The Fall 2011 Startup Sauna Companies
The Helsinki Based seed accelerator, Startup Sauna, recently announced their Fall batch of startups. The 17 teams began working out of Otaniemi yesterday and will finish with a public demo day on December 15th. This year there are 8 Finnish teams, 5 Russian, 2 Polish, 1 Estonian, and one from Lithuania.
Startup Sauna Keeps Getting Better
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Natalie Gaudet, who is one of the active people behind Startup Sauna - a Nordic and Baltic startup seed accelerator helping companies get further. While we don't usually promote individual programs as such, Startup Sauna is a great initiative, non-profit started by our good friends at AaltoES.
The Startup Sauna seed accelerator program is getting bigger and better. Since there has been an incredible response from Russia last year, the program decided to add three more Russian cities to the list. The number of coaches that will be mentoring the teams has also increased.
Startup Sauna Demo Day Live Blog
We're live blogging the Startup Sauna Demo Day event from Aalto Venture Garage. Startup Sauna is a 7-week long entrepreneurial program to find and grow the most potential startups from the region further and bigger. The program has featured external speakers and mentors who have helped guide the startups. The Demo Day event will see the participating teams pitching their companies one last time (in the name of the program) to the attendees and also show what they've achieved.
Startup Sauna Participants Announced
The Helsinki based Aalto Venture Garage is putting together in international incubation/acceleration program for very early stage projects that should turn to startups later this summer. In total, 17 teams from the region were accepted into the program from around the Baltic Sea. 3 teams were from Russia, 2 from Latvia, 1 from Lithuania and Estonia as well as Sweden and the rest were from Finland (9).
Aalto Venture Garage Launches Startup Sauna
Aalto Venture Garage is launching Startup Sauna, which includes a month long tour around the Baltic rim to promote a new kind of startup acceleration program called Startup Sauna. Startup Sauna is direct continuum to the Summer of Startups program as well as the Bootcamp initiatives the venue organised last year. The program has been put in place to help pre-seed startups succeed through better mentorship of serial entrepreneurs as well as investors. What's best, it's open to all startups from the region.
Last Weekend's Experience Called Garage48
Last weekend I took part in a 48-hour event called Garage48. Garage48 is an intensive hackathon where on the final day teams gather to pitch their results. While we've written about these and similar kinds of events before, I thought I should take part this time round to see what the atmosphere is "on the ground". I had to take a day's rest and think about the whole experience and what it means before writing about it.
Garage48 HKI - Live Updates Through The Weekend
Garage48 Helsinki will take place this weekend in the Aalto Venture Garage, where about a hundred enthusiasts will compete in a friendly manner to build the best business/product -combination in only 48 hours. We'll be bringing you updates through out the weekend and they will be added to this post. Garage48 has originated from Estonia and already two such events have been organised. The reason why Garage48 is worth following so widely, is the cross border effect it has - Estonians, Finns, Latvians, Lithuanians as well as some from the US and UK, all coming together for a weekend to build something great.
Garage48 Hits Helsinki This Weekend
Garage48 is an Estonian originated concept that is building up momentum nicely in the Nordics and Baltics. The event has been organised in Tallinn and Tartu previously and Helsinki will be its first international debut. Not a bad way to go abroad at all. Garage48 has had to make more tickets available a couple of times as people have been wanting to participate. The event will feature 51 Finns, 41 Estonians, 11 Latvians and a couple of individuals from the UK and USA participating in a 48 hour product development competition.
Garage48 Opens A Co-Working Space In Tallinn
Garage48 is a boot camp style iniative to build new web services in just 48 hours. The concept has been a roaring success in Estonia, where it was started last year. This week, Garage48 announced that they'll be opening a co-working space in Tallinn in December for all entrepreneurs to use. Not only is Garage48 opening a co-working space in Tallinn, they are also organising one of their boot camp style weekend events in Helsinki in January in co-operation with AaltoES. I talked to Ragnar Sass, one of the people behind the concept and what Garage48 HUB will be like when it opens.
Wrapping Up Slush2010
On more than 3000 m2 with more than 300 people attending, this October for the third year Helsinki hosted Slush , a two-day annual conference focused on entrepreneurship. The highlights included insightful key-note speeches by Allan Martinson and Mårten Mickos, Slush Seven pitching competition for early-stage start-ups with the prize of €7500 cash and Slush School of Angels. The event also included many presentations from local start-ups and some captivating panel discussions. The space was thoughtfully organized with plenty of booths and chairs, though some participants missed the smaller and more intimate lay-out of venues used in previous years.
Nevermind Finland: 20 Hot Estonian Startups [Part 2/3]
This is the second part of our coverage on Estonia, following our recent Baltic tour. If you'd like to find our more about Baltic entrepreneurship, we recommend you join this Facebook groupand Linkedin group.
In addition to Erply, Zeroturnaround and Fortumo which we listed in part 1, I’ve compiled a list of the ones that are the most promising or already succeful Estonian startups. Keep in mind this is in no way a definitive list. There are plenty more in stealth mode or really early stage and hopefully you'll hear from them soon.
The Next 100 Million Euro Business Might Come From Bootcamp
Aalto Venture Garage is putting together a busy two week program they call Bootcamp. Bootcamp is to be held four times a year and it's an intensive program aimed at speeding up already existing early stage ventures. The first Bootcamp is to be run between September 17th and 30th. They are now accepting applications, but be quick - the deadline is September 8th. A mentoring program wouldn't be anything without high profile mentors and well enough, Aalto Venture Garage has managed to secure a good lineup of Finnish startup professionals. Mind you, the program isn't only aimed at Finnish startups - it's open for everyone around the Baltic rim.
Deal Machine - Not Just Another CRM Tool
Deal Machine, which just recently launched, is a new Finnish startup shooting to take on the CRM giants. The origins of this web-based customer database management system date back to the beginning of this summer when a group of young entrepreneurs started brainstorming on the idea. The product has been developed throughout the summer months and now, at the ripe age of some 90 days, Dealmachine opened to the public.
Summer Of Startups Demo Day (Updated)
Summer of Startups in Aalto Venture Garage reached a climax today as the ten companies that have been founded over the summer went on stage and to pitch their products and services. The companies have gone through two months of development and today their progress was measured. A jury of 5 members judged the development and gave feedback to the companies. The jury was Sami Heikkiniemi from Tekes, Antti Aarnio from Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship, Juha Ruohonen from Aalto Venture Garage, Kristo Ovaska from Aalto Venture Garage and Ramine Darahiba theHead Coach for Summer of Startups.
ArcticStartup And AaltoVG Go Baltics!
This is an exciting week for the Nordic startup scene: each country has seen a boom in startup activity during the recent months, so we have decided to organize a road trip together with AaltoVG, in an effort to bring the community closer.
The idea is to meet with the actors of each country, find new and interesting startup stories, potential partners, and friends!
Last Week's Top Discussions
Just like last week, here's a look into the most talked about and shared discussion topics from our Discussions -area. We're noticing more and more people signing up and activating their old ArcticIndex accounts, so make sure you won't be left out of the conversation. Sign in here, or register an account if you haven't done so.
