Nurturing Startups, Venturing, and the Finnish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
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Nurturing Startups, Venturing, and the Finnish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Impact case study Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto SCI 2018 CASE Study CASE Study Aalto RAI 2018 Case Study Field: Industrial Engineering and Management Unit of Assessment (UoA): Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto SCI Nurturing Startups, Venturing, and the Finnish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 1. Summary of the societal impact DIEM graduates as entrepreneurship professors in many leading universities around the world.1 Over the last 20 years, the researchers and faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Of the current DIEM faculty, Prof. Markku Maula Management (DIEM) have had a key role in ener- is a leading researcher in areas of venture capital gizing, motivating and facilitating the establishment and private equity, and external corporate ventur- and growth of 1) student and DIEM alumni led en- ing. Assistant Prof. Mikko Jääskeläinen focuses on trepreneurship and venturing activities; 2) fostering venture capital, accelerating growth and creating entrepreneurship and venturing communities and value. Assistant Prof. Marina Biniari, recruited from educational settings at Aalto University, including the University of Strathclyde in the UK, conducts re- the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (AaltoES), Aalto search on corporate entrepreneurship. Professor of Venture Program (AVP), and Startup Sauna; and 3) Practice Peter Kelly has been teaching courses since supporting the Finnish entrepreneurial ecosystem, 1998 on venture capital and new venture develop- including SLUSH, and high-growth entrepreneurship ment, inspiring a large number of students each policy, and venture capital funding activities. year to explore entrepreneurial career opportuni- ties. In addition, many other professors in the group, including Robin Gustafsson, Jens Schmidt and Timo 2. Underpinning research activity Vuori, conduct research at the intersection of strat- related to Aalto activities egy and entrepreneurship. DIEM has also recently Since the 1990s, several professors in DIEM have recruited postdoctoral researchers from leading Eu- conducted groundbreaking research on entrepre- ropean universities, including Rotterdam School of neurship and venturing. Technology-based entre- Management (Netherlands) and HEC Paris (France) preneurship has been an important area in the and is about to complete the recruitment of a new department from its early days. Early contributors Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership. include Prof. Erkko Autio, who obtained a doctoral degree at DIEM and was a professor in the depart- Responding to the increasing student demand for ment until 2007. He is currently a Chaired Profes- more broadly available entrepreneurship education sor at Imperial College London, UK, and one of at Aalto University, Prof. Maula and the faculty and the most cited scholars on entrepreneurship and alumni of DIEM founded the Aalto Venture Program entrepreneurial ecosystems. While he has worked (AVP) in 2011 in collaboration with Aalto Entrepre- with, supervised and co-authored with numerous neurship Society (AaltoES), Aalto University leader- DIEM doctoral students and faculty, Prof. Autio’s ship, and Stanford Technology Ventures Program contribution to the high-growth entrepreneurship (Prof. Maula acted as the Founding Director of AVP policy in Finland is influential. Since then, DIEM from 2011 to 2012). Assistant Professors Jääskeläin- has focused on entrepreneurship and venturing en and Biniari have led curriculum development in research. During the late 1990s, DIEM’s research AVP since 2012. Since February 2013, Dr. Olli Vuola, activity on technology-based entrepreneurship and corporate venturing was strengthened, resulting in a great number of doctoral dissertations, best pa- 1 DIEM alumni now working as entrepreneurship-related per awards, top tier publications and placement of professors around the world include: Erkko Autio (Imperial College London, UK), Helena Yli-Renko (University of Southern California, USA), Riitta Katila (Stanford University, USA), Pia Arenius (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia), Annaleena Parhankangas (South Dakota State University, USA), Thomas Keil (University of Zurich, Switzerland), Yu Liu (Rot- terdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Nether- lands). Several have also stayed in Finland. 1 CASE Study Executive Director of AVP (and previously a Docent 100 events per year. AaltoES has become the world’s at DIEM) has led its development, contributing to largest student-run entrepreneurship society. the worldwide reputation and recognition of Aalto and the Finnish startup ecosystem. Professor of DIEM has an active role in entrepreneurship educa- Practice Kelly acted as mentor, funder and facilita- tion through AVP, the Aalto University-wide minor tor for the initial activities by students leading to program, which since its establishment in 2011 has the founding of AaltoES in 2008. Moreover, DIEM taught 2 100 students and had over 15 000 par- alumni play a key role in boosting student-led en- ticipants representing 75 nationalities at its events. trepreneurship initiatives. This activity has contributed to the development of entrepreneurship and venturing educational set- tings at Aalto University. From 2013 to 2017, tens 3. References to research / artistic of DIEM students have held leading positions at AVP, activities AaltoES and SLUSH. DIEM faculty has published actively in top-tier jour- nals (e.g., FT50 journals) on topics related to high- SLUSH has grown since its start in 2008 to become growth entrepreneurship, corporate venturing, and the leading annual venturing event in Europe. In venturing. Below are three examples representing 2017, it brought over 20 000 attendees and 2 300 different topics:2 startups together. DIEM’s alumni and student com- munities have had a vital role in founding SLUSH, 1. Liu Y and Maula M. 2016. “Local partnering which is managed by Startup-säätiö Foundation in foreign ventures: Uncertainty, experiential led by DIEM alumni and doctoral students. The last learning, and syndication in cross-border ven- three CEOs have been DIEM students. The depart- ture capital investments”. Academy of Manage- ment has supported its students and alumni by ment Journal 59(4): 1407-1429. mentoring and training those that act and have 2. Jääskeläinen M, and Maula M. 2014. “Do net- executive roles in SLUSH. works of financial intermediaries help reduce local bias? Evidence from cross-border venture Numerous venture capital funds were established capital exits”. Journal of Business Venturing by DIEM alumni and students from 2013 to 2017. 29(5): 704-721. For example, our alumni community has established 3. Maula M, Keil T &and Zahra S. 2013. “Top man- a venture capital (VC) firm, Prodeko Ventures, to agement’s attention to discontinuous techno- invest in our students’ startup firms. Also, the fol- logical change: Corporate venture capital as an lowing VC funds have been founded and/or are led alert mechanism”. Organization Science 24(3): by DIEM alumni: Icebreaker (Riku Seppälä), Lifeline 926-947. Ventures (Timo Ahopelto), Capman (Ari Tolppanen), Loudspring (Timo Linnainmaa and Tarja Teppo), Inventure (Sami Lampinen) and Privanet (Asko 4. Societal Impact, activities and Schrey). Moreover, Wave Ventures is Europe’s larg- roadmap for the case est student-run VC fund, which was launched 2017 DIEM alumni have founded over 50 startups. Suc- in Helsinki by DIEM students. cessful startups by alumni include Relex, CRF Health, Wicom, F-Secure, Hintsa Performance, Sievo, Vilant, 5. Nordic Healthcare Group, Accountor, Fifth Corner Sources to support the impact case Inc., Symbioosi Partners, and Supercell. Numerous Although a big part of the impact on startups, ven- smaller and less successful startups have also been turing and the Finnish entrepreneurial ecosystem established during 2013-2017 by DIEM students comes from our Aalto University-wide entrepre- and alumni. neurial education and other activities encouraging our students in entrepreneurial careers, DIEM fac- AaltoES was founded in 2009 to inspire students ulty has played a central role in caring for the activi- to become entrepreneurs, to think big and to think ties contributing to the development of the Finnish globally. AaltoEs maintains a 1 500 square meter co- entrepreneurial ecosystem. DIEM’s activity has working space on Aalto University’s campus in Ota- resulted in numerous written records. For instance, niemi called the Startup Sauna and organises over when the Finnish (and the European) VC market and the entrepreneurial ecosystem was completely un- derdeveloped after the burst of the internet bubble 2 More examples available at: http://tuta.aalto.fi/en/research in the early 2000s, Prof. Maula actively consulted /strategy_and_venturing/institute_of_strategy_and_ventur ing/publications/ the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and 2 CASE Study CASE Study other Finnish, Nordic and European policy makers to maintain and renew the knowledge base and on the development of a stronger and more vibrant to inspire and educate entrepreneurial engineers market for early-stage risk capital. Many of the to build new ventures. High-quality combinations policy recommendations made in 2003-2009 have of theory-driven and problem-oriented research thereafter been largely implemented in subsequent of DIEM build the basis for entrepreneurs to meet policy initiatives and programs, such as Vigo, Young the global challenges