In 2004 Thomas and journalist Troels Uhrbrand Rasmussen started up Substanz

The idea behind Substanz was to combine best from Troels’ vast journalism experiences with Thomas’ – back then – unique experience with commercial PR.

The business model was to brand, conceptualize and format story telling and sell the business plan to Media Organisations based on a royalty deal.

After creating a basic BUT very efficient idea generating tool/method we soon had our first concept. A History Brand: Your Own History (contact us if you want the business case)

All loved the concept, and all believed in its potential – but…

… no one was willing to invest.

Instead we raised the money ourselves and created the biggest and fastest selling story telling brand in Europe with more than 1 million copies sold, premium prized, in 6 countries – all achieved in 4 years.

The book formats in Denmark went number 1 on the sales charts and the board quiz games broke all sales records.

Against our intentions we ended up spending more and more time on key accounts, auditors, banks and employees instead of focusing on what we’re good at – and our business idea: creating, developing and promoting business ideas & concepts!

After the release of our second Business Concept – the wellness brand Your Guide to Well Being – we were drained from energy and decided to sell Substanz to Egmont.