The idea of connecting different startup communities has been at the core of Startup Iceland Conference. I am happy to announce that Jaakko Salminen from Finland will be a speaker and mentor in Startup Iceland 2015. He is a Coach at Startup Sauna, Chairman of the Finnish Business Angels Network and has the scars to be a very effective mentor and coach. I think Finland has a great startup community and it has the most developed Business Angel Network in the world. Don’t believe me? watch the video below. Jaakko has never been to Iceland and he would love to hear all about Iceland. Remember, you need to have bought an Early Bird ticket to schedule a one-on-one mentoring session with all the speakers who are coming to Startup Iceland. What are you waiting for? Book your ticket now! and meet Jaakko when he is here.

 

A number of awesome startups have come out of Finland and I also believe there is a lot of common threads in the development of the Finnish startup community and what I see happening here in Iceland. Finland Startup Community gave us Angry Bird through their game development company Rovio. I think there are some parallels to Iceland with QuizUp and before that CCP Games.

Here is a brief background of Jaakko:

Jaakko is an angel investor and startup advisor. He’s currently involved in 7 startups as an investor and 3 as a board member and advisor. He’s also a member of the board of the Finnish Business Angels Network FiBAN. In the past, he was a partner and VP/CEO of 2 software companies, both of which were acquired by another company. Additionally, Jaakko has been responsible for direct sales, channel sales, and customer account management at various midsize to corporate IT and SW companies both in domestic and international markets.

Jaakko believes in customer- centered business development, where close relationships with customers are made early in startups’ life cycle. His focus in coaching is on the startup’s go-to-market model, from pricing to customer segments and sales channel.

@jaska_s
Linkedin: fi.linkedin.com/in/jaakkosalminen/