Kiuas Incubator — 5 months and 5 teams later
It’s not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen.
-Scott Belsky, Founder, Behance
From the next big thing in social media to the leading instagram influencer platform in Finland, Kiuas has managed to attract and incubate some of the best startup teams across the country. What have we been able to do for our teams and how far along are they now? Forging ideas into reality is no easy task and the case of creating a new business incubator is no exception. Has the creation of Kiuas been a worthwhile venture?
Why did we create Kiuas?
If you are just now tuning into our story, a little bit of background: Prior to 2017, Kiuas existed in the shape of two separate events; TeamUp Bootcamp (a weekend business hackathon) and Summer of Startups (a 9 week project/prototype phase accelerator). These events were great but no clear unison existed between the two despite the fact that both programs were essentially tackling the same problem; helping the creation and development of early stage startups.
A second huge dilemma existed, both events were extremely singular in nature. One lasted 3 days, the other 9 weeks. Well wow that’s great, what about the other 290 days of the year? Entrepreneurship is not an event with a start date and an end date. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, a constant grind that never stops (and what a beautiful grind it is). For that reason we knew that something was missing. We knew we had to create something to help students and recent grads year round, 24/7/365.
With these two problems in mind we, the Aaltoes team, created Kiuas. Much like Aaltoes, Kiuas is a breeding ground for a culture of pro-activity, extremely high ambition, and a tenacity to get it done regardless of situation. But above all else Kiuas is a community centered around building businesses. To get a feel for this community check out what we stand for:
From idea to first revenue
What’s the biggest problem faced when starting up? Is it finding the right co-founders? Is it creating a prototype, an MVP, or possibly even securing those first paying users?
Those atleast are some of the biggest problems we’ve personally faced and seen our friends face. Funny thing is, despite those being the biggest obstacles in the beginning, it seems that they are often overlooked and disregarded by most startup programs. Many programs are focused on going from 2 to 5 instead of 0 to 1 (and rightfully so, this pre-early stage is super risky!). We are on a mission to change that, to help people like you go from idea to first revenue without wasting time on all the nonsense in between.
By better integrating the two existing Aaltoes programs and implementing a third new program named Kiuas Incubator, Kiuas as a whole aims to create a seamless path from idea to first paying user. Read about each of the three parts here: Kiuas Team Up (former TeamUp Bootcamp), Kiuas Incubator, and Kiuas Accelerator (former Summer of Startups).
How does Kiuas Incubator help?
Getting started can be a challenge, but it’s not the issue we see the most. Staying “started” on the other hand is a whole next level dilemma. Kiuas Incubator helps you maintain that “just started” energy throughout the life of your venture.
You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started if you want to be great.
-Zig Ziglar
Getting started or deciding to start is relatively easy, but when the first missteps take place and things don’t quite go as you planned it’s very easy to second guess your whole venture and throw in the towel. Having now observed closer to 100 super early stage teams we’ve noticed the biggest obstacle for a pre-early stage startup isn’t access to capital, lack of product market fit, or a lack of know-how. The biggest obstacle to pre-early stage startups is the team itself. You are your own biggest enemy.
Inside Kiuas Incubator teams meet regularly with Kiuas advisors and mentors (check out our coaches HERE) to stay on track. The advisor’s monitor the team’s progress and help smooth over any bumps that might appear in the road. It’s amazing what an extra pair of eyes and ears can do for an early stage venture. Aside from access to valuable contacts in industry, Kiuas Incubator provides 24/7 access to the Startup Sauna co-working space and assists in marketing efforts when applicable.
Our world class teams:
Populic
Populic is betting on the future of social media to shift from news feed based UI’s to more immersive and engaging UI’s. At the core of Populic is a map platform that showcases the most relevant activities and happenings around you. Earlier in the summer Populic launched an alpha version which quickly rose to the number one spot in the Finnish app store on iOS and Android. Currently the team is working out a rebranding and is building momentum for their beta launch this coming Fall. At the moment the team is based in Los Angeles, California and is looking for additional software developers.
Holda.io
Holda.io brings safety to the second hand market. Founder Vesa Robertsson had a bad experience buying a guitar pedal off a second hand online marketplace when the item he picked up from the post office turned out to be a wooden block. Holda acts as a middle man between buyer and seller to insure no one gets scammed. Currently the team is polishing their product to be launched in September. The team has lined up solid partnerships with Posti and Matkahuolto, and has secured over 100k€ of funding. Following Holda’s participation in Kiuas Accelerator the team will be looking to raise a seed round.
Monochrome
By connecting advertisers to over 500 of the top influencers in Finland Monochrome has become the leading Instagram Influencer Agency in Finland. To date they have created over 20 campaigns for some very well respected brands such as Valio and Yle. Since the beginning of the summer the team has grown from a dynamic duo to a strong team of 6 and is now focused on developing automation tools to help scale their operation to a truly global level.
Portyr
In May of 2018 inside the EU a new law regarding data privacy will take into effect. The legislation titled General Data Protection Regulation will change how companies are allowed to keep your data and will give you absolute control of it. Portyr is developing a SAAS product that gives companies some sensible first steps in dealing with this upcoming legislation. At the moment Portyr is developing and validating their prototype and preparing for a seed round this Fall.
YFD (Young Finnish Design)
Young Finnish Design gathers the works of top young designers in Finland into one web platform. This platform serves as a showcase and allows interior architects and normal consumers to find unique pieces to outfit their homes and studios with. All designs are made to order and profits are shared with the student designers. At the moment YFD is looking to grow the team with potential sources of funding and with a web developer!
Conclusions
Five months and 5 teams in things are looking promising. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to play a big role in helping many young new teams and we hope to inspire many more. Follow us on Facebook @kiuas.start to keep up with our teams!
