About Rasmus Holst:

Rasmus Holst is the CEO of Zensai (formerly LMS365), where he built a learning management business from $0–30M ARR, bootstrapped, completed three acquisitions, and pioneered the “Human Success” category as a replacement for Human Resources. He has been part of management teams delivering exits just shy of $1bn, raised +$50m for companies like Wire and Huddle, and worked across PE-backed (Carlyle, Warburg Pincus) and VC-funded (General Atlantic, Index, Vertex, Morpheus, Iconical) environments.

His experience spans scaling start-ups from zero revenue, operating +$300M Lines of Business at Syniverse, and leading branding and B2B storytelling efforts, including Zensai’s Red Dot Award and Great Place to Work recognition. Rasmus has managed global teams across 14 countries, traveled to +100 nations, and lived in Denmark, Luxembourg, and San Francisco, making him a leader with a uniquely international view on culture, growth, and balance.

In this episode, Dean Newlund and Rasmus Holst discuss:

• Turning HR into Human Success and redefining what organizations measure
• Linking performance, learning, and engagement into one real-time score
• Feedback rituals and kudos culture as engines of team identity
• Measuring soft skills through sentiment and peer behavior
• AI as a teammate that amplifies human contribution instead of replacing it

Key Takeaways:

• Replace annual HR lag metrics with weekly human success check-ins tied to learning, performance, and engagement.
• Institutionalize positive feedback (e.g., weekly kudos) to normalize critique, build confidence, and surface soft-skill leaders.
• Track soft skills through peer sentiment and recognition patterns rather than relying solely on manager evaluations.
• Use generationally agnostic baselines (showing up as a good human and delivering success) to align multicultural/global teams.

“There’s a high correlation between people who get a lot of kudos and those who are really good at a lot of soft skills.” — Rasmus Holst

Connect with Rasmus Holst:  

Website: https://zensai.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusholst/

See Dean’s TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7I

Connect with Dean:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkw

Website: https://www.mfileadership.com/

The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/deannewlund

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/

Email: dean.newlund@mfileadership.com

Phone: 1-800-926-7370

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