In a post-Nokia era, startups are emerging among an “empathetic generation” as a means not to get rich but to solve social problems

Finnish gaming companies are having a moment. Just look at Rovio (Angry Birds) and Supercell (Clash of Clans), the rise of which has coincided with the unravelling of the once-unbeatable Nokia.

This surge in successful start ups reflects an emerging culture of young entrepreneurship in Finland. Startup Sauna, a co-working hub and Slush, a startup conference now said to be the largest event of its kind in northern Europe, are new staples of the Finnish entrepreneurial scene. And thousands of young Finns are beginning to identify themselves as entrepreneurs.



Finland is changing. What exactly has happened to foster a culture of young entrepreneurship in this frequently idealised “welfare state”?



Lack of ‘secure work’ in Finland

My colleague Noritoshi Furuichi and I set out in May this year to seek some answers. We interviewed more than 30 individuals, from secondary school students and young entrepreneurs to well-known role models and scholars. We were interested in what our interviewees thought of entrepreneurship and how they viewed the relationship between Finland’s welfare state and entrepreneurial behaviour.



Elina Uutela, 24, is a communication studies undergraduate at the University of Helsinki who works as a host at the Helsinki Think Company, a hub for academic entrepreneurship. She launched her first content production company at 17 and went on, in 2011, to serve as the chief of operations for the expanding startup conference Slush. This event has engaged Silicon Valley icons and investors to inspire a new generation of techies across northern Europe. It brought Uutela in close contact with the Aaltoes, or the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, a student-run entity at Finland’s Aalto University that has been recognised as a key catalyst of Finland’s startup craze.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elina Uutela. Photograph: Tuukka Toivonen

According to Uutela, from the perspective of young adults at least, there is no such thing as “secure work” in post-financial crash Finland. In a fluid, competitive context where proud symbols of the nation’s economic identity (such as Nokia’s chunky mobile phones) could vanish overnight, entrepreneurship appears to be a better option.

Entrepreneurs can enjoy a stronger sense of control (however constrained in reality) over their work compared with company employees. Though a certain fear of failure still lingers, Uutela said the personal risks of launching a new venture in the context of free university education and a supportive entrepreneurial community have become minimal in practice.



In the recession-hit 1990s, the situation was different. A pioneer of the Finnish gaming industry and the current CEO of Microtask, Ville Miettinen, 39, recalls how most of his friends would repeatedly urge him to find real work instead of “playing around” with computers. Programming wasn’t taught at all in school or even at universities, and the leading business schools taught nothing about setting up new companies, focusing only on how to maintain and tweak established behemoths.



It is now widely recognised that the status of entrepreneurship – as well as the gaming industry for that matter – has markedly improved in Finland. This is in no small part due to the efforts of hugely successful pioneers such as Ville (who spends most of his free time mentoring tech startups) and the broader community that has formed around Aaltoes and promoted a strongly growth-oriented, for-profit form of entrepreneurship. But what else is motivating young people to pursue an entrepreneurial life in Finland?



Meaning over money

One argument is that far from being preoccupied with wealth, the majority of young Finnish people want work that they experience as meaningful and in line with their values. In the words of Uutela: “Youth worry deeply about climate change and other crises at home and abroad, and they witness the reluctance of ‘grown-ups’ to take action. This motivates them to take action.” Entrepreneurship emerges not as a pursuit of economic wealth, but as a vehicle for promoting sustainable lifestyles and new solutions to social problems.



Juha Leppänen, 28, a researcher at Demos Helsinki, sees a real trend towards the pursuit of meaning. A survey of 1,770 students by his think-tank in 2012 found that nearly 80% of young Finnish adults identified “meaningfulness” as an important or very important characteristic of a desirable workplace.



The pursuit of meaningfulness outranks the desire for a high salary and long holidays by a large margin. Janne Lemettinen, of SYY, an association for social entrepreneurs, confirms that fewer young people find cushy corporate jobs satisfying in the post-Nokia era, but that more are able to advance solutions to the serious problems around them, including unemployment.



The Peloton Club that Leppänen leads, brings young social entrepreneurs together around the challenge of attaining higher energy efficiency and sustainability. It’s a community where promising projects receive mentoring and access to advanced knowledge, mainly through informal exchanges. Among its participants is Sharetribe, based at Startup Sauna of Aalto University, which has created a platform for catalysing local sharing markets for everyday items from guitars to power drills.



Senior academics such as Helsinki University’s psycho-historian Juha Siltala describe Finnish twentysomethings as an “empathetic generation”. He means a generation characterised by a high desire for autonomy and a greater ability to relate to the needs of others.



Beneath the celebrated but relatively narrow entrepreneurial examples set by Rovio and Supercell, it turns out that Finland is warming up to alternative types of entrepreneurship driven by the motivation to secure personal autonomy and social impact. Could this be the beginning of a socially entrepreneurial era for Finland’s younger generations?



Young entrepeneurship in a Nordic welfare state

Yes and no. At present, Finland lacks social entrepreneur role models; remains weak at cross-sector innovation; and is only slowly building a vibrant collaborative culture that could support full-fledged social ventures.

The dominant centre-right coalition party has shown little interest in promoting impact-oriented entrepreneurship. Neither have core proponents successfully established an effective, attractive definition of social entrepreneurship that could make social value creation more visible and mobilise actors around it.



These obstacles notwithstanding, Finland does possess a thriving charity sector and an openness towards social innovation in general. This can be seen in the recent success of the Restaurant Day (held several times each year) which features thousands of citizen-run pop-up restaurants around Helsinki and several other cities across the world.



Helsinki is also a hub of creative entrepreneurship in music, design products, visual art and cultural events. This is driven in part by social considerations along with the desire to work outside the confines of large organisations. Matti Kunttu, of the graphic design agency TSTO, for example, co-founded his company to enhance his autonomy but also because he hated the way mainstream marketing corporations use design (“the world doesn’t need us to create another toothbrush”).

In terms of its current cultural landscape and young adults’ values, Finland seems highly receptive to an entrepreneurship that is focused on social impact and ethical practice. The dynamics of youth entrepreneurship in the context of a (still) relatively generous Nordic welfare state are clearly evolving.

Are robust income security policies a key reason why a growing share of Nordic young people — beyond a narrow strata of elites — are able to participate in entrepreneurial activities? If so, we have not only Angry Birds, entrepreneurial role models and startup communities but also the classic welfare state to thank for Finland’s “entrepreneurial moment”.



Tuukka Toivonen is a lecturer in international management at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London

Read more stories like this:

The social impact hub is funded by Anglo American. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.

Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox