Why Norway's First Crypto Unicorn Founder Just Packed His Bags

Dune Analytics CEO Fredrik Haga did something pretty bold: he left Norway and relocated to Switzerland—all because of a tax bill on money he couldn’t even touch.

Here’s the plot twist: Haga built Dune from zero in 2018, bootstrapped it with nothing, then watched it rake in $2M seed → $8M Series A → $69.42M Series B. By 2020, it became Norway’s first unicorn. Sounds like a win, right?

Not so fast. Norway’s government hit him with an unrealized capital gains tax based on Dune’s fundraising rounds—even though:

• The company was still loss-making
• Investors had preference shares that locked him out of withdrawals
• He literally couldn’t cash out the gains they were taxing him on

Haga’s take: taxes should happen when you actually make profits, not on paper gains you can’t access. Fair point.

The kicker? Norway’s Socialist Left Party leader Kirsti Bergstø actually has a “Wall of Shame” in her office displaying articles about wealthy Norwegians who’ve bounced from the country. Haga made the wall. She finds it “amusing.”

This isn’t just one founder’s gripe—it’s part of a wealth exodus from Norway. Between 2021-2022, Financial Times documented business leaders fleeing over tax policies. Switzerland’s basically becoming a startup haven for Nordic entrepreneurs at this point.

The comparison floating around? Atlas Shrugged vibes—when innovation and wealth flee because the system doesn’t get it.

The real question: Can you build world-class companies in countries that tax you on money you don’t have? Haga decided the answer was no.