Going all-in: The Kitchen Alumni Albert Kirk Iversen has journeyed from poker to CEO of health company, RaskRask

CEO and founder of RaskRask, Albert Kirk Iversen, has fostered a healthy working environment based on his personal values – “It is important to see your employees as humans with ups and downs”

For Albert Kirk Iversen, it all started during high school. There was a worldwide boom in poker. Everyone was playing it, and he would play with the guys from his high school class.

He would watch Gus Hansen, one of the famous Danish poker players, play every Sunday on TV 2 Zulu. It mesmerised him immediately.

It started him down the path of becoming a professional poker player – which he was for ten years.

Nowadays, Iversen is the CEO and founder of RaskRask through which you can order a massage session at your own home or at your company.

Through his company, he is responsible for 14 employees and a few interns, and RaskRask has around 200 corporate customers and 2.500 private customers.

He founded the company in 2015 while studying a bachelor’s in international management at Aarhus University. Thus, the startup had its first years at The Kitchen.

From working alone to working in a team

Albert Kirk Iversens motivation is simple: He just wants to make a difference for people, and it is best done with a great team.
“I am excited to start each working day with my team.”

Working in a team is an experience that is very different to the one he had as a professional poker player. Here, he would spend most days alone, perfecting his craft. Now, his days are spent as a CEO where he is learning how to delegate tasks.

“My role has changed from doing customer support and finances to having smarter people than me doing that for me, and to me then having to lead those employees,” says Iversen.

A role that has helped develop him as a person. But also, a role in which he still learns.

“Is it also the role in which I have made the most mistakes in, and in which I still make mistakes. Is it a difficult but also an exciting role.”

Time off work is important

”It is important to have a balance in my life and do things that help me feel how I am doing,” says Albert Kirk Iversen

Learnings based on experiences with stress.

“I have had periods where I have worked during evenings and weekends because I felt that it was necessary. But I pushed myself too hard and ended up feeling stressed,” says Iversen.

His personal values guide him in his work as an entrepreneur. If his mind and body is not relaxed when off-work, he has a harder time performing when at work:

“I do things like winter bathing, long walks or padel to help keep me in balance, says Albert Kirk Iversen

”Meditation is important for me to feel my place in the world.”

Curating a healthy working environment

”It is important to see your employees as humans with ups and downs – with need for periods of space and freedom”

A rule that is fundamental for Albert Kirk Iversens management style.

“I believe that all humans are equal, and that a company that supports its employees’ personal projects creates motivated, happy and loyal employees,” says Iversen.

Therefore, in RaskRask, he has made sure to foster an environment in which his employees feel supported in and outside the workplace.

For Albert Kirk Iversen, it means a lot to have created a job setting in which the strongest argument is the victor. Thus, the hierarchy structure in RaskRask is flat:

“It is very important to me that the decisions we make in RaskRask is based on the best arguments and not the simply a decision made by the highest-ranking officer.”