Joy of Finland

In the latest episode of Joy of Finland, I sit down with Jyri Engeström to explore Finland’s strengths and what the future holds for the Finnish startup ecosystem. Jyri, partner at Lifeline Ventures and Yes VC, brings unique insights from his journey as an early investor in companies like Oura and Iceye. He’s also the co-host of Startup-ministeriö, the podcast diving into the world of Finnish growth companies. In this episode, we focus on: Increasing Finland’s “unicorn birthing rate” and strategies to create high-impact startups. The importance of attracting top international talent with systematic recruitment and a tech investor visa. Building scalable, impactful ventures that make a meaningful difference. Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Jyri Engeström on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyriengestrom/ Follow Jyri Engeström on X: https://twitter.com/jyri Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/ Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/  Follow Startup-ministeriö on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@startup-ministerio Follow Startup-ministeriö on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4DJc5geASZG0LyKir2Jo6g?si=ab2ea23eb9f94e62Follow Startup-ministeriö on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/fi/podcast/startup-ministeri%C3%B6/id1715265900

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement. Sami Inkinen has founded 2 different billion dollar companies. The first is Trulia, an online real estate marketplace. The second is Virta Health of which he is currently the CEO. Virta is the leader in type 2 diabetes reversal and creator of a new standard in medical care for people living with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, or obesity. He’s also quite the athletic marvel, having broken a world record with his wife rowing from California to Hawaii to raise awareness about the dangers of sugar. He’s also a triathlon world champion for his age group. In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) Preview and introduction (2:14) About Sami (4:55) Type 2 diabetes and obesity (8:45) Sisu and the hardest thing Sami has done (12:04) Free education and healthcare (13:05) Infrastructure and safety (13:44) Finnish brand: trustworthy, reliable, quality, and design (16:11) Finland needs more a culture of taking risks (16:55) Finland needs to focus more on sales (18:08) How Finland can improve attitudes towards entrepreneurship (21:00) Should a Finnish entrepreneur stay in Finland or go to Silicon Valley? Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Sami Inkinen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samiinkinen/ Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement. Jan Goetz is the Co-founder and CEO of IQM Quantum Computers. IQM is building world-leading quantum computers for the well-being of humankind, now and for the future and has most recently raised a €128 million Series A2 round. And like me, he also loves dogs. In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) Preview and introduction (1:47) About Jan (3:41) Why Jan pursued entrepreneurship (5:56) Scientific community in Finland (8:32) Finns modestly achieve great results by pushing the limits without complaining (11:20) Comparing reliability of Finland and Germany; integrating to Finland as a German (12:44) Nature (12:56) Connecting design and technology (13:54) Under-selling what we have in Finland (16:12) Integration as an international Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Jan Goetz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-goetz/  Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/ Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement. Risto Siilasmaa is the Founder of F-Secure, a publicly listed cyber security and privacy company. He was also the former Chairman of Nokia from 2012 to 2020. He currently invests in startups through his investment firm First Fellow Partners. In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) Preview and introduction (1:40) About Risto (7:23) Nokia’s transformation after selling the mobile business (9:47) Equal opportunity (11:39) Everything works (13:26) Norm of following the rules and trust (15:37) Finns’ attitudes about being in the happiest country in the world (18:20) Finnish arrogance, complacency, and risk aversion (22:42) What can Finland learn from Estonia (25:18) How Sweden is ahead of Finland (27:32) How Finland’s government needs to change Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Risto Siilasmaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siilasmaa/  Follow Risto Siilasmaa on X: https://x.com/rsiilasmaa?s=20 Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/ Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement. Monika Liikamaa is the Co-founder and co-CEO of the fintech payment service provider Enfuce. Monika’s career involves 20+ years of experience in the payment industry. Enfuce has raised a total of €62 million in funding, including one of the highest investment rounds raised by a female-led business.  In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) Preview (0:55) About me and introduction (2:06) About Monika (6:51) Advocating for women in tech (9:22) Building a diverse team (10:06) Challenges with scaling a company (12:05) Finland’s strengths (14:29) Education in Finland (16:39) Equality in society (19:46) Confusing being apologetic with humility leads to envious attitudes (22:23) Shortsighted attitudes like populism and protectionism mitigated by education (23:36) Employee ownership and taxation (24:34) Rise of racism and populism during hard times (26:28) Refugees and getting people to come to Finland (27:10) Getting more people to Finland Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Monika Liikamaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monikaliikamaa/  Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/ Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement. Duleepa-Wijayawardhana is the CTO of Supermetrics, one of Finland’s prominent startup success stories. Supermetrics is a data management and analysis tool for marketers. In this episode, we discuss:  (0:00) About me and introduction (1:45) About Dups and how he ended up in Finland (5:17) Clean air and environment (6:28) History of innovation in Finland (8:16) The importance of going global (10:15) Significant progress from 100 years ago (13:41) The challenges of bringing international people (14:24) Exporting Finland’s culture around the world (18:18) Comparing Canadian and Finnish immigration (20:47) Why Finland needs students (22:38) The long-term problem with making it more difficult to come to Finland (24:36) Why students leave Finland and language requirements (28:47) What’s needed for an inclusive, diverse, and amazing society (30:15) Advice for people coming to Finland (31:09) Where to Find Dups Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Duleepa Wijayawardhana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duleepa/  Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Joy of Finland highlights Finland’s strengths and areas of improvement from the perspectives of tech entrepreneurs. Johanna Småros transitioned from supply chain researcher to SaaS unicorn Co-founder of RELEX Solutions. RELEX is one of Finland’s prominent startup success stories and most recently closed a €500M funding round led by Blackstone Growth at a €5B valuation.  In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) About me and introduction (3:12) Transitioning from researcher to SaaS Co-founder (11:46) Founder before the startup hype (14:31) Being shy, gaining confidence through research, and cold-calling (21:04) Finnish value of trust (25:20) Weather, seasons, and nature (30:50) Ease of starting a business and rules and regulations (35:37) Finnish social culture (41:19) Finland as a closed society and welcoming international talent (44:26) Starting RELEX as an international English-speaking company (50:33) Finnish language preservation and internationalization (54:16) Swedish as an official language of Finland (57:13) The value of learning languages (1:01:56) The challenge of international students finding employment Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Johanna Småros on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannasmaros/ Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/ Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/

Peter Vesterbacka is a founder of Slush (Europe’s leading startup event) and was Mighty Eagly (CMO) at Rovio (company behind Angry Birds). He was ranked 7th on Time 100 list of most influential people in the world.  In this episode, we discuss: (0:00) - About me and introduction (1:57) - Peter’s journey with entrepreneurship (3:39) - Mighty Eagle at Rovio (7:29) - The founding story of Slush, its impact on students, and its brand (13:26) - Putting young people in charge in Finland (15:40) - Education and equality in Finland (17:08) - The importance of the question “why?” and hierarchy in Finland (25:20) - The importance of universities, talent density, and the Finnish gaming ecosystem (28:11) - The strength of the FinEst Bay Area (Finland, Estonia, and Sweden) (29:09) - Addressing Finland’s talent shortage (31:13) - Bringing international students to Finland with FinEst Future and why they’re happy (35:31) - Finland’s need for international talent (39:43) - Immigration and integration (43:36) - The role of the Finnish language (49:08) - Startups and lack of employee ownership (52:13) - Low salaries and high quality of life Subscribe to Joy of Finland newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/71f82ff8e623/joy-of-finland Follow Matthews Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsjoy/ Follow Peter Vesterbacka on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pvesterbacka Follow Peter Vesterbacka on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petervesterbacka/ Follow Joy of Finland on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joy_of_finland Follow Joy of Finland on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joyoffinland Follow Joy of Finland on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyoffinland/Follow Joy of Finland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-finland/