The perks of being a small, volunteer-based organization like us include the sometimes slow speed of upload. We’ve finally gone through the ample video material from Slush 2011 and will go through the harvest in the next blogposts. Taking place in early November, Slush Helsinki was a two day conference but most of all a startup expo; we had demo startups in the house that … Continue reading

Hello friends! We are currently finishing up the process of envisioning what Aaltoes is going to be in 2012 and beyond. While our sights have been set on the horizon, it is also important to look back at 2011 and reflect on what worked and what didn’t.. and we need your help to do it. With such a whirlwind of … Continue reading

This is cross-blogged from the Startup Life website. Read the original post here. We are thrilled to announce the application period for Startup Life batch 2/2012 opened! Last year we kicked off the program by linking students and startups here in Helsinki and Silicon Valley. This year we decided to take on the world and expand the program to four … Continue reading

Aaltoes gets ready for the new year and selects the Board for 2012, the 4th board for our growing organization. The new year brings about new frolics and crises and hopefully makes us reach new heights in the upcoming year. I have a feeling that in 2012 Aaltoes is hitting its obstinate age, stay tuned for fun & games. Nils … Continue reading

Ever wanted to study machine learning? Or make a deep dive into iPhone programming? This is your chance to take some of Stanford’s and STVPs most popular courses. As a part of the new online education initiative, Stanford is offering a lot of great course content with integrated quizzes, videos and learning materials, free for the world. Start your year … Continue reading

so goodbye Paris and LeWeb! The last minute “etkot” at the sauna, attracted some Finns to take a sauna, and sample the goodies, provided by Foodie.FM, the vodka, proving particularly popular. I think the parties must have been really good, as there were far fewer people around on the final day (as is normal for loner events). Who would want … Continue reading

Day one of LeWeb started in what seems to be the traditional format – cold, raining with not working WiFi. But once the 3300 people started to enter the halls, they soon heated up to an uncomfortable level. The main hall was apparently packed really tightly, so once in you were almost trapped in your seat, if someone from the … Continue reading

Startup Sauna, the 6 week seed accelerator program for chosen startups from around the Baltic Rim is approaching its grande finale. Next week, on December 15th, the fall, programs’ 15 participating startups will graduate in an open Demo Day. This time we are trying out something new – don’t get me wrong, it will still be a show, featuring star entrepreneurs’ pitches, … Continue reading

Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur-turned-professor, visited Helsinki in September 2011. Well-informed of the Finnish growth entrepreneurship environment and policy, Blank met hundreds of people, including dozens of startups, students and founders as well as politicians, government officials and business influencers. Helsinki Spring (Finnish only) summarizes diverse opinions, thoughts and wishes gathered during that week, as well as prior to and earlier. Helsinki … Continue reading

On the fourth day of our awesome journey, most of us attended the GigaOM RoadMap conference. Time flies when you are listening to awesome talks and networking with the Silicon Valley posse! Om Malik, the founder of GigaOM, was moderating most of the talks. We really enjoyed the day, which was filled with top-notch speakers, seriously, the best people in … Continue reading

Today we got to meet a bunch of Silicon Valley superstars and enjoy the beautiful scenerys of the Bay area. We started of by an outdoor meeting with the founders of Zerply. In short Zerply is the LinkedIn for artist, developers, writers, designers, photographers and entrepreneurs. Basically their service allows a user to make public portfolio. The founding team of … Continue reading

The second (“damn long day“) day’s program started off with tours at two different co-working spaces, followed by a visit to the Eventbrite and for some of us the day was concluded with 8th founders showcase -conference, while the rest had some time to see the City. The two co-working spaces were I/O Ventures and Opinno. It was interesting to … Continue reading

From cold Helsinki, straight from Slush, Aaltoes stormed into SF and the Valley with a big crew – 42 of us here with BoostTurku and Hankenes. Jetlagged and bootstrapping at super8 (besides the Hankenes guys, who had some of us in their party mansion in SF Castro for a few nights), here we are, all hyped up. On Sunday evening … Continue reading

Sure, some might call it tooting our own horn… But since Slush 2011 was such a BIG effort with so many talented pairs of hands involved, we felt compelled to share some of the fantastic thanks we received to ensure that all of our team members get the message. So, yet again, we’ll turn to the Twitterverse via our #slush11 … Continue reading

It is clear that venture capitalists (VCs) recognize the incredible startup talent here in Northern Europe and in Russia. In fact, big-name investors have already funded several Nordic hits like Rovio, Skype, Gray Area, Spotify and Supercell. However, VCs are also looking for the region’s startups — especially those in Finland — to become just as savvy with product marketing … Continue reading