BBQ in the Rain with Tom Keller and Alan Moore

Kristo Ovaska,  who just got back from Israel hours before the event, started off the evening by giving  the audience one advice: “Get out of Finland to get experience,  but then come back!”

After spending a week in Isreal, the Finnish delegation, consisting of Bootcamp team winners  and the Aaltovg team, realized that there is no reason why Finland can’t become the next Startup Nation -Tom Keller from TechStars could not agree more: “One thing that is wrong with the Finnish startup ecosystem: that people think that there is something wrong with it.  Quit thinking that you suck and stop having a complex!”  orders Keller.

Tom Keller noticed  that Helsinki looks like Boulder, Colorado, the home of Techstars, did a few years ago. Keller started his presentation by taking a page from Ramine Darabiha’s blog written a couple of weeks ago;  The 10 Challenges of the Finnish Startups Ecosystems.

There is no doubt that Finland can become the next startup Nation; In the past 2 years, Finland has came a very long way and with the right attitude and mentoring, Finland could be unstoppable.

As Ramine pointed out: Here we are in the middle of the forest in the rain, and a 100 people show up at Aalto Venture Garage. Big thanks for all attendees –let’s create an ecosystem that shoots for the stars!