A hopeful take on the future of Ukraine from a startup entrepreneur — I am a Ukrainian but also lived in Finland, Germany, and the US. I was born in the town of Enerhodar, which has the infamous nuclear power plant that made the world hold its breath when it was fired at. I am a startup entrepreneur and a Ph.D. candidate. In…

My transformation from an overworked Startup CEO to a strategist leading 12 people — Recently, being a startup CEO, I started rethinking how I work from the first principles. I wanted to be both healthier and achieve more. Here are a few insights that came out of it. The worst and best outcomes of hard work Currently, I am managing a 13-people AI coaching startup. Until recently, around 10 hours of my…

How Intel, Web3, SpaceX, Facebook, and Pandatron started with technology or vision — Have you heard the saying “love the problem not the solution”? Or have investors asked you what problem you are solving? Entrepreneurs are urged to start with the problem in mind when thinking of startup ideas. A solution looking for a problem is seen as a bad thing. However, I…

Announcement of Pandatron’s funding round and reflections on the journey traveled thus far — 1. Why (not) to raise I am the CEO of Pandatron and with this article, I am happy to announce that just last week we closed the pre-seed round of $621K. We gathered investors from all over the world, with major checks being from Gorilla Capital, angels Dirk Freise and Martin Ostermayer, and Business Finland…

Insights from 5 years of running a B2B startup — Why did you open this article? Perhaps the topic of sales was relevant. I would imagine that the BIG names got your attention. The big names play into my credibility. If I sold to them, I must know what I am doing. This is, in fact, one of the biggest…

Coming from someone who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. — At the age of 15, I was diagnosed with a terminal illness. This event induced a strong fear of death in me. For a while, I thought it might even be a good thing. The fear of death seemed rational. …

10 entrepreneurship principles I learned over the past 5 years — This article acts as a shorthand for the main entrepreneurship principles I follow. Here is a quick overview of what I’ve done over the past 5 years: Founded a startup, pivoted twice over the course of 5 years. Hired and fired dozens of people. Had a co-founder who ended up…

A fable on why integrity matters and how to judge it — My co-founder borrowed money from me for the cancer operation of his mother. At that point, he was working remotely for a Finnish tech startup and was sure he could return the money back to me in a few months. After he stopped replying to my messages I checked in…

Avoid dilution with grants and loans — Startup entrepreneurs often see investment as something to strive for. Big rounds make news stories. I would argue the opposite. If you can, do NOT get the investment. …