An insider’s perspective on startup community etiquette and finding your path
Spanish-native marketing extraordinaire for Finnish health ‘business augmentor’ Vertical Ana-Belén Abundio Femenìa took some time out to chat to The Shortcut about her startup journey, how to thrive in the community as an immigrant, her big passions in life and the importance of pacing yourself in a demanding and fast-paced environment.
“I have never been afraid to just go and do something new but I have always checked beforehand what I need to do in order to succeed,” Ana-Belén reveals of her approach to finding your way in a new country.
This part-measured, part-easy-going attitude and an openness to cultivating a broad skill-set, has transported her to a number of fascinating places where she been able to spend some time studying or working, including Iceland, France, Ireland and now Finland.
Ana-Belén has a self-professed love for languages and different cultures, holds a trilingual Master’s degree in International Business Affairs and has made plans to set off on an eight-month world trip in April as a gift to herself for turning thirty.
When asked what drew her to settle in Finland, she humorously quips she was ‘imported’ here by her partner and was promised reindeers, a tempting offer, no doubt. Following a stint in Lappeenranta and a couple of marketing gigs, she relocated to the capital where she began to engage with the startup world; “I actually started by volunteering, I met equity-based crowdfunding company Invesdor Oy back in 2011 at Slush, I just asked them if they needed marketing help and at that point, being a very early-stage startup, their finances were not what they are now, so I proposed that they take me on for project-based work and in exchange, I could put their name on my CV.…through that, I got a job at NewCo Helsinki (for the City of Helsinki) working in growth services and the accelerator as a marketing lead, where I stayed for three years.”
Volunteering seems to be a rite of passage for many aspiring talents looking to get involved in the startup and tech communities; further to this point, Ana-Belén affirms “I think it’s good to volunteer, especially if you don’t have networks, and you shouldn’t look at it as just giving your time for free, but more as filling your time doing something that is mutually beneficial and enjoying life”
If you have spent any time actively job-hunting in Finland, you’re probably familiar with the notion that the power of networking should not be underestimated, “as a foreigner, you may not have gone to the local universities which give you access to the networks. It will make you feel more confident or open if you can meet and connect with other people in your field.”
Ana-Belén naturally cites professional women in particular as an important and approachable group for her to network with and bond with as a means to integrate into society. She feels strongly about the position and visibility of women in the startup and tech industries but emphasises equality in terms of inclusivity as opposed to gender one-upmanship and further segregation. She highlights the importance of men, challenging deep-rooted prejudices in our society and she advocates an understanding and appreciation of talent and value that transcends the gender binary.
Outside her day job — and purely thanks to her drive to make a positive impact — Ana-Belén has been involved in some game-changing initiatives, notably, co-leading Girls in Tech Helsinki from 2015 to 2018 as well as her ongoing work with The Next Billion (a social amplification platform for female-led enterprises and ventures) where she is responsible for spotting new founders.
“There is a clear demand for activities where women can talk, debate, learn new skills and get to know other women in a similar situation… I personally love to work with them and I believe that we need to support each other. However, in my opinion, we need to be careful not to create women-only networks where only women have access, since then we would be marginalising the men that are eager to share their knowledge and support women. There is a need for the empowerment of women, but if there is only that, you create a wall, so you are not breaking barriers but you are creating further separation. For me, it’s very important that we think about this issue more in terms of equality and integration, the gender of your mentor(s) shouldn’t really matter as long as you have a good relationship, you get good advice from them and that you can count on them to support you.”
Embarking on a career in Finland as a foreigner can, in many cases, be quite a challenge, even taking into account the prior accomplishments you’ve achieved in your field elsewhere; but often, an effort to integrate into Finnish society before expecting anything in return is generally rewarded. Ana-Belén stresses the importance of getting that first Finnish company on your CV no matter the nature of the job, “getting an Oy [Finnish limited company] on your résumé will open your doors. For example, working in a bar for a while could open more doors for you than you would think. Working in a bar is actually a tough job; you do sales, you practice your language skills, you meet people, so for me, that is one of the best kind of jobs you could have to start off with — in the service industry.”
Ana-Belén also talks about the respected value of recommendations and the guaranteed sincerity of those who have appreciated your work and have chosen to recommend you (which may also, to some extent, be true of the wider labour-market in Finland), “if you recommend someone, it’s usually a lot more serious, compared with how it is seen in other cultures, people here will trust your word, so I think that here, recommendations are not given as lightly as in other places… there is a very good and honest atmosphere and this comes from how Finnish people are, they are reserved and so on but if they trust you, they will always be there for you, of course there are exceptions, but on the whole, they are good people and are true to their word.”
And what about the community itself? How far can it support you? How should you behave and present yourself? Ana-Belén has a few pointers to offer on startup-community etiquette: “my advice for people who want to be in the startup community is: just don’t overdo it, be yourself. Don’t try to pretend to be something you’re not, don’t try to be absolutely everywhere because you feel you have to be. Just be comfortable with what you do, where you go and who you meet, also I think just be generous to others. It’s likely that one day you will need something from someone and if you have never given anything, like your time or help, then people are not going to be willing to help you. It’s also better if you’re more selective about where you go and what you do and that you concentrate on building more ‘real’ friendships within the community rather than trying to ‘know everybody’.”
Ana-Belén has always pushed the community ethos of Maria01 (her involvement in the initial marketing campaign for the complex stands testament to this) and identifies as a people-person, commending Vertical as a very community-driven company which strives to maintain strong connections with its neighbouring enterprises in the building by hosting community breakfasts and the like.
On a more serious note, there are of course some downsides to the startup environment and considerate room for improvement; there is undeniable pressure to be constantly active, productive and succeed which is, in many ways, unsustainable. “Not everybody talks about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, we only see the success stories, which is important, but maybe I would like to see more failed enterprises showcased and I think it should also be important to celebrate failure. It’s hard because we live in a society where failure is not accepted, and often you feel you shouldn’t be proud of your efforts if you don’t succeed… but I think we sometimes forget about the journey, not only in the entrepreneurship world but in general. Sometimes it is better to do a bit less but to do it properly. You will feel much happier with the results than if you try to do a bit of everything in a rush,” she reassuringly adds, “you will learn by failing and if you are patient, you will find your path, the people that can help you and that you can help, actually.”
Ana-Belén also mentions that the stress and sensory overloading that comes with working in a fast-paced and continuously changing environment can have a profound impact on your life, “this way of life can be very enjoyable but because you can do so many things and especially if you are passionate about your job, you easily forget about taking care of yourself and you just burnout and it’s not anyone’s fault…I think that something we forget in the startup community is to rest.”
Work and social responsibilities can rapidly pile up but Ana-Belén asserts the importance of prioritising taking time for yourself over constantly attending community events, “we often feel that we need to be everywhere all the time for the fear of missing out. In reality, you are not missing out, you actually miss more if you don’t slow down and try to do everything.”
Ana-Belén concludes with a word of caution: “we need to be careful that we don’t destroy the things we love about working in the startup ecosystem by burning out. The excitement, ideas and the mentality that anything is possible in the startup world is great and should be valued above all, but the fact that anything is possible could also be its downfall.”
Coming to terms with some important life-truths and lessons in self-care has made Ana-Belén even more determined to follow her longstanding ambition to travel the world, “there’s no reason for me not to pursue my dream, I don’t have loans, I don’t have kids, thirty seems to be a good age… I’ve been saving up and now I’m ready.”
True to her dedication to empowering women, she will be keeping a blog where she plans on conducting the same interview with one woman in every place she visits. You can keep up to date with her adventures here: www.anabelenabundio.com/home
