September's Recruiting Partner: Blaast
September's recruiting partner here at ArcticStartup is Blaast. Blaast is a very talented company innovating in the space of mobile and looking for exceptional people to work with them. Their offering is very interesting, so if you fit their open job descriptions I strongly suggest you contact the company for more information and apply. Check our coverage on the company earlier this year, when they raised financing.
Should You Join a Startup? The Answer Is Increasingly Yes!
This article has two purposes. 1) Communicate the fact that a startup is handsdown the best choice for an ambitious developer, designer or an artist who wants to ship a beautiful product to the market, and 2) to get all the crazy talented people to join Grey Area or other local startups. Let me elaborate!
In the immediate aftermath of Shadow Cities success we are growing fast at Grey Area and we have been lately hiring a lot of new talent to our team. As a result I have thought a lot about how can I convince talented people with plenty of options to choose from to join a young fast growing startup instead of a mature established company. Let me break my thinking down so you can see that the answer to that question really is increasingly 'hell yes I should join a startup!' and not just of my dreaming.
Duunitori Grew Huge In The Shadows
Duunitori ("job-market square" in English) is a service by the Finland based Skyhood. It's a recruiting service with a few interesting twists and it has gone head on with the traditional household names in the market. However, the most interesting aspect of the service perhaps is that in all quietness, it has become the largest job listing service in Finland, according to Thomas Grönholm, co-founder of Skyhood.
Skype Announces To Add 350 New Jobs In 2011
Who doesn’t want to be a part of a big brand, that is revolutionary, transforming a certain aspect of your life and connects you to millions of users anywhere across the globe? Everyone does, and Skype is definitely one of those brands. Over a 100 million active users, utilizing the communication tool for personal and professional use. And guess what Skype is adding more opportunities for passionate people to be a part of it.
Opportunity To Make A Dent In The Universe - An Application Away
Lately I have seen more and better startups sprung up in the Nordics than ever before in ArcticStartup's existence. I hope we have helped in building that momentum and we sure try to do even more in the future.
A challenge that goes hand in hand with more startup teams forming in the region is the need to hire great talent. Every week I hear entrepreneurs talking about the challenge to find the talent to grow their business into new heights. And every week I tell them to post their open positions to our Jobs section. Too often they tell me that they forgot there was actually a venue for that very thing. Consider this as a collective reminder. Actually, consider it almost an executive order to put those jobs up there on the job board - for an opportunity to work on an interesting product you will not only get applications from Nordics, but talent from all over the world. Many of the most successful startups have had developers in every continent during their early years. Not only will you get great talent to help you grow your company, but you might also give lost corporate souls a meaning back to the lives. There's only so many pointless Power Point decks a person can do.
Steve Jobs Did It Again – First Content, Then Device And Now Mobile Ads
Apple will be the talk of the town in mobile advertising this year. Last week at Apple’s OS 4 event, Jobs presented what advertising industry has been asking from mobile: iAd - the engagement media with scale and quality.
For brands, mobile advertising has had a big promise but no breakthrough: digital media and technology companies trying to fit the traditional online advertising model - mainly display and search - into mobile have not taken off. Mobile media is different to online: being based on communications and quick tasks one performs, not browsing, mobile requires different user experience. Running banners on mobile is like running radio ads on tv.
Startup Jobs: Equity, Pay, Fame And Fortune
Those who say there are no interesting opportunities in the Nordics clearly don't know what they are talking about. An ideal place to start the exploration is our job board at http://www.arcticstartup.com/jobs/. This is invaluable destination for those who are not yet confortable setting up their own shop, but want to learn to the ropes with a solid team that already know what they are doing, but still want to be in the eye of the storm.
Working in a startup is ultimate experience and much more. You are running against time with too little resources, a boat load of passionate people who just absolutely love every little bit of their product, team, people and purpose. And everyday single day is different, very different. How much more fun can one have while still not breaking the law?
Get The ArcticIndex iPhone App Now!
ArcticIndex, our directory for Nordic and Baltic startups, people, startup jobs and events, just got iPhoned. ArcticIndex iPhone app is developed by Arun Prakash Rajendran, a passionate mobile entrepreneur living in Göteborg, Sweden. You can check out the App at Prakash's app gallery, or get it directly here.
I have used the app for couple of days now and love the ease I can check out the new events listings. Similarly, if you're looking for a startup to join its a whim to check out the latest jobs at ArcticIndex and see what the company is all about from the Index.
We will introduce more features for ArcticIndex soon, so make sure you have your iPhone App ready when that happens.
Co-editor for Sweden!
The Nordic and Baltic startup scenes have come of age and ArcticStartup has grown with them. Much has been done, but there's still much to do. I will outline some of the changes, improvements and future plans below, but there's one message above else that should take priority: We are looking for a new member to fill big boots in our team. We are looking for a full-time co-editor for Sweden. This role is a big deal and it will also command equal compensation.
We will offer a modest monthly salary and equity for a suitable candidate who is a real self-starter and can take the lead in the Swedish market building a strong editorial side-by-side with the team in Finland, as well as develop the monetization and business areas, which we will identify together. We expect you to have:
- Some previous writing experience (a personal blog or articles in other publications)
- An interest in reporting on breaking stories
- Familiarity with the Web and online business
- Fluency in Swedish and English
- An interest in entrepreneurship
- An interest not only in journalism, but also in monetizing an online media
Also:
- Previous work or connections with advertisers are a plus
We don't care so much about what you have done before, but want to hear what you will do in the future as the co-editor of ArcticStartup. Send your application to editor(at)arcticstartup.com by 20 December 2009.
The co-editor will join a strong team. Antti Vilpponen has taken on an important role as our new CEO making sure the business stays on course. Antti will also have an active role writing stories just as before, and will keep our product development on schedule. What product development, I hear you asking.
We recognize that there are a number of ways we could help out the startups in their journey from an idea to a successful business. We have watched the space for quite a while and have subsequently identified the areas we believe we can really help out. It's still early days regarding the product and we'll be sure to let you try it, see it and comment on it when there's something ready. I'm happy to announce that Karri Saarinen will lead our product development with the help of the rest of the team.
Further, Hendrik Morkel has joined us as our new cleantech writer to take the growing cleantech editorial forward with Päivi Kangasmäki and myself. Nick Mueller has also joined us to cover Sweden. We are really excited to welcome both writers to our editorial team (see everybody's bios here). Welcome guys!
On the same note, we are sad to inform you that our Sweden correspondent Paula Marttila has left the team. We thank Paula for her invaluable contribution and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
Exciting times!
ArcticIndex To Make The Community Tick
There are roughly 350 startups and 200 individuals already listed in ArcticIndex. This is becoming an increasingly important destination and a resource for anyone looking for information on any startup that comes from the Northern Europe.
We have heard of cases where an investors have heard about a startup and subsequently contacted them (and sometimes even invested) when they have been able to look up a name from the ArcticIndex. Same goes for the media. We break stories on many new startups that the big media then picks up and writes about. Yes, you guessed it: ArcticIndex is where they go check out the facts on those startups.
If you have a startup and have not listed yours yet, do it now. And if you have yours listed, do update your information! Why? Because this is the information that gets printed and looked at as a fact. So if you have had subsequent financing rounds, new key employees, product releases, do yourself a favor and write it in the ArcticIndex, since this is what the readers, investors and the media will judge your startup by. This is also where we pick up new startups to write about.
Get In The Know With ArcticIndex
The second half of 2009 is well under way as the late comers have finally returned from their summer holidays and the focus is once again put back into work. While the economies around the world are showing slight rebound from the nasty recession, things are still uncertain. This however doesn't seem to be the case with startups - the uncertainty has not startups all that hard, compared to the bigger giants. One proof of this is that many startups are still recruiting.
New Job Openings
We have been slowly developing ArcticIndex with KiskoLabs to make it even more useful for the Nordic and Baltic entrepreneurship community, which seems to grow bigger and stronger by the day.
ArcticIndex is the primary information resource of Nordic and Baltic startups and the entrepreneurs behind them. It's effectively your one stop shop for getting the latest information on the companies and people region, whatever your need.
The platform has developed nicely and the latest addition to the service, a job board, is starting to get traction and we're seeing more and more activity in there.
Go and check out some very exciting opportunities that have been posted on the Job Board or post your own (here).
Amidst Downturn - Startups Are Recruiting
Last week we launched some new features to our ArcticIndex, the service you can use to find out about startups in the Nordics as well as Baltics and the people associated with these companies. On top of the shiny new design, we have launched a job board that has gotten fair share of interest already.
The job board is free for everyone to use. All you need to do is register your company to the ArcticIndex and add the position you need to get filled.
Already, five companies are looking for talent. Do apply for the positions if they are of interest and hey, if you know someone in need of a job during these times - be sure to tip them of these killer positions:
- Appear: Software Engineer With Customer Skills
- Oak Ventures Oy: Freelance Junior Consultant/Writer
- Netcycler: Senior Web Developer
- Ironstar Helsinki: Game Designer
- Kisko Labs: Programmer
