When starting a new business, why would anyone try to go it alone when there is an entire ecosystem ready to help? In this episode of the UNICOM+ podcast series, we discuss how entrepreneurship communities like Turku Startup Hub, BoostTurku, and the University of Turku’s own Entrepreneurial Hub Konttori support future entrepreneurs at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
The episode is hosted by Antti Nuutinen, Collaboration Manager at the University of Turku. Joining the conversation are Indiamara Claudino, Community Builder at the Turku Startup Hub, and Tanja Holm, Co-founder of Environmental Impacts Academy Oy.
Topics covered:
- What are the most concrete benefits of belonging to entrepreneurship communities?
- How do the startup scenes in Turku and Tampere differ from each other?
- Opportunities for international talents and the barrier to entry for starting a business in Turku
- The gender gap in entrepreneurship and the significance of networks aimed at women, such as BoostHer events
- The support offered by communities, such as mentoring programs and entrepreneurship workshops
Find more information:
- Turku Startup Hub: https://startupturku.com/
- Boost Turku ry: https://www.boostturku.com/
- Support for University of Turku students and researchers: https://sites.utu.fi/konttori/
- Support for Turku University of Applied Sciences students and researchers: https://www.turkuamk.fi/en/project/turku-amk-startlab/
- Support for Åbo Akademi students and researchers: https://www.aaes.fi/
The UNICOM+ podcast series is designed to help international talents residing in Finland navigate their transition to Finland and, later on, to the Finnish job market. The podcast series is produced in collaboration with the University of Turku, Turku University of Applied Sciences and Åbo Akademi University. UNICOM+ project (2025–2027) is co-funded by the European Union.
UNICOM+ podcast series is produced by Junaid Raza.
Length of the episode is 48 minutes.
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Text alternative for the episode
Antti: When starting a new business, why would anyone try to do it alone when there is an entire ecosystem ready to help? This is an episode of UNCOM+ podcast and today we are discussing how entrepreneurship communities like Turku Startup Hub BOOST Turku and University of Turku's own Konttori can support people in becoming entrepreneurs. Joining the conversation today are Indiamara Claudino who has been building startup communities in Tampere and Turku. Now working at the heart of Turku startup hub and Tanja Holm co-founder of “Environmental Impacts Academy OY” and experienced entrepreneur who has seen the growth and change of these communities. My name is Antti Nuutinen supporting entrepreneurship at University of Turku full-time. Welcome to the podcast.
Tanja: Thank you.
Indiamara: Thank you.
Antti: You are most welcome to be here today. So, when talking about these communities, many people are so hesitant to take the first step joining in. I'm very interested in hearing how did two of you join these communities the first time. Would you like to start Indiamara?
Indiamara: Yes. So actually, I got involved with the entrepreneurship community more specifically startup community back in Tampere when I was still a student and I got involved with tribe Tampere which is the startup community of Tampere. So there I got exposed to the startup ecosystem of Tampere and as I moved to Turku here I literally just googled startup communities and I found out about Boost. I messaged some people got some replies was more than welcome to join boost not as only attending the events but as well as a volunteer and after a while I became part of boost her which is initiative under boost.
Antti: I immediately have one question because I have heard this story before a bit differently. I heard that you arrived at Spark-up.
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: How did that story go?
Indiamara: So, when you Google search “startup community”, Spark-up still shows up as a result of the Google search. However, Spark-up is no longer between us. And I reach out to business Turku and there I got advice to join Boost and I messaged some people from Boost and that's how I got in involved specific more explicit.
Antti: Perfect.
Tanja: My story actually also starts in Spark-up so that's something we have in common.
Indiamara: So when it existed.
Tanja: Yeah, when it existed. My first connection to Spark-up is over 10 years ago when I was still in university, I did an entrepreneurship course there. But then when I started my second business almost four years ago I became more active in in the Turku startup scene again. And my first step to joining was that I just found the spaces where I could go and work with other entrepreneurs, meet other people and building and becoming part of the ecosystem happened quite gradually, quite naturally because I was in the same space as other people. And so, it was I had coffee with someone, I had a short chat and you know step by step I was getting more and more involved and yeah the latest involvement was with the Boost Her as well in the mentoring program. So, I think finding that one place where you can meet like-minded people is very important.
Indiamara: Yes, that is true. And it doesn't take as much as putting yourself in those place or searching to be there.
Tanja: Yeah.
Indiamara: And talking to somebody.
Antti: Yeah. I think that's very important to understand that we can say that yeah, we have all these communities. We used to have a spark-up. We have we have places, but the places aren't the community. It's the people. It's the people. It doesn't it's not enough that hey here I am. Where's the community? you need to you need to put yourself into the mindset that hey yes these are my people this is community
Indiamara: That is true.
Antti: You also need the spaces.
Indiamara: That is true as well.
Tanja: Yeah, we need to have a meeting place where those conversations can start to happen we need to have a place that collects like-minded people.
Indiamara: I call that “The Enablers” and I always say Tampere Tribe Community in specific has been my enabler to get involved with the startup ecosystem in Finland now that I'm here.
Antti: Yeah we can use many words to describe the group of people who are doing the same things ecosystems communities well today we are going to call them communities yeah but basically like-minded people who have the same somewhat aligned goals of becoming better entrepreneurs that's interesting okay now we have established that you have been bought of these communities and you both are very happy. I myself have also been part of these communities for a long time on the both sides of the table as a some who has been enabled and nowadays as the enabler funny word. What could you give in the beginning of this podcast that what have been the most concrete benefits that for yourselves?
Indiamara: Actually when Tanya was talking about how she met like-minded people and she could share and talk to them, find a space where allows her to be herself, that's like the most concrete beneficial thing for me as a foreigner coming to Finland. That it's really hard to find those place where you can be yourself. You're not in your home country, right? So, its different culture, it's different language, different people. And finding those places seems almost like an impossible task in the beginning if you think but then when you start breaking down and trying to find these places, you actually see that there are available and it isn't nothing stop you to take that step to be in there. Nobody's stopping at the door and saying you're not welcome here. They actually more than welcome you and they're so receptive and keeps on the foreign perspective being exposed to the Finnish culture because there's a lot of internationals in startup community but you do also have Finnish people and you get exposed to the Finnish culture in small dose and even more important to the local culture and that to me was so meaningful considering that I lived I'm living another country different than mine. I lived in another city and moved to a new one where I knew nobody. So, I would say that even creating a kind of a safety net for me that was the most beneficial thing that I could take from being part of the communities.
Antti: So, getting this sense of belonging somewhere.
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: And having having people who you can share things with.
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: Because you have the same same kind of most of the time same kind of mindset. Hey, let's do things. we can do things.
Indiamara: Yes. Belonging and allowing myself to be there.
Antti: Would you accept with India on this idea that you get the sense of belonging?
Tanja: Yeah, I would say that spaces where there are a lot of startup minded people, do offer a different type of support than other spaces or professional spaces in general. People who are startup minded often are more open to discussing, and kind of you can throw out these maybe in your head crazy ideas, but then you are not met with, oh, what's that? Or like you're not met with doubt, but you are met with encouragement. Or maybe even they are throwing some gasoline on the fire so that it can keep going.
Antti: Yeah, keep going. I want to see this car crash.
Tanja: Yeah. So definitely I think there is a different level of support especially in the spaces where people are working towards startup entrepreneurship for sure and looking to scale their business. It's a different mindset than like solo entrepreneurship for example in my experience.
Antti: Yeah, it's like a big club that everybody is welcome to. But I want to I want to skip a couple of questions here and we will come back to those. But because you touched on the topic that okay coming from somewhere else then Turku there's a question here about the Turku wants to be international. Turku needs to be international but what is actually available for international friends and talent looking when they are looking for they want to start a business they have this mindset they are sharing mindset with us let's do stuff what's available for them?
Indiamara: there is a lot available I would say but you need to look for it I would say that in Turku there is certain kind of mystery of what's going on here till you start wondering and you start finding answers and you start meeting people that direct you some way or another to other people or to other places and there is so many from student side to research side to expert sides to professionals or people wanting to change their career or people that have a crazy idea and they're afraid to speak up. There's so much spaces that allow all those peoples to be there, take space, speak up. And if I would go into examples, there's plenty of different events in all segments from panel discussions to workshops to investment talks and
Antti: Social events.
Indiamara: Yes, social events.
Antti: Parties.
Indiamara: There's so much more than that because there is accelerator programs and there a specific segments and taken on these programs. So, it's never the same even though the specs keep there because we're talking about startup culture. So, some things will always be there when you talk about product development or the market validation and so on but the dynamic change a lot. So, there is a little bit of um everything to everyone I would say.
Antti: Yeah. But you say that okay well we know because we are inside the club. Yes. We know there's a lot happening, but you started by saying that it's a bit hidden.
Indiamara: It is.
Antti: it's a bit hidden. How could we make it not hidden?
Indiamara: Well, I do believe that since I arrived, I arrived almost an year ago here. It has changed already. It's more in your face when you are here. When I arrived I had to Google it wasn't there in my face but things are happening in Turku should be more marketed so I believe like this outreach this talking you know being out there putting these programs to people promoting more would be the way that people could find easier however you can just Google and you're going to find it.
Antti: We are by the way doing this outreach here right now this is outreach you just need to listen to this podcast
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: We will tell you things.
Tanja: Yeah, I think from my point of view also I see in my work I see so many fantastic internationals who have come to Finland maybe for studies but then they're looking for opportunities and work and this might be a hot take but I always say that Finnish companies are crazy for not hiring all of these wonderful talents that come to Finland because I see in my work I always see amazing CVs, amazing backgrounds, people are like so passionate about what they do and still you know somehow they are not finding what they are looking for. And so, I think on a Finnish level, I think we need to get better at being more open to all of this amazing talent that comes here and invite them and provide opportunities for them because I am seeing from my point of view, they are like fantastic. Everyone that I'm speaking to with an international background, they are like so passionate, so incredible. So, I have only had very positive experiences working with internationals.
Antti: Let's say that it's a huge issue that international talent they just cannot get jobs. Could we say that okay by belonging to these communities hey you network, you meet new people, you create it's a community in communities you meet people.
Tanja: Yeah. By meeting people, you have better chances of meeting somebody who's, you are hiring.
Tanja: Yeah
Antti: Tanja’s company is hiring. Yes, we can say that. I can say that. I make the rules here. But when you when you are in the club, it's so much easier.
Indiamara: Yes. To get the opportunities also. Would we agree on that?
Tanja: I would definitely agree on that. And especially when you start hanging out in Konttori or in any of these other places and you start doing maybe work with Boost or anyone else you become more confident and then you get the networks but I think startups are also looking for like very specific talent and you need to find a quite a good like person fit also early on. And so having those like conversations with the people really helps at the same time as you are kind of building your skill set. So definitely
Indiamara: And I would go a little further than beyond talking I did what my way of get involved in network was that I got involved in the core team of Boost Her, in the founding team. So I actually started doing things for the community and there I could showcase my skills. I could showcase what I can do, what I am able to do and I could discover from myself what I'm good at and what I want where I want to go what I want to do and when you can do that when you can show that through something you can execute that and show people the questions that should we hire internationals because we're Finnish they don't have the language or something they become much less quieter questions in the head of others because they start to wonder what if I have that person that is able to do that in my company. So, it is an opportunity for internationals to go even beyond just being part of the communities, attending events, participating but volunteering, taking executing events. Yeah. making things to others because there you can showcase your um skills, who you are without the language, without being an issue.
Tanja: And I actually gave this exact tip to someone a few weeks ago who was wanting to become entrepreneur or find a job. She was an international that came a few years to Finland, and she was really wondering like what should she do and I told her about Boost Her like get involved. Be part of one of the teams whichever you feel the most passionate about or aligns best with what you want to do in the future. Start there. Get building your own profile. Show what you can do and and that can be quite a good stepping stone I believe.
Indiamara: And it's important to let clear that when you're a volunteer, you might think that you are only doing events for students or only for people. Actually, you are running an entire show.
Tanja: Yep. You are talking you are meeting people stakeholders in the city not just in the startup communities ecosystem you're going further than that because you're meeting people from the city from international house from so many different places and you're that contact person you kind of have this leverage to contact them to talk to them
Antti: That's in essence networking yes when you are building let's say an event where you have guest speakers from companies maybe you get to naturally to know those people
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: Who are you inviting to planning the event together with that's networking perfect but I think the bottom line here is that yes there's a plenty of stuff to do for internationals you just need to know where to look for it I think I will be posting some links when you are listening to this there's going to be links about the stuff we are talking about perfect it's going to be there we are not going to explain in depth what's Boost Her or maybe we are maybe we are we have been discussing about Boost Turku is an entrepreneur society ran by students founded by students for students but not only for students Boost Turku welcomes everybody that's the entrepreneurial society for all the higher education students in Turku. Okay, that's Boost and Boost her is an organization under boost which the goal is please explain.
Indiamara: So, Boost Her is an initiative under Boost and the goal is to increase the representation of females in the startup scene of Turku. How they do that is making events that highlight female entrepreneurs by being guest speakers, workshop hosts or panellists in your events.
Antti: Okay. What else do we have? Turku startup hub. Could you tell something about that briefly?
Indiamara: So Turk startup hub it's uh let's say a rebrand of Spark Hub
Antti: which was
Indiamara: 2.0 and it's coming up the space. However, we already have events running up for founders and there the focus is not so much on students. However, we don't do a distinction. Nobody is stopping you in the door again.
Antti: So, everybody's welcome.
Indiamara: Everybody’s welcome.
Antti: So once again, You are welcome. What else do we have? Honourable mentions to International House of Turku who do a lot of job. Then because I have this University of Turku shirt on and I need to say that University of Turku has this great place called Konttori, it's a community it has built itself into a community. Yeah. By the people who are grinding their businesses and Konttori is a place if you are University of Turku student listening to this you can get entrepreneurial support. I think this because in Turku we always love to compare ourselves to Tampere I don't know the reasons but it's very well-meaning but you have seen these communities in both cities how could you are there any differences is there something that we could learn from Tampere?
Indiamara: I think there is always something both seats can learn from each other and it's interesting because uh when I moved to Turku and I did my Google search and I got involved with boost and I my first event of Boost was actually demo day and there I had a showcase of what's happening in Turku. First thing I did was to book a bus ticket back to Tampere. I visited Tribe and I talked about what's going on in Turku and how don't we know about what they're doing there.
Antti: It's far away 200 kilometres far far away.
Indiamara: Yes, but it is here. It has been going on. Boost has been going on for a while. And funny enough in Tribe Tampere we do have people that are very aware of Boost and love to talk about boost. But one thing that's very clear to me is that in Tampere the startup ecosystem is much more fragmented. So, there is a lot of collaborates stakeholders, partners across different industries, institutions, associations from the public and the private sector that come together to collaborate to some extent and that makes Tampere a powerhouse on outreach. When I moved to Turku, I didn't see that outreach as much as I have mentioned the promotion it's not there or the marketing of it starting to change. However, Turku has something that I was trying to know what how do I name it? I was thinking like this mystery of Turku and I was trying to find what is going on here?
Antti: Is this going to be positive or negative?
Indiamara: Very positive. Turku has a, the stakeholders here there isn't much because the ecosystem isn't as fragmented but there is certain alignment on understanding of the pipeline for founders which is so important considering that if you choose startup or entrepreneurship as a career choice it's very unstable there is fast change happening all the time so having this clearer pipeline It's already a win and it's very meaningful because if you are involved with something here in Turku doesn't matter with what organization they can identify what's the next step what can take you further and they direct you there is a level of critical thinking that goes on behind the workshops the events here in Turku that I haven't seen anywhere else not just in Tampere but as well in Helsinki which has a huge ecosystem there. I haven't seen that.
Antti: This is very interesting to hear because a typical critique I hear is that what ecosystem in Turku there's no ecosystem everything is like you have they are working there in their corner they are working there which I don't agree with I always think to myself in in similar ways that yeah we are under different organizations but Turku it's a small town everybody knows everybody if I cannot help you I know my colleagues at Turku startup hub they can help you my friends at Business Turku they can help you. It is about Turku is not that much smaller than Tampere actually so it cannot be the difference but
Indiamara: I think it's a misconcept that people have of Turku because I think people wonder what is happening in Turku they don't know and when you're here and you start to talk to people and you realize it doesn't matter the organization that the person is representing you're talking to then they will direct you maybe to another organization or to another place or to another people and that shows clarity on the pipeline of what is to take an early stage an idea to an actual business to actually start up. So that pipeline of building in Turku it's actually clearer than anywhere else. And a very example I can give, a very specific example I can give is that when Boost Her was created because there is this clarity it was easy to place where Boost Her comes in the pipeline in the very beginning now with the Turku Startup Hub coming up it's very easy to place in the pipeline so there isn't much overlapping of service offering there is indepth services given to founders and things offered to founders that take them forward.
Tanja: So, like the different they are not competing against each other. It's like a clear you start here and then when you move to a certain stage then you get services from here and then when you become bigger or you have these problems that is the right place. So, there are like there is a clear clear distinction.
Indiamara: Yeah
Tanja: Okay.
Indiamara: And the pathway and don't mistake that a pipeline the existence of a clear pipeline the pathway is going to be the same. No depending of the stage regardless of the size of your company you might be redirect to different organizations in that stage. So, there is different pathways.
Tanja: Yeah.
Indiamara: But the pipeline is there the stages of a startup.
Antti: And this is actually something that we are building together with the universities in Turku right now. The pipeline exists but not on paper. We are now building it on paper and there's going to be a cool website. It's going to look like GPT. No AI involved. Just hard information there where you can easily find okay, I'm doing this now. These are the people who are going to help us. So, we can I think we can give as residents of Turku a pat on our backs that hey job well done. We have stuff going on here. Even though maybe we are worse at marketing than people at Tampere.
Tanja: I think a website like this that clearly maps out the different stages and also collects all the stakeholders under one roof so to say and showcase like these can help with these kind of topics and whereas these are problems I think that's going to be super helpful and for me always writing stuff on paper clarifies it so I think that's going to be a huge benefit.
Antti: I’m inviting everyone in this room and there wherever you are listening to this to try it out. We're going to be piloting it this fall, current year 2026. Yes, because you can be in the future also listening to this. That's perfect. So, we could say that in Turku people are more aligned even though we are under different organizations umbrellas we are aligned in the goal of helping yes that's nice to hear even though I said it myself. Do we want to discuss about how these communities have changed along the years?
Indiamara: Well I haven't been in Turku that long to witness but from when I moved till now I can say that the outreach is increasing, marketing and promotion is increasing, new organizations coming up. So I believe that Turku is a really great place to be now as a founder, as an entrepreneur, but it's becoming even a better place to be in the upcoming months.
Tanja: Yeah. I have to agree. I have seen quite many different stages of the ecosystems and who are involved and how but right now especially I think with Boost Her was a very very very welcome new initiative. For me personally I was waiting for something like that for a few years already. I identified for myself already a few years ago that I need more female founder energy in my life. I need more networks and I need more examples of women who are entrepreneurs. And so I was looking for that but I couldn't I couldn't find it. And so being part of Boost Her and being part of the mentoring program also really expanded my own networks mostly on a Finnish level but also international level. I got connected with four or five different amazing female entrepreneurs who are helping me now forward with our business and with growing and scaling our company. And yeah, that was that was something I was looking for a lot because being a female entrepreneur, I feel like it's very isolating. It feel, you feel very alone because you don't have those role models and examples.
Antti: Let's continue on this topic because this is something that we have seen so clearly when I joined these communities 10 years ago. Many of the events they were like just a boys club. Yeah. The boys were doing their hackathons whatever. Well, obviously we had also like people, women, not just boys. Not just boys. But the point being that why is it that Okay. Now, we all give great praise to Boost Her. It's a great initiation and we all want to see it continue. Why, do you have an idea why is it so that okay it was required Boost Her was required to get all these all these wonderful people to join our communities entrepreneurial communities?
Antti: It was a needed initiative for sure there was a whole untapped audience that wasn't being addressed in the events in the subjects and so on showcased even in what is happening in Turku and that is not only in Turku usually the startup ecosystem is male dominated and I could give many reasons about Boost Her and why has been successful but I'll summarize otherwise we are going to have a monologue here as a previous part of the core team it was very clear that Boost Her was not created to segregate genders. That was very clear and is still clear in the room when we are when we are thinking about the events what we want to do. It was never a question like we want to segregate that's not in the table. What we want to do is highlight female founders and how we do that is that in our events is it a workshop you know workshop host is a female entrepreneur or founder. Your panellists are female investors, VCs, entrepreneurs and founders. And the same goes to all events. So, we just highlight these people. We put efforts to reach out to those people and highlight them through our events. Now the female focus is because we have identified from the very start when people start showing up in your events that it wasn't a lack of willing. They weren't like I don't want to be there you know or I can't be there, but they just felt they didn't belong there and that feeling of belonging wasn't there. Maybe the reason it is I won't go under assumptions what is the reason that they felt not belonging there but just by the simple fact of highlighting these female entrepreneurs they felt allowed they allowed themselves to be in the room and to speak up and since Boost Her has been now nine months on the go and the numbers of people joining uh Boost Her and transition to boost has increased and that is amazing to see. That's what's Boost Her is for increasing the numbers not in this bubble. We're not trying to create a new bubble. We are trying to nurture those peoples that didn't feel they belong and make them feel that they can go to the next step which is Boost because they are bigger than Boost Her. They offer marathon and startup journey. So, there are in best programs that are amazing experience to anybody that wants to experience to be an entrepreneur or founder.
Antti: This is absolutely perfect. These communities are about people feeling that they belong.
Tanja: Yeah.
Antti: And if we identify that some people don't get the feeling. Then of course we need to take steps and I'm so happy that Boost Her has taken those steps. I applaud that.
Indiamara: But I would say that Tanja has been a panellist in event for boost her in the very beginning and she has been as a mentee in our mentoring program. And I can say that having people like Tanja involved and wanting to be involved and appreciating the existence makes a lot of difference for the team behind the scenes.
Antti: So, you were a mentee.
Tanja: Yeah.
Antti: You were a mentee just a couple of months ago. How was that? Because you have been running your business quite a long time now.
Tanja: Yeah, I've been running my business for four years now but I only became full-time entrepreneur last autumn. So, that's when I kind of became fully entrepreneur.
Antti: You can have the label on your head now.
Tanja: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Now I'm like officially an entrepreneur. I don't have any other side hustles or anything else. No full-time job or anything else. And yeah, I think it I think Boost Her and you guys, you were very surprised that I wanted to be a mentee. And maybe someone would have thought maybe I'm going to be a mentor instead. But I actually the reason why I applied to be a mentee is because I was at the stage with my company where I felt like I have now worked for four years. I have used all of the tools and the skills that I had collected in my earlier career in my previous career. So, I had kind of learned all of these things and for four years I have been applying them to building my business. But now I am at the stage where I feel like I'm running out a little bit of tools, networks, not ideas but tools mainly and that's why I wanted to come to this program which was fantastic. I could recommend it to everybody. Because I came in with a very specific need. I came in with the need that I want to expand my own network, and I want to get in touch with more experienced founders who can help me to the next level who can help me scale our business. But everyone who attended the program were in very different stages in their own journey. And I think the program was very fantastic from that point of view that the program matched you with the most suitable mentor for you and your situation and your need and it also created this wonderful community. And I every time I think about everyone who was part of that program, even if we just met a few times, but it just created a very strong bond. And I also after the last dinner, I also met with some of the mentors that were not my mentors, but other people's mentors because I clicked with them. And so, it has really created this like positive atmosphere. I feel like I can ask basically any one of the mentees for help. I can ask any one of the mentors for help and then I also came in with my own goal and I in a short time I got a lot of done and the help was tailored to me. So, I am very much happy with getting that help and now I feel nourished and now I have a lot of new tools and then maybe I get invited next year to become a mentor and be on the other side. So yeah, it was super valuable to me. I'm extremely happy to get that tool get those tools and get that help and even if I was a little bit further along than who Boost normally helps so to say.
Antti: This is an awesome example of what our communities offer. To people in all different stages. What else do these communities offer? Okay, this was mentoring. It's an maybe an educational event even but these communities they typically they offer the events they are the most visible thing I suppose then inside those events what do we have keynotes panel discussions these are these kind of outreach thing
Tanja: Like breakfast mornings
Indiamara: Yes there is the brunch panels in Boost Her specifically well-being where we take more about the body and the mind.
Antti: Very much social activities. We come together we bond with each other.
Indiamara: Yes but not only right because we have the accelerator programs or the which is a program I would say the marathon
Antti: More business oriented.
Indiamara: Execution oriented. There you, it's in-depth execution, you go from idea to a prototype in such a short amount of time That is like the perfect experience to have as when you're questioning if you are built it or not because you are going to go through the ideation the team build in a very short time but there is a device there is codes there is this network there for you the tools are there you just need to make use of it.
Antti: Yes perhaps I was trying to think about maybe trying to figure out a list of a hierarchy of what do what practical stuff our communities actually offer. So that's why I started like listening. Okay, yeah, we have these events where you can just pop in. Get a sense, get a sense of, okay, what's going on? Who are these people? Do I like this? Hey, I like this. Then you can start getting more involved. Joining workshops, joining what would be the most I would say the acceleration programs are usually the most intense the maximum level of involvement. Eight weeks of just being super focused.
Indiamara: Building.
Antti: I want to be an entrepreneur. I will be an entrepreneur. What else?
Tanja: You use an entire summer of building on your idea and building your team and you are building your future there.
Antti: Yeah. I have written here parties. Yes. Excursions to Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Stockholm. Very interesting. These communities there's so much going on. I want to go to Tokyo. Let's not discuss that but then I have written down here the educational stuff because education is very important. I want to ask you India because you participated in educational content. You took part in entrepreneurship workshops that were run by some very talented people. But you have the question is not about what happened at that workshop. It's a workshop where you learn about yeah this is my idea this is how I validate it this is how should plan my business this is how I pitch so that's usually the concept of this entrepreneur workshop but I want to hear because you have participated in many of those what did we do different in Turku?
Indiamara: It's good that you mentioned that the aspects the subjects that we'll be discussing is usually the same it's usually going to discuss about validation and product ideation usually are the same But I think what was different in the one that I have been hearing Turku it was the take of the person hosting the workshop for sure there was a certain level of critical thinking that went behind how I'm going to approach this how I'm going to deliver this workshop so again we go back to what Turku did the best that understand of alignment the person that gave me the workshop understood that okay..
Antti: It was me.
Indiamara: Yes, it was Antti. Antti here While he was giving the workshop, he was already thinking what is the next step for you? What is the next step for you? So you could identify that back to the clarity of understanding of the pipeline that exists in Turku and you were providing that information which is so useful to anybody going through this because you get information thrown from all sides and you get different names of organizations you don't know where to go but through the workshop it was very like I would say almost like a straight line and in the end branch to different options that I could explore and another take I would say that we went we used Canva which is why we use it.
Antti: It's the default tool.
Indiamara: Yes, it's the default tool.
Antti: it's a piece of paper where you write down that oh this is my business.
Indiamara: It's a framework and it's often use it in this environment in workshops but I did enjoy how you took it you did not accept what the paper say you deconstruct it and reformulate to us and while we had a second participant and our peer discussion you're allowing us to have the peer discussion while you're doing that this construction you're allowing us to input our needs while you're doing that I think it made the workshop much more for us rather than something I'm just doing a workshop I'm hosting so again we go back to paying attention to the people in the room rather than
Tanja: Personalized,
Indiamara: Yes.
Tanja: Thinking about the who is attending and = tailoring a little bit to those people.
Indiamara: Exactly and you have mentioned that then as well in the mentoring project that was certain level tailored to you.
Tanja: I didn't know it before I attended. I didn't know how tailored it was going to be, but then afterwards when I heard everyone's challenges, I was like, whoa. Like, we have so different challenges. Like some people were still at the idea stage. Some people had five ideas, and they need to choose between them. Some ideas were already like producing their first pilot like they were actually manufacturing something. And so, we were at very very different stages which means that everybody needed such a different type of help and different type of mentor. And I really appreciated the fact that it was so tailored. They 100% got it based on you know the application form that everyone filled in and based on the application form you kind of already knew you could read behind the words of like this person needs this type of help.
Antti: I would say that this is something we do very well in Turku. Maybe because the communities are smaller than for example in Helsinki or Tampere. But in Turku my experience is that whatever community you join typically you are being faced as an individual with individual problems and not just being given a lecture that hey this is the boiler plate just follow this. No, in Turku always in the pipeline wherever you go, we take the time to support you. That's why they are called support services, I suppose. Call to action. What do you want our listeners or viewers to do next? One thing.
Indiamara: Open Google and search Turku startup hub, more specific turkustartup.com and do register to be part of this community coming up. Go to Boost website and check out the events page because there they don't only include events hosted by Boost but others as well.
Antti: So, get involved.
Indiamara: Get involved.
Antti: What about Tanja?
Tanja: I would say the thing that I started with go to a space a physical space with like-minded people. Go there regularly every day or every week. Go there, show up, have discussions. You don't need to do anything else. Just show up to a place regularly with like-minded people. And that's the simplest step.
Antti: Okay. So this is an invitation to entrepreneur located at Hämeenkatu 9 and then starting September I suppose.
Indiamara: Yes.
Antti: Starting September to Turku startup hub. Hey thank you Tanya. Thank you India. Thank you for listening to this episode of UNICOM+ podcast. You can find all the information we have mentioned. We have mentioned a ton of stuff.
Tanja: So many.
Antti: This community this community. Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be links. Okay. So I suppose see you hopefully in the communities.
Tanja: Yeah. I hope to see you.
Indiamara: Yes. Me too. I hope to welcome you guys and introduce even further for what we are offering.
Antti: Okay. Bye.