Eye-share at the Nordic Growth Summit 2025
At the Nordic Growth Summit in Oslo, leaders from across the Nordic tech and marketing landscape gathered to explore strategies for sustainable growth.
Representing Eye-share, our CEO, Torhill Gysland Falnes, delivered a keynote on a topic that resonated with both marketers and leadership teams: How to invest in marketing from a CEO’s perspective – changing mindsets from cost to growth engine.
From wineglasses to worldwide growth
In a refreshingly candid talk, Torhill shared how Eye-share—founded in Stavanger and built over 25 years—has scaled into a thriving software company helping businesses automate their accounts payable and purchase processes. With over 24 million documents processed annually in the cloud and 220 MNOK in revenue, the company has achieved 15–20% growth per year while maintaining strong profitability.
But one question remains essential to continued success: What role should marketing play in driving that growth?
“When we started, our best marketing was word of mouth—and wineglasses,” Torhill said with a smile. “Customers who joined our events received a beautiful wineglass. But no one wanted just one… so they kept talking about us to get a full set. And the more they talked, the more convinced they became that our product was the best.”
That early “glassware marketing” may have been old-school, but the underlying goal hasn’t changed: building trust and creating engagement. The difference today is that marketing must prove its value in business terms.
Changing the conversation with CEOs
In one interactive segment, Torhill asked the audience to raise their hands if they had heard statements like:
- “Marketing is just a cost center”
- “We don’t need brand awareness—just more leads”
- “Marketing doesn’t drive sales”
As people raised their hands, one thing became clear—there’s often a gap between how marketing talks about its value and what CEOs really want to hear: growth, profit, and real business results.
“Don’t tell me how much money you want to spend on ads,” Torhill said. “Tell me how that investment will grow our pipeline, win new customers, or increase retention.”
N.I.C.E - A framework for CEO buy-in
To bridge that gap, she introduced a practical framework for building a stronger case internally:
N – Narrative
What’s the business problem, and why does it matter?
Example: “Eye-share isn’t top of mind in the maritime sector—so we’re missing out on deals before they even reach us.”
I – Impact
What’s the role of marketing in solving the challenge?
This is where the marketing plan must connect clearly to real business outcomes. As Torhill explained:
“By investing 5 MNOK in brand awareness directly to CFOs and AP-directors in the maritime sector, we forecast to get 30 more RFPs and 30 more qualified sales meetings. From there, we expect a win rate of 50%—resulting in 30 new logos with an average annual subscription value of 600K NOK.”
That’s not just impact—that’s growth in concrete numbers.
C – Conversion
What’s the ROI? How do we measure success?
CEOs want clarity on pipeline growth, signed customers, and revenue. If the answer to “what do we get?” is vague, the answer to your budget request will likely be the same.
E – Expansion
How does this support long-term strategy?
The payoff isn't just short-term wins. Building brand awareness in a key vertical—like maritime—positions Eye-share as the go-to provider for years to come.
“We don’t just want a quick spike in leads. We want to own the category in our core markets.”
From cost center to growth engine
The core message was clear: If marketing is seen as a cost, the answer is no. If it’s seen as an investment, the answer is yes.
The talk ended with an energizing thought experiment: “Imagine you had 10MNOK to spend on marketing. Would you put it into paid ads? Brand campaigns? Events? Partnerships? Advocacy?”
As the audience clapped in support of each option, the CEO added, “You’re the engine. The smartest companies double down on marketing before they need it. Not after.”
At Eye-share, we know what it takes to grow a software company sustainably. And if there’s one lesson we’ve learned, it’s this: marketing drives growth—when it speaks the language of business.