Get professional

A few months back, in Copenhagen, I had the privilege to work with a team of enthusiastic students and a startup (provided a project for our class at CBS) that at the time was known as Tangerine District. Tangerine District was in private beta for some time but now Tangerine District has now gone publicly live as Worksy.

Worksy is perfect for startups that are looking to manage their work in a professional way. It is an online community of entrepreneurs  combined with all the important tools and services a startup may need, such as CRM, website tools, calendars, e-mail etc. It helps you document and plan your activities as you push your startup forward.

Probably the best side to worksy is that it is free of charge (at least the limited version, which will easily get you started).

Check it out and become more professional.

Related articles

• Worksy aims to give companies everything they need to run their business, online (thenextweb.com)

Join a start-up

A new chapter in my life is right about to begin.

I returned to Finland from Denmark and Copenhagen Business School just before the holidays. My studies at Oulu Business School are now complete and it is time to move forward. I will be joining a start-up company in Espoo from the beginning of February. For me, this is one of the greatest opportunities. The company is growing rapidly, the people there are young and enthusiastic and also they appreciate talent. “A people” hire “A+ people” and later “A+ people” “Hire A++ people”. I hope the company also follows this rule of thumb that was closely followed at least at Apple.

For my fellow “soon to graduates” and “recent graduates”, seriously consider joining a start-up. These are the companies that are actually creating something new and exiting each and every day. You’ll certainly receive all the responsibility and opportunities you can handle. Also you have the great opportunity of growing with the company. Growth brings in new employees and these new employees will need new managers. Compared to large corporations where you might only be a number on the pay cheque, in start-ups you’ll certainly have a large role. Most of all, your work will leave a mark.

So instead of joining a corporation, join a start-up and be a part of something exiting.

Please FAIL today!!!

Ok, please write a note to your calendar for today. Please write; ” Today I failed!”

Don’t worry. Failing is good. Failing helps you learn from your mistakes. Failing will show what has to be improved. I encourage you to fail. Even better, I challenge you to fail. Finland challenges you to fail!

Today, 13th October 2011, marks the first nationwide “National Fail Day” in Finland. What is it all about? In short the Finnish society hasn’t been very encouraging in the unfortunate situation where a person – whether an entrepreneur, an athlete, me or you, anyone – has failed. Unlike in many other cultures failure in Finland is (soon “was”) personal. From children to adults, from students to professionals, from young to old – we fear failure so much that we don’t even try. We fear that other people will judge us based on our failures rather than our success.

However, today marks the time when Finland began to change its ways. Today, failure is celebrated. Share your failures with all the people you know and encourage them to do the same! Spread the word and visit the official website (sorry, only in Finnish) to see how some of the most prominent figures of Finnish society have failed. Learn from your failures and learn from the failures of others. Remember that when you have failed, you have the chance to learn how to be better the next time. Failure is an opportunity to succeed!

Related articles

• Nokia as ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ and the Helsinki Spring (blogs.berkeley.edu)
• What is Fail day about??

First post…

Okay, it is August 7 12:12 AM and I’m about to write my first post. Nothing fancy or insightful, but surely something in a long list of first’s that are about to come.

What I basically decided a couple of weeks back was that I’ll start blogging about my own start-up (first that I’m involved in) that is currently shaping up and also the start-up community and environment that I belong to at any given time. Currently I’m in Oulu, Finland, but in a week or so I’ll be heading to Copenhagen (first time there) for a semester of entrepreneurial studies at Copenhagen business school.

My plan is to write about several topics related to start-up’s and how I got involved in the first place. I’ll also offer some insight based on what I have learnt during the journey that I have taken with my fellow co-founders (a first for them too).

I’ll just end this post with something I read in the book “The unbearable lightness of being” by Milan Kundera; “What happened but once, might as well not have happened at all”

Following this, I’m sure all the first’s here and the first’s to come, will be followed by second’s and third’s and other’s. Some of them more successful  when others are bound to fail. However, this has been a beginning to something new and we just have to see where it ends up.