkable has quietly built a recurring revenue model—charging for cloud sync, handwriting conversion, and more.

The Anti-Silicon Valley Success 📜➡️📱

Unlike most tech startups, Magnus ignored the Silicon Valley playbook:
❌ No hypergrowth mandates
❌ No pivoting to AI
❌ No chasing virality

Instead, he focused on one thing: creating a remarkable product.

His journey proves that “the riches are in the niches”—if you build something truly great for the right people, you don’t need to follow the hype.

🎯 Because remarkable products win.

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