Pathways Alumni: “It’s Been Really Refreshing To Have an Experience Like This Combining Academia and Entrepreneurship”

After a whirlwind two-and-a-bit months, on 2 June, it was time to once again draw the curtain on yet another round of Pathways. The scene was one that has become a familiar one at the Helsinki Incubators: one of gratitude and excitement for the future.

As programme manager Santeri Tuovila called out to ask how the graduating cohort of 20+ teams felt, the responses were the kind that he and his fellow coaches live for: “I’m so sad it’s over already! Pathways gave us so much structure to develop our ideas,” shouted one participant.

Another, a University of Helsinki researcher, chimed in to add “It’s been really nice and refreshing to have an experience like this at the University of Helsinki, combining academia and entrepreneurship.”

And as programme participants revelled in the afterglow of a great shared experience, mingling together and hearing a select few pitches, it seemed like once again Pathways, the University of Helsinki’s interdisciplinary pre-incubator for idea-stage would-be-entrepreneurs to supercharge their professional growth and crystallise their ideas into a project with a concrete business plan with viable next steps, had managed to do just that.

But how exactly did the programme help its participants?

For Henrik Pajunen, a veterinary medicine student at the University of Helsinki, and his co-founder Antti Tuovio, the programme was just what they’d needed to take their idea for a preventative pet healthcare platform – initially developed during a weekly sauna session – forward.

“It was the night before the deadline for applications,” Tuovio explained, “so we threw together a PowerPoint and applied hours before the call closed.” Not long after, they were in – and met with Rebecka Nygård, a fellow veterinary medicine student at the University of Helsinki who shared their vision for more accessible and easier to understand pet healthcare. They asked her to join their team, and Abbis was born.

For team Abbis, it was Pathways’ structure of bi-weekly lectures and workshops, combined with personalised guidance from the programme’s half-dozen coaches, that kept them moving: “Honestly, if we hadn’t joined the programme, we never would have done this,” Tuovio admitted, with Pajunen adding “Yeah, otherwise this would have just stayed a sauna conversation!”

“Pathways kind of pushes you into a tunnel where you’re constantly moving forward, constantly getting hit with information,” Tuovio continued, “but in a good way!” The constant stream of new knowledge forced the team to pivot “maybe ten times” during the pre-incubator, but nevertheless, their vision remained clear. “It helped us stay focused, even as we adjusted how we approach things, like how to get users interested and show them this is useful,” Pajunen summarised, before adding that following their experience with Pathways, the team was excited to take their project onwards as soon as possible.

For Minna Melanie Mustapää, a Helsinki Incubators alumna who joined Pathways as a coach for the 2nd time this spring, stories like Abbis’ are quintessential pre-incubator material. “I think one of the main takeaways from Pathways is this classic lesson of entrepreneurship: you test by doing,” Mustapää explained.

“You might start with an idea, but only through actually working on it do you realise whether it works or not. And then, as you’re working, you discover new directions. So, your initial idea might not work out, but a version, or a version of a version, might. It’s that journey of constant iteration that eventually leads to something viable.”

Eventually, she summarised, teams reach a point where they find their product-market fit and manage to develop a functioning business model, while also managing to balance impact with financial sustainability – a tension that some of the more impact-driven Pathways participants struggled with.

Along with her fellow coaches, fellow Helsinki Incubators alumni Jori Karvonen and Polina Vishnia, as well as Jukka Tastula, and Ann Patterson, Mustapää had a great time with the programme helping the teams get along and seeing them progress at their own pace.

“Some teams were already a bit more advanced when they joined,” she said, “and they were able to focus on developing their prototypes, conducting market research, and take their first real steps toward entering the market.” For others who were more early stage coming into the programme, the progress has been more measured, but just as inspiring.

For Pradham Pepakayala, a bachelor’s student in physics at the University of Helsinki, Pathways was a great opportunity for him and his teammates & fellow bachelor’s students Joel Sam Johnson and Filip Rásó, to get their first steps into entrepreneurship.

The group’s project, Syllabuss, is aimed at helping students manage their studies with greater ease by offering an add-on to the notoriously complicated Finnish study information platform, Sisu.

Looking back, Pepakayala, who admits that prior to the programme he didn’t have much experience with entrepreneurship, is grateful for the opportunities that Pathways offered him and his team, especially in terms of being able to connect with people and receive help in developing their solution: “For example, Santeri has been incredibly supportive and open with advice.”

In addition, Pepakayala says he’s grateful for the help they received from coaches: “They gave us a lot of ideas and helped us figure out where to start. Based on their website, we’ve already designed our website,” he explains, beaming. “It’s not functional yet, it’s just the design part, but the coaches guided us to start there, and it’s been a great step forward.”

Summarising his feelings about the programme, Pepakayala says: “It’s been really helpful to have a space where we can get guidance when needed.”

As we close off this round of Pathways, we invite you to check out the all the graduating teams from this edition of the programme!

And if this article has got you inspired and wanting to start your own adventure with us, then be sure to stay tuned for the next Pathways call coming in autumn 2025, or check out our Journeys call and see if our more advanced programme could be right for you.