CULTURE - STRATEGY - EMERGING TECHNOLOGY - VENTURES

Something changes. Something else hasn’t caught up yet.

We connect shifts across markets, emerging technology, people and behaviour to find opportunities that are easy to miss in isolation.

We work out which ones are worth pursuing, shape what they could become, and move them into action.

The approach

Not everything moves at the same speed.

  • Technologychanges what is possible
  • Peoplerespond differently
  • Marketsadapt
  • Cultureshifts unevenly
  • Systemscan lag behind
The gap

WHERE WE ARE USEFUL

The opportunity is there. The path isn’t obvious yet.

An opportunity has appeared, but nobody has worked out what it is worth yet

We take an observation and turn it into a proposition, a business model, a first commercial move,  and the foundations for growth.

The technology works. The strongest use of it is still an argument

We find where new capability meets real demand - and where it does not.

Growth has flattened, and the next engine of growth sits outside the current plan.

New products, adjacent markets, partnerships, or a different business model entirely.

Two worlds or more should be working together and currently are not

Companies, institutions, disciplines or markets worth more connected than apart.

WE ARE PROBABLY NOT THE RIGHT FIT WHEN

  • The direction is already decided and what you need is pure delivery capacity.
  • The scope is fixed and the job is to staff it with a large team.
  • You want recommendations handed over, with no involvement in what happens next.
  • The problem sits comfortably inside one discipline, where a specialist could do the job alone.

Sometimes the answer is to build. Sometimes it is to stop.

Recognition

Selected recognition

2024
European CommissionInclusive Pioneer, SME Assembly
2023
E24Top leadership talent in Norway
2022
VestbeeTop 50 women in Norway's startup and VC ecosystem
2021
Kapital40 under 40
2019
NewsweekBlockchain Impact Award
Thea Sommerseth speaking on stage at the SME Assembly 2024
SME Assembly 2024 · European Commission

Speaking, moderating and contributing to conversations on technology, identity and how markets adapt — from Slush and SXSW to the European Commission’s SME Assembly.

Selected work

See how the thinking becomes something real.

A selection of products, companies, research and systems shaped from the initial question through strategy, product, technology and execution.

Currently in motion

EVIIA

Health / Trust / Infrastructure

Exploring how trusted frontline health data could change what becomes possible across global health systems.

IN DEVELOPMENT

CIIMA TRAVELS

Culture / Talent / Travel

Exploring how cultural attention can become measurable demand for destinations, routes and places.

IN DEVELOPMENT

How the work happens

Four moves, in the order they usually happen.

Research, pattern recognition, human behaviour, market shifts and emerging technology.

Identify what is changing, what has not caught up yet and where an overlooked opportunity may exist.

Turn observations into something people can understand, want and act on: proposition design, business models, positioning, product strategy and validation.

Bring together companies, talent, institutions and markets that would not necessarily find each other, then build the partnerships and commercial structures that hold.

Develop and test concepts, products, ventures and pilots far enough to understand whether they deserve to exist at scale.

What we work by

Five things that decide how the work goes.

  1. 01

    Look across, not just deeper.

    Most answers sit between disciplines. We read what is changing in people, markets, behaviour and technology together, because each one alone explains too little.

  2. 02

    Good thinking should lead to action.

    A decision. A proposition. A partnership. A product. If nothing changes, it was just expensive reading material.

  3. 03

    Momentum first, structure second.

    Early ideas need movement more than governance. Once something works, it needs foundations. Getting the order wrong kills both.

  4. 04

    Follow the evidence, not the method.

    Frameworks are useful right up until the point they stop being true. We change the approach when the information changes.

  5. 05

    Leave it stronger than we found it.

    The measure is what remains once we are gone: sharper thinking, working systems, relationships worth having, and a team that can keep going without us.

How we are set up

Small core. The right people around the problem.

We stay deliberately small. For each engagement, we bring together the specific capabilities the opportunity demands from a trusted international network - shaping the team around the problem, rather than forcing the problem into the team we happen to have.

Senior attention
The people who find the opportunity stay with it. Nothing is handed down a layer.
Capability on demand
Specialists, operators, technologists, creatives and commercial partners join when the problem calls for them.
One point of ownership
However the team is configured,  We  hold the thread; continuity, direction and accountability.

PARTNERS & COLLABERATORS

  • MXY Design logoDesign collaboration
  • CIIMA logoA social first content house
  • Innovation Norway logoResearch and innovation grant support
  • truu ID logoHealth  identity infrastructure

About

Thea Sommerseth, founder of SOMMERSETH
THEA SOMMERSETH MYHREN · FOUNDER - PHOTO@CAPTUREDBYTUDOR

Built from crossing worlds.

Living and learning in different environments taught me to adapt how I learn, analyse and work. The room changes. The culture changes. The methodology changes. What stays consistent is the discipline: understand what is really happening, what is shaping it, and what becomes possible next.

People + behaviour
Anthropology, hospitality and behavioural research taught me to pay attention to people in context - what they value, what they trust,  what shapes their decisions, and where behaviour diverges from intention.
Systems + institutions
International development work meant operating inside complex cultural, institutional and economic systems, where incentives decide what is possible.
Technology + company building
Building products and companies across data, digital identity, privacy and AI taught me where new capability becomes commercially real.

Contact

Bring us the messy problem.
The overlooked opportunity.
The idea you cannot stop thinking about.