Mirva Nevalainen is an enthusiastic product, service & business development professional. Nevalainen is a board member, mentor and coach, and gets energy from working on solutions for productisation / servitisation challenges. Nevalainen has helped tens of startups to seek their focus & customers, identify gaps, and concentrate on the essentials.
Topi Manu, former Fourkind co-founder and board sitting investor, has an extensive background in marketing comms and tech consulting. In the past few years, Manu's range has grown to include growth entrepreneurship with Fourkind, where he exited in early 2021. As a mentor, he offers insights into matters like how to sell, do marketing, expand and recruit in foreign markets with the right determination, in addition to more general cornerstones of how to run a company such as finance, contracts, payroll, corporate structure, cashflow management, acting as an employer, and so on.
"Positive social impact does not happen by accident - plan you business to create and maximize the impact"
Saila Tykkyläinen, (D. Sc.) social impact expert, co-founder & partner at Vaikuttava Yritys Oy/Impact Business Ltd. coaches and trains all types of organisations to solve our common problems. Over the years Tykkyläinen has helped over 200 NGOs, companies and public sector organisations with impact-led design, impact leadership and metrics. In her doctoral thesis on social enterprises’ growth, Tykkyläinen focused on business models and strategies which enable social enterprises to balance their social and financial missions while seeking growth.
Vladimir Chepurnoy is a senior advisor at Helsinki Partners, the City of Helsinki's marketing, investment and talent attraction company. For the past 10 years, Chepurnoy has been actively working with high-tech business ecosystems in Finland and abroad, helping international companies to find growth opportunities worldwide. Helping entrepreneurs and business owners on their way to success by finding the right solution with systematic approach is what encourages Chepurnoy in his daily work.
Vesa Lindroos is an enthusiastic startup and SME advisor. His way of working could be characterised as a combination of scientific curiosity, strategy, Design Thinking and Lean methodologies. According to Lindroos, his experience has shown that in basic research, setting up businesses, and having implemented new production philosophies, everything comes down to curiosity and working with people. Lindroos' expertise has to do with human-centricity and along his career, he has helped various companies unveil the real reason behind customers' actions and in turn, pushed them for clearer and more understandable communication.
Juhani Lehtonen, a.k.a. "Leksa" – a nickname which he earned during his studies while playing in Retuperä's WBK (the Helsinki University of Technology's, now Aalto's, student brass band) which is still used today by many of his friends and customers – is a partner at Innotiimi-ICG Finland, chairman of the board of GloCell Oy, and a member of the board of Kauko International Oy.
Lehtonen has a background as an entrepreneur whose strengths lie in sales, internationalisation, innovation, and the development of growing business in general, and has practical experience ranging from being the CEO of a small company to doing sales, as well as research and development. This gives Lehtonen a very practical perspective on what should and should not be done in startup companies.
Lehtonen was born in 1968 and graduated from Aalto University with a Master of Science in Bioproduct Technology in 1998. Having worked abroad for longer periods on several occasions, he is able to work in Finnish, English, Swedish and German.
Curious, helpful, funny, and insightful. These are some of the words that have been used to describe Jonas Lundberg.
Lundberg has a master’s in business administration and leadership which he has found to be a good choice for my personality. Even though he has always been interested in technology, be it information technology of mechanical technology, his main interests are on the business side. Lundberg wants to understand and make things happen on the business side. This, in combination to his love of early venturing, ie. building startups or anything else from scratch, has led Lundberg to his current job as a venture builder: "At Liquido Ventures, we are startup architects."
Previously, Lundberg has worked in different sales and business leadership positions, and was a founding partner at nSense, a company he & his co-founders boot-strapped to international growth until it was sold to F-Secure in 2015, where he stayed for almost six years in different business development positions.
With her unique background spanning VC, law, behavioural science, and change design, Maya Markovich delivers technology, process, and business growth services worldwide. For over five years she worked with Nextlaw Labs/Nextlaw Ventures at Dentons, the world's largest firm, as chief growth officer. Markovich is currently justice tech executive in residence at Village Capital and executive director at the Justice Technology Association, a nonprofit trade association supporting technology solutions that foster hope, independence, and self-empowerment and contribute to a fairer legal system. She also advises multiple high-growth startups, investor and venture funds, and consults on innovation and transformation initiatives.
In 2020 Markovich was named one of five “Influential Women of Legal Tech” by ILTA, a “Woman Leading Legal Tech” by The Technolawgist in 2019, and an ABA Legal Technology Resource Center “Woman of Legal Tech 2018” for her work in designing, promoting, and driving the future of the legal industry around the globe.
Turo Numminen is an entrepreneur, startup-investor and mentor. Numminen is a fan of sustainability, but looks at it with the eyes of an investor. "We have limited resources, so let's make the best use of them." He manages Sofokus Ventures where the team deploys capital to early stage digital companies solving real business problems.
Numminen worked in entrepreneurship education (JA Finland) before jumping to the investment world, and believes in the power of education. He is also a mentor in Pikkuli (Social and Emotional Learning for 2-6 y/o).
"To get to where you want to often isn’t a straight line and it might not be about the HOW, but the WHO. So, be genuine, open and curious about people, the solution might find its way to you."
With over 15-years’ experience working in the technology and creative sectors in both Asia and the UK, Viola Jardon is the Head of Innovation Programmes with Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). She actively seeks opportunities to partner with corporates and other organisations who want to progress their sustainability transformation through technology and innovation. Her work focuses on innovation programme partnerships to support startups and entrepreneurs to unleash innovation and maximise sustainable impact environmentally and socially.
She is a proud finalist of the British Asian Women of Achievement in 2023, a founding member of Diverse Talents Network, East Asian Girl Gang, Business Mentor and Advisor to several Accelerators in the UK, Europe and Asia and a regular judge and speakers for sustainability innovation. Before joining CISL, she was part of the founding team establishing the London Fashion Fund, which supported start-ups and entrepreneurs to address innovation and sustainability in the fashion industry.
Sara Mattila is the founder of the circular futures consulting agency Rise to Sustain. She is helping companies to future-proof their businesses and make positive impact with circular business models. Mattila is passionate about circular economy, foresight in business and impact entrepreneurship.
Mattila has experience from environmental and social impact startups. Building early-stage businesses has taught her a practical, no-nonsense attitude towards setting up business processes, creating strategies and putting strategy into action. She has also experience from recruiting in startup environment.
In addition she has experience from launching new branches for established businesses in different countries, expansion to new markets, and developing an internationalisation strategy.
Janne Neuvonen is a serial entrepreneur, having been involved in various business ventures over the years. The most important thing for him is to improve the world, so that everyone has an easier, more comfortable life. He also values taking care of nature, the environment, and animal welfare.
Neuvonen wants to be a part of developing technologies and ways to influence society with the help of technology. He is at his best when drawing the big picture, but he also understands the importance of the finer details as well.
Jori Karvonen is an experienced digital sharing economy entrepreneur and mentor who has launched two startups in different countries. Karvonen is a multilingual mentor who speaks English, Finnish, Spanish and Russian, and has a passion for helping other startups.
Karvonen's journey as an entrepreneur began with his first startup in Spain, which focused on creating innovative and sustainable solutions in the agriculture industry. His most recent startup was a subscription business for consumer electronics. This experience has taught him the importance of agility and flexibility in the fast-paced world of technology, as well as the value of a strong company culture.
With a proven track record of developing and scaling digital products, Karvonen has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with building and growing a business in the digital space. From ideation to execution, He has built and managed teams of developers, designers, and marketers to develop and launch the products and services.
Overall, Karvonen is a highly skilled and experienced mentor with a unique perspective on the sharing economy and launching and scaling startups in different countries. His multilingual background and dedication to diversity and inclusion make him a valuable support to any startup looking to grow and succeed.
Jarno Laine is a Co-Founder at Rakettitiede, an IT consultancy, known for initiating several creative projects at a time and wanting to break stereotypes. Laine has been involved in startups and entrepreneurship for over a decade, and in his early days, worked on creating TV chat software in the early 2000's.
Laine believes there's no need to be too serious in business, and that putting things like employee well-being first when leading a company is important. Laine works hard to build lasting and meaningful relationships with clients and likes working on challenges that enable him to make a difference in people's lives. He also enjoys creative pursuits, having dabbled in textile arts and studied acoustics and sound processing, and spends his spare time making films.
Jouni Lounasmaa is an experienced startup and ecosystem leader with over 15 years of experience with startups as a co-founder, board member, CFO, and coach. In addition, he's a co-founder of four startups.
Most recently he worked as the CEO of the Startup Foundation – the non-profit owner of Slush, Junction, and The Shortcut as well as a co-owner of the Maria 01 startup hub. Prior to joining the Startup Foundation he was the co-founder, CFO and HR director at Kyyti Group – a growth company building sustainable mobility services. He's currently an advisor to the forthcoming Erica Green Chemistry Science Park and the Viikki Food Design Factory.
He holds an M.Sc (Eng) degree from Aalto University and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and an MBA from Henley Business School. After graduation as an engineer, he worked at VTI Technologies with several large sensor programs for Smart, Continental Teves, and Siemens Automotive. He also worked for five years at the Technopolis Ventures business incubator as a business advisor for over 50 startups before his career as an entrepreneur.
Lounasmaa was a mentor also for the first Biosphere incubator from 2022 to 2023.
Tuukka Ylälahti is a serial startup entrepreneur, business angel, advisor, and active mentor in the Helsinki startup ecosystem specialising in early-stage startups.
Ylälahti graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a degree in Communications & PR and started his career in digital media, specialising in mobile services. In 2009, he created the vision and forged the founding team for Cabforce, which grew to become the world's leading taxi pre-booking platform with over 200 locations in more than 50 countries on six continents in only five years. Cabforce was acquired by CarTrawler in 2015. Since 2016, Ylälahti has been at the helm of Mesensei as the CEO & Co-founder, building a decentralised next generation Internet platform for communities.
Mikael Malmivaara has, for well over a decade now, spent his time doing stuff. A lot of stuff.
He's been a journalist & video producer, the country manager for an events company, a twice-bankrupt four-time entrepreneur, the chief of operations of a restaurant group during COVID-19, the sales guy for a few start-ups, a local politician, a freelance event host, a tour guide and sometime production assistant at a whiskey distillery, a Michelin-star level waiter, a generalist consultant for small and medium businesses looking for help in any number of things, a sommelier, the marketing lead for a tech company's Finland office, an office drone, a board member & president of a handful of associations in University and beyond, and lately, the communications & community relations guy for the Helsinki Incubators, writing texts much like this one and building bridges between the University of Helsinki and Universities, companies, and governments in France, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, South Africa, and probably a few others as well in order to help the Helsinki Incubators' participants have the best chances of finding opportunities across the world.
He has a BA in Business Management & Entrepreneurship from the UK, an MSc (Econ.) in Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management + Creative Sustainability from Espoo, and dreams of one day having a PhD in Entrepreneurship from somewhere cool.
His guiding principles are to always ask for help when you need it, pick up the phone and call whenever possible, and never be afraid of failure or just trying things to see how it all works out.