The story of Marcus Sjölin's career began long before Linné Elektronik took shape. Already as a child, he started his first venture, applying technical skills to practical customer assignments.
My e-commerce journey actually began when I was around 10 years old, says Marcus Sjölin, recounting:
My best friend Fredric Castelius and I built websites for e-commerce businesses and had a small company together. I remember how proud we were when we got a customer who would pay a staggering 10,000 kronor, and of course we worked on that project for two months.
After the projects in his childhood bedroom came university studies in software development. This paved the way for a number of jobs at established players such as Ticketmaster, Etraveli Group, eEducation Albert and Polestar, as well as architect roles at CEVT and Nordea with a focus on regulations and integrity. However, it was high-paced sales that drew him back to e-commerce.
What I'm passionate about is high volumes, low margins and fast market movements. That's where I thrive the most and can find my edge, he says.
Organic Growth and Bureaucracy
In 2023, Linné Elektronik was launched. An idea that from the start required a lot of patience, as cash flow was entirely controlled by how quickly sold goods were paid out from the sales channels. The revenue financed the next purchase.
I started the company with 50,000 kronor of my own money. I bought 10 iPhones and sold them via CDON. When they were sold, I waited six weeks for the payout, bought 11 new ones, and it rolled on. After the first year, we had turned over 500,000 kronor, of which 100,000 came during the last weekend when we found a really good product.
While orders were received and handled through the marketplace's ready-made logistics solution, much of the working time was spent building the company's structure and understanding the regulations in the industry.
What isn't visible in the figures is everything that fell into place during that time: banks, the Swedish Customs Agency, import contacts, carriers, supply chains, chemical tax and all the requirements that come with selling electronics in Sweden, says Marcus Sjölin.
Scaling and Million-Kronor Turnover
In the beginning, the pace was held back by the fact that the cash was locked up for weeks while waiting for payouts. The turning point came when Marcus brought in a factoring partner to release capital faster.
Getting paid immediately fundamentally changed the company's development curve. Suddenly, he could scale up purchases, which gave an enormous leverage. In one quarter, Linné Elektronik went from a monthly turnover of half a million to five million kronor. It was fantastic growth, but as Marcus himself admits, it also brought a lot of growing pains.
It was an incredibly interesting journey that also hurt a lot, because we weren't ready to scale so quickly, he says.
Turnover amounted to 14.1 million kronor in the previous annual report. For the financial year ended June 2026, turnover landed on 54 million kronor, which corresponds to an increase of 283 percent.
Of the 14.1 million, 10 million came during the last two months. The financial year that closed now in June 2026 landed on around 54 million, and that is reflected in the next annual report. So it's neither run rate nor forecast, but actual turnover for the recently completed year. All sales are in the same company, Creation X Holding AB, which also includes our Norwegian branch. Linné Elektronik is our brand, clarifies Marcus.
Systems Instead of Personnel
In the summer of 2025, the company changed its strategy regarding warehousing and moved the goods to its own warehouse in Gothenburg, which is managed in collaboration with a logistics partner. Despite the increased volumes, the company's operations are still run entirely without any employees.
I have run the company myself without employees, and that is actually part of the point. I manage the core myself and have built much of the business as systems rather than manual work: own pricing engine linked to our purchase costs, automated product flows to all markets and AI tools in daily work. Around that, we have specialized partners for logistics, finance, auditing and service, says Marcus Sjölin.
During the past year, a proprietary platform has been built to reduce dependence on external marketplaces.
Today, he runs e-commerce in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France and Spain, complemented by a growing B2B segment.
During 2026, we have focused entirely on our own platform. We built our own website for six months and it performs far above average within e-commerce, we see figures that are hardly believable, says Marcus and continues:
We deliberately have a smaller warehouse today than at the end of last year, but a platform that allows us to scale very efficiently. The plan ahead is more European markets and continued profitable growth with low capital commitment.
Methodical Problem Solving
But going from hundreds of thousands of kronor in monthly turnover to several million in a short time, while also expanding internationally, has tested the company's routines. Suddenly, the business had to not only handle complex regulations for different markets, but also protect itself against the crime that is attracted to high-value goods.
Growing ten times in a few months without being ready really hurts: cash flow, processes and systems creaked at all joints. Electronics with high value also attract fraudsters, so we have had to build our own anti-fraud processes, says Marcus.
Surviving such an extreme scaling has been a real test, says Marcus. But the lesson learned has been to ensure that you never have to make the same mistake twice. It is a journey of constant adaptation that has been tough at times but has ultimately shaped a more resilient and scalable company than ever before.
My way of getting over the thresholds is to break down the problems and solve them systematically, one at a time, and then eliminate them with processes and systems so that they don't come back. Bring in specialists in what you can't do yourself, and have perseverance. Most people give up just before it turns around, says Marcus Sjölin and concludes:
To be honest, I myself have been close to giving up many times, most recently now in May and June. But today I believe in our store more than ever.