288: Catena Media’s Erik Bergman Talks IPOs, Affiliate Marketing, And Finding Meaning In Life

Erik Bergman’s entrepreneurial journey started with trading hockey cards on the playground.

When Bergman realized that owning coveted sports memorabilia made him feel valued and won him friends, he became obsessed. As he got older, his focus eventually shifted from trading cards to making cash.

After a brief stint as a professional gambler, Bergman co-founded a website consultancy firm called Catena Media in 2012. The affiliate-based marketing company focused on the online gambling industry and eventually IPOd at €160 million.

Despite achieving the wealth Bergman had relentlessly chased since his youth, he was still unhappy. So he set out to learn the true path to fulfillment and eventually found deeper meaning in his life through charity work with his latest project, Great.com.

Check out this interview to learn more about Bergman’s journey to finding happiness and the most important lessons he learned along the way.

Key Takeaways

• How trading hockey cards instilled a sense of entrepreneurship in Bergman from a young age
• Bergman’s brief stint as a professional poker player
• Why Bergman and his best friend Emil Thidell launched a gambling-focused website consultancy agency
• From making side-hustle money to officially launching Catena Media
• How strategic website acquisitions helped Catena Media skyrocket
• The long and difficult road to IPO
• Why Bergman found himself in a dark place, despite his newfound wealth
• How Bergman became involved in charity work and discovered his “splash of color”
• The inspiration behind Great.com