Events

Media Honeypot, a “reverse pitching” event for startups and the traditional media industry, was held in Helsinki on April 6, 2016. I sat down with organizers Heikki “Hegu” Rotko, a long time media executive professional and Dmitri Sarle & Jan Ameri from Arctic Startup. Heikki  was recently at SXSW with me as part of the Team Finland Nordic Lighthouse program, …

Many of the world’s most successful companies and organizations are building open innovation platforms and communities and repositioning their brands as part of a global innovation network. As part of Crowdsourcing Week, April 11-15th,  Roland Harwood, co-founder and managing director of 100%Open, shares his tips on how to build your own open innovation ecosystem. By Roland Harwood Building on some …

This coming weekend, 15-17th April, the 7th Startup Weekend Helsinki comes to town. To “Launch a Startup in 54 hours” is the opportunity. Kicking-off on Friday evening, designers, developers, and innovators will pitch ideas to the crowd, form teams and build amazing startups over the course of the weekend. Results will be presented late on Sunday to an expectant crowd, …

Want to help shape the future of green cities and create sustainable solutions to climate challenges on a regional level? Join the Nordic Cities Workshop, held in Malmö, Sweden from the 28-29th of April, 2016. Climate-KIC works to create consistency between private, public, and academic initiatives on climate change. Their goal is to find solutions to environmental challenges through cooperation …

Trip Republic, the Helsinki-based startup based on travel planning and booking, has just secured a €200,000 round,  bringing their total funding amount since starting to €325,000. The startup was featured earlier this year at Travel Technology Europe  in London, where they were the sole Nordic company nominated for the prestigious Travel Technology Disrupt Award. The funding will be used to …

Live from Media Honeypot: I visited the deal room just before lunchtime and talked to Tuomas Maisala from Spinno, who was tasked with overseeing the matchmaking process. Though busy, the large room was running like clockwork.  Tuomas has years of experience under his belt arranging such events and whilst it was mainly an automated process, it still required talented human …

EzyInsights, a Finnish startup that has developed a social media analytics tool aimed at content providers, has launched a new product, the “SoMe Index”, at Media Honeypot 2016. The SoMe Index streamlines how content is accesses across all of the main social media platforms by finding the most relevant content to increase organic traffic. Duane Atkins from Ezyinsights hit the …

InfoShare 2016 is the biggest tech and new media conference in the entire Central and Eastern European region. For the 10th year in a row, the event will take place in Gdansk, Poland, from 18-20 May at the Amber Expo, the biggest expo center in Tricity. This  event brings in over 5,000 worldwide participants and 100 speakers spanning the entire …

This week, between the 5th and 6th of April, selected technology start-ups will meet face-to-face with top media brands from the region at Media Honeypot, a new event in Helsinki. Media Honeypot, hosted by Arctic Startup and Partners, brings together media houses and startups providing innovative media solutions, in order to find leads and get the best most innovative solutions …

Fintech startups from all over Europe were nominated for the European Fintech Awards in Holland.  Now, over 20 of them have been named as part of the “European Fintech Top 100“. This means that the top companies have been invited to participate in the European Fintech Awards on April 14th in Amsterdam, where the top 25 on the list will …

Scandinavia’s biggest awards show for startups, the Nordic Startup Awards, has published their shortlist for the best startups of the year out of 740 nominees. In May, the Nordic startup ecosystem gathers to pay tribute to the biggest stars in the scene.  Promising businesses, entrepreneurs, and community builders are honored with awards such as Startup of the Year, Best Newcomer, …

On March 18, Copenhagen hosted this year’s Nordic Startup Conference, lead by Tech Nordic Advocates.  The event aimed to stimulate the growth of startups and scaling by bringing investors, business leaders, and startups together in one place, to create a collaborative environment. “We are very pleased to be joint co-hosts for the Nordic Startup Conference, which is an important step …

The South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) is more like a festival than a traditional expo. It figures, as it has its roots as a film and music festival. SXSW consists of three main parts: Interactive, Music and Film.  My company, Vincit Oy, came for the Interactive part, as part of one of the Finnish companies coming along with the Nordic …

Earlier this month, a #nordicmade delegation of 30 Nordic startups attended the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco.  The tour, organized by STARTNordic, was part of an initiative that promotes the Nordic startup scene by connecting it to other startup ecosystems around the globe.  Juraj Pal of Sure gives a recap of the festival. Juraj Pal is a founder of Sure, …

In the Nordics, venture capitalists (VCs) are looking for smaller investments that are more secure in comparison to Silicon Valley. There has been a staggering 30% decrease in the number of $10m+ rounds in the Nordic technology sector within the first six weeks of 2016 alone. This has helped to spur companies such as Capital on Stage, who aim to …

This year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival is now in full swing.  The entire world has gathered for the massive event, which includes film and music festivals, and a technology conference where the latest trends and innovations make their world premiers.  But this year, like previous years, Denmark is practically invisible. The SXSW Festival is one of the largest festivals …

Polar  Bear Pitching 2016 is a global investment event where over the course of 2 days startups from different countries introduce their projects to the whole world – from a freezing ice hole in Oulu, Finland.  We interviewed Anna Svirelkina from To Round about her experience. The event, which is held yearly, allows competing startups to communicate with investors and …

The annual South by Southwest festival (aka SXSW) kicked off on Friday, and for the 7th year in a row, Finns are going over to Austin, Texas to show what they’re made of. The rest of the Nordics will also be represented at the Nordic Lighthouse. SXSW veteran Peter Green together with Pekka Pärnänen and Team Finland’s Hartti Suomela are …

Crowdsourcing isn’t a buzzword, neither is the sharing economy, crowdfunding, blockchain or collaborative economy—they’re already part of our lives. The cumulative disruption of these crowd-powered paradigms will have a significant influence on sectors worldwide. The question is: how will you position your company? We have heard these terms for the past couple of years, however, this year, you need to …

Many entrepreneurs believe that failure is the key to success.  Some Silicon Valley based investors will not even invest in startup founders who had not had a failed startup.  It is, indeed, an important skill to learn in the startup world to let go of something that is a dead end. However, as every founder knows, how far down the …