Startup Foundation | Icebreaker

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Startup Foundation | Icebreaker

Startup Foundation

Startup Foundation

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11 members

Contact info

Link

startup-saatio.fi

Members

Krista Kauppinen

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Passionate and curious product marketer. My mission is making it easier to buy great B2B software products. I love getting into it: What are the key customer problems were solving for? How does this product work?How do we distinguish it from competitors? How do we make sure everyone knows about it? Product marketing is a connector function, and I enjoy and have experience working on all aspects of it. Market research, to-to-market strategies, feature launches, messaging & positioning, sales enablement, copywriting & content creation, project management, and collaboration across teams. I grew up partly in sunny California - which gave me an international outlook and strong English skills. I enjoy traveling and meeting new people. I'm also passionate about startups and tech in general. Back in 2008, I was one of the cofounders of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society and have been active in the Nordic startup community ever since.

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GP at Icebreaker.vc (we invest from the idea stage)

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I had the coolest Pokemon card collection in elementary school, I still take pride in that. There’s not another place like the school yard where fierce negotiation takes place on a daily basis and someone can hustle their way from just a few basic cards to a collection of rare shiny collectibles. When it was time to grow up, I transitioned: Pokemon cards turned into sports cards, those became hyped up sneakers and suddenly I was buying, selling, trading and renting schoolbooks and secondhand fashion. After running an online store for a while alongside my studies, I decided to look into more scalable things. My profile is somewhat outdated but lately, I’ve been trying hard to ignite the renaissance of the Finnish startup scene. If you have anything high-flying on your mind, send me a short note and I'm happy to talk!

Claes Mikko Nilsen

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Hi there! When linking pls include a short note, thank you! Claes Mikko Nilsen works as the investment Principal at NordicNinja – A VC fund focusing on Series A ready companies from Northern Europe – which he was part of co-launching in 2019. Alongside his angel and VC investing experience, his expertise includes marketing, communication, community and network building. He is especially keen on the future of work, climatetech and creator economy. Claes Mikko is known for his energy on stage, quick-witted character, and entertaining pitch moderator skills. He is fascinated by startup energy, being able to deliver, and finding that perfect one-liner. With his Finnish-Norwegian family background, he is fluent in Scandinavian languages. EXPERIENCE Claes Mikko is an angel network expert who previously co-founded, and worked as the first director of the Finnish Business Angels Network. FiBAN is today one of the largest and most active angel networks in Europe. From FiBAN Claes Mikko continued to develop the Nordic angel ecosystem as the Managing Director of the Nordic Business Angel Network – NordicBAN that represented over 10 business angel networks and linked over 1700 business angels to share angel investing best practices and match syndication-ready startups. In addition to angel activity, Claes Mikko has been part of developing Slush's Investor Day concept - today one of the most important events in the North European startup scene. Claes Mikko also has an entrepreneurial background and was part of establishing the student entrepreneurship society BoostTurku. Claes Mikko has worked with startup guiding at EnterpriseHelsinki building their startup accelerator service. Claes Mikko was a steering board member at the Rising North Fund, which funded startup ecosystem initiatives supporting the internationalization of Nordic startups.

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Early-stage investor and entrepreneur ranging from biotech to software and consumer products. Interested in how things work, society, technology, art and ice hockey.

Kaarlo Väisänen

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I am working on my PhD thesis on evolution and emergence of startup ecosystems after several years as the Group CEO of Startup Foundation, the non-profit owner of Slush events and supporter of various other startup initiatives. My research theorizes the fundamentals of entrepreneurial ecosystems behavior with respect to startups and analyzes specifically the development of the startup ecosystem of capital region of Finland. In my teaching I like to emphasize the practical side of strategy or to link the field to more holistic views of organization theoretical concepts and systems theory. My teaching has included basic and advanced courses in strategic management, strategy fieldwork, and most recently (and ongoing) advanced case seminars in strategy. I am a part-time serial-ish entrepreneur (three+ exits, depending on what you count) with over 25 years of experience on strategic management and business development of various types of companies, including small technology-based ventures as well as major publicly listed corporations. I have also been extensively involved with public administration and management of diverse NGOs. I hold a master’s degree (with distinction) in engineering physics and mathematics from Helsinki University of Technology, academic major in materials physics (experimental particle physics) and minor in theoretical and applied mechanics. These turned out to be somewhat straightforward and boring, so I moved on to work with something more complex and interesting (people and organizations) instead.

Josefiina Kotilainen

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Building in stealth (she/her)

Peik Hämekoski

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Co-Founder, Development & Locations at Boffice

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I’m an entrepreneur and technology leader with a strong track record of building successful B2B SaaS products and businesses. We created a category for chat-based business communication platforms at Flowdock. At Smartly.io we built one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies globally. Being naturally curious about a broad range of topics, I’m continuously learning more. My interests include software engineering, leadership, lean and modern agile processes, systems thinking, product discovery and customer development, product marketing, and enterprise sales. I still write code and learn about new technologies, and I consider myself a capable software architect. Helsinki startup community is close to my heart, and I’ve served as the chairman of the Startup Foundation. I’ve contributed to community projects such as Slush conference, Junction hackathon, Maria 0-1 startup space, and the Startup Sauna accelerator. I’m also an angel investor and an advisor to various startups.

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I believe entrepreneurship is one of the most efficient ways to change the world.