Monochrome is an influencer agency that builds bridges between brands and the most popular Finnish social media influencers. One of the founders, Matilde Pelkonen, is an AVP alumna who is always excited about something new. We had a chat with her to learn more about her company and her journey of book writing, food delivery, and entrepreneurial spirit.

It was in 2014 when Matilde Pelkonen realized clearly that she wanted to be an entrepreneur. As a student in Aalto University School of Business, the idea had naturally already crossed her mind before, but the turning point was taking part in the Aalto Fellows course by Aalto Ventures Program, organized then for the very first time. “Aalto Fellows must have been the most impactful course I took,” Matilde says. It made her see that anyone can become an entrepreneur.

After the course, Matilde decided to pursue her long-time dream of being a writer. She traveled to Nice, and together with Janna Salokangas, wrote and published an exercise-filled travel book Ei tosiaankaan liian vakava matkakirja (freely translated, ‘definitely not too serious a travel book’). The goal was to sell enough books to fund ten charity events for children. In just a couple of months, the books were sold out and the events funded. “That project taught me that the true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer — that dreams need to be actualized,” Matilde says. “Also, I was supposed to be starting my master studies, but this was way more fun,” she adds laughing.

Finished with the book project, Matilde needed a new challenge. It soon presented itself in the form of Emma Naumanen, a long-time friend and future co-founder of Monochrome. Emma had started working for a food delivery startup that had recently expanded from Germany to 13 other countries, including Finland, and asked whether Matilde would like to join her in setting up operations in Helsinki. Naturally, she did. “We basically built everything from scratch. It was like having a startup of our own, but without any of our own money on the line,” Matilde says. “That was the biggest lesson I’ve had in what it’s actually like to be an entrepreneur.”

A true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer — dreams need to be actualized.

At the food delivery startup, Matilde was in charge of marketing and had free reign to test out different approaches. One thing she tried was influencer marketing, especially on Instagram. “We had Sara Sieppi make one post about us, and the sales numbers that week tripled. That’s when I realized how powerful influencer marketing can be,” she says. They wanted to do more of it, but it was quite time-consuming to find relevant influencers as they had to find and approach them one by one. Luckily for marketing people today, that’s not true anymore — thanks to Monochrome.

Setting up her own company was a natural next step for Matilde. She had the experience, and she had understood the power of influencer marketing and seen the need for an agency that would focus on it. All she needed was a co-founder, and Emma didn’t need much convincing. Soon after, Matilde and Emma left their jobs at the food delivery startup and founded Monochrome in 2016.

Initially, Monochrome focused on Instagram only but today, they cover all major social media channels excluding Facebook. They also work with a large number of influencers and are always on the lookout for more. “We don’t have a fixed list of influencers, but instead always find the best fit for the customer’s specific needs. That helps us stay neutral and flexible,” Matilde says. For an influencer to collaborate with Monochrome, they must — besides having enough followers — produce engaging content and align with the company’s values. If it’s a good fit for the customer, even the follower number doesn’t need to be that high. “For a Finnish customer, someone with good, relevant content and 2000 followers in Finland is always a better option than somebody random with 100 000 followers abroad,” Matilde explains.

For Monochrome, the future is looking good. They are not a startup in the sense that they’re not looking for explosive growth — also, they’re profitable — but the whole field is growing and Monochrome with it. “We were quite lucky with the timing, growth comes almost for free. We have to be careful it doesn’t make us lazy,” Matilde says. Lazy is not a word anyone would use to describe Matilde, though. Having helped Monochrome grow to what it is today, she’s already looking for new challenges. “We have this new business idea with Emma, and I’m also writing a children’s book,” Matilde says. In addition to work-related projects, she’s also finishing up a bachelor’s degree in educational psychology at the University of Helsinki, learning to sail and studying how to become a social media influencer herself. “I guess I get excited about new things easily,” she says laughing.

We should focus on doing things that make us happy.

Getting excited about things definitely helps in becoming an entrepreneur, but it’s not enough. “I think everyone gets good ideas, but what matters is making them a reality,” Matilde says. She believes her time at Aalto University made her more solution-oriented, and a better entrepreneur. “Aalto in general and especially AVP and Kiuas helped me to see the world differently and understand the value of diversity in problem-solving,” she says. While she agrees that anyone can become an entrepreneur, she emphasizes it is hard work that might not suit everyone. “Try it out and see if it’s for you, but don’t force it if it doesn’t come naturally. After all, we should focus on doing things that make us happy.”

Banner image: Original photo by Sanni Siira, edited by author (who is not a designer)