Inside Startup sauna
Many of you have heard of the Finnish business accelerator StartupSauna startupsauna.com . Our team Taxi Jet jettaxi.mobi has passed the selection of 200 teams in Russia and is now located in Helsinki. I want to share my personal impressions of the program.
AVG
Teams work in the most famous coworking space in Helsinki - Aalto Venture Garage, with an area of 700 sq.m. In this space, two conference rooms (open and closed), a large kitchen and a cafeteria, numerous open and closed sections and even a meeting room in the form of a sauna were freely located. By the way, a real sauna is also available. The Garage is tastefully decorated (probably the students of the Faculty of Design located next door have tried).
But the most interesting and attractive here, however, is that you never know who you will meet today in the Garage. This may be the Minister of Economic Development of Finland or, for example, Mighty Eagle (Peter Westerbaka) - Marketing Director of Rovio (Angry Birds).
Startup weekdays.
In the first week, we were convinced that it is very difficult to develop here in the afternoon. Therefore, all tasks associated with it, it is better to leave for the evening or even night. This is due to the fact that meetings with coaches (mentors) and other events occupy most of the daytime.
The main focus in the first week was on the quality of the startup presentation (pitch). Three coaches worked with us in lecture form, each with their own special technique.
In addition to general coaching, individual meetings with experts are also scheduled. Like pitches, everything is also time-bound: exactly 15 minutes are given for communication, after which the next team kicks you out “kindly”. Experts give specific advice on promoting a startup, answer questions, many of them are investors, are directly related to Finnish venture funds, have great connections for implementing a project in Scandinavia.
At the end of each week, the head coach of the sauna arranges the so-called KTSO (Kick the shit out session). At which the results of the week are summed up, and all unsuitable are put on peas. They are forced to report in an absolutely unpredictable form, displaying teams in clean water.
In addition, in the Aalto Venture Garage, where the teams are located, all the time there are various startup conferences for more than 300 people, not always related to Startup Sauna. The garage at this time resembles a beehive teeming with men in expensive jackets.
Every week, VIPs visit the garage. The first week Zerply CEO Christopher Karltop angel.co/ckarltorp came . He told the story of how his team, at first, being under the scrutiny of a number of Silicon Valley funds, did not receive a dime for a year. Through his story, he dispelled the hopes of teams for quick seed funding at the end of the Startup Saunas and advised them to concentrate on internal resources.
“It’s pointless to run after funds, for a good startup investors will send a car themselves.”
Christopher recommended angel.co as the main tool for interacting with them.
In the second week, we were visited by ex-CEO of MySQL Martin Mikos www.crunchbase.com/person/marten-mickos . He talked about his hard fight against Oracle and gave some advice to start-up companies. Unfortunately, from overwork after work for 14 hours two days in a row I fell asleep right at his lecture, so I can’t tell more about Martin.
This week we were invited by Bill Payne, who is called the legend of the angelic funding of the United States. www.fiban.org/billpayne
This is a man of the old school, pays much attention to business plans for the five years ahead. He talked about pitching with angels and gave useful templates. The meeting was held at the Finnvera Angels Union of Finland business center. At the end of the general presentation, two teams from the sauna demonstrated a live pitch, one of which got a chance for a second meeting. On Thursday, all the angels will flock to BBQ “Angel wings” in the garage. There will be an opportunity, in a relaxed atmosphere, to get a lot of useful information.
Life outside the Sauna.
The first problem is very expensive food. The good news is that once a week you can eat at the so-called Startup Barbecue in the Garage itself.
Transport also leaves much to be desired. To get from the hotel to the place of work you need to pay 4.5 euros one way, so we bought bicycles on the analogue of the local Ibei (huuto.net), for only a fifty piece. Another feature is the fact that beer is freely available in the garage all day, so everyone drinks it a lot. But you won’t get drunk with him.
You can read more about our “life” in the sauna on our blog blog.jettaxi.mobi.
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