You are one of the founders of Connecta, a company that became very successful in the roaring 90s. How do the conditions for building companies differ then and now?

Not much really - it's probably the same axiom that applied then as now, possibly with the difference that the venture capital market is much more developed nowadays. Note that we started without a single penny in venture capital.
For me, our business idea was absolutely important, but even more important was to start by surrounding ourselves with a small core group of super talented employees paired with carefully trying to attract the "right" customers. The business idea can always be tweaked along the way together with the team and the customer.
I can say without hesitation that the ingredients mentioned above were our most important success factors, so without that combination it would never have turned out as well as it did. To summarize: if I were to start a business today, I would think in exactly the same way now as then.

What major challenges do you help your entrepreneurs with as a coach and advisor? What does what you write in your LinkedIn profile: "-I coach mainly entrepreneurs in every aspect of being successful and grow their business beyond their own comfort zone" mean in practice?

I mainly help entrepreneurs who have come some way on the path - ie those who have passed the start-up phase. In other words, they have figured out what the customer wants to buy. I come in when they are about to take the next step - for example, by broadening the range, finding new areas of use, new markets or simply hesitating what the next step should be. I'll also be honest and say that I only spend time and energy on entrepreneurs in companies that have a decent chance of success. Life is too short to try to teach roosters and hens to fly really far.

What advice would you send to an entrepreneur who has just started a company in 2020?

As I wrote above: "the business idea is absolutely important, but even more important is to start by surrounding yourself with a small core group of super talented employees and/or a partner paired with carefully trying to attract the "right" customers. The business idea can always be tweaked along the way with the team and the customer. If the company is going to develop a product or service that will require external capital, the entrepreneur should try to develop as much as possible self-funded coupled with getting a paid satisfied customer before spending time and resources on attracting external investors. If not, there is a high risk that the entrepreneur will not retain as much ownership of their baby.