Barbara Streisand wishes you GOOD WEEKEND!

OMG, I just found this from my files of links and I just had to post it! So funny!!!

http://www.gobarbra.com/hit/new-171044242e51673cc2ce2f534e8f78cd

Just like the first day at school

Today we had a meeting with Reino Meriläinen from Isolta, who is going to be our mentor for the next year. We went through the mentoring plan for the coming year and we got super excited about it. They have at the moment four companies to mentor and all of the companies are very different from each other. Which we feel is a great thing, you get different prospects for your idea and get to know other types of companies as well.

During the year we will go through almost every aspects of creating or maintaining a successful company from how to write a business plan to recruiting the right people. We are so lucky to be part of something like this! They are writing articles about the experience and if you interested to read more about the program or their products, check out their blog:

http://liiketoimintasovellus.fi/blogi/

Nea and magician Joni Pakanen check out www.jonipakanen.com

Susanna and Reino

Nea, magician Joni and Susanna watching some pitches

They videotaped the meeting and will post the best parts of it in their blog

Nea and the cool microphone :)

Susanna giving a pitch

Reino putting the camera ready for the interview

So all and all it was a great day and we couldn't be more happy! Like we talked with Reino today, the startup scene has changed a lot during few years and people are more and more helpful to one another. Everyone is very encouraging and it feels great to get to help out others as well. So now weekend is coming, weather is getting better and better every day and Vappu is just around the corner. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy Vappu and the weather!

Social Media rules

Hey people, just to let you know that GlobeOut has started to conquer the world. Now we are also available on Facebook and Twitter with the name GlobeOut!!! Have a great weekend.

Be there or be Square!

Once again we proved how important taking part of different events is for start-up companies. In Pasila there was an international event for international students organized by HAAGA-HELIA. It was about how to be an entrepreneur in Finland. They had different guest speakers, an idea corner where the visitors could develop their business ideas, networking and also some stands where different start-up companies could showcase their business. We had our own stand which was very exciting and the whole event turned out to be a great success.

                                                        Thumbs up for GlobeOut!

                              Yummy chocolate covered strawberries keep entrepreneuers going

                 GlobeOut girls Susanna and Nea posing with Jani, owner and CEO of BetPredator.com

                                   HAAGA-HELIA start-up school coaches Kalle and Tommo

                                                                    Viet's Corner!

                       “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”




As you can see we had a good time and got plenty of new connections. We have been looking for a good team to test our demo version (which by the way will be ready in a month) and got many new connections and interest on that! 


And now when it's final we have the honor to announce that we got in for a mentoring program. Our mentor for the next year will be Reino Meriläinen from Arkhimedes. It's not only an accounting program provider but also they are experts in creating business plans. They interact with their customers and truly care about each and every one of them. We can't wait to start working with them and to be mentored as by the sound of the program's menu it all seems pretty awesome! 

http://liiketoimintasovellus.fi/blogi/ (in Finnish)

We wouldn't have been here without a fair called Oma Yritys 2012. Arkhimedes had it's own stand there and they had a chance to practise pitching in front of the video camera. Susanna pitched and what lead to another we won a competition and they wanted to take us in their mentoring program. All you need is encouragement and a positive attitude!

Ahh… Spring and all the colors which come along

What do you reckon these things have in common: Spring, Sun, Easter, Sparkling wine and bright colors? There is only one answer to this, the new Symbio room for HAAGA-HELIA Start-Up School’s students. The Campus in Porvoo has provided a beautiful room for us where we have a chance to do our magic towards the future. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy the beauty.

Us.

The three companies that have the chance to change the world.



The room.

How important are social events for startups?

Lately we have attended many different events and fairs mostly in Finland and they all differ from each other quite a bit. Last week we attended Oma Yritys 12 fair in Wanha Satama. It was 2 days and included top speakers, pitch competitions, mentoring and different stands to help you with your own company. Only a week before we attended HotSpot seminar and now we are taking a part of HAAGA-HELIA startup school opening ceremonys in Porvoo and Pasila campuses. We also held panel discussion for about 12 different startup companies in HAAGA-HELIA Porvoo campus.

Why do we attend to all of these? Is it necessary for us to get ourselves into all sorts of events and what is the outcome?

Obviously we go for these kind of events because we feel they are helpful for us in many ways. We get to build our network by talking with influential people involved with the startup industry. We get new ideas and valuable feedback. And most importantly, we let people know about us and our idea. Also to be able to help other startups is really important and it shows you are "professional" and interested in other startups as well.
 
So what if we wouldn't go to all these events? We would probably get more work done with our product and get other things done faster. We probably wouldn't spend that much money for tickets, gas etc.
We would have not won a lawyer services or meet other amazing people to help us out and pitching would be even more bigger pain in the ass right now. So many things would be unknown without the events we attended.


So I believe that one event can change your startup forever and I personally encourage all startups to go out there and let people know about your idea. Making mistakes are OK and you should not be afraid of that. Trust me, we have messed up embarassing amount of times but we are still alive. Talk to as many people as possible. Be prepared with your pitch and most importantly be yourself and have fun. Try to help others and make friends. With these we have succeeded reaching our goals better than we would have thought. Get out of your apartment and let people know about your idea, you never know what impact one event might have for your idea!

Friends with benefits

We spent this week in Helsinki having an intensive course about presentation skills. We decided to take this course since we wanted to improve our presentations and get rid of the stress we feel sometimes before performing. We all have very strong backgrounds in public speaking and performing but we felt that little practice on the selling side might come as a useful tool in the future. 

We packed our bags headed to Helsinki to live in Nea’s grandparents’ studio.  This naturally scared us a little bit since we are not only close friends, business partners and school mates but we also live in the same building. We see each other every day and we spend most of our free time together too. The only time we are separated is when we sleep in our own apartments. And during this week that own private space was taken away from us. But who would have thought that we were capable of living in total peace and harmony! Surely the entire studio was like one big mattress and dinner was eaten while watching MTV on someone’s bed but we had fun. And that is what reminded us of why we wanted to start our own business; to do what we want, when we want and with whom we want and most importantly to have fun while we are doing the stuff we love. 

Life is too short to spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week on doing something that makes you miserable. It’s not easy to start your own company and it takes a lot of time and effort but when you do it with your friends and you enjoy what you do it is worth it. A lot of people told us in the beginning to reconsider about starting our company because we are such good friends. “Three girls can’t never make it because there will be too much drama!” they said. Of course there will be drama! It is part of life and it is only natural that people have different feelings and sometimes those feelings can cause arguments. But the beauty of friendships is that you can talk about it and others will listen. Good communication is one of the key tools for good business. Good friendships can create beautiful businesses.