Arctic15 - The Best Way To Launch Your Company In 2011

We're very excited to announce a completely new event format called Arctic15 that we've been putting together since late last year. The event, in its simplest form, will be the best way to launch your company in 2011. We love technology entrepreneurship and we want to support it in the best way we can. Therefore, Arctic15 will launch 15 of the most potential technology startups from the region together with world class keynote speakers. The event will be organised on 22nd of September in Helsinki, Finland. If you've been to our ArcticEvenings, you know Arctic15 will rock.

Read more »

Mindtrek's First Day - Full Of Variety

Jyri Engeström starting his keynoteCheck, check... mike working, reporting from the Mindtrek conference from Tampere where some 800 people are networking, discussing internet and digital media at large. The day has been action packed and there has been a lot of different content to consume. Furthermore, the audience saw some top notch speakers at Mindtrek this year, especially Chris Messina and Jyri Engeström, who were keynote speakers continuing on the post they wrote for ArcticStartup earlier.

The day began with a keynote by Chris Messina. He talked about identity as a platform. Judging on the amount of comments from people on the aisles in the conference, Chris hit top on with his presentation. Although there were some illogicalities, which he admits, it's always great to hear news from The Valley on the trends that are pumping there.

Read more »

Start-ups taking over MindTrek

As hinted earlier ,we're organizing a trip to MindTrek Conference with Culminatum, Sombiz, Floobs and the guys at MindTrek.

The idea is to rent a bus and take off to Tampere together from Helsinki with a bus full of start-ups. Spend the Oct. 8th and 9th at the Conference and give the start-ups a possibility to pitch at Startup Launchpad competition.

The competition will have a worthwhile set of prizes, which without going into too much detail yet include face-time with some big names in the industry and tickets to one of the most notable Internet Conferences in Europe. We will announce the jury line-up as well as the prizes as soon as they get confirmed.

To enter the Launchpad competition you need to:



  • Fill in the online form that you will find on the website (here)



  • In the form you will be required to provide basic information about the company and founders, a description of your service/product and why your company should win.



  • In addition to this, an optional maximum 2 minutes video uploaded to YouTube (or other server accessible for us) describing the company and the product would be highly appreciated. You can put the link on the form.


  • Proposals must be submitted in English.There is no fee for registering your company in the MindTrek Startup Launchpad. If your company is selected, to confirm your participation, you will have to register to the conference. So those who are presenting the startup company must register and pay the registration fee.



  • A maximum of 7 start-ups will be carefully selected from the submitted applications, and will demonstrate in front of a panel of expert judges in a room where any conference participant will have access to, on Thursday, October 9th.


The jury as well as the audience may ask questions during the Q&A session which will follow each presentation. The jury will also give feedback after the presentation.

If you're a start-up and you'd like to come along and reserve a place in the bus, first you need to register and then just let me know you want to come along by dropping me a quick mail at ville [at] arcticstartup [dot] com.

There is no fee for registering your company in the MindTrek Startup Launchpad itself. If your company is selected, to confirm your participation, you will have to register to the conference. So those who are presenting the start-up company must register and pay the registration fee, but you do get a 10% off by using STARTMIND-08 code when registering. Naturally, if you do register the bus ride to Tampere and back is free of charge thanks to Tommi at Culminatum.

Read more »