References

The joint journey of Sonja and Iita began in 2016 at Itä Suomen Muoto ry:ssä, where they, as active members of the board, updated the association’s values, strategy, and action plan. The idea of joint entrepreneurship and the wider implementation of advocacy work sprouted. Hathunters ’goal is to get companies to make better use of design.​

Coaches can give:​

Regular meetings helped to do the work systematically. From the morning meeting, Iita and Sonja got a tool to help keep the overall picture checked. Other teams involved in the Havuja #! @% &! Accelerator gave rise to a community with which Hathunters was able to collaborate already during the accelerator.​

PlainE Oy is a company focused on systematic information security risk minimization, workshops, training and education for SMEs and public actors.​

“Not such a small thing that it’s not worth asking.”​

“Even though the world around us is burning, selling information security services is a difficult business model for micro-enterprises. Maarit and Marja-Leena have succeeded well in sparring and developing my own thinking for business development. From Business Center, you can therefore get new directions for many types of operators, when as a sole proprietor you often have to think things over on your own.”​

Tmi Elina Partanen trains social and healthcare service providers about equality and especially about meeting sexual and gender minorities and promoting their health.

Business Center Pohjois-Savo’s support was critical to concretizing the vision of academic entrepreneurship.

Without the sparring of the Business Center’s experts, many of the ideas would not have been implemented. Our team also received start-up capital from the entrepreneurship program to develop operations. With the help of the support, the idea became clearer and our team managed to start academic entrepreneurship in a discipline where it is usually considered really exceptional.

NOETON is developing a solution to reduce particle emissions from small wood burning. Our vision is to make combustion more environmentally friendly and thus help in the fight against climate change.

I had an idea and a prototype of a device that had been developed at the University of Eastern Finland as part of my dissertation research. My co-founder and I had decided to start working on the idea as a company and our first step was to participate in the Draft program.

From the Draft programs, we received initial capital to establish a company and financial help, e.g. to improve the company’s visual appearance. In addition, we got sparring, good contacts in the local business support network and, of course, valuable experience in pitching.

The Butterfly Brick is a patented support piece for the ice hockey goalie’s skate, which makes the butterfly save position more balanced and ergonomic. Our vision is to help goalkeepers prevent hip injuries, which are becoming increasingly common.

I got a lot of help in developing the business idea from the Draft program, which helped us finance the testing phase of prototypes and pilot research on the benefits of supporting blocks.

Business Center has also offered sparring in financial and development matters, pitching coaching, and lots of good contacts. Business Center has been a very valuable support during the initial stages of the company.

We got a really good business plan, which became a tool for the management team, and it is included in our daily work.​