Johan Staël von Holstein

Lars Johan Magnus Staël von Holstein (born Johan Bjers, 5 May 1963) is a Swedish entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author who co-founded dot-com companies such as Icon Medialab and LetsBuyIt during the early dot-com boom in Sweden.

He has been the CEO of the multi-level marketing company Crowd1, which has been identified as an illegal pyramid scheme in a number of countries.

In 1989, he began his studies at Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, majoring in marketing management.

At the end of 1995, Staël von Holstein left Kinnevik to found the web design company Icon Medialab together with Jesper Jos Olsson, Erik Wickström, and Magnus Lindahl.

At the end of 1995, Staël von Holstein left the Kinnevik Group to found Icon Medialab together with Jesper Jos Olsson, Erik Wickström, and Magnus Lindahl.[6].

In 1998 he was included on a list of 12 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" published by Chief Executive magazine.

In 1998 Staël von Holstein founded LetsBuyIt, an online price comparison platform that enabled its users to share, compare, and buy various products.

The company went public in 1999 and continued rapid expansion with a US$70 million investment into the Asian market in 2000.

At its peak the company had over 3,000 employees in 32 offices in cities around the globe.

LetsBuyIt floated on Germany's Neuer Markt in July 2000, raising about US$60 million from a planned target of US$180 million in its initial public offering.

It sought protection under the Dutch Bankruptcy Code (Faillissementswet) in December of the same year.

In 2001 its shares plunged more than 98% from their early 2000 peak and it axed around 500 jobs.

In December 2001 shares of the debt-ridden company were suspended from the Stockholm stock exchange.

The company was merged with rival Dutch web company Lost Boys in a reverse takeover to form a new Dutch-based company under CEO Rens Buchwaldt, and re-capitalized through a £12.4 million rights issue.

After deferring bankruptcy through 2001, on 4 March 2002 it declared bankruptcy.

Its staff had been reduced from 450 to 25.

He moved back to Stockholm in 2004 to start the business incubator IQube.

In 2004, Staël von Holstein started IQube, which quickly grew into one of the largest private incubators in Europe with a portfolio of more than 100 companies, but by 2009 IQube was wound-up, with Staël von Holstein's entire scheme described as "a fraud".

He was an independent, right-wing columnist for the Stockholm edition of the newspaper Metro until 2008.

Staël von Holstein founded MyCube in 2008, a digital life management tool for exchanging, sharing and selling content.

MyCube was the first decentralized social exchange that prioritized privacy, ownership, and user freedom to monetize on their own creativity in contrast to centralized networks as Facebook etc. MyCube raised over US$8 million in funds in May 2011, then in August 2012 filed for voluntary liquidation.

In an interview in 2012, he claimed that he had bribed his way into Stockholm Business School.

He is married and has two children.

He lives in Marbella and Madrid, Spain, and has previously lived in Holland, Thailand, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Staël von Holstein began his career at the media and investment company Kinnevik, working for Jan Stenbeck for several years.

He was the marketing director of Kinnevik's TV channel Z-TV, and then became the CEO of the start-up teletext company InTV (Interactive television).

Staël von Holstein was vice president of Inlux, in Luxemburg, and then went on to become responsible for Banque Invik's sales and credit card operations.

In 2019, Staël von Holstein was identified as the CEO of the multi-level marketing company Crowd1, on the company's official YouTube channel as well as in a message sent to the members of the marketing network at the end of 2019.

In November 2019, Norway's gaming and foundation authority, Lotteri- og stiftelsestilsynet, determined that Crowd1 operates with a pyramid structure to generate revenue.

As of December 2020 he claims to have left Crowd1.

Staël von Holstein was born in Halmstad.

He lived in Spain between the ages of 2 and 8, after which his family moved back to Sweden.

After his military service he worked as a travel guide in the French and Austrian alps, and in Spain.

At the age of 24 he was in a car accident and had to use a wheelchair for three months.

He returned to Sweden, and studied information technology at Lund University for a time.

In January 2020, in Burundi's largest city Bujumbura, Crowd1 was raided and over 300 people arrested, 17 of whom were placed in custody for promoting Crowd1, described as a Ponzi scheme.

In Paraguay on 6 February 2020 the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV) issued a securities fraud warning against Crowd1, advising against investment.

CNV identifies Crowd1 as an unregistered securities offering.

Promoters of Crowd1 in Paraguay face up to three years imprisonment or a fine.

On 21 February 2020 the Bank of Namibia declared Crowd1 a pyramid scheme and warned the promoters to stop their activities immediately.