Aaltoes and Summer of Startups went to Estonia
From the beginning of the Summer of Startups, it was clear that the program would include a field trip abroad. So on the Monday 2nd of August the teams + few Aaltoes people boarded a ferry to Tallin, Estonia and went to see local startup scene there.
For Monday we had booked a visit to a local incubator, Tehnopol (http://www.tehnopol.ee). Pirko Konsi, who is a board member there, hosted us and gave a presentation on how they and the scene works in the Estonia. It was interesting to hear, that mostly they have similiar challenges as we in Finland: startups don’t have enough global ambition, lack sales approach but also usually excel at engineering.
Tehnopol is a governmental foundation, which enables thinking the long term goals, but sometimes the rules and restrictions slow down the decision making too much. Another problem (probably the same as in Finland) is the model of subsidising consultancy fees, which doesn’t too much more than just increase the prices and salaries of the consultants.
In the evening our Estonian friends, Vilen and Murad from Octarine took us to a city tour to get to know the place and have fun time. We certainly did!
On Tuesday morning after the breakfast we loaded the taxis and went to see Skype. It was amazing, that even though we didn’t remember the address, the driver still knew the place. There we heard a short story about Skypes background and then had a good discussion about critical succes factories in a startup. One thing that they emphasized a lot was fostering the right kind of corporate culture and making sure, that the employees fit in.
After lunch we had few hours to tune our pitches for the evenings competition, where there were also three Estonian teams. Two of them were from the Garage 48, which is an Estonian event where people gather to form teams and build products in just 48 hours. The judges were from Tehnopol, Estonias development fund and Ambient Sound Investment and asked a lot of questions after the pitches. After they pitches they told us, that they were really impressed with the quality of the pitches, so apparently practising really pays off.
The winner of the competition (and a bottle of sparkling wine) was IncSpark, while the Home Visual System (one of the Estonians) and DealMachine took the second and third places, congrats!
Wednesday was the final day of our trip and we went to see WebMedia, which is Estonias biggest and fastest growing software development company. With them we discussed about challenges in expanding operations abroad and the importance of doing your homework on local culture.
Overall, I think the trip was good, as we learned a lot and formed connection to Estonia. After all, it’s so close to Helsinki, that I think we should work together with them more closely. Another, maybe even the most important result was the strenghened spirit among and between the Summer of Startups -teams. In the emotional rollecoaster of the startup life, the support from peers can sometimes make the difference.
Big thanks to Summer of Startups -crew for organizing the trip and to everyone else for a great company!
Cheers,
Lauri
From the beginning of the Summer of Startups, it was clear that the program would include a field trip abroad. So on the Monday 2nd of August the teams + few Aaltoes people boarded a ferry to Tallin, Estonia and went to see local startup scene there.
For Monday we had booked a visit to a local incubator, Tehnopol (http://www.tehnopol.ee). Pirko Konsi, who is a board member there, hosted us and gave a presentation on how they and the scene works in the Estonia. It was interesting to hear, that mostly they have similiar challenges as we in Finland: startups don’t have enough global ambition, lack sales approach but also usually excel at engineering.
Tehnopol is a governmental foundation, which enables thinking the long term goals, but sometimes the rules and restrictions slow down the decision making too much. Another problem (probably the same as in Finland) is the model of subsidising consultancy fees, which doesn’t too much more than just increase the prices and salaries of the consultants.
In the evening our Estonian friends, Vilen and Murad from Octarine took us to a city tour to get to know the place and have fun time. We certainly did!
On Tuesday morning after the breakfast we loaded the taxis and went to see Skype. It was amazing, that even though we didn’t remember the address, the driver still knew the place. There we heard a short story about Skypes background and then had a good discussion about critical succes factories in a startup. One thing that they emphasized a lot was fostering the right kind of corporate culture and making sure, that the employees fit in.
After lunch we had few hours to tune our pitches for the evenings competition, where there were also three Estonian teams. Two of them were from the Garage 48, which is an Estonian event where people gather to form teams and build products in just 48 hours. The judges were from Tehnopol, Estonias development fund and Ambient Sound Investment and asked a lot of questions after the pitches. After they pitches they told us, that they were really impressed with the quality of the pitches, so apparently practising really pays off.
The winner of the competition (and a bottle of sparkling wine) was IncSpark, while the Home Visual System (one of the Estonians) and DealMachine took the second and third places, congrats!
Wednesday was the final day of our trip and we went to see WebMedia, which is Estonias biggest and fastest growing software development company. With them we discussed about challenges in expanding operations abroad and the importance of doing your homework on local culture.
Overall, I think the trip was good, as we learned a lot and formed connection to Estonia. After all, it’s so close to Helsinki, that I think we should work together with them more closely. Another, maybe even the most important result was the strenghened spirit among and between the Summer of Startups -teams. In the emotional rollecoaster of the startup life, the support from peers can sometimes make the difference.
Big thanks to Summer of Startups -crew for organizing the trip and to everyone else for a great company!
- Lauri
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great! would love to see some photos too!