My entrepreneurial journey started way back in high school. I still remember this optional course we had during my first year. It was all about entrepreneurship, and one of the tasks was to come up with a simple business idea to promote sustainable tourism. Of course, my team completely sidetracked and came up with a concept around recycling old clothes instead and even got to pitch it in a competition organized by the U.S. Embassy, which at the time felt very very very official.

Fast forward to my uni years: I founded my first real startup, ByteTyde. The turning point for me was joining LUTES in 2023 (our uni’s entrepreneurship society). That’s where I saw how powerful student entrepreneurial societies can be: the community, the energy, the ideas flying around.

This started actually at a LUTES event, kind of a chaotic idea night. I remember vividly this. We were in small groups and this one guy said, “You know, I want to build a robotic booth where you sit and scan your face and it cuts you the perfect haircut for you.” I thought it was totally wild, but also, wait… why do I always get stressed for hours before going to the barber?

After the event, I called my friend Simo and just asked, “Hey, do you ever stress about what haircut to get?” That turned into an hour or more deep dive, and by the end, we realized we’ve both always had this anxiety before the barber. And that’s basically how ByteTyde was born: from a real, slightly ridiculous, but very relatable problem: making hairstyle decisions easier and more confident. Learned along about validating, pitching, and iterating especially.

Well I did not stop with a startup, there was another problem to be adressed in 2025.

I was attending explore startup sauna 2025 at Aalto with LUTES, when I ran into my friend Oskari Hervonen. One of the most driven startup minds I know, and he asked:

Why do all Finnish unicorns seem to come out of just one Es — AaltoEs?

There are 15+ Es societies across Finland. So why haven’t others produced unicorns? Because AaltoEs is just big enough to offer real support: top-tier events, resources, mentors. The others? They have ambition, but some of them are too small to scale that kind of impact.

He told me about the idea: a non-profit built to empower the Es ecosystem. To fix the imbalance. To make sure every student founder, no matter where they start, gets the tools they need to thrive.

I joined immediately. Now I’m proud to be one of the Founders of NexUS. I know how easily potential can get lost when ecosystems are underpowered. And I know what’s possible when they aren’t.

But that is my story for now. Well see where this goes…