🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.

The idea for Opally didn’t emerge in a boardroom or at an innovation workshop. It was born in a hotel reception on Bornholm, and went live just nine days later.

Behind the AI tool is Danish 23-year-old Gustav Søgård. He studies cand.merc.(it.) at Copenhagen Business School and simultaneously works at Understory, which recently raised €12 million.

Yet he still found the time to build a tool that now helps hotels spend less time on emails and more time with the guests in front of them. Opally started as a solution for Stammershalle Badehotel in the summer, and today around a dozen hotels are already on board – with more joining soon.

Impressive, by any measure.

Here, Gustav shares his story, explaining the idea, his motivation, and how technology, paradoxically, can create more human jobs.

Gustav Søgård, Founder, Opally

Gustav, let’s get this straight! How would you explain Opally in 15 seconds to a hotel receptionist who has never used AI?

“I usually tell people to imagine having an extra colleague who knows all the answers to their guests’ questions, with full access to the hotel’s data.

Opally handles the ‘boring’ work and drafts emails based on guest inquiries, following the hotel’s preferred tone and style.

The receptionist only needs to check that everything looks correct and hit send. It’s not about replacing the front desk, but about reducing busywork so they can focus on the guests in the lobby.”

How did the idea for Opally come about?

“It all started in the summer of 2025 at Stammershalle Badehotel, where my mother works. I saw how much time the front desk spent answering the same types of emails over and over again, and I realized we could fairly easily build a solution that used data from their own systems to make it smarter.

The real spark came on July 8th at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, on my way home from a Y Combinator meetup with 800 other young startup enthusiasts. I was buzzing from the energy there, opened my laptop, and wrote the very first line of code right at the gate.”

How quickly did you implement it at Stammershalle?

“It happened fast. By July 17th – just nine days after I started coding in the airport – Stammershalle was already using the first version. It was a very simple version back then, but that’s the whole philosophy behind Opally: get the product out into the real world as quickly as possible so we can learn from it. The tight feedback loop between the code and the reception staff has been crucial from day one.”

Hvornår gik det op for dig, at det ikke bare var et Stammershalle-projekt, men noget der kunne blive større?

“Da jeg opdagede, hvor simpelt det egentlig var at skifte ‘motoren’ ud. Jeg kunne tage systemet fra Stammershalle og koble det på andre hotelsystemer uden det store besvær.

Og tanken var klar: Hvis det her kan spare Stammershalle for så mange timer om ugen, så sidder der helt sikkert andre hoteller derude med præcis samme udfordring. Hvorfor ikke hjælpe dem også?“

Og nu har du fået andre hoteller på?

“Ja, i skrivende stund er vi oppe på omkring 12 hoteller.Men det tal ændrer sig nærmest uge for uge lige for tiden.Vi er stadig på et tidligt stadie, men interessen er stor, så jeg forventer, at væksten kommer til at være rigtig fin her de kommende måneder.“

Du læser cand.merc.(it.), bygger Opally og arbejder hos Understory. Hvad er det, der driver dig?

“Jeg bliver drevet af at løse rigtige problemer i den virkelige verden. Vi lever i en tid, hvor AI og teknologi ræser derudad, men jeg tror på, at modreaktionen bliver, at vi mennesker vil have færre ting og mere tid sammen fysisk. Min mission med Opally er at understøtte hospitality-branchen i den udvikling.

Vi skal ikke fjerne receptionisterne; vi skal fjerne skærmtiden, så de kan fokusere på værtskabet og de gæster, der står lige foran dem.

Det betyder reelt set, at teknologien kan være med til at skabe bedre, mere menneskelige jobs, fremfor at fjerne dem.“

What does a good workday look like for you?

“It’s a day with a lot of variety. I love the mix of commercial work, like onboarding and demos with hotels and diving deep into building new, value-creating features for the product.

My background in cand.merc.(it.) probably explains why I want to focus on both. I don’t just want to understand the business, or just the code. The magic happens when the two come together.”

Who inspires you?

“I’m drawn to people who are able to bridge the gap between technology and business.

Jack Dorsey, from Twitter and Square, is a big inspiration for his philosophy: if you have an idea, you should hack it to life and validate it in the real world immediately.

David Heinemeier Hansson is another huge influence for me and many other young people. He also studied HA(it.) at CBS, but his ability to understand how code directly contributes to business success over 20 years with Basecamp is truly unique.

And here at home, I’m very inspired by Lasse & Lars from Understory. They’re an incredible duo who just complement each other perfectly when building large businesses.”

If you could give one piece of advice to young entrepreneurs with an idea, what would it be?

“Learn to code. Even at a basic level. It’s by far the best way to get an idea out of your head and into the real world. Today, you don’t need to be an expert from the start, with AI tools like Cursor and Windsurf, you can achieve a lot with just a foundational understanding.

I also see ‘systems thinking’ becoming one of the most important skills for the future. In other words, the ability to understand how complex systems interact and where you can optimize the architecture. That’s where the real value lies.”

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