Norwegian entrepreneur Jorn Lyseggen has four start-ups, two trade sales and one IPO behind him, and he seems to be just getting started. The Meltwater Group is a privately held software company founded in Norway in 2001 that delivers B2B solutions based on search engine technology and cloud computing. One division, Meltwater News, provides online media monitoring. Another,Meltwater Buzz, provides social media monitoring. It has grown from "two guys with a coffee machine and $15,000" to a global company with $100 million in bookings.

So—beyond having a service to sell—what does Lyseggen have to share with PR professionals? Answer: Plenty of insights, from the future of social media to the importance of recruiting individuals who will grow with your company. Here, he shares his thoughts on hiring young, on anonymity and on the future of PR and media monitoring:

You advocate the hiring of budding superstars versus seasoned veterans—or at least practice that at Meltwater. What's behind that?

A lot of fresh graduates are underestimated. They are young and ready to conquer the world, and they have energy, drive and passion that are hard to match. That's something that always intrigued me.
When I was a young man, I never liked to hear, "You're too young." When I looked around at my friends and at other people I knew—and what they were capable of at a young age—I always thought that young people were underutilized.

We try to be very innovative, very disruptive. It's really helpful to have a lot of young people with new ideas, who haven't become jaded but instead have an open mind. They're people with a very intimate knowledge of how the new technology is working, and how social media is really playing out in people's lives.

When it comes to social media, the youngsters are the ones picking up the new trends first. People 18-25 are more savvy because they grew up with it; it's more a part of their work, their lives. We need that youthful energy and passionate drive, but you need to blend it with seasoned executives who can see fundamental processes.

How does this translate into other industries—in particular, PR?

I definitely think it translates into the PR space—and for all industries where you need to make very quick changes because of new innovations and new technology. I believe the PR industry is going through a very radical transformation, driven first by the Internet.

So recruiting is an important part of your business?

For almost the first six years of this company's life, I spent most of my time recruiting. I traveled all over the world interviewing; I think I met more than 3000 people face-to-face.

I felt it was an investment—one that would benefit me later on. Those people will be the ones who continue to shape the company's culture, the ones who will be at the helm of the organizations.

And it has been a valuable investment. We have a well-aligned management team. Culturally, we're extremely strong and passionate across all levels of the organization. That bodes well for the future—for the next project and the project beyond that.

Where do you see PR moving?

PR will be more important because of the increased complexity of communicating with the world around us. Companies will need professional help to communicate with stakeholders.

That's going to be a very dramatic transformation. Social media perhaps will become much more important than traditional media. It's a very interesting challenge.

Social media is a crowning achievement of the Internet. The Internet is perhaps as close as you come to democracy. Everyone has an opportunity speak their minds. If they have something important to say, they can mobilize thousands—millions—in hours.

Did you hear about the man who had his guitar destroyed by an airline? That's a perfect example. He was not a celebrity or a big shot. He posted a song. That mobilized millions of people in a short period of time. His voice was heard. I think that's fantastic. That's as close as you come to democracy. It's probably as close as you ever will come to democracy.

So, what kind of consequences does that have for PR world?

I think very dramatic ones. There used to be a well-defined number of influencers, a well-defined number of outlets that were the main drivers of opinion and discussion. That, of course, has changed.

For PR professionals to embrace that fully, to internalize what that means, is one of the biggest and most challenging things the industry is facing. Exactly where that will takes us, it's hard to say.

What challenges you see ahead for them?

Anonymity. It's different from traditional world, where well-defined opinion leaders had names and identities. To figure out how to handle that in a proactive, effective way is a completely new aspect of the PR world.

So, how do we deal with that?

Today, we don't know how to deal with it. We see anonymous opinions, and we see people rally each other. It can get nasty—the normal filters are not necessarily there. We're struggling a little bit with that right now. Going forward, long term, the credibility and integrity of the actual source will play a more important role than it does right now. Who the source is—and the credibility of that source—will be important. People will disregard anonymous voices.

Anonymous attacks can be very hurtful—and very hard to reverse. As much as I love the Internet, as much as I embrace the opportunities the Internet gives us, I am a little concerned with those aspects and how to deal with that.

What are you working on now?

I have been working on electronic media monitoring. Moving forward, we are adding new projects. Social media will be one of our biggest areas. We recently acquired BuzzGain, which has developed very exciting technology for the social media space. That technology will serve as the platform to enhance Meltwater's existing social media monitoring service, Meltwater Buzz.

So while you are moving more heavily into social media monitoring, will you continue to focus on traditional media?

Yes. They will exist side by side. Monitoring traditional media will be important for many, many years. Traditional media will always have a role. People crave authority and credibility.

How will media (including social media) monitoring change in the next few years?

There are two clear trends that I see in media and social media monitoring. First, the monitoring of news and social media are converging. Today they are considered two different service offerings. As social media becomes even more conventional, that perception is gradually going to disappear.

The second trend is a shift from monitoring towards analytics and engagement. Monitoring is the service where you would want access to every mention because each individual mention can be important to you. This is rooted in the old paper clipping tradition. As the amount of information increases, which is particularly the case for social media, monitoring can be simply too overwhelming and less relevant. Therefore, analytics are becoming more important. Analytics are more concerned about aggregated information and provide information about trends and tonality.

What's next for you?

The next project on the agenda for Meltwater Group is to launch into the search engine marketing space. We believe this space has too many inferior software solutions leaving advertisers on Google, Yahoo and Bing with inferior return on their ad-spends. We are entering this space because we think we can create a lot of value by simplifying the management of your keyword portfolio and creating a clearer visibility to the advertisers on how the return on their advertisement is created.

What motivates you? What do you love about your career?

In many ways, I'm an accidental entrepreneur. I never aspired to be either a manager or an entrepreneur. I'm very passionate about what I do because it give me a gives me a lot of fulfillment. It's extremely rewarding.

The reason I get up in the morning, jump out of bed and run to work is that I find great fulfillment in working with the people I work with. We talked about that earlier, that there are a lot of young bright superstars we bring into the organization. I have the pleasure of seeing them grow and prosper, take on more responsibility and become confident, savvy business managers and executives.

Perhaps the most valuable thing you can do is touch people's lives. We get to do that here.

So, if there's a lesson for my readers, it sounds like your message is that the human factor remains critical in today's low-touch, high-tech environment?

Yes. At end of the day, it's all about the people. Today, in most industries, all the value is created by the people. Having the right people, motivated people, people who work well together—all that pays huge dividends. There's no more important thing than people.