Nordic Startup News Early Stage Startup News From The Nordics
Last week he visited us at the Founders House in Copenhagen to talk about Ultrahack, part of SlushHacks, the biggest European hackathon happening in Helsinki this November. In addition, he told us about an even bigger startup event called Slush.
“Each time I travel to different (Nordic) cities, I try to visit few co-working spaces. This time I was in CPH to promote the Nordic #xNordics/Nordic Startup Bits SXSW 2016 initiative, where we are planning to go together as one Nordic nation for the 3rd time.” says Peter, co-founder of the Health Innovation Village at GE Healthcare
Peter has also had the chance to take on the Nordic Startup Bits operations in Finland and start sharing more of the entrepreneurial scene there, because there is a lot going on in Helsinki this Autumn! He hangs out with the residents all day wearing the ultimate conversation starter – an Ultrahack t-shirt – that, by virtue of it’s notoriety in the programming world – sparks discussions about what Ultrahack is, why is he talking about it in a tech-startup co-working space, and how residents can join right away. At Founders House, he participated in a knowledge-sharing event with Nordic Startup Bits. Alongside CEOs and venture capitalists who are part of the space’s network, he shared details about the upcoming hackathon. Read on to see what he told us about it!
Slush is a huge two-day event where startups meet investors to pitch their ideas and more. It’s happening for the ninth time, this year on the 11th and 12th of November in Helsinki, and the organizers expect over 17 000 participants. They have prepared something for everyone – speakers, pitching, demonstrations, talks, and lots of networking. Participants include not only startups and venture capitalists but also well established companies, innovators, students, and anyone who wishes to be part of the startup movement.
“We were closely connected to Slush for many years. We responded to the feedback that there is nothing for developers in Slush. It was not the place so we said “Let’s make it a place for them” Let’s make it a huge long hackathon where corporates can join with their teams.” he says
Ultrahack has 8 challenges sponsored by companies who want to develop tech innovation, and it has set a goal of involving between 500-600 developers in the game. APIs and tools are provided so that people with ideas, but less tech knowledge, can join as well. Finnish Postal Office, Nordea Bank, Nose Day Foundation, the new Children’s Hospital, SAP, Tieto Corporation, City of Helsinki with Open Knowledge Finland association, Microsoft plus Here, with various traffic stakeholders for MaaS hack are the organizations that have posed the challenges for the participants. Some sponsors have tech innovation power and have previously organized hackathons, so the teams joining the competition will be a mix of intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs.
As Peter is strongly involved in GE Healthcare, Health Innovation Village, he shared that he is personally most excited to see how the Happy Hospital Hack unfolds. For now, the main excitement at Ultrahack is centered upon the the pre-game stage that opened on the 1st of September, where teams can register and companies can present their challenges. This hackathon is unique, because in addition to the standard 48 hours competition, the teams have over a month to prepare.
In the end, Peter shared the keys to success at Ultrahack:
• Right “can do”attitude
• Out-of-the-box thinking
• Ability to generate a working and valuable prototype during the pre-game phase and the 48 hours hackathon.
An extra tip he gives is to be quick with registration:
” The faster you register, the more time you have to prepare – the tools are sophisticated and lots of tips, support, coaching, mentors etc. are available,” he says,
