First Exit From Summer Of Startups
Experq started as a project during last year's Summer of Startups program organized by Aalto Entrepreneurship Society. It's main goal was to improve customer relations through feedback with the help of easy mass text messages. After the program ended, the start-up continued with focus on R&D and go-to-market activities. Experq have recently closed their first commercial partner (a significant player in travel industry). We just learned that Experq's team sold their company to another team who will continue working on Experq. No details of the deal were disclosed but this makes Experq the first exit from a Summer of Startup's program! To find out reasons for exit and details of the new project, we talked with Jens Sørensen, CEO, and Lauri Hynynen, COO.
Summer of Startups 2.0
After last year's overwhelming success, Aalto Entrepreneurship society is organizing Summer of Startups again this year. The program is targeted at entrepreneurial-minded people that have an idea but so far have not done anything about it. Summer of Startups help develop and refine such ideas, build a good team and teach the participants 'what needs to be taken into account when launching a startup – and beyond' as their website states. The program lasts for 10 weeks during which the teams would go from idea to early-stage prototypes. To facilitate the work, teams get free co-working space for the whole duration of the program, coaching and mentoring from leading people in the local start-up scene plus 4000-5000€ pre-seed funding.
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 Bootcamp Graduates An Interesting Set of Ideas
Last Friday, 100+ people gathered in a converted workshop in Otaniemi to witness the results of the latest AaltoVG Bootcamp. After the traditional welcome words, the teams were lined up and delivered the latest version of their one line/sentence summary of their idea, and having seen them just one week ago the transformation was remarkable.
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.
Nothing To Do During The Long-Winding Nordic Summer?
Something that none of my friends abroad have been able to understand is the Finnish summer holiday. You take four to eight weeks holiday and for this sacrifice you get an extra pay day. For good or for ill, that's nevertheless how we roll here in the Nordics. Not all of us, but most. Most of us entrepreneurs are different though and love to work on cool projects instead shutting down for the summer. And thus, if you find yourself bored out of your mind once your country shuts down for the summer, there is a way out: build a startup!
