About Killian

Born on the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian city of Mo i Rana to a Norwegian state conflict mediator mother who worked with terrorists and criminals, and a Swiss-French father in Swiss investment banking. I grew up surrounded by high-stakes thinking and developed an early obsession with the board game Monopoly. The first 5 years were spent in the french part of Switzerland, living between Geneva & Lausanne, before I moved to Northern Norway with my Mother and sister following my parents divorce. From then on I became the de-facto handyman, responsible for fixing thing around the house. My mother used to get annoyed at me as I would deconstruct appliances, tools, electronics and products to understand how they worked, before I would re-construct them. Then at the age of 10 I received my first Mackintosh, which then became my new obsession along with theater.

In the early teenage years in the early 2000s, I started my first online venture selling virtual furniture in one of the world's first massive multiplayer games called Habbo Hotel. This was essentially the first ever virtual currency that could be exchanged for real money. With my younger sister we developed a technique that enabled us to collect money from hundreds of other children that wanted to upgrade their hotel rooms. We ran events with competitions between players internationally with winning prizes and ways to upgrade furniture. This experience was foundational to digital mindset of exploring novel opportunities, and gave me a taste for hotels as a evolution of the fan favorite monopoly game

Selected by the Norwegian National Committee of UWC from amongst a highly competitive pool of applicants, I received a full scholarship sponsored by the Red Cross to attend the Mahindra United World College of India. The UWC movement, established as the birthplace of the International Baccalaureate program after WW2 in a pedagogical aspiration to foster peace and has long been synonymous with excellence in international education. With Nelson Mandela serving as its honorary president and Queen Noor of Jordan among its most prominent advocates, UWC has earned its reputation as "the school for kings and queens," though its true distinction lies in bringing together exceptional young people from vastly different backgrounds to foster international understanding and peace through education over a two year period before university. This deeply immersive and formative 2 year experience shaped my worldview and instilled a deep appreciation for cross-cultural collaboration and immersion that continues to inform my work today. Fun fact: I learned to speak English fluently in India, and therefore naturally had a pretty strong Indian accent.

Featured in Svalbardposten for contributing creative ideas to new sustainable building projects in Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost settlement. Innovation Norway explored how the Arctic town could become a testbed for new ways to live and build in extreme conditions. This experience connected back to growing up on the Arctic Circle and understanding how harsh environments demand creative, resilient solutions.

Featured in Swissinfo's coverage of EHL (Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne), the elite Swiss school for hotel managers. With more than 30,000 students having passed through EHL's doors since 1975, the institution sits on a former farm high above the lake at Lausanne's northern edge. As befits a country that runs like clockwork, EHL coaches students in the exacting standards of high-end hospitality — a natural extension of the fascination with hotels that began in the Habbo Hotel days.

Zario won the EU-Startups Summit 2023 Pitch Competition, taking home the €150,000 grand prize. The app helps people build a healthier relationship with their phones by making screen time reduction feel like a game rather than a punishment. The win put Zario on the European startup map and validated years of work at the intersection of behavioural science, product design, and digital wellbeing.

Even as a teenager in Northern Norway, Killian was making local headlines. Featured in the regional newspaper SA for leading a youth traffic-safety campaign demanding a roundabout to protect pedestrians in the community. A small but telling glimpse into an early instinct for identifying problems, rallying people, and pushing for change — skills that would later define his career in product and entrepreneurship.