Ep 161: Aino Bergius
Tips how you can get the most out of the event + behind the scenes story how Slush went from 250 attendees to a global movement gathering investors with 3 trillion USD in assets under management under 1 roof.
Aino Bergius is the CEO of Slush. Having started as a volunteer and working her way up the organization, she is perfectly positioned to share with us what makes Slush the global success we know and love.
For those of you who don’t know, Slush is a conference that brings together founders, investors, and the startup ecosystem to create a positive culture towards entrepreneurship, profile the Nordics as a tech hub, and make venture capital more accessible. It started in 2008 as a gathering of 250 people and has grown into a global movement with thousands of attendees from over 100 different nationalities. Slush is known for its unique culture and the ability to adapt to the changing needs of the ecosystem.
On this episode we talk about:
The evolution of Slush
How Slush fosters a unique culture of innovation and entrepreneurship
Challenges of organizing large-scale events
How to make the most out of Slush as a startup
Find out more about Slush 2024 here https://slush.org/
We are on YouTube and Linkedin as well
Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTA
Connect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/
Read the full episode transcript below
Janis (00:05.055)
Hello friends, we're back with another episode of Pursuit of Scrappiness podcast. Whether building a business, running a team or just starting out in your career, we're here to bring you scrappy and actionable insights to help you become more productive. My name is Janis Zeps, always. With me today, my co -host, Uldis Teraudkalns, hey.
Uldis (00:22.217)
Hi, sir.
Janis (00:23.903)
Another staple of this podcast is a reminder to follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts, helps more than you know. In exchange for that, you'll find around 160 episodes by now covering all topics you need to become scrappier and better version of yourself in life and business. So plenty to explore. If this is even your first episode, we're covering topics that are evergreen, as we like to say. So if you wanna learn about scrappiness, productivity, and all sorts of stuff, follow us. You will be also the first one to know every Tuesday when the new episode comes out, like.
luck work. Spotify and Apple podcasts, that's what we encourage. But if you have a really exotic podcast player, do that as well. We're happy for everyone. All right. If someone approached you, let's say 16 years ago and said, let's go to Helsinki during the cold, dark month of November, when water and snow is mixing on the streets, your first reaction might have been, okay, explain more, tell me more why.
But where do I sign? I think for the last 10 years or so, a bit more maybe, where do I sign is pretty straight answer because everybody knows, right? We in this region, Baltic Sea, Nordics, larger Europe as a whole, we know that there is slush taking place in Helsinki every November. It's a definite fixture, I think, on many calendars or at least a placeholder reminder. But definitely people know it's happening and are considering every year.
Uldis (01:23.497)
Where do I sign?
Aino Bergius (01:24.334)
...
Janis (01:52.128)
Slash is the conference that's gathered big name founders and investors from all over the world each year, both on stage and off stage. Truly amazing event, great for networking and just the whole vibe. You've been there, I don't need to explain you, right? We decided to look more into it today and with someone who knows the event from the inside out, what also makes me excited about today's conversation, if I would ask you how many...
Organizations, can you name, which are headed by someone who has started as a volunteer or trainee in the organization. And honestly, not that many, right? And Slush is actually one of them. So we're very happy to speak to Aino Bergius today. She's CEO of Slush and she actually started her journey with Slush 10 years ago, has participated in seven events and worked her way up from a volunteer position previously to also CEO, CFO role, and now is the CEO of Slush.
massive ship that will dock at Helsinki on November 20 and 21 this year once again. Very welcome, I know, hey.
Aino Bergius (02:55.534)
Hi, thanks for having me.
Janis (02:58.88)
Awesome, thanks for coming to share what's going on and how the Slush come together. If you go to slush .org, people would have noticed, some maybe have already registered, noticed that Slush calls itself the most focused event on earth. And it's actually one of the topics we're gonna discuss today. Like, if you're a founder, startup founder, or company founder.
Aino Bergius (03:03.437)
Of course.
Janis (03:22.816)
How can you make most out of this event? So I will share some of the insights from her experience, what she advises in that area. We'll also be talking about fascinating way that Slush has managed to sustain its culture and build its culture over the years, knowing that there's a very high rotation of people organizing every year, people do change. There's that challenge and I think a lot of organizations might learn from that.
And also going a bit behind the scenes. I mean, we go to events usually, we don't see what's going on into organizing such a massive undertaking. And, you know, let's see what we can find out what goes on behind the scenes a bit as well. All right. Well, if we start, I think an intro question. Slash has been around obviously for I think 16 years now already. We know what it is now today, but...
What was it 16 years ago? Can you share a bit of origin story, how it even started and became such a phenomenal event?
Aino Bergius (04:20.749)
Yeah, definitely. And this is actually a funny story. And I think we could spend the whole 40 or so minutes going through all the ups and downs of Slush. But to sum it up, somewhat to the three to four minute format. So to start with, Slush was founded in 2008 by five Finnish serial entrepreneurs. And they discovered back then that there wasn't a gathering for Finnish entrepreneurs to take part in. So they wanted to create one.
So gathering by founders, for founders, bringing people together and they so -called like created the first form of the Finnish startup ecosystem and they wanted to solve three different problems. So first build a radically positive culture towards entrepreneurship. Secondly, profile the Nordics as one of the major tech hubs globally and creating talent to build scalable businesses. And thirdly, last but not least, making venture capital more accessible.
So to put it simply, they wanted to see an increasing number of young people to go out there, change the world by building young companies that use technology to build scalable business models. And actually when the first slush took place, so in 2008, it was a gathering of 250 people. So basically the whole thing is sort of ecosystem. And I think that only tells about the magnitude or...
Janis (05:37.856)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (05:45.069)
the small scale of the Finnish startup ecosystem, it was 2008. And actually to fully understand the whole slush story and how it got to its current format, led by students and recent graduates, I need to tell you shortly another story, which is how the Aalto ES, Aalto Entrepreneurship Society was born. And in a couple of minutes, these stories will merge into one.
And it's worth noting that 20 years ago, the Finnish economy was once very dominated by a single company, our lovely mobile phone producer, Nokia. So in 2000, at the height of things, Nokia accounted for 4 % of the Finnish GDP, 21 % of total exports, and actually over 70 % of the total market cap of Helsinki stock exchange, which is insane to think about.
Janis (06:23.2)
Mm -hmm.
Janis (06:30.592)
Now.
Aino Bergius (06:42.125)
And also during the same time, there was a new university founded in 2010 called Aldo University, which merged three existing schools, so tech, business and arts together. And during that time Aldo IS, so Aldo Entrepreneurship Society was founded by Kristo Ovaska, later known as the founder of smartly .io as well.
And in 2011, the president of Aalto ES, then following on Christo, was Mikki Kuusi. So a guy that many of you might know, the founder and the CEO of Volt, but also a long time main organizer and CEO of Slush. So basically what happened is that after Nokia lost the race in smartphones, the downturn started and the group of students at Aalto ES,
organized a panel discussion event called Finland Post Welfare in March 2011. And it was sort of a success because it was the first event that Aalto has put together that received actually a national recognition around like when we talk about startup ecosystem. And what basically happened in 2011, the founders of Slush thought that they need to give Slush away to someone or the event won't be organized anymore.
So then Peter Westerparkka, who was one of the founders, also responsible of the development for the gaming company Rovio and in being involved in the making Angry Birds game popular, suggested, Miki, that you know, all the AI should take over the Slush brand and all the rights to it and start organizing the event. And basically what happened, Miki said, after one successful event, Finland Post Welfare thought,
Janis (08:21.825)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (08:31.756)
why not? And that's basically how Slush got to its current format led by students and recent graduates and I think like rest is history.
Janis (08:43.105)
That I didn't know actually, yeah, in such detail, that's interesting, because I knew that the students are involved, but I never kind of made the connection. But one thing I realized, it's a really good example of how, you know, we always talk about, let's give more power to, you know, young people, let's give more power to entrepreneurs. And this sounds like a good example of, I mean, you know.
Aino Bergius (08:49.483)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (09:01.067)
Mm.
Janis (09:10.017)
It's a lot of things obviously have happened since Nokia in Finland, but this is one of the really good things and a real example that other countries can probably take inspiration from, like just guys getting together, see something happening, see something growing, teaming up with, you know, a university in the sense. Awesome.
Aino Bergius (09:22.252)
Mm. Mm.
Uldis (09:27.657)
And also thinking for the posterity, right? How to make sure that it stays going, knowing that people are, you know, serial entrepreneurs jumping from thing and super busy. So that's a brilliant approach.
Janis (09:33.632)
Mm.
Janis (09:44.577)
Yeah, in the pre -discussion we already said, like, you know, I guess you know what slush is. It's this mixture of snow and water or rain or whatever, which seems a very fitting name for November. But I know Dom said that now it can happen in any month of the year. And we thought maybe with global warming, it becomes like this UNESCO heritage kind of thing. But...
Aino Bergius (09:52.492)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (09:58.027)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (10:08.747)
You
Janis (10:10.529)
But it's interesting, like I said in the intro, the timing, the weather, the darkness, and you still have the coolest event in the region taking place at that time. I remember I was in 2015 for the first time, and I think for half a year I couldn't shut up to everyone. I would say, you haven't been, go there, super awesome. Yeah.
Aino Bergius (10:24.748)
Well, thank you.
Aino Bergius (10:31.436)
Mm.
Uldis (10:36.425)
I remember that, distinctly remember that.
Janis (10:39.841)
And what I was amazed by, I mean, I haven't been to every event in the world, obviously, but I have been to a few and Slosch was just like this, seems like a party almost, but you merge it with business so well and then people on the stage or the names that you really knew and recognized, it was something different. That's what I'm trying to lead to. So it's doing different.
Aino Bergius (10:48.46)
Mm.
Janis (11:06.145)
and risky and new things, innovative things, part of Slush DNA in a sense as well.
Aino Bergius (11:13.036)
Yeah, actually, something funny to mention, like you mentioned that like your first time at Slush was 2015, my first time at Slush was 2014. And when I volunteered back then, I was 15 years old. And like something that I already back then realized that like, whoa, this is totally something different. Like, and why I got so excited about Slush was actually like for the reason that like,
like for a week, like Helsinki turns into this like hotspot of like startup ecosystem and gathers like a brilliant minds together to create something totally different. But to answer to your question, like, like Slush's mission is to create and help founders to change the world. And I think like something that is already very natural when we talk about something so complex as founding companies is that you need to take risks.
to succeed and imagine a future that doesn't exist yet and see how the technology is going to change that future that we all live in. So therefore, yes, I would say the slush needs to be able to take risks and in a way, shake the status quo to actually understand the founders' mental landscape as well, because founders are our most important customers if they're taking every day.
Janis (12:02.367)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (12:26.988)
risks when they go to the office to actually like change the future beyond recognition. I think like Slush definitely needs to be on board for that as well.
Janis (12:39.103)
point and if you would organize it in a large hall with white lights with no decorations or anything it's like a different vibe yeah it's it's now much bigger obviously when the event started so the question always with with growth and scale comes that and success also because it's recognized people know it now how do you keep the team now year -on -year motivated to
Aino Bergius (12:43.02)
Mm. It would be rather a different experience, I would say.
Aino Bergius (12:53.771)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (12:58.539)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (13:02.699)
Mm -hmm.
Janis (13:08.767)
to keep pushing, to try new things because the risk is obviously some complacency sets in. It's like, you know, we're successful, let's just do the same thing that we did last year.
Aino Bergius (13:13.547)
Yeah, I think that's a very good question. And I think like something that is pretty evident, like if we think about like first slush ever organized in 2000 and event, like 2008, the event looked like the ecosystem, I mentioned it was a gathering of 250 people now coming to the year 2024, the ecosystem looks quite different. But what is more important is that actually like founders needs.
are totally different. So what makes our work rather interesting is that we need to be actually able to dynamically change as the ecosystem change around us to answer to the new needs of founders. And I think like some tool that can be underestimated and something that we like repeat at the office like every day as well is like talk to your customer, like understand what do they need.
And for that year, actually every year, we have this like working period called like concept month, where we outline the biggest projects for each team and define the concepts that the team start working on. And these are actually usually based on the findings from the ecosystem or something that we have heard while talking to the customers. And to keep like a very, very specific or like concrete example is that imagine 2020 when the COVID pandemic started, we needed to cancel the main event.
which has been our primary tool for driving change. And of course, this setback required us to go back to the drawing board and think new ways to support founders in a world where actually physical events were no longer possible. And as a result, we thought, okay, how can we help the European startup ecosystem? And as a result, we launched Node, a free online community for startup founders offering mentoring sessions, office hours, meetings,
and meetings with leading European BCs. And I think like Node has since become a vital resource for founders operating like 365 days a year. And without these challenges posed by the COVID -19, we may have never explored the opportunity to, for example, create an online community like Node. And I think like last but not least, something that I see one of...
Janis (15:23.487)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (15:36.907)
competitive advantage, so to say, as an organization is that our team changes so often. And the startup ecosystem like reminds us that legacy and the creativity are hard to reconcile. And while we build on the great work that the team have done over the years, we still need to constantly evaluate our work from the first principles as if nothing has done before us. And therefore,
stated in our hiring principles as well, that we don't hire people who can execute the checklist, rather those who can throw it out of the window and redefine how the work should be done. And in a way, like every day at Slush is a day one, despite the event has been organized for the past 16 years. And that's something that keeps us going and like make sure that.
Janis (16:20.479)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (16:30.123)
always the next edition is better than the previous one and so that the next edition actually answers to the current needs of the startup ecosystem.
Uldis (16:40.969)
But what about...
some kind of pillars, you know, as you are obviously successful of continuation, not a complete disruption year on year. So what would you say would be the culture or must have pillars, you know, besides doing it in shitty weather, I guess that you can't really. Well, it's a high probability if you do it in November. So, but still, so what are those kind of main things that you cannot throw out the window?
Aino Bergius (16:48.938)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (16:57.227)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Janis (17:04.607)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (17:11.691)
main pillars that you can throw out of the window. I think like something that is very unique at Slush is the culture and the culture that we build. And it's already seen, for example, what kind of people we hire to the team. So we hire people with limitless potential that get excited about building and solving the hard problems instead of optimizing the existing.
And like for that reason already like during the recruitment process, always the interviews includes a case study that tries to demonstrate as much as possible the real work tasks at Slush that usually requires both like logical and creative thinking. And I think like this is great for Slush, but also for the candidate to actually understand like if they get excited about like...
working in this kind of an organization where they can solve hard things and be part of exciting projects. But secondly, what comes to the culture is that we actually share our value documentation and speak super, super openly about what kind of organization we are. So that already during the recruitment process, when people are considering if this would be a right place for them to join, they can reflect.
based on our values if Slush would be a suitable workplace for them. And last but not least, one of the building blocks, I already mentioned all the previous people that have been part of the Slush team, but something that is mentioned is that Slush isn't a destination, it's a launch pad. And over the past 16 years, over 10 ,000 people have gone through the so -called Slush funnel.
to take their first step in the ecosystem whenever they want to become a founder, investor or an operator. And then like when people feel that like Slush has given them all it can, we encourage team members to move forward. So I think like already these kinds of things are the building blocks of how the organization operates. Like the teams change fast, the ecosystem change sometimes even faster.
Aino Bergius (19:32.586)
And then we need to dynamically be able to answer to the new needs of the ecosystem.
Uldis (19:39.561)
You mentioned the word ecosystem a lot and I wonder how do you define ecosystem because obviously you started out with the Finnish ecosystem of 250 people
Aino Bergius (19:42.154)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (19:49.801)
Mmm. Mmm.
Uldis (19:52.297)
Now you get people from all over the world, people in the region believe it's kind of theirs as well. It's not just a Finnish thing. It's like a Nordic thing. It's like a European thing. So maybe there's like two questions in there. First, how do you define that ecosystem? And second, actually, how much of it is Finnish? I don't know, at least number of participants. What's the percentages and how much it's
Aino Bergius (19:55.292)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (19:58.89)
Mm. Mm. Yeah.
Mm. Mm. Definitely.
I'm sorry.
Mm.
Aino Bergius (20:17.93)
Mm. Mm. Yeah.
Uldis (20:22.251)
outside.
Aino Bergius (20:23.658)
Yeah, very, very good question. And as vague as it can sound, we talk about the lot like a lot about the startup ecosystem and how would I define it is so that like startup ecosystem includes everyone who are like somewhat working with or in like together or with startups.
And what do I mean is that like people who get excited about like solving hard problems, building scalable models or everyone around the society who wants to help them to succeed. And then I wouldn't want to exclude those who are not yet there, but get excited about the startup ecosystem as well. Because actually something that is noted among the attendees who comes to Slush, like some of them are already founders by themselves.
And what Slush can help them to do is to actually help them to create their companies. But I think something that is more important as well is to create new founders, so getting people excited about the entrepreneurship. So, for example, all of our volunteers who joined our event and helped us to build the event together, even though they wouldn't be founders themselves yet.
But if they're excited and want to learn, I would definitely count them as like an important building block of the ecosystem as well. And then I think like to answer your question about like when we talk about the ecosystem or slush community or whatever is the wording that we want to use is that like if we take a look of the numbers of the attendees, I would say maybe 30 % are Finnish and then...
Janis (22:13.407)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (22:14.314)
We're still like, of course, like European focus, but as said, like slush is nowadays a global movement that gathers people all around the world. And I think I just checked the latest numbers that last year. So in 2023, there were people joining slush from over a hundred different nationalities. So it's no longer just Nordic or Finnish or European ecosystem or gathering of people.
rather than a global startup gathering that just like happens to take place in Helsinki.
Uldis (22:48.745)
the slash ecosystem going over borders.
Aino Bergius (22:50.282)
Mm -hmm.
Janis (22:54.719)
Well, for many, it's probably a gateway to Europe, like I said, like maybe these, we discussed these Americans, like, you know, maybe it's the first, maybe like Slashe is making first impression of entire Europe for many people. And I think if that's to be, then it's not a bad first impression in that sense. So fast forward to 2024, anything you can tell us about...
Aino Bergius (22:59.913)
Mm.
Janis (23:20.767)
what is this year's event gonna look like, main themes or any kind of things people should know if they're considering.
Aino Bergius (23:28.33)
Yeah, definitely happy to share a glimpse of the plans for this year. So in 2024, Slush will bring more founders and investors to Helsinki than ever before. And I believe that it will be the most founder focused gathering on the planet. And simultaneously, third year in a row, the largest gathering of venture capital, because already last year we gathered over three trillion.
dollars in asset under management under one roof. So I think like for every like founder out there, I think like there are no better place to like look for your next investors or like raise your next funding round. And as mentioned, I think already before like our mission is to create and help founders to change the world and our whole event experience but also the whole slash week.
Janis (24:09.758)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (24:25.386)
is drafted to serve this very mission. And how can it be seen in this year? Like a couple of things to highlight that I'm at least like super, super excited is that there will be an improved in -house build matchmaking tool to help founders and investors to connect during their time in Helsinki. And this is very unique because we actually have...
nine person in -house dev team that actually builds a lot of products so that the event or the event attendees can reach their maximum potential. So it's not actually the only thing that happens during the conference halls, but like Slush is not anymore just an event organizer, but we're actually like becoming a tech company as well because we have like dozens of different kinds of tools that we build.
Janis (24:59.07)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (25:23.657)
to actually for our attendees to reach their maximum potential. A couple other things to mention is that there will be hundreds of curated side events from peer to peer networking to industry specific gatherings. And also in a response to the gloomy market situation in Slush 2024, we will host its largest ever limited partner track.
Featuring over 300 LPs representing some of the largest university end up environment funds of funds, pension funds and family offices around the world. So like we're not only any more focusing on facilitating startup investor meetings or connections, but also extending that to the investor investor and like LPVC connections.
And last but not least, of course, something to mention is our stage program that will be full of founder stories from the most iconic entrepreneurs to industry and tech talks, including the hot topics of the European tech at the moment, including like AI energy and impact. So I believe that there is an every reason to be excited about this year's edition.
Uldis (26:37.481)
I'm especially excited to see those LPs without ties. That's going to be a new experience for them. They're going to have to dust off those t -shirts and hoodies. Exactly.
Janis (26:37.566)
nice.
Aino Bergius (26:41.192)
Hahaha.
Janis (26:46.143)
first time wearing a hoodie.
Aino Bergius (26:48.2)
Yeah, and actually something that the LP is already last year mentioned us that like, please do not create a separate LP ticket gallery rather than like promise us that we can still wear that like same exact same investor badge because otherwise there will like won't be a minute alone when they joined to the event so they can like attend to the event as a like a e -gognito and enjoy their time at Slush.
Janis (27:05.214)
Uhhh...
Uldis (27:17.193)
So one thing that is for me having participated in many, many different kinds of events of various size, when going to a place like Slush, it can be quite overwhelming with a sheer number of participants, investors attending, side events, things like that. I think it's quite easy to get lost and end up not doing much, just being like, you know, paralyzed.
Janis (27:17.278)
Um.
Aino Bergius (27:21.416)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (27:25.736)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (27:29.64)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (27:33.704)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (27:43.528)
Mm.
Uldis (27:45.737)
How would you recommend startups go about, especially if it's the first time going to Slush and they're not exactly Slush pros, how to make most of the event and how not to get disoriented by all the flashing lights?
Aino Bergius (27:54.568)
Mmm.
Aino Bergius (27:59.688)
I'm sorry.
Yeah, that's amazing and a very important question and actually something that we got a lot of questions about as well, because as you mentioned, it can be very overwhelming experience if you join for the first time and you don't know what you have signed up yourself for. So something that I would advise for actually not only founders, but like for every attendee of Slush is actually like already.
a month before to set your goals. So what do you want to achieve once you come to Slush? Because like during Slush, everything is possible. And the whole experience is tailored for founders to answer whatever their bottleneck is when founding or like when they are on their like founding journey. So whenever it's to get like two months worth of meetings or peer to peer support or learning from the ecosystem or just like getting advice or inspire.
So once you know what you want to get out of Slush, it's so much easier to get there. And for that reason, also my plan, like advice is to plan ahead because once you like arrive to the city, you know what you're going to do and you can just enjoy. So like go through the stage agenda, go through our matchmaking tool, check who do you actually want to meet, what kind of side events you want to...
Janis (29:14.27)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (29:21.993)
attend and what do you actually want to get out of slush because it's it's a norm I can't say it's a normal business day, but it's a work day for many and Like by planning ahead you can actually get so much out of it and I think like I mentioned somewhere that like my advice would be like 80 % of planning and 20 % of Magic and that's the secret recipe to like succeed at slush
And I think we have a lot of great stories that goes under both of these aspects. So if you have a plan ahead, plan your schedules, you have a higher chance to land meetings with the people that you look up to or actually benefit your business. But also keep your eyes and ears open during the whole week in November because Helsinki becomes this hotspot of the startup world and therefore anything can happen.
So if you are too strict on only following the schedules, you might actually miss some of the magical moments and great experiences. So you never know once you walk around the venue who you can end up meeting or you go to a side event, who is there. So come open -minded with a clear plan or at least a goal in mind.
Janis (30:46.59)
I can share not the greatest tip, how not to do it maybe, but like first I think this matchmaking tool is really working very well. Last year went as well and I just started too late. Like you said, you need to do the matchmaking plan before. So first I reached out to a lot of people and I think most of them answered, but the problem was that a lot of them have booked the times already. So it was like,
Aino Bergius (30:55.72)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (31:06.184)
Mm.
Janis (31:16.511)
you know, we love to meet, but it's like super busy day and then we had to like, you know, text or whatever. But like, I thought like, yeah, if I would have done it like at least two weeks, whatever, three weeks before would have had a lot of meetings and yeah, that's a much matchmaking is a crucial part. I thought of when you mentioned this new tool that you improved tool, what have you found? Like what works in this, like when we dig into the product of matchmaking, how do you?
Aino Bergius (31:19.656)
Mmm.
Aino Bergius (31:42.248)
Mm.
Janis (31:42.943)
How do you bring people together? You could filter, I remember obviously by industries and by countries and whatnot, but what have you learned? What works? Like I know a startup, how can startup find a good fitting investor, for example?
Aino Bergius (31:49.352)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (31:57.16)
Yeah, I think something that is crucial already when actually thinking your coming trip to Slush is that actually if you want to purchase a startup ticket to our event, you need to first fill out an application. And that application includes, I think, 40 different data boys that we gather from the companies. And the better that you actually fill out those applications or fields already,
Janis (32:21.149)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (32:25.)
The higher chance there is that actually during the matchmaking process you will find the most relevant people for you. Because the idea of the whole application and the data set is that we want to help the people meet at the event and that's the reason why we do it. So the better you fill out your own data of your current stage of the company, everything from the product description to technologies used,
your latest funding round and your revenue estimates for the coming year. Actually, once the investors start looking for interesting companies to meet at Slush, they actually have access to that data. And the more detailed it is, the better you can actually find the most relevant people for you. And I think from the founder's perspective as well, since the investor does the exact same, like before you start like booking meetings and sending.
meeting requests and invitations, actually take a look if the fund is investing in your scope of area. Like depending on your stage, depending on your industry, depending on your technology, like do your homework well, like before actually sending those invitations, check if the funds are actually like investing in your type of a startup and only after that you can like send a personalized.
Janis (33:28.733)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (33:47.305)
email or like a meeting request like, hey, I think like, we would be a perfect fit to your portfolio. And once investors receive like probably like hundreds of these, if you can stand out, you have done your homework well, I think the higher chance there is to actually land a meeting with the exact person you want to meet during the event.
Uldis (34:09.673)
As usual, do your homework, do your homework, do your homework. Nothing's changed.
Aino Bergius (34:11.72)
Mm.
Janis (34:12.542)
This theme keeps repeating. Side events as well, right? You have so many, like how do we even orient? Like they all will be probably published again in a website, right? But like any advice of getting best, how to be in three places at the same time? Like you have this Harry Potter thing that you can, you know.
Aino Bergius (34:31.081)
That would be amazing. I think like all of us would benefit for having some magic to help us to be in three different places at the same time. I think like something that is like important is to take a look of the side events. As I mentioned, there will be like hundreds of side events organized. I think it's a matter of prioritization because you can't be anywhere at once.
Janis (34:39.101)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (35:00.712)
But like what is most interesting for you? I think like some are more like business oriented some can be like more fun something more experimental so everything from like peer -to -peer networking like meeting like -minded founders who are building in the same industry as you are to everything from like crazy experience such as like go to sauna and ice -dipping to rib -bowl safari or something like that.
So thinking about what is the thing that you actually want to get out of the side events, because I think there is some that are more fun and some things that are more business oriented. And there will be amazing side events always organized around some more specific industries that actually take a deeper look at what is happening, like weeding and a specific industry.
such as like deep tech or AI or impact or life sciences, because like there is limited space on slush stages. So what we want to create also during the side event or for the side events is to take like deeper insights, what is happening in the in some relevant topic of the startup ecosystem.
Janis (36:21.597)
If a company is listening now or like an investor and thinks like, okay, I could do a side event, how does it even happen? Like, can you, can anyone do a side event? Is it like you need to get approval from Slush or how do they even get organized? Or is it even maybe too late to start thinking about it because everything is already planned? How does it work?
Aino Bergius (36:26.407)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (36:41.64)
Never too late, especially now, when we're in the end of April, there is still plenty of time to think the coming slush that takes place in November. But there is a couple of ways and I think it depends on how much help you do need. So together with some of the partners of Slush,
They reach out to us, they're like, hey, we really want to organize this side event around an industry X for a target group Y. So can you help us to find a venue to create the list, get some visibility? And we're happy to help to do that. So we have a lot of different side event venues built and produced for many different organizers that can then organize their side event happening at the very conference center.
And then like Slush does most of the work, everything from booking the venue, handling the catering and actually like getting the most relevant people to join. However, there is still a lot of side events organized within this scope. So basically to answer your question, anyone can organize a side event and for our side event listing everyone, like anyone can list their side event to be part of.
the program. So now, Janis, if you want to organize a side event, you just need to think about what's your theme, where do you want to organize it. Once our side event tool opens, you can list it there, our team will review it. And one thing it's relevant for the startups or like startup audience, it's organized during slash time here in Helsinki, we will like accept it and it will be visible.
on our side of a tool and people can start registering for it or if you want that there will be application, they can handle that through our own platform as well.
Uldis (38:39.689)
Do I sense this is not a theoretical question, Jan?
Aino Bergius (38:42.823)
Hahaha
Janis (38:43.165)
No, no, we could like, let's rent a shady Airbnb and do one for podcast crowd maybe. No, nice, nice, I didn't know that. Another thing you mentioned, like you talked to investors and you talked to all the end customers in the end for Slush, but can you share some of the insights from investors? I'm just thinking from a startup perspective, you said for example, they...
Aino Bergius (38:49.863)
I'm sorry.
Aino Bergius (38:54.919)
Yeah.
Aino Bergius (39:02.279)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (39:06.375)
Hmm.
Janis (39:07.134)
They don't want to be bombarded with like, you know, requests. I mean, like they do want and they don't want, right? But in, yeah, it's a job, right? In the end, but what, what, what do you think will the work, any success tactics that startups could kind of, yeah, like you said, do the homework, of course, but like how to even approach them? Should you, should you only use matchmaking tools? Should you grab them by the badge and, and, and, and do the pitch and what's the, what's the, yeah.
Uldis (39:12.297)
Is there is there job?
Aino Bergius (39:16.391)
Yeah.
Aino Bergius (39:31.367)
Wow. I think, to be honest, I think there are many ways to succeed. One is the matchmaking tool, finding who is actually coming to Slush, sending a meeting invitation for them and actually like meeting in our very own dedicated meeting area. On top of that, as mentioned, we already discussed about the side events. There are a lot of side events which are actually like...
Uldis (39:31.817)
Have you ever done that? That sounds dangerous.
Janis (39:36.317)
I'm just thinking of new innovative ways.
Aino Bergius (40:01.319)
that have a mixed audience of startup founders and investors that we don't like a super low barrier you can go and like chat with anyone so I think like that's already amazing like opportunity but to be honest I have heard stories where like people have been standing in like a like a hot dog queue or something and they have figured out that there is an investor in front of them and then just like hey like
Janis (40:23.677)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (40:28.327)
seems that you're keen to invest in startups. I think we have something in common. We're actually like looking for funding and something amazing can happen. So like what we already like talk about, like, I think you should plan but you should also like leave some room for these kind of like serendipitous encounters. If you just keep your like eyes and ears open, and you can actually find your future lead investor at Slush.
Uldis (40:57.513)
You know, I'm something of a startup founder myself, you know. Sounds like a good pitch.
Janis (40:57.629)
now.
Heheheheh
Aino Bergius (41:01.095)
Hahaha!
Janis (41:03.741)
Sounds like a good pitch. Can you take us, share some kind of cool, like there's a lot of going on in organizing this event that obviously, it's a bit like also ungrateful work is in the end that people don't really appreciate and see it, but I'm just thinking maybe you can share some of the interesting insights that people might not know or some kind of fun events and happenings that you have experienced over the years because it's like you've been like, yeah, for 10 years with Slush already.
Aino Bergius (41:11.495)
Mm.
Aino Bergius (41:30.215)
Yeah, yeah, very good question. I think like, there probably is a lot of these kind of things, but us Slush team keep these as like a Monday basics, but maybe a couple of things to mention is that something that I find very interesting is that like, this might sound boring, but like bear with me, is that like, we're actually working on a product that only lasts for 48 hours a year, and then it's gone.
Janis (41:57.469)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (41:59.303)
So if you don't talk to your customers or do your DDs well or gather enough data, what went down, what worked and what did end, you actually have no idea if the event was successful or not. So actually what we do as a Slush team, we gather a lot of feedback during the event. And after that, we like every year after Slush, we spend two weeks of analyzing it with the team. So we usually like spend two weeks of analyzing a lot of data.
thousands, tens of thousands of data points, what went down, and then we rent a movie theater together with the team, go through over like 400 slides of what went down, and this is always a starting point for the coming year. Also something that you see once you walk around the venue is that you can see a lot of hand -grafted arts around, and that's actually usually all done by Slush team and the volunteers.
Janis (42:49.021)
Mm -hmm.
Aino Bergius (42:54.151)
So each fall for a couple of days we gather together to our production company's warehouse to actually physically build our event. And usually it's in a form of different kind of art pieces. So next time you visit the event, pay attention to these like beautiful pieces made by the team, because usually there are like a lot of volunteers or like team members who have spent like some.
Janis (43:12.701)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (43:23.367)
fun Saturday afternoons to create something special that can be only seen once at Slush.
Janis (43:30.301)
One thing I'm always wondering is like, you know, you book a lot of well -known investors and founders, CEOs, you know, very busy people, right? How do you bring them on? Like, what do they request? Like, of course, you know, I'm just thinking, you know, when you want to have Beyoncé performing, then she has a list of demands and like, you know, champagne needs to be at this temperature. And so is it so with the...
Aino Bergius (43:38.695)
Mmm.
Aino Bergius (43:51.239)
Ehh
Mm.
Uldis (43:58.088)
a type of swordfish that needs to be served.
Janis (43:59.613)
Exactly. Is it the same with your guys or a bit easier?
Aino Bergius (44:00.743)
I'm sorry.
Aino Bergius (44:05.511)
Yeah, I think like something that makes Slush pretty unique is actually that we have never paid for our speakers and neither you can buy your time to be on stage. And therefore the many people who come to speak at Slush, they have this mentality like giving back to the ecosystem because like many, if not all of them have succeeded because of the surrounding ecosystem of them. And for that reason, they want to spend their time, give their expertise and help the next generation of founders to succeed.
Janis (44:12.925)
Wow. Wow.
Aino Bergius (44:34.951)
And therefore I strongly believe that slush is more than just a conference rather than an experience. And we actually want to make people's times in Helsinki worth of an investment, so to say. And this kind of like a slush magic can be seen like many ways. We already talk about like a side events, but there are a lot of different kinds of experiences that we organize for our customers from ice dipping to sauna and rib -bow safaris. However, I think like something that is like something that gives us spark is
creating some kind of personal touches to people's, especially speakers' experiences. And it's not about the amount of money used, rather than the thought. And actually a couple of examples that came to my mind is that last year, a couple of days before Slush, Josh Miller, the CEO of the browser company, tweeted on his way to Helsinki that this is the first time he has come to Finland and he loved.
the free blueberry juice that were served on a Finner flight. So the team saw this tweet and of course what they thought that what would be a more amazing gift for Josh than bringing him to the backstage some blueberry juice just before he jumped on the stage and he loved the initiative.
And actually another fun story that I can mention is from the time Max LeVechin, so the co -founder of PayPal, came to Slush and he's such a big Moomin fan. And for that reason, the team wanted to get him this limited edition from that specific year Moomin mug as a souvenir from Finland. So I think it's about the small things with the thought behind.
And I think that's how you make the difference for the people, not about the fancy champagne or anything, but just little things with a thought behind it.
Janis (46:29.853)
Yeah.
Janis (46:35.965)
Yeah, that makes it super memorable and they will remember it for a long, long time. Wow, nice, nice, nice examples. Awesome conversation, I think. Well, we tried to learn as much as possible of these secrets of how to make best out of Slush. But yeah, thanks, I know, once more for joining. Slush taking place this year, November 20 and November 21. Same place, as always.
Aino Bergius (46:38.31)
Mm. Mm. Yeah, exactly.
Aino Bergius (46:50.278)
Hmm.
Aino Bergius (46:56.934)
Thank you.
Uldis (47:03.305)
As it's only half year left, are there any tickets even left?
Aino Bergius (47:07.238)
Actually, there are still some tickets left and something super, super exciting happening is that the May 5th the ticket shop is going to open and also that's the official launch date for this year's event. So I think like this episode might be come out a bit after that. So now if you're listening to the podcast, go and check.
in more detail what kind of plans we have for this year and hope to see as many of you at Slush and in slushy and dark and cold November in Helsinki.
Uldis (47:43.177)
Yes and don't forget to start your prep work at least like a month ahead because the week ahead everybody is already fully booked so do your homework and start in time in the startup way.
Janis (47:51.389)
slash slash dot org
Aino Bergius (47:56.422)
That's a good summary of the whole discussion.
Janis (48:00.541)
Well, it's interesting also that we did this episode. I'm just thinking like we talk about these, these, these, these staples of entrepreneurship and business and startups. And sometimes we don't know about hiring and fundraising and slushes itself is like a staple almost of the ecosystem, as you said. So it's, it's, it's such a fundamental part of this that, that makes sense to dedicate an entire like conversation to it. And I think a lot of people will, will, will find it useful and find themselves going either this year or next year. Yeah, for sure.
Aino Bergius (48:11.302)
Mm.
Janis (48:29.341)
Thanks once more, I know it was a really awesome conversation.
Aino Bergius (48:32.71)
Thank you.
Janis (48:34.525)
To the listeners, we see you next week on Tuesday again.
Uldis (48:34.601)
Thank you very much.
Uldis (48:39.209)
that we do. Click subscribe, don't forget. Cheers.
Janis (48:42.877)
Cheers.
Please note that the transcript text is AI-generated. We apologize for any potential errors or inaccuracies. Thank you for your understanding.
