“Pathways is About Coming Together and Learning Together!” — Brand New Pathways Cohort Ready to Set Off on New Trails

“Are you hot? I sure am, let’s open some windows here,” programme lead laughs before he even gets to the first slides of his introduction presentation. The temperature levels of the Helsinki Incubators workshop space have indeed climbed, as the new cohort of a record-breaking 47 participants are now gathered around Tuovila in a mix of excitement and nervousness. “This is an experiment,” he begins. “This is the biggest group yet, but more ideas means more opportunities. And the more opportunities there are, the more action there is. And action is what entrepreneurship is all about!”

The Pathways programme, powered by the City of Helsinki, is the University of Helsinki’s early-stage 2-month pre-incubator specifically designed to bring together thinkers and doers from varied backgrounds and to bridge interdisciplinary connections. “Pathways is an idea studio,” Tuovila explains to the participants. “It’s about being humble with your business idea and understanding that it may change and needs to change in the process. The most important thing is that you follow your passion and stand proud behind the work you do. If your idea fails, celebrate it regardless and admire the path you’ve already trodden on your journey. Then embark on the next one.”

After Tuovila’s introductions and feasting on delicious meal boxes prepared by , a catering collective that empowers independent, international food entrepreneurs, it is already time for the programme’s first workshop, steered by one of the programme’s coaches. Mustapää, together with four other coaches, will be by our participants’ side throughout the Pathways journey and give their everything to support the solutions’ growth. Differing from the programme’s pilot version, this round of Pathways features closer involvement from its experts. Mustapää, for one, is ready to put her expertise to work, drawing on her vast experience with topics like investment raising, running non-profits, as well as managing the growing pains of “solopreneurship”.

In her workshop, Mustapää sheds light on the many important aspects that need to be taken into consideration when envisioning a path in entrepreneurship, such as allocating time to your work, making commitments, and setting self-compassionate, realistic goals—all key to a balanced and joyful journey. She also urges our path-treaders to reflect on the values they want to carry with them, whose help they’ll need along the way, and who they’ll do it all for. Sure enough, these questions inspire lively discussions in small groups. “What a shame to have to interrupt you!” Mustapää laughs when it’s time to move on.

A coffee break is the perfect chance to share a word with another Pathways coach: impact entrepreneurship expert . Vishnia is a Helsinki Incubators alumna herself, after graduating both from the Circulator 1.0 pre-incubator and the 2023 Biosphere incubator. She comes ready with an apt metaphor of her own for what she envisions the programme to be: “In my mind, Pathways will act like a greenhouse. Our teams might already have their seeds of ideas, but what we provide is the right conditions for the seeds to grow into plants—you know, the right temperature, water, and nutrients,” Vishnia lists.

If there’s one thing that Vishnia wants the fresh set of Pathways participants to know it is that entrepreneurship will always be a continuous learning process. “Even though I’ve been in this scene for a while now, I’m still far from knowing everything,” she explains. “So it’s important to remember that you don’t need to have everything figured out from the start—Pathways is about coming together and learning together!”

Luckily there’s some windows of opportunity to pull some participants aside for a chat, too. We meet , who, after graduating with a medical doctor’s papers three years ago, is now considering whether a traditional career trajectory in medicine is meant for him after all, hoping that Pathways might give him a glimpse of alternative routes available. Tiainen shares that over his time practicing medicine, he’s noticed the same issues come up again and again in areas such as diagnostics, treatment, and doctors’ workflow organisation: “I noticed that I developed a very entrepreneurial approach to the problems that I encountered. I always wondered why nobody tried to solve them,” he says. Equipped with a keen interest in up-and-coming tech solutions like AI and blockchain, Tiainen looks forward to meeting other smart and passionate people, as well as benefiting from the individual support provided by the programme’s coaches, which he hopes will guide him in the right direction with his ideas.

We also meet , a staff researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Computer Sciences department. Rao has worked on developing dynamic info screens on campus which display available desks and rooms in real time, and is now eager to see if the solution’s reach could be expanded. He is optimistic that the programme will help him visualise a path forward and walk him through some of the best practices to follow: “I’m especially keen to hear what kinds of things need to be taken into consideration especially in the Finnish context,” he says. “Besides that, I’m curious to see if this programme could be of use to any of the students I’m supervising. Some might definitely be interested in commercialising an idea.”

An afternoon of many new faces and abundant conversation comes to its end, but the good news is that the day has marked only the start of the two-month adventure promising many new learnings and accomplishments. Tuovila reflects on the hustle and bustle of the kick-off day, saying that he admires the motivation which people have showed up with: “As a programme lead, you always feel like a lightning conductor the first day—the one that everyone initially pulls to,” he says. “But it definitely hasn’t taken long for people to start talking and sharing ideas with each other, too. They’ve clearly got a hang of that already!”

What, then, does Tuovila hope to see when the programme’s final showcase comes around? “The absolute dream would be that by the end of the programme, our new path-treaders would be able to continue working and finding connections independently—that is, while also knowing when to ask for help and how to take in feedback from others,” Tuovila says. He adds that the success of the pre-incubator will be determined by how much the participants themselves are willing to commit to it: “They’ll be the ones creating Pathways. That’s why it’s so great to see all this excitement brewing already!” he says with a grin.