To celebrate the end of the two-year pilot (which ran from 2017 to 2019) and the scale-ups participating, Nordic Innovation invited the four Nordic Scalers batches to the very first Nordic Scalers alumni dinner in Helsinki.
The dinner was held to kick-start the alumni network, where Nordic scale-ups can continue to learn from each other’s experiences, successes and failures. This was also the scale-up-companies first chance at meeting the Advisory Board, and for the Advisory Board to hear first-hand how and if the program had an impact.
Deputy Director Startups at Ministry of Enterprise.
Picture: © 2019 Saara Malmström
On a night where Helsinki was buzzing in the summer heat, the dinner was kicked off with an introduction of the Advisory Board, the consortium and a special thanks to all the scalers by Nordic Innovation’s Managing Director, Svein Berg. Having a good time with food and conversations, two fireside chats were arranged to inspire discussion amongst the dinner guests.
Erik Engellau-Nilsson shared the challenges of building a growth company. One of his key-advices when going to new markets, was to send someone from home. Building culture is no easy task, and a trusted employee could be key in building a great team abroad.
Picture: © 2019 Saara Malmström
The second fireside chat was between the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Jeff Abbott of Global Scaling Academy and Lars-Michaël Paqvalén, Serial Entrepreneur. Jeff shared how the want to scale and the uncertainty of the future was some of the drivers for blitzscaling, highlighting speed over efficiency.
See all the pictures from the dinner here.
Picture: © 2019 Saara Malmström
If you want to read more about the first four batches, please visit the Nordic Scalers program page.
Nordic Scale-up Summit 2019
Last week Nordic Scalers and Nordic Innovation held the Nordic Scale-up Summit 2019 as a part of Arctic15. The summit was filled with amazing speakers from the Nordics and beyond. First, two workshops, one on leadership by Veijo Komulainen and on blitzscaling by Jeff Abbott and Adrian Mcdonald.
- Normal people start companies, not superheroes.
Erik Engellau-Nilsson, CEO, Norrsken Foundation
Next up we invited lots of growth experts on stage to talk all things scaling, with moderator Ola Ahlvarsson, founder of Epicenter Stockholm and mentor in the Nordic Scalers program. Amongst the speakers were Navin Thukkaram, Lead Investor, Skykick, Erik Engellau-Nilsson, CEO, Norrsken Foundation, Tommy Palm, Cofounder and CEO, Resolution Games, and one of the scale-ups from Nordic Scalers program, Sean Percival, CMO, Appear.in.
While having a lot of seasoned growth specialists, we also invited one of the scale-ups from the Nordic Scalers pilot on stage, Sean Percival, CMO Appear.in, as well as Kaisa Helminen, Aiforia Technologies. They shared their experiences and learnings so far.
Sean Percival, CMO Appear.in
- No, I'm American, I'm all about stress, I moved to Norway and now I have too little stress"
See all the pictures from the Nordic Scale-up Summit 2019 by clicking the picture below.
Nordic Innovation is working on how to continue the Nordic Scalers program, stay tuned for updates in the near future.
