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Founder Files

The Scaling of Komartek: Ari Korhonen reveals how he saved Komartek from the brink of bankruptcy by selling his company car

By Evli Growth Partners
Ari Korhonen
Growth Partner

The late 1980s and early 1990s marked a period of new product development and rapid market expansion for Komartek. However, as the severe economic depression of the 1990s hit Finland, similar to many companies, Komartek soon found itself grappling with a debt burden. But how did Korhonen’s decision to sell his company car rescue Komartek from the brink of bankruptcy?

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Founder Files

The Beginning of Komartek: “It is actually the only job search process I have ever had to go through” – Ari Korhonen on how he steered Komartek to conquer the niche markets

By Evli Growth Partners
Ari Korhonen
Growth Partner

Growing up in a farming family, Ari Korhonen became accustomed to hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. Now, Korhonen shares how the energy crisis of the 1970s kick-started his career and what led him from the sugar beet fields to the helm of Komartek, a Finnish vertical software company that would soon become an international success story.

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Founder Files

The Exit of Vincit: “There are things I could have handled differently” – Mikko Kuitunen shares the real story behind Vincit’s successful exit

By Evli Growth Partners
Mikko Kuitunen
Growth Partner

From the perspective of the founders, two exits are occurring at the same time. One of them is all about the business, while the other one is more personal. After Vincit's IPO in 2016, it became clear to Mikko Kuitunen that he wouldn't be the right person to grow the business in the near future.

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Founder Files

The Scaling of Vincit: “I have nothing to apologize for” – Mikko Kuitunen reveals how he redefined leadership and built the greatest place to work

By Evli Growth Partners
Mikko Kuitunen
Growth Partner

In software consulting firms, people can make or break the company. To make successful scaling possible, Vincit prioritized people and culture from early on.

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Investments

Shaping the Future of Tech-Enabled Hospitality

By Evli Growth Partners
Juuso Koskinen
Associate Partner

The hospitality industry stands on the brink of a transformative era - we are thrilled to lead the €40 million Series B funding round for Bob W. Together with us we excited to be joined by some of the iconical entrepreneurs of our region including Taavet Hinrikus, Sten Tamkivi, Mikko Kodisoja, and our own Growth Partner, Mikael Hed.

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Founder Files

The Beginning of Vincit: How Mikko Kuitunen led Vincit from near collapse to doubling revenue in one year

By Evli Growth Partners
Mikko Kuitunen
Growth Partner

In 2007, 26-year-old Mikko Kuitunen quit his previous job and founded a software consultancy company. There was no problem to solve, no ready-made vision – just the hope to go to work every morning without feeling sick of it.

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Founder Files

The Exit of Blancco: “Why go through all the what-ifs?”

By Evli Growth Partners
Kim Väisänen
Growth Partner

For founders, the transition from making all the decisions to having almost no control after an exit is always challenging. This transition wasn't easy for Kim Väisänen, either.

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Founder Files

The Scaling of Blancco: How Kim Väisänen navigated through the trials and errors of scaling

By Evli Growth Partners
Kim Väisänen
Growth Partner

Kim Väisänen emphasizes one rule that every fast-growing company should live by when starting up: do not fall in love with people. He repeats this advice for scaling.

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Founder Files

The Beginning of Blancco: How Kim Väisänen started Blancco for real

By Evli Growth Partners
Kim Väisänen
Growth Partner

Startups are usually built around solving specific problems. For Kim Väisänen, the problem was that he wanted to get out of university.

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Founder Files

The Founder Files

By Evli Growth Partners
Jere Blomqvist
Investment Manager

Let us introduce a new blog series - The Founder Files, a series of blog posts exploring the human side of entrepreneurship, where the distinction between success and failure is often a fine line. From founding and scaling, all the way to the exit, we reveal the unfiltered, authentic stories behind entrepreneurial journeys. Ready to hear the truth?

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