Helping Finnish companies enter the Chinese market, colorful lights, 24-hour stores on every corner, hustle and bustle, and exciting startup activity. That was my daily life before moving to Kokkola.
The undersigned worked in China (2015-2019) as Finland’s Innovation Counselor, collaborating with Chinese companies (such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent), investors, accelerators, and leading universities (such as Tsinghua and Fudan) and meeting a wide variety of startups of different sizes. My main task was to help Finnish companies better enter the Chinese market and gain a foothold in these vast markets. This was facilitated through funding, soft landing services, market access programs, various events (such as supporting SLUSH Beijing and Shanghai events), and especially through cooperation with local actors.
Just before the pandemic, in the fall of 2019, our family decided to take on an offered and very interesting position in Kokkola – it must have been luck that we managed to leave China just before the pandemic and the massive lockdown. The local media company, Hilla Group (then KPK Yhtiöt), was looking for a Development Director, and I was chosen for the position.
From the very first weeks, it became clear that Kokkola, and perhaps more broadly the Central Ostrobothnia region, needed a new kind of startup and brainstorming activity, as well as a positive startup “buzz.” This was partly due to the enthusiasm brought by my new role to seek new ideas for Hilla from outside the company, partly due to my own longing to be involved in helping startups, and also a desire to continuously absorb new ideas and learnings.
I don’t exactly remember where we met in the spring of 2020 or why, but we had some meetings with Centria and KOSEK, perhaps more about the collaboration between Hilla and these organizations at the time. I suggested to Johanna Jansson and Jari Isohanni from Centria, “What if we organized a pitching competition, and Hilla could promote the competition and its winner through its own channels?” A big thank you goes to Vesa Pihlajamaa, who supported the enthusiasm of a newly started Development Director toward new ideas and startup activities. In the early stages, there was even talk of establishing a startup center in the spaces owned by Hilla, which at the time (due to the pandemic) were underutilized and therefore available as a home for the first steps of startup companies. We never established the center, but the pitching competition was born. I can’t take credit for the name “Tervatynnyri,” but I believe it came quite quickly from Jari, and it immediately felt right (considering the origin of the competition).
And so, we began organizing and building the competition. Initially, if I remember correctly, the plan was to hold the competition in person, but quite quickly, the pandemic forced us to look for another solution, and the first competition ended up being held online. It was amazing to see how enthusiastic the group around me was – the core team from Centria and KOSEK. Even back then, I felt that we had managed to create a bit of that “buzz” in Central Ostrobothnia, and that truly warmed my heart.
Today, when I look at the upcoming Tervatynnyri competition and the organizations already committed to it, I can only say that the pitch competition is here to stay. In the second year, we humorously said that the “already traditional” competition has established itself as a revitalizer for the region and a platform for new ideas, as well as a genuine competition aimed at helping ideas take flight and new businesses achieve real growth.
I truly wish the best success for this year’s competition, and I hope that as many new ideas as possible will gain momentum with the help of this competition and the support it provides!
Arto Mustikkaniemi
Head of Business Area
Market Volatility Services
Solnet Group
