Steve Blank visits Finland

Helsingin Sanomat editorial: In search of entrepreneurial killer instinct i

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:42:40 +0300

“The American growth business guru, the former Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, Stanford University Professor Steve Blank has a rather simplistic explanation for the phenomenon: it all boils down to the Finnish mentality and the society type.

“By nature Finns are not good at tolerating risk”, Blank writes in his blog. According to Blank “this gets compounded by the cultural tendency not to share or talk in meetings, sometimes to the point of silence”.

At the beginning of September, Blank spent a week lecturing and taking part in various discussions in Helsinki. Thousands of Finnish students, entrepreneurs, public servants, and politicians were listening to Blank’s message in highly-charged entrepreneurial growth events.”

In search of the entrepreneurial killer instinct: Finland celebrates National Day of Failure Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.10.2011

HS: Kasvuyritysväki ryhtyy aktiivisesti lobbaamaan

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:40:24 +0300

Today’s Helsingin Sanomat sporting some recent developments from the Parliament as well as a short teaser to the up-and-coming #Helsinkispring manifesto.

Read the article (pdf) below

» Kasvuyritysväki ryhtyy aktiivisesti lobbaamaan (5.10.2011)

Kasvuyrittäjä löysi poliitikot - ehdotus verohelpotuksesta on Kauppalehti

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:30:31 +0300

Kolmikon mukaan Suomeen on syntymässä kasvuyrittäjyyden mahdollistava ekosysteemi, mutta rahoitus on iso ongelma. Iso osa startup-yrityksen rahoituksesta tulee ulkomailta. Erityinen ongelma on yrityksien alkuvaiheeseen tehtävien sijoitusten vähyys.

He kaipaavat valtiolta toimenpiteitä, jotka edistävät yksityisen rahan virtaamista kasvuyritykseen sen sijaan, että valtio tukee yrityksiä suoraan.

- Julkisen vallan tehtävänä ei ole pysyvästi rahoittaa yrityksiä tai tukea yksityisiä sijoituksia, kolmikko kirjoittaa.

Kasvuyrittäjä löysi poliitikot - ehdotus verohelpotuksesta (Kauppalehti 25.9.2011)

Riskirahoituksen puute hankaloittaa kasvuyritysten menestymistä -article on Helsingin Sanomat

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:14:06 +0300

Lasse Männistö, Risto Siilasmaa and Mikael Junger in Helsingin Sanomat talking about the risk funding scene in Finland & future tax redemptions for startup investments. Go go!

Steve Blank on Helsingin Sanomat 12.9

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:56:41 +0300

Read what Steve said in Helsingin Sanomat about the finnish growth enterpreneurship climate:

“Ulkomaalaisten virta on Blankin mielestä merkki suotuisasta innovaatioympäristöstä, mutta hänestä se näyttää jäänneen suomalaisilta huomaamatta. Blank mielestä “Suomi loistaa ympäristöönsä kuin valaiseva majakka”

» Suomalaisten valtti on kylmä intohimo (HS 12.9)

Friday Tweets

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:34:32 +0300

Friday’s schedule saw action with media representatives as well as Garage coaches and in the evening, the whole week got the conclusion it deserved as a hundreds-strong startups advocate group gathered for an unforgettable BBQ, which hopefully shall be remembered as the Woodstock of this generation of Helsinki startup community.

1) Welcome to the Church of Steve

2) The Finnish Parliament showing some startup pride, baby!

3) Hey, Mikael, tell us how those meetings went

4) Persistency will get you everywhere

Steve: Finnish media treat beacons of hope as enemies of state

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:40:00 +0300

Whenever a paper mill is shut down in an obscure village in Lapland, TV cameras rush to the scene, politicians establish a task force to “create jobs” to the area, and newspapers run spreads and op-eds to reflect on this unexpected disturbance in the Force.

When Finnish wind and solar power startup The Switch was sold to the US with 190 million euros, leading business magazine Talouselämä started to inquire weather the company should now pay it’s public TEKES funds back, since there might be a euro or two of taxpayers’ money in the owners’ wallets now.

“Anywhere else these guys would have been treated as heroes in the media. But here they are treated like enemies of the state”, serial entrepreneur Steve Blank scolded Finnish Editor-in-Chiefs at a working lunch at Aalto Venture Garage on Friday.

Present were the likes of host Hannu Leinonen of Kauppalehti, Tapani Ruokanen of Suomen Kuvalehti and Eljas Repo from Arvopaperi. The purpose of the luncheon was to discuss the significance of the grassroots startup phenomenon to Finnish society.

“Mårten is still pissed”

As a journalist I’m all for questioning the use of public money. But is there a pattern here we should be aware of? At least the young entrepreneurs at Aalto Garage who work their butts off to create jobs in this country (and to become obscenely rich) feel their cause has not been understood in the media.

And it’s not only the young. Mr Blank said that co-creator of MySQL Mårten Mickos, who now lives in the Silicon Valley, is still bitter to the Finnish media for how the exit of his company worth 700 million euros in 2008 was treated.

“My personal job is to have Mårten Mickos come back to Finland. He’s still pissed. These guys have created jobs. They are the beacon of hope.”

A digital Helsinki Spring

Mr. Blank thinks that the return of the first generation startup champions as heroes and business angels to Finland would flourish the grassroots of the Helsinki startup Spring. This requires an attitude change in the Finnish media.

Why, then, does the Finnish media not get the Helsinki Spring? Steve Blank offered a very good starting point in offering an explanation: the media simply doesn’t know of it.

Mr Blank referred to Helsinki Spring as viral phenomenon like the Arab Spring. It spreads through social media without geographical borders. The youth immerses itself digitally into new information, ideology and perhaps most importantly, borderless markets and finances.

I’m not surprised that the media in Finland doesn’t realize this. Following social media is not part of Finnish journalists’ routines. Twitter, where Helsinki Spring was evident early on, is alien to most journalists in Finland. Senior journos have even taken strong opinions against social media. As significant societal changes – the racist wing of the True Finns being an excellent example – increasingly rise through social media, this attitude is a real problem.

A true ideological revolution

The second reason Steve Blank offered for the resistance for the Helsinki Spring in the Old Guard of mainstream media is spot on, too.

We’re looking at a true ideological revolution, something that the angriest of birds, Mighty Eagle of Rovio Peter Vesterbacka called greater in significance than the previous generational uprising in the 1960’ and 70’s. And the old instinctively resist what the young do, even if what they were doing was money.

“Your children are going to do stuff that you are going to hate”, Mr. Blank advised the Editors.

“A good number of them are going to be capitalists. They’re not going to go to concerts, do drugs or come to the summer home with you. They want to go to incubators, start coding and run startups.”

What a frightening scenario!

And how were these tidings received by the Editor-in-Chiefs? Tapani Ruokanen from Suomen Kuvalehti, an inquisitive mind and author of several history books, put the phenomenon in perspective. He said that in Finland, the definition of success for his generation was to move from the countryside to cities for university education and get a steady job in a government agency. Now things are radically changing.

“Now everything is on your shoulders”, he said and looked at Ville Vesterinen, Mohamed El-Fatatry and Kristo Ovaska at the table.

He asked the young entrepreneurs to call him anytime and keep him updated.

Now that’s a good start. Perhaps we will also see reporters of Suomen Kuvalehti getting their faces on Twitter and feet on the streets of Helsinki Spring?

Text: Taneli Heikka

Steve Blank recommends: Books

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:03:07 +0300

We’ve compiled a list of books that Steve has recommended during his visit to Finland as a Amazon Wish List

The Trifecta of Scalable Startup Literature

Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Reis
The Four Steps to Epiphany by Steve Blank

Clayton Christensen’s work

The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business
The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Books on the Valley model

Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee Saxenian
Creative Capital: George Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital by Spencer E. Ante

And one more on framing thinking

Don’t Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff

By Krista

Thursday's Tweet Review

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:38:53 +0300

On Thursday, there were signs of Steve Blank fatigue on Twitter, whereas Steve himself seemed to have just gotten started, as well as the commentators. Now, people, is the time to unload all thoughts and ideas, feedback and suggestions and share to the world! As Steve Blank’s visit is nearing its end, we wish to hear from all sides and, as cheesy as it may sound, unite to together build the new and improved Finland.

1) Not everyone loves Steve, ehh?

2) Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent

3) Agree, it’s easy to point fingers, but not so easy to be a time machine

4) What can you do for your country

As a politician?

Some admit to needing to learn more

Some are already making promises

5) Men nej! The Swedes get to it first, what horror!

6) Local-to-local and other ideas to build upon -lets hear those sugestions, everyone!

The Mighty Eagle says Finland should now compete with the Valley, Singapore and Israel

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:38:00 +0300

When Steve Blank’s visit to Helsinki started on Monday, for some, the idea of developing Finland into Europe’s startup hub may have seemed like a fantasy objective of a few dozen hyped nerds who had spent too much time staring at their laptops.

By the end of the week, we have Helsinki Spring, and the stakes have been supported, raised and officially confirmed.

“Why would we want to be Europe’s startup hub? We already are. What is there in Europe when it comes to startups? Not much. Why would we want to be the second best?” said the Mighty Eagle, Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio in a panel where he sat alongside with Steve Blank, Minister of Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb, Miki Kuusi from Aalto Entrepreneurship Society and Hannu Seristö, Vice President of Aalto University. The panel was hosted by Pekka Lundmark, CEO of Konecranes.

So there we are now competing with Silicon Valley, Israel and Singapore. Minister Stubb, quick to sense that times they are a-changing, tweeted that he’s “newcomer to this scene. Want to learn more”, and declared that Finland now should aim as number 1 country to fly to, live in and run startups.

While Mr. Stubb gave the official confirmation to the raised targets, the real energy generator of the panel was Mr. Vesterbacka with his nonconformist views.

Or perhaps soon we can call him a conformist. He said a huge attitude change is on its way in the Finnish society, bigger in its significance than the radicalism of the 1960’s and 70’s:

“The change in attitude is tangible and amazing. It’s a culture change.”

At moments frustrated to the Finnish realism of his fellow panelists’, Mr. Vesterbacka cried out: “We can compete with anyone!”

The protagonist of this revolution is the individual who knows better than the government.

This is particularly true in financing early stage startups. Asked what would happen if the Finnish public innovation funding body TEKES was abolished, he replied: “Nothing bad would happen. We would save 600 million euros for 10 incubators. There would be no harm.”

Save the organic emergence of clusters from the institutions!

The fundamental problem with public funding of startups, according to Vesterbacka, is that the government can never know better than the entrepreneurs, where successful business models and clusters are born. For instance, the gaming industry in Finland was not spotted or started by TEKES officials.

“It was started in the Assembly events”, he said. Assembly “computer festivals” were started in the 1992 by voluntary people to gather people from Finland’s demo scene.

Slashing the Finnish institutions that still haven’t gotten the revolution, he said the government’s effort to pour money to institutions like the SHOK’s , Strategic Centres of Science, Technology and Innovation were like trying to guide rarely floating shipwrecks on the high seas. Neither the guide nor the ship know where to go. It’s time to ask the entrepreneurs.

Of course, according to Mr. Vesterbacka, it matters what the government does or doesn’t do.

“By taxing we cannot increase the number of for example angel investors. But again it is about the general attitude: we should admit that the government doesn’t always know the best.”

Text: Riku Siivonen & Taneli Heikka

Photos: Lauri Lehtovuori

”You ought to believe that God has given you a vision”

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:53:00 +0300

“Twenty-five of the 28 companies here will go out of business. Sorry. But the three will be filthy rich.”

In these bubbly times and sky-high validations of companies Mr. Blank encouraged the audience to believe in startups in Portfolio day organized by the Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra. The day gathered people from companies Sitra has invested in.

After a few days in Finland, having spoken to up to 2 000 people and worked closely with Aalto Entrepreneurship Society Mr. Blank thinks there is a “Helsinki spring” going on, an entrepreunial revolution.

“Those 20-year-old students know exactly what is happening in Silicon Valley. They are born global. The only thing missing is venture funds, angels and incubators that understand that.”

Boost your ego!

The well-clad investors and businessmen and women in the auditorium of High Tech Center in Ruoholahti listened to Mr Blank act as an messenger of the new revolutionary culture bustling just a few miles away on Aalto Ventures Garage.

”Startups who are done by 20-year-olds who are too dumb to know that it can’t be done”, Mr. Blank advised.

“Startup is a calling. You ought to believe that God has given you a vision. And in the right kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem we should have equally insane people risking their money as investors.”

Mr. Blank reminded the Sitra audience to boost their egos. Because a big ego is not only what a startup founder needs, but also a startup investor.

”If you don’t have a larger ego than the average Finn - which is not difficult – you don’t belong in the startup business. Startups are about people who are uncomfortable about being second. These are crazy people on a mission from God.”

Startups search for business models

Now, back to more profane facts. According to Mr Blank, startups are not smaller versions of large corporations - although a lot of people thought so for decades.

“A startup is temporary organisation designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model. Startups need their own tools which are different than those of large companies.”

That means that for example the role of the board is different. In a startup board’s role is to teach the CEO that his job is not a technical exercise but a search for a business model.

This requires the investor to actually understand the business of the startup and contribute his time and networks to the search of the business mode with personal risk involved. This is a very different modus operandi compared to the traditional public funding institutions’ way of working, where the government signs a check and and – well, that’s about it.

Blank stated that agile development is how startups should be build. The founders should “Get out of the building!” – one of Mr. Blanks catchphrases – and learn their business model straight from the customers.

Text: Riku Siivonen & Taneli Heikka

Sorry, Finns, your national anthem got it wrong

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:58:00 +0300

Our land is poor, so it remains

This could be the credo of many an economist and policy maker in Finland. Government funds are needed to establish industry. Capital is scarce, and the little we have we can’t afford to give to the risky business of startups.

Perhaps we believe this nonsense, because it’s dug in our subconscious. The line is from the second – though rarely sung – verse of Finland’s national anthem.

Steve Blank is here to turn this belief upside down.

”Finns are good enough and smart enough. The government must just get out of the way”, he said when asked should foreign investments be persuaded into the country to build a startup cluster here.

No, he said. It’s the job of Finnish people and blue and white money. The problem is that the people who hold the keys to money and decisions invest in a very conservative way.

“Who was the gentleman who sat beside me in the panel this morning (debuty CEO Timo Ritakallio of pensions fund Ilmarinen). He has more money than god. He just ain’t givin’ you any of it!”, Mr Blank blasted in his speech at Sitra portfolio day on Wednesday.

Think of changing society!

The worth of Ilmarinen’s investments in 2010 was 29 billion euros.

Mr Ritakallio probably got the smacking of his life at Finnish Venture Capital Association Panel on Wednesday morning.

“Some part of your brain ought to be thinking how to change society!” said Mr Blank at Mr Ritakallio’s face after the panel where both gentlemen took part.

Mr Blank said he met with Aalto Startup Sauna companies on Tuesday and concluded all of them were ready to pitch in the Valley. In lightly disguised criticism on Finnish investors he said that he personally would invest in two of them before the Finnish VC’s realize the potential of the companies.

The most conservative investor

Mr Blank encouraged Mr Ritakallio to take a leading role in supporting the startup ecosystem in Finland. According to Mr Blank, such a move could be done and still give the population weary of their pension money the message that “we’re still the most conservative investor in the business”.

“Just the fact that you will do it will change the thinking in this room”, Mr Blank referred to an auditorium full of VC’s.

Mr Ritakallio did not turn down the idea of increasing the weight of high risk – high return investments in the Ilmarinen portfolio. “It’s quite possible”, he said. “What we need now is belief in the future and growth.”

He advocated asymmetric funds, where public and private money would be pooled in to finance startups. He referred to the way Finnish university financing was supported recently: private donations triggered a two-fold sum to the chosen university from the taxpayer.

Text: Taneli Heikka

The President’s Circle, Tuesday evening in Otaniemi.

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:58:24 +0300

The President’s Circle, Tuesday evening in Otaniemi.

Jungner of SDP promises to fight for tax cuts for business angels

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:28:00 +0300

Social Democrat party secretary, MP Mikael Jungner promises that tax incentives for business angels are not a lost cause. He says he’s personally committed to finding a solution for resurrecting the initiative that crashed during PM Matti Vanhanen’s Government in 2009.

“The reasons for not finding solution were in my opinion practical rather than political. I believe they can be solved”, Jungner said at Finnish Venture Capital Association Panel on Wednesday.

Jungner vowed that he and fellow panelist, MP Lasse Männistö of the Coalition party share the idea and are pushing it forward.

Jungner believes the future of Finland is worth building upon startups. They are agile operations best suitable for searching profitable business opportunities that bring jobs. And jobs and growth are what we need in the current economical gloom.

“Startups are a fast remedy. It is a change in mind set that can give returns worth of billions of euros in less than five years”, Jungner said.

Text: Taneli Heikka

How to build a magical startup cluster?

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:21:00 +0300

Welcome immigrants with baskets of flowers, says Steve

Immigration is a central element in making Finland the leading startup hub in Europe, says serial entrepreneur, professor Steve Blank.

”If I were you I’d be on the border with flower baskets to welcome entrepreneurs from Estonia, Russia and elsewhere in the Baltic area. Make entry for entrepreneurs to this country as easy as you can”, he said.

After three days in Finland Mr Blank is convinced that Helsinki has the right elements to “become the new Paris, Rome or Florence”. But he said politicians often miss the subtle difference between immigration in general and immigration for job creation. He opined that the US has done it’s post 9/11 entrepreneur immigration policy badly, but talent keeps pouring in because of the strong pull of the Silicon Valley.

“People are coming from the Nordics and the Baltic area to Helsinki. Those are the first signs of a cluster. Something magical is going on”, Blank said.

High growth startup companies created 50 000 new jobs in Finland in the last four years.

Entrepreneurs are queueing to Finland

So who’s coming, then? Jevgeni Peltola, a Russia expert for Aalto Entrepreneurship Society who works as a project manager at Pitney Bowes, said “everyone” in Russia wants to come to Finland to start a business.

“There are plenty of skilled teams from Russia, Baltics and Poland who would like to come to Finland and establish a company here. They are hard working and motivated and really give a benchmark that inspires the Finns too.””.

One of the reasons for the entrepreneurs leaving Russia is that it is fairly complicated to do an exit in Russia – to sell the company to global markets.

“There were 80 teams who wanted to come to Aaltoes programs but there were only two places. If we could somehow make it easier for foreigners to come here it would make a huge impact”, Jevgeni said.

Aaltoes goes Russia

Aaltoes will have one-day-events in five Russian cities as part of the Startup Sauna Warm Up -program.

“We will have for example a pitching competition where the winner teams can get a trip to Silicon Valley”, Jevgeni concludes.

Text: Taneli Heikka & Riku Siivonen

Photo: Lauri

In the time of destruction, create something

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0300

Tuula Teeri’s thoughts on entrepreneurship and innovation in a university context

President’s Circle, 6.9.2011

“Those who are waiting for the recession to end, so someone can again hand them work, could have a long wait”

“We are not going back to the good old days without fixing our schools as well as our banks”

Thomas Friedman

On Tuesday evening, Tuula Teeri, President of Aalto University hosted Steve Blank, Aalto supporters and stakeholders as well as Aalto startups to discuss the university’s role in entrepreneurship and innovation in the time of economic hardship.

In essence, we are faced with a few significant challenges

We’re undergoing a structural transition from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge-based, creative economy
Simultaneously, the population is decreasing with fewer young people entering the job market

In practical terms, this will require a new way of thinking about educating the new generations to stand on their own feet and problem-solve. Rethinking is needed across research, education and innovation to offer the tools and skills to tackle the future.

With a vision to become a hub for startups and technology, Tuula acknowledges that a strong grassroots culture is already in place but what is now needed is a world-class venturing program for ambitious students and researchers at Aalto to take on the challenge our society faces.

Text: Lotta / Photo: Lauri

It’s a celebration! Photo: Oskari

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:32:56 +0300

It’s a celebration!

Photo: Oskari

Wednesday Tweets Collection from FVCA Panel

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:11:26 +0300

Steve Blank certainly knows his customers: Day after day, the man produces clever, tweetable one-liners and tweet we do. Apart from @sgblank, today’s tweeters include the ever-so-viral Mikael Junger, Taneli Tikka reflecting on the “Finnish spring” and the media-critique @FinlandInc who raises caution on becoming over-enthusiastic and obsessed with emulating Silicon Valley.

PS. Interesting morning session today - stay tuned for a more in-depth recap!

1) National Jungercasting Company strikes again

2) The kids are alright, right?

3) Finnish VCs vs. Steve Blank: The race is on!

4) Make innovation ecosystems, not war?

5) Change begins with the community

CustDev for Finland: Bootstrap for a healthier life

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:19:49 +0300

Jussi Räisänen belongs to the new breed of Finnish entrepreneurs who don’t just get excited about technology at the cost of marketing and commerce. Having successfully sold his first startup Smartner (now part of SEVEN networks), 35-year-old Räisänen’s second venture HeiaHeia.com is already on a firm footing, although it was set up as recently as 2009.

HeiaHeia fits neatly into a category of businesses that simply did not exist a decade ago. It operates in the established area of health and well-being but delivers its service through the relatively new media of the Internet and mobile networks. “This opportunity has only emerged after social media and advanced online services were adopted by mainstream users,” says Mr Räisänen. Taking a firm grip on the trend, HeiaHeia’s B2C community is a social network in itself, and the company communicates with this audience regularly via a blog, as well as through Facebook and Twitter.

Customer Development

Mr Räisänen recalls seeing some of Steve Blank’s writing online around late 2009, but “I really looked into it in mid-2010. It struck me as a simple way to put some structure into the building of startups and especially into challenging themes like product management and early sales activities. I have first-hand experience of the topics that Steve’s concepts address, so it was easy to see the importance. Secondly, his model is easy to understand and applicable in many types of startups,” says Mr Räisänen.

Customer Development was a topic the young entrepreneur had heard about when launching his first startup in 1999. Several experienced executives advised the 20-somethings to go meet customers to understand what they need. “We did exactly that and built our first product versions based on these discussions. Steve’s model is perhaps the most crystallized way I’ve seen the topic addressed,” he adds.

Lesson from Steve Blank

Now at HeiaHeia the team began doing the same for the corporate wellness product. They identified companies that spoke publicly about their employee wellness initiatives, contacted them and asked of they’d like to try HeiaHeia’s product and give feedback in return. The response was very positive and the startup quickly signed four trial customers.

Meetings and calls with each customer helped identify key development areas, and the team assigned the most important common requests onto their product roadmap. Agreements were made with the trial customers to purchase the ready product at the end of the trial. “We’ve since converted all of our trial customers into paying customers – they really liked the product even in its trial form. We are constantly developing our product in the same way. From our perspective, to develop a highly usable product, it’s vital to understand how our product is being used inside a specific community, and there’s really no way to gain that insight without getting close to the customer,” confides Mr Räisänen.

The idea about getting out and meeting real customers to understand what to focus upon, is according to Mr Räisänen, Steve Blank’s strongest message.

What’s different?

Self-initiated, pre-emptive health management is a growing segment and as Mr Räisänen and his co-founders discovered, not such a difficult nut to crack with the right approach. From the end user’s perspective, compared to many other online health services, HeiaHeia has created a casual user experience that appeals to different types of people, regardless of their activity profile, age, or gender. Many health sites take health very seriously and are almost scientific in their approach – a deterrent for the average internet user. Mr Räisänen says that HeiaHeia’s principle is to make the service fun and let people decide how seriously they take sport, fitness, health etc.

In its short life so far, the company already offers very extensive community features that tap into several revenue streams over time, enabling not just B2C and advertising business models but also B2B.

Going international

HeiaHeia’s concept addresses a global challenge (physical inactivity) and therefore, its plans are international. Commercial discussions are underway on all other continents except the Antarctic. The company already has users from 140+ countries. And although revenues have so far come from Europe, that is expected to change within the next few months.

The main challenge for a startup like HeiaHeia is building a sustainable, category-leading business. Mr Räisänen believes they are on the right track and adds, “I can see plenty of room for growth, and at least for the time being I don’t see a ceiling that we could not surpass in terms of growth. We have a clear revenue target and profitability target for the next years, which are not public. Additionally, we have certain international targets for specific numbers of customers. At the moment, it looks like we will be exceeding our revenue target for this year.”

Large or small?

It is this optimism that has sent the imagination of industry watchers soaring. While some predict doom for large corporations in the coming years, Mr Räisänen believes that in Finland at least, it’s not a zero sum game. “Hopefully we will have very strong large corporations in the future as well. But startups will need to have an increasingly prominent role in our economy if we want to ensure Finland remains the advanced economy it is today,” he stresses.

About the Aalto University students´ dream to make Finland Europe’s startup hub by 2030, this is what Mr Räisänen has to say: “It’s a great vision to pursue. The students must keep their freedom to do things their way to pursue the vision to the best of their ability. AaltoES has already done more to making startups known than many government organizations in dozens of years combined. And with a lot less money.”

Government push needed

He also stresses that the Finnish government should focus on making the environment startup-friendly by removing needless bureaucracy. “If we do have a public funding system, let’s simplify the early-stage funding processes even further. Our government should also actively look for ways to fuel the startup ecosystem by making the purchase of startup products / services easier – the current level of bureaucracy in public purchases makes it impossible for many startups to work with the government. This would be a healthier way to help startups grow their business than just giving grants,” says Mr Räisänen.

Although he believes that startups and an entrepreneurial mindset are vital, especially for a small nation like Finland, he emphasizes that even those who never join or launch a startup will have to be more entrepreneurial and accept more uncertainty in their professional lives than before. Startups ideally employ a significant amount of the population and bring the direct economic benefits, but they also encourage a healthy, entrepreneurial mindset across the economy. And with startups like HeiaHeia pushing physical health as well, there’s no room for gloom!

Text: Kalpana Shah

Bankers vs Gamblers, featuring Lasse Männistö, Mikael Junger,...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:14:10 +0300

Bankers vs Gamblers, featuring Lasse Männistö, Mikael Junger, Vesa Wallden, Timo Ritakallio and Steve Blank. Wednesday Morning FVCA Gathering.

Photo: Kristo