Summer of Startups
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| Formation | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Type | non-profit organization run by students |
| Purpose | Inspire international, high-growth entrepreneurship in Helsinki, Finland |
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Official language
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English (as per internal communication) |
| Website | https://aaltoes.com, https://startupsauna.com, https://slush.org |
| Remarks | Aaltoes is the largest community for university entrepreneurship in Europe. |
Aaltoes, also known as Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, is a non-profit organization run by students, based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 2009, Aaltoes has helped the rapid emergence of a startup culture in Finland in 2008-2011.
Aaltoes's purpose is to inspire international, high-growth entrepreneurship in Finland and especially in Aalto University.
Aaltoes was founded in spring 2009 by a group of students from Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and University of Art and Design Helsinki, who saw that the entrepreneurial climate in Finnish universities did not support students or researchers who wanted to start companies and aim for international markets and high growth.
Prior to the founding of Aaltoes, it was decided that in 2010 Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and University of Art and Design Helsinki would be merged into a single university, known as Aalto University. The underlying reason behind the merger was similar to that of the founding of Aaltoes. The former University of Technology was split into four schools in 2011 under the authority of Aalto University.
At first, Aaltoes started bringing forth entrepreneurial role models to inspire and encourage students to become entrepreneurs, soon expanding to organizing pitching evenings, hackathons, workshops and other events, where students and researchers could experiment, look for co-founders and learn skills.
In late 2009, as Aalto University was starting to gain its form, Aaltoes made a pitch for a space for young entrepreneurs to work on their companies, ultimately gaining premises and a budget from the university for a 1,500 square metre industry hall on the university's campus in Otaniemi, Espoo. The co-working space would later become known as Aalto Venture Garage.
In 2010, Aaltoes formulated some of its activities into two seed accelerator programs for very early-stage startups, later known as Startup Sauna and Summer of Startups.
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