AVP visited Lagos, the economic powerhouse of Nigeria and arguably the entire African continent, renowned for its vibrant startup scene, frequently referred to as the Silicon Savannah of Africa. During our visit, we had the chance to engage with innovative startups, accelerators, and innovation hubs.
A while ago, we had the pleasure of having Mårten Mickos — an Aalto alumni, entrepreneur and current CEO of HackerOne — visit us for a talk. He shared his journey from Otaniemi to Silicon Valley, full of useful tips for the aspiring entrepreneur. We gathered eight of what we think are the most important lessons from his talk
Rosa-Maria Alaraasakka and Tuomas Hätälä are the founders of Opack, a startup that aims to revolutionize the reusable food packaging industry. The company is based on an idea born on Startup Experience and it almost died during Covid, but was born again thanks to an unexpected savior — the EU.
Four students — Anh Nguyen, Camila Gallo, Júlia Vila and Henri Wittmann — represented Aalto Ventures Program at the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE) bootcamp at the University of California, Berkeley in January 2023. The bootcamp was filled with joy, new friendships and valuable insights regarding entrepreneurship.
One of our team members, Aaro, took part in Ignite, a summer accelerator program at Aalto University aiming to make ideas into reality. The ten-week program is structured with weekly topics on entrepreneurship, from business validation to fundraising, but it's not just about accelerating startups. It’s truly a people accelerator.
Everyone loves a startup success story, but to be honest, most startups don't become such. Paavo Vallas, an AVP alumnus and founder of Särkifood, had it all figured out and business was thriving — for a while. This is not Särkifood's story, but Paavo's. It's a story of how a startup can fail, but its founder can still succeed.