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!
MySites Founder, Ramine Darabiha was a guest blogger for ReadWriteWeb. He writes about everything you ever wanted to know about the Finnish Startup scene. He also showcases the top 30 hottest startups from Finland. I need to stop here and point out that most of the startups that Ramine have mentioned are Bootcamp teams.
So take a moment out of your day and read this blog. You probably find yourself knowning a lot of the companies and here is your chance to familiarizes yourself with the new ones.
An entrepreneur program built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs
Here’s how it happens, after being selected by the Board, the program is all about getting to the next round. There are 3 rounds in total and you get paid a salary for working on your startup. Pretty sweet deal! It doesn’t matter which school you are from either, all you need it an idea and someone to work with.
It gets even better, each team gets to decide how the program is run, so if you feel like you need to listen to Steve Jobs talk about his start, the team behind SOS will do anything to help you make that happen. (Well maybe not the real Steve Jobs, but definitely the Steve Jobs of Finland…whoever that might be ….)
The icing on the cake is that the winners of SOS will get the grand prize of a round ticket flights to Silicon Valley. NICE!
Remember, you don’t have to have any experience in entrepreneur to apply! This is not a business plan program, it all about executing fast. So apply now.
The Deadline for all applications is on Friday June 4th at Midnight
Four weeks ago, 14 teams with business ideas were offered a chance to participate in the first bootcamp organized by Aalto Venture Garage and to learn more about what are the key ingredients of successful startups and about what makes the business world tick. After the four weeks and several lectures, keynotes, networking events and group work sessions the very first bootcamp has come to an end.
During the camp, some of Finland’s most experienced entrepreneurs have taught us a lot about the life of growth entrepreneurs, the venture capital, business ideas, legal issues and the elements making up a decent business. Experienced entrepreneurs have coached us in refining our ideas and in finding the best ways to make the most out of them. This process and the contacts acquired during the camp have been of great help in developing our ideas and in planning out our next steps.
I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the coaches of the camp. You have been both instructive and inspirational. The same goes for the keynote speakers and lecturers of the camp and last, but not least, to the people behind the ventures garage and AaltoES. Without your work there would have been no bootcamp.
We are all aware of the work load that lies ahead of us. For the campers the path ahead is paved by hard work, challenges, opportunities, disappointments and joy. For the AaltoES, ventures garage and future bootcamps there remains the challenges of finding the best new teams and ideas, developing the bootcamp concept further and making it flourish.
I hope that this bootcamp was the first of many and that the camps to follow will successfully continue the effort to offer a platform for researchers and entrepreneurs to network and unite their forces in shaping out the future of AaltoES, Aalto University, Finland and the rest of the world as well.
Thank you all and good luck!
- Jani Oksanen, Thermophotonic Heat Pump
Winner of BootCamp
Widsen, run by Markus Nuoto, provides an easy and low-cost way to gain control over electrical appliances and to monitor electricity consumption.
Led by Joons Hjelt, Hipui marries the phone and cloud to redefine mobile user experience and App Development.
Thermophotonic Heat Pump is researched based that offers a new way to design and manufacture cooling and heat transfer application. Jani Oksanen is the one behind this cool technology.
We are proud to present the 3 winners of the first BootCamp of Aalto Venture Garage: Widsen, Thermophonic Heat Pump, and Hipui.
These teams will have access to the top coaches of Finland, offices at the Garage, funding and a trip to Isreal. Here’s a video of the winners being announces on May 12 on Graduation. All the teams of BootCamp did their final pitches in front of a selected crowd of 60.
Today’s blogger is Petteri Kontio, author of the Million Before 30 blog and a founder of FinderBase.com, a social search engine for finding your lost items.
Aalto Entrepreneurship Society is student run organization promoting entrepreneurship and helping students and researchers to create world-changing businesses from Aalto University in Finland.
