Starting a new company
I’m leaving Reaktor after 11 years and starting a new company that focuses on creating digital products that automate knowledge work. I’m founding it with Lauri Ahonen, a designer genius and the best man from my wedding, and Antti Ala-Ilkka, a successful tech entrepreneur whom I’ve also known since we were kids.
With me as Chief Executive Officer, Antti as the Chief Technology Officer and Lauri as the Chief Creative Officer, we have a team that’s capable of rapidly building prototypes of our ideas, measuring and selling them, and then scaling them up.
The new company is called Tomorrow Labs.
Our philosophy is this:
“The fastest route to successful products is through experiments. Continuous, short, safe-to-fail experiments that give us empirical data on what works. Successful experiments are scaled up, unsuccessful ones learned from and then dropped.”
That’s the fancy way of putting it.
Essentially, this is a huge risk. And it’s scary. This may have been the worst career move I’ll ever make. Or the best.
The 11 years I spent at Reaktor were awesome. During those years Reaktor grew from a small company aiming to have to the best Java developers in Helsinki to a 400-person global creative technology consultancy that’s sending a satellite to space. What a journey. What an amazing company.
Yet it was my time to move on. I have nothing but love for my family at Reaktor. For all those years, first and foremost I’d like to say, thank you.
To get more acquainted with Tomorrow Labs you might want to check out our website or the LinkedIn profiles of the founders (Sami, Antti, Lauri). To stay up to date on our progress like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Exciting times ahead.
-Sami
PS. I will continue making Boss Level Podcast, which is growing and spreading its listener base with every episode. The podcast is always looking for new sponsors.
PPS. I’m available for speaking engagements.
