finland hits different ft. startup life
it all started with an acceptance email from aaltoes ignite, we were the only team flying from india for ignite26 batch and suddenly this whole thing was actually happening, met our friends, had one of the craziest nights before leaving and finally we were set, packed and ready to leave, made sure everything was sorted, just to realise after reaching delhi that we forgot the headrest and raincoat, damn classic, delhi to helsinki 8 hour flight was actually pretty useful, we sat down and went through the work ahead for the next 3 months, talked through a few things, and finally landed in helsinki, stepped out of the airport, met our hosts and headed straight to our stay, the views were 10/10, finland genuinely feels like god himself worked on the aesthetics, and finally reached our stay for next 3 months.
and oh yeah, five days before coming to finland, i turned 22. happy birthday to me, i guess, what a way to start 22.
espoo finland
espoo honestly felt very different the forests, lakes, rain and midnight sun made the whole place look unreal, it just had that dark series kind of vibe, the view from the apartment was just insane, the lake was so perfect, tried to unpack the luggage but yeah that wasn't happening, our friend came over to visit and somehow that turned into hours of talking, 12 am came and we were still going, guys being guys the day went well, was super tired and i still remember sleeping with 4 alarms set for the next day's excursion.
the excursion started with me waking up on the 3rd alarm, maps somehow worked perfectly and we reached the location, met our friend who introduced us to the rest of the ignite26 batch, reached the spot in the woods and everything just felt right, we attended the sessions, walked around the forest, had some good food and bbq, played frisbee, went for saunas, sat by the lake and even went on a boat ride everything just kept getting better.
the next day started with the 10km hike exactly as planned, basically a bunch of builders finally touching grass ahh moment, the hike started and of course it was raining and yeah we regretted forgetting the raincoat pretty quickly, me and my friend were just in hoodies hoping they would save us, the hike was barefoot too which somehow made it even more fun, along the way we got some of the best views, got kinda lost for a while but it was all good, eventually finished the whole 10km pretty well and made up for it with some serious food and bbq, that night it was raining again, just the 4 of us in the room, and somehow we convinced ourselves the whole place looked like a horror movie, started making up stories and connecting random events, making the whole thing way more scary than it actually was ( all grown men btw ) the next morning, the excursion wrapped up with a frisbee match a pretty solid way to end a couple of days that felt way longer than they actually were, during the excursion we met some of the most cracked people from the batch and instantly vibed with them, it felt like we'd known each other for years even though we were meeting for the first time, at that point we had no idea these people would end up becoming lifelong friends, somehow we came out of those few days with some of the best memories.
fun's over, building arc started
back from the excursion we were locked in, startup sauna became our base ( trust me it's a damn workspace, not a sauna ) the actual grind started with sessions from DLA law firm and many more, then we got straight to work on the software prototype and need to say, the hosts had this crazy energy that could light up the entire batch.
we had been working on it for the past 8 months but the next 2 days were different, we had to turn everything we'd built so far into a proper working software prototype, so we decided to locked in, worked through the day stayed late into the night and kept pushing everything into production and somehow, we got it done, the software was working, the software demo was ready and after 8 months we finally had something we could actually show people, seeing all of that come together in just 2 days was honestly mad, after that, the routine became pretty simple, work from the bed, run to df workspace, work through the day, come back late, hang out for a bit and repeat somewhere between all that we figured out groceries and then discovered our biggest saviour wolt, definitely spent more than we should have on food there but it kept us alive by the end of june, the demo was up to mark and testing was still going on, we were tired as hell but the product was finally moving, june ended pretty well too, a beach, a good swim and some great people around, not a bad way to close the productive month.
july, fully locked in
july started with us being completely locked in with the software demo, while also setting up the company, managing the team and freelance def tech researcher's back in india, at the same time conversations started moving with defence tech stakeholders, major companies, mentors and people from finnish defence tech companies, most of the month went into r&d, understanding the ecosystem and making the software more user friendly and efficient.
we also got to visit antler finland, got some good insights from their partner and team on the finnish startup ecosystem, how things move here and what the market actually looks like, it gave us a much better sense of the space and made us rethink a few things, now back to building was basically powered by energy drinks and wolt, the usual saviour, long hours on the product, jumping between r&d, meetings and everything else that needed to get done somehow that just became the routine, in between all that, we kept finding reasons to get out, helsinki became a regular spot, roaming around with friends, checking out random places, visiting lakes whenever we needed a break and taking random trips that were never really planned, those breaks honestly made the month a lot better.
then came july 22, y combinator night helsinki, deep tech at verda and this was easily one of the craziest nights of the trip, walked in and found people building some seriously wild stuff, from deep tech and defence to things completely outside our space, met founders, researchers and builders working on some insane ideas, the best part was how easy it was to just walk up to someone and start talking. we missed a few excursions nokia factory, superell, because of meetings, but the ones we made it to were worth it, every visit gave us a different look at what companies here had built and how they operated, towards the end of july, partnered another team from the ignite and got together for the bbq, somehow we ended up taking the entire shopping cart to startup sauna, still don't know why that felt like a completely normal thing to do, we made pasta, salad, sausages and grilled pretty much everything we could find, then came the saunas ah perfect, and we met some seriously cracked defence tech people too, teams already testing aerial and ground systems, hearing what they were building and where they were taking it was honestly insane.
july ended up being a mix of building, r&d, meetings, defence tech, random trips, lakes, helsinki nights, cracked founders and way too many energy drinks, somewhere in between all of it, we stopped feeling like visitors and started feeling like we were actually part of the ecosystem.
august, things got real
august started differently, the working software was finally ready and suddenly things started moving way faster than we expected, we secured a solid investment commitment from a vc, started getting crazy reach outs through people we'd met along the way and even got private equity interest in the product, then came product acquisition offers too, at this point it felt like everything we'd been building towards was finally starting to show up, the whole month basically turned into meetings, pitches, presentations and trying to keep up with everything coming our way, one meeting would lead to another, someone would introduce us to someone else and suddenly the calendar was packed, honestly it was getting a little overwhelming but in a good way, we were finally seeing what all those months of building could lead to.
outside of work august still had its moments late night walks, saunas, exploring the city, random plans with friends and just making the most of being in finland, we made some really good memories.
by the end of august, we had an investment commitment, acquisition interest in the product and a bunch of conversations that could have taken us in completely different directions, looking back it was easily one of the wildest months of the trip.
and somehow the biggest mystery still remains, despite having the product ready and everything going our way, we never ended up presenting at the demo day, the best part was probably the ecosystem and the people we met along the way, the friends, founders and builders who made those three months what they were, august came to an end and with it the trip was getting close to the finish line, honestly, what a journey.
and if you somehow made it this far and still want to know more about me, catch me on, linkedin or email, somehow easier than catching me at demo day. paveen