#17 - Taneli Tikka
This week we talked to one of the most well known serial entrepreneurs in Finland - Taneli Tikka. He's been part of many startups, but also built some of his own companies and also bankrupted one, and failed in a few. We talked to him about the ride along all the years and what he has learned, both from the success cases as well as bankruptcies. In addition to this we also discussed a little how the startup environment has changed in the 10+ years from the perspectives of investors and entrepreneurs. Did you know he got 5 million euro investment on a 20 million pre-money valuation on his first company, just based on slideware?
#16 - Mike Reiner of Startup Wise Guys
We've managed to get to 16 episodes already! This week on Unfair Advantage we talk to Mike Reiner, one of the people behind the Estonian Startup Wise Guys accelerator program. Startup Wise Guys is an early stage accelerator aimed at interesting companies who want to tap into the potential of Scandinavia as well as Russia from Estonia. The accelerator announced their first batch of companies a while ago and they're coming from all over Europe. We talk to Mike about the program, how many applications they received and where they plan to take. Join us for another exciting episode and if you like it - please tell your friends and rate it in iTunes, we appreciate it!
#13 - Carl Waldekranz of Tictail
In our thirteenth show we talk to Carl Waldekranz, the CEO and co-founder of Tictail. Tictail positions themselves as the easiest, prettiest and most social way to sell stuff online. In the show we talk to Carl about what led them to start Tictail and how they actually went about building the team. There are a lot of great small stories there, we strongly suggest you listen to them. In addition, the company has also worked with Spotify and Wrapp, designing their typeface for both of the companies.
We'd also like to thank our sponsor for this week - Kisko Labs, for supporting the show. Kisko Labs makes people happy by solving their problems with digital services. They've got a neat offering called Kisko Kickstart that will develop an idea into a minimum viable product in five weeks. This helps companies understand how the idea would work in a business environment.
#12 - Tommi Holmgren Of Cabforce
Tommi Holmgren of Cabforce is our guest this week. Cabforce is an online service for booking a cab and pre-paying it before the ride. This is an obvious advantage to business travelers as they can pay the ride with their credit cards and get all the receips electronically. The service is out in 14 cities in Europe at the moment, but it will be going live in tens of cities during this year.
We'd also like to thank our sponsor for this week - Kisko Labs, for supporting the show. Kisko Labs makes people happy by solving their problems with digital services. They've got a neat offering called Kisko Kickstart that will develop an idea into a minimum viable product in five weeks. This helps companies understand how the idea would work in a business environment.
#11 - Instinct And Acting Fast On Problems
We missed last week due to some scheduling challenges, but we're back this week a little earlier with our talk show. This week we talk to Petteri Koponen, the co-founder of Lifeline Ventures as well as the former co-founder of Jaiku and First Hop. He's got a colorful past with this companies and in living through them, built up an enormous amount of experience. Lifeline Ventures has also become one of the prominent early stage investors in Finland through their 19 investments.
We'd also like to thank our sponsor for this week - Kisko Labs, for supporting the show. Kisko Labs makes people happy by solving their problems with digital services. They've got a neat offering called Kisko Kickstart that will develop an idea into a minimum viable product in five weeks. This helps companies understand how the idea would work in a business environment.
#10 - Interviewing The Interviewer
This week, well, this week was different on Unfair Advantage. Our guest on the show is Antti Vilpponen, the Co-Founder and CEO of ArcticStartup. We work in the same office, but haven't talked in detail how ArcticStartup got started and why it does what it does. Instead of having this discussion over lunch or beer, we decided to record it and make it into an episode of Unfair Advantage. We discuss the backgrounds of ArcticStartup, the role of media and also what are some of the ways ArcticStartup sees itself going forward. Fully experimental, so do give us your feedback in the comments!
#9 - The Amount Of Time Put Into That Blackhole
This week we talk to the CEO and Co-founder of Flattr, Linus Olsson. Flattr is a social micro payment system that has recently received a €1.6 million investment that values the company at €10 million. We talked to Olsson about the investment as well as their philosophy behind Flattr. The company has also recently announced partnerships with 5by5 Network as well as Instacast, both working in the space of podcasts. Carrying with the interview, we decided to implement flattring to our podcast as well. If you're using Instacast on the iOS platform to listen to podcasts - you can now flattr us through the arrow link at the bottom of the window.
This week we are supported by Gapps.fi - a Helsinki-based company that brings the Google productivity tools to your workplace. They've got a special offer for all those who ping them and say they came from ArcticStartup. Also, they are looking for talented people to work with them in the area of sales and technical implementation. Big thanks to Gapps for supporting the show.
#8 - Wrapp With Two P's
In our eighth episode we dive into discuss the new rising star of Sweden - Wrapp. We've reported on the company in the past, especially in them raising two rounds of financing worth more than $10 million. The rounds were raised from Atomico Ventures as well as Greylock Partners, both highly acclaimed investors. The first round invested into the company was by Creandum, the acclaimed Swedish investment house that has stakes also in companies such as Spotify. We talk to Carl Fritjofsson, the COO of Wrapp on how exactly the company got setup and what they are really after. Believe us, there is so much more to the company than simply gift cards. After listening to the show, you're going to understand exactly why the $10+ million makes a lot of sense.
This week we are supported by Gapps.fi - a Helsinki-based company that brings the Google productivity tools to your workplace. They've got a special offer for all those who ping them and say they came from ArcticStartup. Also, they are looking for talented people to work with them in the area of sales and technical implementation. Big thanks to Gapps for supporting the show.
#7 - Space Artifacts
In our seventh episode of Unfair Advantage we talk to Christoph Thur of Ovelin. Ovelin has created a game called Wildchords that has attracted a lot of interest both from consumers, but also from investors. Recently they closed a €1.1 million investment from True Ventures. We talked to Christoph to understand how Ovelin went about creating Wildchords, but also how the game has been distributed and what were the steps leading up to the closing of the investment from one of the top-tier investors in the US.
Our sponsor for this week is Gapps.fi - a Helsinki-based company that brings the Google productivity tools to your workplace. They've got a special offer for all those who ping them and say they came from ArcticStartup. Big thanks to Gapps for supporting the show.
Mojang Raises Over $450k For Charity
Last weekend, Mojang spent some 2,5 days developing games at their offices for the good of charity. The worked together with the HumbleBundle folks through an event titled Mojam and raised money for four charities; Child's Play, Electronic Frontier Foundation, charity: water and the American Red Cross. During the weekend, they raised over $450 000 from over 81 000 people.
People were able to donate money and in doing so receive the games the Minecraft developers were building over the weekend. The average purchase thus was $5,62. Raising over $450 000 during a couple of days is phenomenal and just shows the amount of visibility and interest Mojang is able to attract.
#6 - I Try Not To Play Minecraft At Home
Unfair Advantage has reached its sixth episode and on the show we talk to Daniel Kaplan of Mojang. We've covered Mojang many times in the past and they are the creators of Minecraft, the hugely popular game where you...err.. listen to the show to hear how it's pitched. Daniel joined the company back in 2010 already and he was the first employee. It was only Markus Persson and him back then, so Daniel has enjoyed the company ride quite sometime.
Our sponsor for this week is Gapps.fi - a Helsinki-based company that brings the Google productivity tools to your workplace. They've got a special offer for all those who ping them and say they came from ArcticStartup.
#5 - Operating Systems Of Our Lives
In the fifth episode we talk to Estonian investor and serial entrepreneur Allan Martinson. Allan Martinson is the managing and founding partner of MTVP. MTVP is one of the more well known and successful investment companies operating in the Baltic region. In the show, we discuss numerous things about the Nordic and Baltic startup scene as well as the role of accelerators. Martinson also tells us what he thinks needs to be done on the regional scale to get things working better and more effectively.
We also want to thank our first sponsor of the show: Kippt.com - it makes bookmarking and reading the web easier (and we'd like to add beautiful). It works well on your browser as well as on your mobile devices like iPad and iPhone.
Finally - you're also able to now find us in the top navigation under Unfair Advantage. You'll find all the shows there for future reference.
#4 - They Have To Suffer For Another Ten Years
The fourth episode of Unfair Advantage takes us to Denmark as we chat with Klaus Nyengaard, the Group CEO of Just Eat. Just Eat is originally from Denmark, where it was set up more than 10 years ago. In the last five or six years, the company has seen a huge growth in internationalisation and now operates in 15 countries. Their currently run forecasts that they will deliver somewhere around $750 million worth of food this year. Klaus Nyengaard gave us a very detailed view on their internationalisation strategy both from setting up shop yourself and acquiring existing players in the market to grow.
#3 - Do Things In Unconventional Ways
In our third episode we talked to Nikolaj Nyholm, a partner at Sunstone Capital in Copenhagen, Denmark. We wanted to talk to him as Sunstone had recently led a large investment into Gidsy. In the show we also talk Sunstone capital's way of doing business and what areas they see currently hot. He also shares some insight on Soundcloud and Prezi. Oh, and you need to listen in to hear what were some of the hot Nordic and Baltic companies they've passed, but have since then become successful.
#2 - In The Low Eight Figures
Unfair Advantage is out! Our guest this week is William Wolfram, the CEO and founder of DealDash. DealDash is a penny auction site with a lot of small innovations to improve the shopping experience. We talked to Will about pretty much everything related to DealDash; how he started it, what he did when he started the company, how they're doing financially and so forth. Listen in to hear the story of DealDash and what Will thinks of running a company that does revenue in the low eight figures annually.
#1 - It'll Get Better
The first episode of our new podcast is now out and it's called Unfair Advantage. In the weekly talk show we interview thinkers and doers from Northern Europe to understand what makes them tick. The show is co-hosted by me, Antti Vilpponen and our writer Greg Anderson. In our first show we interviewed Alex Esser from Sweden. He is one of the founding members of Tunaspot, a location based music discovery service. The service got its start from Copenhagen Startup weekend in 2011.
