The Exit Was Supposed to Feel Like the Endgame

Torben Rytt had always been driven by an insatiable curiosity and a deep desire to make things work—whether it was convincing the neighborhood computer store owner to start selling car audio or launching an online shop at just 15. Growing up in a small town outside Copenhagen, entrepreneurship was less of a career aspiration and more an instinct woven into the fabric of his being.

"I think what first drew me in was the sense of taking something simple and watching it grow," Torben reminisces. “It was never about the money, which was usually spent unwisely, but about the fun and learning along the way.”

His journey would take him from managing early entrepreneurial ventures to co-founding Gainbox, an account intelligence platform with the potential to redefine how B2B companies engage with their markets. It's a path marked by profound personal and professional growth, built on experiences that have sharpened his understanding of business and life's homely ups and downs.

The seeds of his current venture were planted long ago, back during his college years when Torben and his friend Allan were working on a CRM system—which they didn’t even know to call a CRM back then. Their partnership has spanned multiple continents and decades.

Not long after, Torben took a leap to the United States—an enormous step that would see him revolutionize Siteimprove’s U.S. operations. "I was the first employee outside the Copenhagen office," he recalls. Without Zoom or modern communication tools, he built an empire from the ground up, scaling the company's U.S. presence to a powerhouse operation responsible for half its global ARR.

When Siteimprove was acquired in 2020, Torben faced an unexpected reckoning. After toiling for 14 years, the exit, while financially rewarding, left a void. It was a transformative moment, one that asked him to confront the existential question: “Who am I beyond my work?”

"Those years were harder than I expected. All of a sudden, work was something I did for fun, selfishly," Torben explains, reflecting on how he transitioned from working for his family’s future to mending an old boat—a literal and metaphorical voyage of self-discovery. When the itch to build returned, it was Allan he turned to, reigniting a partnership bound by trust and familiarity.

The inspiration for Gamebox sprang from their consulting venture. They recognized a consistent struggle that companies faced when expanding into large, complex markets like the U.S. This insight laid the groundwork for a product that today helps sales teams across sizes and sectors identify and prioritize the most promising leads.

Gamebox isn’t just a tool for optimizing sales strategies; it’s Torben’s intuitive understanding of connecting people—born from a career of crafted relationships by literal and figurative distance. "We use AI not to generate more noise or faceless transactions but to foster meaningful connections. It's about helping humans talk to humans,” Torben insists.

As Gamebox charts its course forward, Torben’s vision remains as human-centered as ever. It's about wielding intelligence to pare down the vast clutter of potential leads to something manageable and authentic—a counterweight, as he puts it, to the spam-laden prospects of AI-driven content.

Torben Rytt's journey with Gamebox is more than just a business success story. It’s an ongoing exploration of purpose, an adventure that blends the rigors of enterprise with the gentle art of human connection, and a testament to the simple yet profound desire to make things grow.

Thrive builds vetted peer groups for founders. Curious who you’d be matched with? Apply today.