The Black Box and the Aalborg Bond: A Story told by Jørn Larsen

Originally shared by our CEO, Jørn Larsen, on LinkedIn. You can view the original post here.

Trifork just turned 30 so I thought I would take a look back and tell the story. How it began, how it developed and where we are heading. Everything from NeXT to Humanoid and everything in between will be covered.

I’d like your help. Any of you who are willing to share a picture, an anecdote or something funny or not funny, please do. We will celebrate our birthday throughout 2026. Please send your feedback to CEO@trifork.com

We will celebrate around the world. I will add a chapter from time to time. I will attempt to visit: Palma, Barcelona, Stockholm, London, Aalborg, Aarhus, Copenhagen, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Esbjerg, Budapest, Muscat, Zurich, Amsterdam and Eindhoven

It’s funny how a single machine can change the course of your life. For me, Kim Harding, and Karsten Thygesen, that machine was the NeXT Computer—the sleek, matte-black “black box” that Steve Jobs built to redefine computing.

The three of us were students at Aalborg University, where we were being fed a steady diet of computer science theory. But it was at DanNUG (the Danish NeXT Users Group) where the real spark ignited. That’s where we truly connected and realized we were all speaking the same language. The industry was still bogged down in legacy systems. We were looking at the NeXT platform and seeing the future. It was elegant, and it was lightyears ahead of its time.

We knew then that if we wanted to change the industry, we couldn’t just follow the pack—we had to pioneer.

I often think about Tim Berners-Lee at CERN during those same years. He was sitting in front of his own NeXT, inventing the World Wide Web. We felt that same “NewTech” energy. We thought, “If he can build the foundation of the modern world on this tech, why can’t we use these same principles to revolutionize the Danish tech industry?”. I never met Steve Jobs but I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Steve Wozniak at our GOTO conferences.

That ambition was the DNA of EOS (Eastfork Object Space), which Kim and I founded in 1996. We wanted to take the “Next Big Thing” and bring it into an industry that was still stuck in the past. We were a team; we shared the risk, the vision, and the late nights and early mornings.
Eventually, Karsten took his brilliance into the world of complex operations and hosting at Netic, while Kim and I grew EOS into what is now Trifork. Kim eventually stepped back to enjoy a well-earned retirement in 2007, but the foundation he helped lay never buckled. Today, Netic is an integral part of Trifork, that circle we started as students in Aalborg has finally closed.

Kim’s passing in January 2026 leaves a void that is hard to fill. As I look at where we are today, my deepest gratitude and thanks go to Kim and Karsten. We weren’t just business partners or tech enthusiasts; we were friends who saw the future together in a black magnesium box, and then we went out and built it.