Mitä sinä odotat työuralta? Entä eläkkeeltä?

Tutkimme työeläkeyhtiö Elossa viime kesän lopulla nuorten ajatuksia työelämästä, omasta urasta ja eläkkeistä. Saimme vastauksia 245 nuorelta, joista suurin osa vielä opiskeli, mutta osa oli jo työelämässä.

Hyvä ilmapiiri, joustavuus ja jatkuva oppiminen tärkeitä

Nuorten selkeä työelämän ykköstoive oli viihtyisä työpaikka: kolme neljäsosaa vastaajista listasi hyvän työilmapiirin tärkeimpien työelämäodotustensa joukkoon. Vastauksissa näkyi myös nuorten halu päättää omista työtavoistaan ja -ajoistaan. Joustavat työkäytännöt olivat työelämäodotusten kärkipäässä yli kolmasosalla vastaajista.

Positiivinen suhtautuminen uuden oppimiseen näkyi myös kysyttäessä uudelleenkouluttautumisesta: 69 prosenttia vastaajista olisi valmis opiskelemaan uuden ammatin uransa aikana. Onkin menneen maailman ajatus, että peruskoulun jälkeen päädytään suorittamaan tutkinto, joka tarjoaa eväät koko tulevalle työuralle. Työelämä elää historiansa suurinta murrosta ja sen myötä yksilön ja yrityksen osaamistarpeet muuttuvat jatkuvasti. Nuorten valmius uuden ammatin opiskeluun on hieno osoitus siitä, että he ymmärtävät jatkuvan oppimisen merkityksen nykyajan työelämässä.

Puolet vastaajista toivoi työllistyvänsä palkansaajana keskisuuressa organisaatiossa. Suuressa organisaatiossa itsensä näki 18 prosenttia vastaajista ja kolmanneksi nousi yrittäjänä toimiminen 16 prosentin osuudella. Yhdessä freelancerina toimimisen kanssa itsensä työllistäminen oli siis toiseksi suosituin työllistymistapa.

Tämä on oikeastaan luonteva seuraus työelämäodotuksista. Yrittäjänä voi pitkälti itse vaikuttaa työilmapiiriin, työtapoihin ja työaikoihin. Yrittäjänä myös uuden oppiminen on oman markkina-arvon kannalta ensiarvoisen tärkeää.

Mitä työuran jälkeen?

Nuoret olivat hyvin sisäistäneet ajatuksen siitä, että eläkeikä tulee odotetun eliniän myötä nousemaan. Vastaajista löytyi myös niitä, jotka haaveilivat jättävänsä työelämän ennen virallista eläkeikää kertyneen varallisuuden turvin. Kuitenkin vain 10 prosenttia vastanneista ilmoitti tietävänsä hyvin, miten tuleva eläke muodostuu ja 60 prosenttia koki, että nuorille ei ole tarjolla tarpeeksi tietoa eläkkeistä.

Nuorten uskoa oman eläkkeen riittävyyteen leimaa epävarmuus ja epätietoisuus. 54 prosenttia vastaajista ei luota eläkkeen tarjoavan riittävää toimeentuloa eläkeiässä ja 30 prosenttia ei osaa sanoa, mitä mieltä he ovat asiasta. Vastauksista kävi myös ilmi, että moni nuori uskoo eläkejärjestelmän muuttuvan vielä huomattavasti ennen omaa eläköitymistä.

Vastaukset kertovat selkeästi, että tietoa ja tuntemusta ei ole, ja tämä heijastuu epävarmuutena. Koko työeläkealalle tämä on haaste. Suomalainen työeläkejärjestelmä on arvioitu maailman kolmanneksi parhaaksi. Alhainen syntyvyys ja mahdolliset matalat sijoitustuotot haastavat eläkejärjestelmää, mutta se on osoittanut kehittymis- ja joustamiskykynsä useasti. Huolta ei siis tarvitse kantaa, mutta on äärimmäisen tärkeää, että nuoret ymmärtävät, miten oma eläke muodostuu ja mitkä tekijät siihen vaikuttavat, onpa työntekijänä tai yrittäjänä.

Työeläkealan konkarina vinkkaan, että kannattaa käyttää aikaa sen pohtimiseen, mitä työuraltaan oikeasti haluaa. Mitä palkitsevampi työ, sitä pidempään sitä haluaa ja jaksaa tehdä. Ja mitä enemmän työtä, sitä enemmän työeläkettä. Eli todellinen win-win-tilanne kaikin puolin.

Joni Tikkanen

Kirjoittaja toimii työeläkeyhtiö Elossa markkinointijohtajana ja näkee yrittäjyyden olevan välttämättömyys Suomen kansantaloudelle.

Elo: Anna ajatus työuralle ja eläkkeelle was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Kiuas Start — From 0 to 1 in 3 weeks

The three weeks of the Kiuas Start pre-accelerator program are now behind us. We sat down with some of our teams to talk about their experience and the learnings they are taking home after the program.

During these three weeks we have witnessed Founders Talks from successful startup founders — Risto Siilasmaa (founder of F-Secure), Albert Nazander (co-founder of Meru Health) and Maria Ritola (co-founder of Iris.ai); workshops held by industry experts, such as the MVP workshop by Mikko Honkanen (co-founder of Vainu.io); and numerous one-on-one mentoring sessions with a wide range of professionals from various different fields of expertise.

Why Kiuas Start?

NIC (nicsdk.com) found out about Kiuas Start in the pre-event of the Dash design hackathon (dash.design).

“One of the things that attracted us was that the program was especially for students and working people, so it meant that we could work on our project after our day-jobs. Another thing, probably the most important one, was that we already had a product that was really promising and unique that we really wanted work on, but we didn’t exactly know which direction to go with it”, team NIC’s Katja Dianoff tells us.

Sideflow’s (sideflow.fi) story is quite similar to that of NIC’s: they needed some support and feedback about their approach to decide on their MVP solution. Bikefy (bikefy.eu) already had some experience from Kiuas before applying for Kiuas Start — right before the program started, they participated Kiuas Bootcamp, an idea validation weekend, where they realized how valuable the one-on-one mentoring sessions were:

“I participated in Kiuas Bootcamp and got great mentoring, so this seemed like the best chance to get even more feedback and insights. And I was hoping to find like-minded people to spar with”, Bikefy’s founder Norbert Schmidt explains.

Kicking off the program

When the program started, NIC had an Android SDK, server processor, a website with minimum information and an example app (Uber without Internet).

“Initially we thought of making an additional app that uses NIC SDK and has offline transactions. At the end of the first week, we already had a better picture on what we should focus on doing — instead of concentrating on examples, we should concentrate on our service and make ourselves more approachable. During the 3 weeks we already got inquiries from potential clients about NIC. Therefore, making our service, pricing and contract more clear became a real issue to work on”, Katja explains.

Bikefy’s starting point was an ongoing trial for their electric folding bike subscription model:

“In the beginning of the program, I was in the middle of a trial with three companies in Aviapolis, Vantaa, testing out the service with business customers. Now I’m at the end of the trial, but with a lot more guidance of how I could possibly turn this into a business. I still lack co-founders and money, but I believe with the feedback I got, I’m a lot closer to getting there”, Norbert says.

“During the 3 weeks we already got inquiries from potential clients about NIC.”

Key takeaways

The most beneficial part of the program for NIC were the mentors and peers who knew to ask the right questions:

“Talking about our product to our peers and mentors has actually made NIC more clear to us, since they asked us questions that we couldn’t have been able to answer before. Why are we doing this? Who are we selling to? How are we selling?”

Bikefy agrees with NIC: “The one-on-one mentoring was incredibly valuable. Additionally, the exchange with the other teams was really great and the weekly meetings helped quite a bit with that.”

Sideflow emphasizes the importance of spending time with like-minded people:

“The program gave us what we came for — the most valuable part has been sharing and reflecting our ideas with other people; the amazing set of mentors as well as other startups. The program had a great spirit with talented, enthusiastic people supporting each other for the best outcome.”

“The program had a great spirit with talented, enthusiastic people supporting each other for the best outcome.”

Click here to learn more about the batch and here to find out why exactly we set out to create a program like Kiuas Start!

Kiuas Start — From 0 to 1 in 3 weeks was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nordic Roadshow // Denmark, the last Nordic Roadshow event of the year, will take place next week in Denmark. We have chosen 9 high-growth startups — 3 from Finland, 3 from Sweden and 3 from Denmark — to participate the event and meet with some of the leading VC investors around Northern Europe. We wanted to give you the opportunity to be the first to meet the companies!

Panion

Panion is a keyword-searchable app that helps newcomers rebuild their social circles by connecting them to those who share their interests, goals, values, and experiences. Our subscription service provides universities and companies a platform to help integrate new students and employees by making their internal networks entirely keyword-searchable and by offering the ability to create interest-based social groups and events.

Panion is committed to combating loneliness on campus, at the workplace, and for those who have relocated to new places.

Visit their website here!

PriceTap

With PriceTap, shoppers scan price tag barcodes (e.g. on a dress) with their smartphones for hidden or future discounts. Using the platform, retailers manage offers “discreetly” via these personal connections. Shoppers receive offers on the specific items (colour, size) they have scanned.

This direct channel opens up a dynamic way for retailers to manage sales; drastically reducing the need for visible sales, unprofitable deep discounting and overstock. It provides a fundamentally more efficient and granular way to control turnover and sell-through — particularly in sectors like fashion where it is not possible to have “visible” dynamic pricing. Price-sensitive shoppers acquire items in a more timely way, and the pleasure of brick-and-mortar shopping is improved via effortless wishlist creation and mobile reservation options.

Visit their website here!

VitalSignum

VitalSignum’s Beat2Phone is a reliable, easy-to-use, discrete, medical approved and comfortably placed on chest ECG sensor and app connected to AI-cloud computation and doctor/nurse web portal for screening heart problems in healthcare. The service is sold to healthcare organizations in both public and private primary care.

Visit their website here!

ApParkingspot

Combining AI & automation, ApParkingspot provides a seamless parking sharing/renting experience via digital platform to commuters which is more ‘cost-effective, equitable & sustainable. This can be termed as Airbnb for parking with digitization.

They aim to maximize the potential of underutilized parking spaces by sharing. Easy accessibility of parking will save time and fuel for the car users thus reducing congestion and emission respectively.

Visit their website here!

GigsGuide

Gigs Guide offers a complete platform that enables smart travel brands to use live events to engage travellers, boost brand loyalty and generate more revenue. Travel brands can integrate our API in their sales funnels and apps and offer their guests personalized event recommendations that help them enhance their travel experience and inspire them to travel to new destinations.

Visit their website here!

Reactored

Our vision is to bring personalized high-quality language education available for everyone. Reactored is developed by an ambitious team of Finnish specialists ranging from cognitive science enthusiasts to foreign language teachers.

The goal is simple and yet challenging: equal opportunities for all to learn any language wherever you are regardless of your learning style. This goal is based on the belief that there are no hopeless language learners, there are only different language learners. With our unique methods and shared material that is connected to the school’s curriculum, we can fix these issues. We are the missing link between schools, homes, and self-learners.

Visit their website here!

Waste-Outlet

Waste-Outlet.com (WO) is a disruptive trading platform that simplifies the trade of recyclable waste and improves the business models of sellers and buyers of recyclable waste in a future circular economy.

The world dumps 2.12 billion tons of waste every year. The World Bank has estimated that we are on pace to triple waste by 2100. WO platform introduces a new way of dealing with waste in a world where waste end-destinations and correct waste management capabilities are increasingly important. Traditionally, waste trade is done by phone and email in small, closed trade networks. WO makes it easy and less time-consuming for municipalities, utility companies and large production companies to find each other, both locally and globally. WO brings more transparency to the waste trading market.

Visit their website here!

Human Hotel

Human Hotel is a purpose-driven travel community that connects you to your specific local scene — and the people you should meet in it — when visiting a new city. They match together visitors, residents and local events based on shared purposes and align the personal values of guests and hosts during home-sharing.

Visit their website here!

ArchitectureQuote

ArchitectureQuote helps architecture companies discover new opportunities and help them to manage proposals via one simple platform.

Visit their website here!

The batch of Nordic Roadshow // Denmark is here! was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Introducing the Kiuas Start batch of 2018!

The Kiuas Start program is built for passionate people who want to turn their projects into something more — you can read more about the idea behind the pre-accelerator program from our previous blog post.

The application period for the first round of Kiuas Start ever ended 30 September. In total, Kiuas Start received 73 applications. 36 teams were invited to interviews, and from those teams, 20 were selected for the program. This blog posts introduces our batch of awesome early-stage startups that will be joining the program for 3 intensive weeks of mentoring, workshops, Founders Talks and peer-to-peer sessions, starting 27 October.

Articoola

Articoola is an interactive museum guide solution that changes the way how visitors experience museums. In our app using VR famous painters explain in a supportive way to a client with depression what helped them to create the masterpieces. How they struggled and coped with problems during hard times. Get new resources by self-discovery with Articoola. Broaden personal horizons and join never-ending artistic exploration!

Avains

Avains is building a platform for creating augmented reality work instructions and training material for industrial use cases. The user-friendly AR instructions created on the platform help service personnel to reduce errors, increase safety and maintain high service quality.

Beyond Logistic

Beyond Logistic is embarking on the challenge of disrupting logistics’ sector by allowing every single individual with a smart phone and a transportation vehicle to become a courier.

Bikefy

Bikefy is a monthly electric folding bikes subscription. By providing electric folding bikes as a service we augment public transport and solve the last mile issue in commuting. The monthly fee includes the bike, a lock as well as all service and maintenance.

Breezly

Breezly plans to be the number one community marketplace for high-end bicycles rental between bike owners, bikeshops and leisure riders, tourists and anyone interested in spending their precious free time on two wheels. Our mission is to make high-end bicycles accessible for everyone and expand the perception of cycling from a mere transport mode to a healthy, enjoyable and social activity.

Bulletin.ai

Bulletin.ai is a tool for journalists and news media companies to automatically find newsworthy content from bulletins and press releases.

Language Lab

Language Lab is building an app that seeks to make language learning both easier and faster through prioritization, advanced learning techniques and design.

Mediagavel

Mediagavel is the IMDb for news publishers and articles. The place where you start your news reading journey.

MentorMatch

MentorMatch is a mentoring programme management platform that automatically helps you to match mentors and people / entities that seek mentoring.

MTBreitti

MTBreitti makes training indoors more motivating and fun with their VR mountain biking platform. Now you can ride real mountain biking competitions and the best trails without leaving the gym (spinning) or home (bike trainer). You only need a smart device and an internet connection!

mysure

mysure is offering personalised insurance solutions connected to online sold products or services.

NIC — No Internet Connection

NIC SDK allows mobile apps to exchange data without internet connection. It is a tool for Android developers and works via SMS under the hood, however, the user does not have to type or read any text as our SDK handles everything and allows the user to use just the app they use when they have internet connection.

Pocket Relo

Pocket Relo is a personal relocation consultant in your mobile device. Pocket Relo guides the user in coming to Finland from immigration to finding housing, and other practical matters. Pocket Relo will answer even the questions you didn’t think to ask 24/7 at your convenience.

Point-Particle

Point-Particle creates interactive experiences using digital holograms.

Rooted

Rooted is bringing greater transparency, traceability, and efficiency to supply chains in the food industry. We are combining years of experience and cutting edge technology to satisfy customers and improve your bottom line.

Sideflow

Sideflow is advancing circular economy within textile and fashion industry. We are creating a service that retrieves cutting waste in textile production and channels it to new productions. It is a practical CR tool that reduces waste and creates value.

Skillgrower

Skillgrower is the most advanced online self-learn solution for math & science. Skillgrower uses algorithms and gamification to ensure high motivation and efficiency while tailoring a personal studying experience for everyone.

Snäck

Reinveting the way dogs eat. Snäck aims to reshape the ingredients, manufacturing process, packaging, and overall experience of nurturing your dog with a bold Nordic attitude. Less waste, less hassle, pure love.

Vakaamo

If you have a camera you don’t use, give it to Vakaamo and we will rent it to people who need it and give you money without extra effort.

VALO

VALO creates innovative lighting solutions for photography and video productions.

We’re excited to finally kick off the program in a week from now!

Follow us on social media to stay updated about the progress of the teams: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin

20 teams, 3 intensive weeks was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nordic Roadshow // Sweden, the second Nordic Roadshow in our three-event series, will take place tomorrow in KTH University, Stockholm. Like the first event in Finland, this Nordic Roadshow will gather together 9 high-growth startups — 3 from Finland, 3 from Sweden and 3 from Denmark — with a dozen leading VC investors around Northern Europe. We wanted to give you the opportunity to be the first to meet the companies!

Mesensei

Mesensei offers a B2B Platform, which cuts the cost of building GDPR compliant private social networks with elegant mobile UX from 120–200.000€ to 3500€. Their solution is to find traction in the startup industry among accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces and with startups building their MVP solutions.

Mesensei has already successfully established pilot project beachheads in Michigan, Cambridge, Madrid and Singapore. Currently, after an intensive summer in Kiuas Accelerator program, they are boosting their marketing, advertising and sales efforts internationally.

Visit their website here!

imagiCase

imagiCase is a company that is creating a tool for creative and tangible programming education, designed together with and focusing on girls’ needs. Their first product is a phone case with embedded LEDs that can be programmed to display any text, design and color through programming with their mobile app.

imagiCase has already launched their MVP and acquired their first paying customers. Currently, they are running paid pilots and recurring user tests to prepare for product launch next year.

Visit their website here!

PackitUp

PackitUp is a social networking app for travellers all around the world. In the app, you can find travel buddies and like-minded people on a map-based interface for short trips, just to meet up and hang out, or for long road trips across continents. The users can browse the map with the trips created by others or create their own trips. The app is already live on iPhone and Android and includes detailed trip descriptions, user profiles and a messenger.

Currently, they are developing their product even further and preparing for scaling up their business and user base.

Visit their website here!

Mapple

Mapple provides location intelligence service for cities and real estate companies to help them use data to make smarter and faster strategic decisions. They participated Kiuas Accelerator program during the summer and already have a few paying customers, as well as several pending projects with new customer leads.

Currently, they are focusing on testing their solution with paying customers to understand the needs of the industry even better and build the features needed to license out their platform.

Visit their website here and check out their demo here!

Labtrino

Labtrino develops a smart water meter system for residential properties that decimate costs for installation and maintenance with ultrasonic technologies, and uses machine learning to offer individually tailored and pedagogical feedback on hot and cold-water consumption in real-time, to lower it efficiently.

Currently, the company is functioning their meters in lab/testbed environments and finishing their software. The first two orders for their solution are coming later this fall.

Visit their website here!

Insight Academia

Insight Academia is a search engine for academia that is able to visualize the search outcomes as a network of connected entities. Based on the user’s query, they visualize researchers and articles highlighting what’s relevant for the user. Insight Academia helps anyone to find relevant knowledge (academic articles) in just two clicks, keeping the user’s data in one place. Ultimately, the goal is to turn the search engine into an academic social network.

Currently, they have the first prototype of their product ready and are developing their MVP.

Visit their website here!

Dealsign

Dealsign is an easy-to-use online negotiation and contracting service in the cloud. It is a subscription-based (SaaS) legal tech solution for companies negotiating, signing and managing increasing volumes of B2B contracts.

Dealsign already has their product softlaunched and first customers acquired; also, they have two patents filed. Currently, they are focusing on customer validation and product development based on that. In addition, they focus on sales and acquiring more pilot customers.

Visit their website here!

Kreditz

Kreditz is a real-time “credit score” that works internationally. The score is calculated based on income-, spending- and savings patterns from the past 12 months. Consumers are free to share their scores, or request someone else’s, at anytime to verify identity, score or ability to pay without revealing any sensitive details. Kreditz can also be used by financial institutions and other businesses for lending-, subscription- and pre-purchase purposes.

Kreditz already has launched their beta version mobile app in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway and are about to launch their release version mobile app in Sweden this fall.

Visit their website here!

Strongyou

Strongyou is providing digital workout programs for athletes based on their injury limitations. The goal is to keep athletes in shape when injured. This means that athletes don’t need to spend months on regaining their muscle mass, strength, and flexibility which they lose if they rest.

They have already signed up partnerships with Danish soccer and handball teams to run the second round of MVP testing. Based on the feedback, the product should be finalized for sales during the fall.

Visit their website here!

Do you think that your company should be on this list, too? Now’s your chance: the application period for the third Nordic Roadshow is already open!

The event will be organised in DTU University, Copenhagen, on 8 November, so remember to apply from here before 14 October!

The batch of Nordic Roadshow // Sweden is here! was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We created Kiuas about 18 months ago. In our opinion, there were a few problems that needed to be tackled to help our society, Aaltoes, to move closer to its mission: to make Finland the epicenter of entrepreneurship. The problems were the following:

• Not enough people in Finland start to build companies.
• No matter what your field is, inspiration is everywhere but too few actually start doing real things
• There isn’t anyone who could help young entrepreneurs 24/7/365.

We created Kiuas Team Up, Kiuas Incubator and Kiuas Accelerator to fulfill those gaps. The whole Kiuas program was all about helping young people to start their ventures; to actually start doing the things they are passionate about.

Yet, we felt that something was missing. With some new team members on board, we decided to sit down and have an honest discussion: what do we really want to do and why? We came up with a conclusion that became our mission and what we stand for:

We want to make Finland the country with the most self-sustaining starts per capita in the world.

Why does this matter?

Indeed, why is this such a big deal for us? The reason is simple: because we believe that building your own business is the best way for you to learn, and only by constantly maximizing your learning will you someday be ready to build something big. We want to see the next Google or Facebook coming out of Finland, and by building a culture of serial entrepreneurship — not just talking but actually building new things — we can do our best to make that happen.

To fulfill our mission, we had to make some changes to the programs we are offering. Even though our first year had been successful, we had to carefully consider if we were on the right path to create more serial entrepreneurs to Finland. The metrics are actually rather simple and easy to read: How many startups (and I mean startups with scalable business models, not every company out there) are founded every year? How many students are founding their own companies every year? And last but definitely not least: how many young people have business ideas or are already building their own projects but, still, have not established a startup? We know that still today the answer to the last question is “too many” and that needs to change.

Kiuas Start — Turn your project into a valuable business

To change the situation, we created Kiuas Start. We know that we in Kiuas are in the best place to help young and ambitious people turn their ideas into projects and, eventually, turn their projects into high-growth startups. We have the connections to the best mentors and industry experts out there; we know all the leading investors who can give you the most valuable feedback and, perhaps, in some point also their money; we know how to create a community that supports, challenges and helps its members constantly.

So, if you do have a business idea or a project you’ve been working on, this is to you: with Kiuas Start, we want to help you to create a business out of your passion. All you have to do is discover the problem you want to fix, and start building a solution; we will help you with all the rest.

What Kiuas Start can offer you:

• Concrete tools to turn your project into a high-demand product
• Advice to build an actual company around the product
• Feedback from the leading mentors and serial entrepreneurs of Finland
• Valuable learnings from workshops that are held by the best industry experts
• The most valuable support from your peers that see the world in the same way as you do and, therefore, can help and challenge you when you need it the most

If you have ever wondered whether your idea or project would actually become something, this is your time to try it out. After Kiuas Start you will know how to turn your passion into a company.

The application period for the program is already open, so remember to apply here before 30 September. For more information, check out Kiuas’ website or send us a message.

Kiuas Start — Build valuable business from the things you love was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At the beginning of August, actors offering business services in Espoo took a step closer to the customer when Business Espoo started its operations in A Grid at Otakaari 5. Business Espoo is (at the time of writing this) a network of seven organisations that serves experts, businesses, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs in shared facilities in the middle of the Aalto campus.

Participants of Business Espoo include:

City of Espoo Economic and Urban Development Unit, which is responsible for economic policy, employment, international matters, immigration, city marketing and events

Espoo Marketing, which develops the Espoo Innovation Garden ecosystem and and is responsible for the city’s visit and hospitality services

Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce, whose Espoo unit coordinates, in addition to the chamber of commerce’s normal services, the Entrypoint mentoring programme that is about to be started between international experts and businesses in Espoo

EnterpriseEspoo, which provides free(!)counselling and sparring services to existing businesses and people who would like to start a business

Espoon Yrittäjät ry, which improves the preconditions for profitable operation of businesses and entrepreneurs in Espoo in collaboration with the city

TE office, which connects experts and businesses and provides counselling to new and existing businesses

Omnia, which provides services in, for example, recruiting, management training, work counselling and skills development.

The aim of the collaboration is, of course, to achieve shared learning, more effective operation and more cost effectiveness by sharing resources, but everything centres around the aim to better serve you, current and future entrepreneurs and experts. We collaborate with Junction, DASH and the Aalto University Designing for Services course to achieve as clear understanding as possible of what kind of services you need and how they should be provided. Initially, the plan includes the one-stop service principle, shared communication channels and the collected service offering online.

We definitely need your opinions in order to make Otaniemi and the Aalto campus the best place in the world to do business, so you are welcome to have a chat anytime!

Harri Paananen
Head of Economic Development
City of Espoo

Business Espoo — Business services at your disposal in the heart of the Aalto campus was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Kiuas Accelerator is a 10-week intensive program designed to take early-stage startups to the next level.

In 2018, Kiuas Accelerator (prev. Summer of Startups) is organized for the 9th year in a row, supporting teams in various areas of their businesses. Read more about the program here.

The 10-week Kiuas Accelerator is now finished and it’s time to reflect on some of the highlights from the second half of the program as well as the feedback we received from this year’s participants. Read the first part of the series here.

After facilitating various hands-on workshops on e.g. validation, product development, customers and sales during the first weeks of the program to get the basics covered, we started to implement more team-specific coaching for increasingly customized support. This slight shift in the approach resulted in progress at an even faster pace than before.

Demo Day

A traditional final event at Startup Sauna wasn’t the case this year, as we decided to take Demo Day to Helsinki and the biggest movie theatre in Finland, Scape at Tennispalatsi.

600+ people including entrepreneurs, investors, media and other professionals were gathered to witness the results of the program on August 31st.

Summary

During the past week, we’ve been collecting a bunch of feedback and data from the participants to help future organizers build better programs in the upcoming years.

What our startups especially liked about Kiuas Accelerator this year:

Founders Talks
For each Monday morning, we invited seasoned entrepreneurs to share their uncensored stories and learnings with the startups. Speakers included for example Kristo Ovaska, Maija Itkonen and Ilkka Paananen.

“Excellent speakers. I think these were the most valuable part of the program”

Weeklies
Getting all the teams under one roof at the start of each week to present the learnings from the previous week, as well as announce goals for the next one.

1-on-1s
Mentoring sessions on various topics with entrepreneurs, investors and industry professionals. We ended up facilitating over 7000 minutes of these throughout the program.

“Definitely the best bang for buck in terms for time invested and things learned”

Some of the highlights from the feedback:

“I’ve gone through three accelerator programs, and Kiuas was by far the best organized, toughest and most rewarding”

“Expectations were met and over-exceeded”

“The best ever community a founder can have”

“I’m absolutely astonished that you were able to deliver all of this during the summer”

“When they say “From idea to first revenue”, it is not just a marketing slogan. They really mean it”

“We really felt that you guys were backing us every step on the way”

“Wish there were more accelerators like this”

Seems like something was done right, as our participants also gave the program an average rating of 9,73 on a scale of 1 to 10. Of course, constructive feedback was received as well, and that will be used to make Kiuas Accelerator 2019 even better - the best one yet.

Last of all, we would like to give a huge thank you to all of our partners, coaches and everyone who has been supporting us and the startups during the summer.
A special mention belongs to Espoo Innovation Garden, without whom the program wouldn’t have reached the level it did this year.

Kiuas Accelerator | Part 2/2 — Demo Day & Wrap-Up was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An interview with Nea, CEO of NOMI.

Solving a problem you run into in your own life is a very common way to become a founder. Just like the founders of YFD, who Tiina interviewed in our last Kiuas Startups blog, ran into a problem in the design field, Nea, the founder of NOMI, noticed an issue in her daily life and began to fantasize about solving it.

The next question is how — what happens after you get a business idea? We set out to ask Nea some questions about what her entrepreneurial journey has been like so far, and how Kiuas has been able to help out her company.

When you came up with the idea that led into founding NOMI, what was the problem you wanted to solve?

I first came up with the idea in 2016 after one long night of trying to look for a dress online. I felt that online shopping platforms were looking at personalization from the wrong angle. Filtering the product feed with colors and budget simply did not tell enough about the products displayed.

Each and every online shopper has their own style, so it felt crazy that we all have to shop from the same selection. So, as it usually does, the idea for the solution came from a personal problem. I felt that online shopping should be fundamentally personalized.

This is your first company. How easy was it to take the first steps, or was it easy at all?

As we had thought about this idea for almost a couple of years, we had very much fallen in love with it before we actually started working on it.

The scariest part of starting was that there is a chance that things won’t work as we imagined or that people wouldn’t see the value we saw in the idea. We just had to realize that as long as you don’t actually bring your idea to life, it’s easy to just keep fantasizing. But to actually create something amazing you have to get up and try.

We took our first scary steps by entering the Tampere Techstars startup weekend last spring to see if our idea had any potential. Getting over the fear of starting was really worth it, as we won the competition and met a few people from the Kiuas team, who encouraged us to apply for Kiuas Bootcamp which really gave us the boost we needed to get hustling.

How did attending Kiuas Bootcamp last spring help you and what were your personal learnings from the weekend?

Kiuas Bootcamp was really a turning point for us. Before that, we had simply been planning and brainstorming with our own team. After Kiuas Bootcamp we had the first concrete tools and contacts to start working on our idea.

The whole startup scene was a completely new universe to all of us, and I think for us the biggest personal finding was learning that there is this whole world out there — an ecosystem full of people who are as excited as you about creating new things, and who are happy to help and support each other. That really encouraged us to go on as we felt that we were no longer alone if we would ever need help.

“I think for us the biggest personal finding was learning that there is this whole world out there — an ecosystem full of people who are as excited as you about creating new things, and who are happy to help and support each other.”

Founding a company, especially if it’s your first one, can be challenging and even a bit scary. That’s why Kiuas exists — to help you take the first step, and then the next. Our next event, Kiuas Bootcamp, will take place in Startup Sauna 22–23 September 2018, and the applications are open until the end of Friday 7 September.

Interested in founding a company? Apply for Kiuas Bootcamp now and check out our website.

Kiuas Startups — Turning Your Passion Into a Business was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Maybe you saw an opportunity, came up with an idea and already started to build something with your friends?

A common problem experienced by many starting entrepreneurs is struggling to find the support needed to bring an idea into reality. What to do next? How to validate the idea? How to find a team, mentors, and customers? After coming up with an idea, the process of starting can feel pretty overwhelming and many could benefit from asking help and getting guidance from experienced professionals. For that purpose we have Kiuas Bootcamp, an idea validation weekend that is here to kick-start your project.

To help you to make up your mind and apply for this fun, educational and inspiring weekend, we put together this four-point list of reasons why you should not hesitate to apply!

1. Validate your idea with professionals.

To be able to validate an idea, it is important to get feedback also from others than just your friends. Brutally honest yet constructive one-on-one feedback sessions with expert coaches will help you to avoid the “idea lock”, a situation where you believe so deeply in your idea that you become blind to all the conflicting messages. If you are the only person who thinks that your idea is good, you might want to reassess. On the other hand, an encouraging assessment from a person of high expertise can provide the needed boost for your confidence.

2. Build up the skills you will need as a new entrepreneur.

As an entrepreneur, you will be facing tons of new challenges outside of your expertise and comfort zone. At Kiuas Bootcamp, you will be learning about market analysis, sales, project management, visibility and idea validation from industry professionals. Getting a good grip of these topics will help you to successfully start taking your project to the next level.

3. Connect with people with killer ideas.

An enthusiastic group of entrepreneurs engenders an abundance of opportunities! Prospects like joint ventures, client leads, partnerships, speaking and writing opportunities, business or asset sales — the list is exhaustive, and the opportunities are endless. This is your chance to be noticed!

4. Become an entrepreneur.

It can be either the happiness of not having to wear a suit or getting to work with your passion, the joy in entrepreneurship comes from different things for different people. In general, it can be the freedom of building something of your own and experiencing the pros and cons of having the complete responsibility for what you are building.

Kiuas Bootcamp is a weekend-long event at Startup Sauna in Espoo on 1–2 December 2018. It consists of workshops led by industry experts, feedback and coaching sessions with the Kiuas coach pool, and networking with people facing the same journey.

Sounds pretty good, right? If this sparked your interest, apply here by 18 November 2018 or read more about the event here.

4 reasons to apply to Kiuas Bootcamp was originally published in Kiuas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.