Summer Reflections

The leaves have started to turn golden and this morning on the school run before starting my working day I found myself reflecting on the Summer months and the foundations built to see through the Autumn and into next year.

Despite the pressures of co-running a small business and various client engagements I am glad I found the discipline to take some proper annual leave with my children this year, I suspect all were better off for it!

It was a busy period for work events, and many first time experiences too. Despite being in Finland supporting technology orientated businesses since I founded Connell International Oy in January 2007, it was very much a Summer of firsts, attending some surprisingly long standing events that I had missed in the past.

I was happy to represent Nolwenture Ltd. at these events and to discuss the work we do to support our clients in terms of both software development but also venture building using our broader know-how and network. I very much tried to find a balance between promoting our services and giving my time for appropriate impartial advice and support. Even before the Summer I was already offering pro-bono support as a board member for Hub Panostamo such as coaching at the Tahko Ski Lift Pitch for which I extended this help at the following events, often with upwards of 20 meetings per day.

I always endeavour to make a clear distinction for informal support and when contracting me directly, as I still offer my services for a few client engagements, I remain an active board member and Chair of Vaki Games, Hub Panostamo as mentioned and after completing an interim CEO and CFO position for a global InsurTech last year I do have the capacity to take on some further work. Typically I work with technology orientated businesses who's ambition is to accelerate their global growth. In a board advisory, consulting, mentoring, training or interim management role with hands-on operational execution provided where needed.

I work throughout the business lifecycle with strategic review, ideation to launch with planning and execution, building investor relations and?raising funding such as from grant bodies and VCs, building partnerships, through to internationalisation and go-to- market activity, ?not just with myself but also utilising experts in my network, many of whom have built their own businesses and successfully exited.

In no particular order, this summer's events, starting with the acknowledgement that the atmosphere at Arctic15 was amazing with a positive collaborative energy and healthy attendee mix of investors, advisors, start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses, Solver X for reverse pitches somewhat reflected what felt this summer like more suppliers and vendors chasing fewer new opportunities and somewhat scaled down projects, SHIFT Business Festival in Turku allowed us to have our Eastern Finland business get noticed in the South West, with thanks for the support of the Business Turku , Platform6 Startup House around Tampere Smart City Expo was a great showcase for a regional approach to support start ups, closer to home was Kuopio Health Insights event and regular open days with Hub Panostamo including kicking off last week with the new incubation cohorts. Last week I also attended an event by Business Kuopio and Kuopion kaupunki - City of Kuopio / Kuopio Chamber of Commerce with a US delegation from their twin city Minneapolis, and in their words nicely put as "fostering valuable connections, and building networks".

I was so pleased for Snowchange Cooperative for being the Goldman Environment Prize Winner 2023, this is a client that I am really happy to support their important work, as are all at Nolwenture, read more here and follow the link for the ceremony from 4 months ago https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/tero-mustonen/ they also had a great event Festival Apaja 2023 in Tohmaj?rvi.

As we head into the Autumn, Slush will be the biggest event of the year here in Finland and I look forward to seeing many familiar faces from this Summer and following up on everyone's activity and progress.

At the end of August we officially completed an intensive development of our "own IP" related to a couple of awesome new software applications that are currently being piloted and more will be revealed shortly!

At the time of writing I am glad to say that we are near full capacity at Nolwenture but we do have some resources if your project needs our support such as for your web or mobile application development still this year. Whilst I would kindly request that if you have any future projects in mind to contact me now we can plan ahead, such as for the New Year.

In my "day job" I will continue to see you all at future events wearing my Nolwenture hoodie or T shirt with pride, so just tap me on the shoulder if you see me or book a follow up directly here: https://calendar.app.google/7Z3Nngx9LbKTK6wY8