Catalyst Programme Week 1
October means the beginning of a new Catalyst Programme at The Shortcut. The programme, which has been running in various forms since 2017, prepares immigrants to start their own company or join the growing number of startups through skill training and network building. This fall, 18 individuals of various backgrounds will participate in the 70-day programme. This blog series will follow their journeys week by week, describing their activities, profiling their development, and sharing lessons learned.
Before we begin
Some introductions are in order. This fall’s Catalyst group boasts 15 nationalities spread across 18 participants, the biggest group yet. Each participant has unique experiences and background; we are developers, designers, and finance professionals; technologists, artists, and humanists. We are diverse in our knowledge of Finland as well: some of us have been here for over two decades, while some only moved here last month.
I belong to the latter category, having moved to Helsinki six weeks ago to grow my international experience. While I battle my first Finnish winter, I intend to use this blog series to showcase the talents of my fellow participants, provide an outsider’s viewpoint on the startup ecosystem in Helsinki, and catalogue the progression of the Catalyst Programme.
Our Program coordinators are Hanna Smorodinzeff and Rahul Pardasani. Hanna has overseen the growth of the Catalyst Program from a four-person pilot project to the established, bi-monthly course it is today. She is also the Talent Lead at the Shortcut, in charge of facilitating the supply and demand of talent between professionals and startups. Rahul meanwhile is the Program Manager responsible for implementing the Catalyst Program as well as facilitating a number of other trainings. Together, they bring several years of experience in facilitation and skill development to the Catalyst Programme.
Who are you? What do you want? What can you do?
To successfully integrate into a startup, we must all be able to articulate what we are seeking and what we can offer. Therefore, our group began by developing answers to these critical questions. Two days of reflection in group discussion, written reflection, and a variety of tools helped articulate the fine points of our intentions beyond gaining employment in the Finnish startup scene. One exercise we did, for example, was Tim Ferriss’ fear-setting framework, which is designed to show that inaction born of fear may have worse consequences than the perceived fear itself; another, the Purpose 15, provided a framework for identifying the people, causes, and motivations that instill our work with purpose.
The self-reflection period culminated in personal goals that will guide and measure success in the program according to our unique motivations and intentions. This reflects that, while we all have the same ultimate goal, the paths we take will be different. I, for instance, want to understand the roles existing at the intersection of technology and people that require considering the balance between optimal technical efficiency and consequences on us as individuals and community members.
Equipped with this understanding, we spent the second half of the week branding ourselves. Through CV workshops and a session from Marko Oksanen, a LinkedIn expert, we improved our existing applications to materials to better reflect our skills and motivations, especially as it suits the startup world. Tips ranged from the highly specific — don’t use Times New Roman — to broader discussions of best practices. The takeaway: in a multimedia world, a one-page summary should only be one of the tools in an arsenal of materials showcasing competency, creativity, and personality.
We head into Week 2 with a greater understanding of our professional selves. Familiarization with the varied startup ecosystem in the capital region and an “Entrepreneurial Challenge” are on the agenda. It promises to be another week packed with learning, stay tuned to find out how it went.
**If you are interested in joining the Catalyst Programme the next batch starts on January 28th and you can apply by January 18th here!**
