🚀 Startup100 by Startup Finland

🌟 Join Mårten Mickos as he shares stories and insights on growth entrepreneurship — and introduces his new book Kasvun Kaava (The Formula for Growth) 🌱📘 🗓️ Time: Friday, October 24, 14:00 - 15:00 📍 Place: Marsio, Olohuone (3rd floor), Otakaari 2, Espoo 📝 Register here: https://lnkd.in/dq-yBYr5 Please note: the event will be held in Finnish.

🤩 See you next week at HLTH USA 2025? Business Finland and its Health 360 Finland program are excited to share how Finnish innovation is transforming health, life sciences and well-being across the globe at the event. 📍 Finland Pavilion, Level 2, Booth #3453, The Venetian Expo Center Companies attending the Finland Pavilion represent the spirit of collaboration and creativity that define Finland’s role in the world of health technology – come and meet the Finnish Innovators Driving the Future of Health: Buddy Healthcare – Automated care coordination that streamlines perioperative and specialty care pathways. BusinessOulu / OuluHealth ecosystem – Northern Finland’s innovation ecosystem accelerating collaboration between research and health tech companies. CleverHealth Network – A health technology ecosystem designed to provide better patient care by leveraging and refining health and wellbeing data. CurifyLabs – Empowering pharmacies to create personalized medicines tailored in dose, taste, shape, and release profile. Peili Vision Oy – Gamified assessment tool that assesses executive functions and attention in children, transforming how ADHD pathways are managed worldwide. Kiwecare / Smart PD Solutions Ltd – Non-invasive biosensor monitoring for peritoneal dialysis patients. Klinik Healthcare Solutions – AI-powered triage and diagnostic technology that optimizes digital health workflows. Koite Health – Photothermal and photodynamic therapy innovations addressing the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance by reducing the need for antibiotics. MONCYTE Health – Cellular lipid-fingerprint diagnostics for cardiovascular disease risk provide personalized plans that remove treatment trial-and-error. NADMED Ltd. – advanced diagnostic solutions for accurately measuring NADs, the key biomarkers of cellular health, energy metabolism and disease progression. Otos – Integrated hearing health assessment tool that enables non-clinical staff to perform three gold-standard tests with minimal paperwork. QuietOn / Soundless Oy – Active noise-cancelling earbuds designed to improve sleep and well-being. Solid IO – Tumor-immune response modeling to guide immuno-oncology treatment decisions. 🔥 Big thanks to Harvia for supplying the 'kiuas' to our sauna at the Finland Pavilion. Tarja Enala Titta Houni Charlie Schick, PhD Päivi Sillanaukee Paula Kivistö Maija Palomäki Invest in Finland Read more: https://lnkd.in/dCDnGii2 #hlthusa #stateofhappiness

🌊 Marine Industry meets Blue Economy ecosystems! NEcOLEAP’s Necocoffee, Business Turku’s Smart Marine Network, and A’Pelago’s Blue Economy ecosystem come together to share insights and explore collaboration for a sustainable, smart and competitive marine cluster. See you next week! 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/eZjkrT43

The next generation starts here! 📚 💥 Timo Ahopelto, Chair of the Finnish Startup Community, and Jyri Engeström have written a Startup Handbook to inspire young Finns to dream boldly and build companies that can shape the world. The book will be given free of charge to every third-year upper secondary student in Finland. It introduces the mindset and tools behind the country’s most successful startups and shows how anyone can turn an idea into impact. We’re excited to see this initiative bring entrepreneurship into classrooms and closer to everyday life! 👏 Read the full story in the comments.

LPs & GPs, we have a treat for you on Day 1 of Slush. Together with Inventure, we’re hosting Blurred Reality, an evening for top-tier investors featuring an exhibition at Galerie Forsblom. No stage. No pitches. Just cocktails, conversations, and a curated selection of demos redefining the boundary between tech and reality. You’ll get to know: 🔹 Samphire Neuroscience’s Nettle and Lutea devices for drug and hormone-free pain and mood relief treatments across the menstrual cycle. 🔹 IXI’s world’s first adaptive eyewear, delivering vision correction and seamless clarity wherever you look. 🔹 Distance Technologies’ glasses-free mixed reality solution. 🔹 Dispelix’s see-through waveguide displays, which redefine the form, function, and feel of AR devices. Join us for a glimpse into Slush’s ground state, where the physical and digital blur. Capacity is very limited. Register now 👉 https://lnkd.in/d_xfF2c9 No Slush ticket yet? Investor Passes are 85% sold out. Get yours before it's too late 👉 slush.org

When talking to CEO's and founders of startups the top question is: when's the right time to start to think about performance management? The short answer is yesterday 😅 From the day you start your company performance should be one of the key priorities. Performance management isn’t about HR process — it’s how you build your company’s talent, goals, culture, clarity and speed to maximize performance of each individual, team and the whole company. Here’s how perf management should evolve as you scale: 🧩 Pre-Seed (2–5 ppl): performance = culture - Founders set the bar. How you give feedback is how the team will. - Define your values — even if it’s just a short doc. - Start 1:1s now (they’ll save you a lot later). - Make goals visible and reviewed weekly. - Build a culture of feedback, learning and accountability early. 🧠 Keep it lightweight and honest. No systems yet — just habits. 🚀 Seed (5–15 ppl): performance = people - Hire people who raise the bar. - Let go fast when someone slows execution. - Talk about goals, vision, and expectations constantly. - Feedback should go both ways. ⚡ Culture equals speed. Protect it. 🏗️ Series A (10–50+ ppl): performance = structure - Train your first-time managers — they’ll make or break the culture now. - Introduce OKRs or a simple goal system (keep it practical). - Build role levels and expectations. - Start writing down feedback and performance notes. 📘 Don’t scale chaos. Systemize what works before 50 people. 🔁 Series B (50–150 ppl): performance = consistency - Everyone should know what “great” looks like. - Coach team leads to run effective 1:1s and set clear goals. - Introduce performance reviews and calibration sessions - fairness matters. 🎯 You’re now managing managers. Coach them to coach well. 🧠 Series C (150–500+ ppl): performance = system - Focus on talent density — find, reward, and empower your best people. - Make compensation transparent and structured. - Hire leaders who bring clarity, not more meetings. - Use data to guide, not to micromanage. 🔥 Speed dies without clarity — protect it like culture. 👇 Would be great to hear your thoughts: when did you start thinking seriously about performance? What worked (or not) for you? (Full blog post in comments)

This is a great initiative from the minister of employment of Finland, Matias Marttinen. ”The goal is that the access to essential public services is easy and effortless for people moving to Finland. We must have a determined approach towards this goal and remove any obstacles on the way to a seamless process. We have every opportunity to do this.” https://lnkd.in/dYdqhrTQ

Robotics + AI Hackathon Join to build and test the future of robotics in a 48-hour challenge at Startup Sauna. Get access to humanoids, amazing hardware, and AI-powered systems. Some prizes included. - Teams of 2–4 can apply - Must be attended physically - Confirmation required to join - Mentoring from robotics and AI experts - Access to real robots, tools, and datasets October 24–26 Startup Sauna, Espoo luma.com/r066ymq1 Read more about our projects: roboticsnation.org, thinkinrocks.com Challenges: Challenge 1: Train Booster T1 for locomotion and/or fall recovery using MuJoCo or Isaac Sim. Challenge 2: Integrate and find creative use cases for SO 101 with a webcam and other attached hardware.

Who’s going to Slush? I’m looking for interesting side events to attend and potentially partner with for our new tech media brand, Pathfounders.