Steve meets Startup Sauna and Summer of Startups
On Tuesday, Steve Blank met the winners of different Aaltoes programs and batches. Rudi reports from behind the closed doors:
All the teams are slowly filling up the small room at Design Factory. The feeling is surprisingly cozy when you think that they’ll all be pitching to Steve Blank himself in a while.
The teams pitching today are: Campalyst, Ovelin, Futureful, Tribestudios, Tuubio, Dealmachine, Audiodraft and Blaast.
Wili Miettinen, one of the active Aaltoes mentors, is opening the workshop and introducing Steve to everybody. He also introduces Steve to the programs, as he knows what these startups have been through so far.
Campalyst takes the floor first, only one of the team members is in Finland, others are out around the world, creating contacts and doing business. Campalyst has had a very impressing year so far and they’re still pushing on and on top of that they’ve been following Steve’s advice, talking with customers! Great! Steve’s however worried about the pricing model of the company and their product. Something for Campalyst to think about.
Ovelin’s pitching as second and before starting their pitch Steves already saying that he loves the idea and that’s it. Surely amazing for the team to hear this. Ovelin has been making progress too by creating harder levels for professional musicians. Steve’s forecasting that in three years Ovelin won’t be doing Wild Chords but the product has evolved to something else.
Next up is Futureful, presenting Steve and the rest of us their progress in the last months. Private alpha coming up in a few weeks! Steve’s getting a private demo from the founders. Looks like it’s working and according to Steve this might be one of the companies that gets bought in an instant after demoing it to the right people.
Tribestudios is taking the stage next and presenting one more former winner product of the Startup Sauna. The first story, Velvet Sundown is coming out soon! But remember that the platform, Stagecraft is the most important part, it enables continuity. Steve’s asking some important questions and Elina’s answering them well.
Tuubio is the fourth one up on the stage. They also have a personal demo to show Steve on a phone. Personalizing a radio broadcast for him. Seems to be working well. Great process on the product from the team. Steve’s also giving Tuubio some important points to work on and think about.
Dealmachine takes the floor as the fifth team. Making CRM a game for the salesforce. Actually Timo ended up telling how it has been going and where their journey has taken them. He’s showing off a new possible product and asking if dm should be integrated as the coaches have been saying for months. Steves offering important contacts and information, absolutely amazing!
Teemu Yli-Hollo is presenting AudioDraft and playing the Nokia Tune, which Steve doesn’t instantly recognize. The question he’s asking is, what does your brand sound like? What tune would instantly say Steve Blank? AudioDraft has over 50 customers at the moment, and their creating the new Nokia Tune! That’s crazy amazing!
Blaast is the last but surely not the least! Joonas is assuring everybody that he’s not high on crack even though he might appear crazy. Great laugh from everybody, maybe the cameras shouldn’t be taping this… Blaast is doing the amazing work of bringing smartphone apps to the affordable devices. Steve’s worried about how to get the phone carriers to join Blaast. Steve loves the idea anyway! Amazing!
Steve loves everyone in this group and is absolutely amazed. It’s great to hear! He’s still giving some last pointers for all the teams to read Alexander Osterwalders book and do a business model canvas and show it to every possible investor to show the progress. And when speaking about investors, the companies basically has two choices, to move to the U.S. or not to raise U.S. VC money. The floor now opens up for questions and discussions between the teams and Steve. Amazing atmosphere! Keep on rocking!
Text: Rudi / Photos: Lauri
