interview

I'll be on the MTV3 channel on the "Good Morning Finland" -program again tomorrow (15.12.2009) morning at around 7am (or so).

This time the topic is entrepreneurship, growth companies, their financing and positive impact on the economy etc.

I'll be there with mr. Petri Niemi (Senior Partner, CapMan), who heads their technology team. Petri is also a fellow member of the Vigo steering group that I'm a member of.

Joining us via satellite (just kidding.. via the phone) is minister Mauri Pekkarinen, who's domain is the economy, trade and industry etc (minister of economic affairs).

Again, this is live television so all plans can change any minute, and the whole thing might get cancelled before they greenlight it.

I'm hoping to touch in a few issues in a "gentle way" (not pushing it with too much aggression), and hoping to get a fair conversation going. It's no surprise that I think there's more we could do to support entrepreneurship, growth companies and positive economic development in this country.

.. meanwhile here's a few old videos of similar topics from previous visits to the show. They all in finnish I'm afraid:

Taneli Tikka in Huomenta Suomi talking about serial entrepreneurship (in finnish) from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

..and another:

Taneli Tikka talking about a genetics startup (in finnish) on Huomenta Suomi from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

.. watch it and participate in getting the good message out there!

It has been a while since I last blogged anything. Seems like the "doing" part is overwhelming the "writing" part, for now at least.

Honestly one of the reasons why I have become a less active blogger lately has to do with how rewarding and motivating writing a blog really is. Sadly I have noticed that people are far less active and give far less feedback than I would have hoped. This almost directly results in declining motivation and writing less, even tho I probably would have a little "something" to say about a few things still..

Anyways here's some upcoming things for the fall:

Next Monday, on the 21st of September I will be chatting at MTV3 morning TV show "Good Morning Finland" again. This time it's going to be about a medical-genetics startup I have been working on pretty much all summer. I will be there with Tuija Takala who is a specialist/scientist in ethics. We are discussing the possibilities of genetics, pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine and ethical implications thereof. The new startup is based on patented inventions on genetic information systems and processing; the end product is system which can optimize and recommend your diet, lifestyle implications, medication and therapies. Basically it gives you deeply personalized knowledge that allows you to live healthier longer life.

The next day, on Tuesday the 22nd I will be speaking at an event organized by Sefe, the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates, or more specifically their entrepreneurship "wing".

At the turn of the month I'll be at MindTrek ( http://www.mindtrek.org/2009/ ) giving a brief talk before the startup company pitches.

On 7th of October I'll be speaking at an entrepreneurship conference in Tallin, Estonia. The attendants are mainly students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Good stuff, sounds like a great event full of positive energy.

On November the 12th I'll be in Lahti, speaking at an event by MBE about social media, recommendations, and the like. This would be all in finnish.

Later in November I'll be speaking in the invite-only CEO-only event FICTA in Levi. About social media and it's implications to strategy.

---

Besides speaking what else is there?

We'll I'm seriously considering co-writing a finnish-language book on entrepreneurship and startups. This would be the kind of "spill it all out and give advice" -typeof guide book, where I would try to highlight everything I find important and meaningful in startup building and success. Digital version of the book is a must, as probably is an International version as well. There seems to be none of these kind of books around in finnish language. Please do tell me if this is a bad idea, so I can save myself the trouble ;)

I am also working on 3 different startups, finding out about if we get them really going, funded, cast with great teams etc. Interesting times certainly!

image: from "Tekniikan Näköalat" 2/2009

Tekes the Finnish government agency for research and innovation funding is publishing their own paper called "Tekniikan Näköalat" (free translation: "technical perspectives"), they recently interviewed me for their newest issue. Unfortunately the interview is in finnish only, sorry.

You can download the full issue from here, or just my interview part from here.

In the interview I talk about www.runtoshop.com a bit, entrepreneurial risks, my own experiences of going through a bankruptcy and recovering from that (that was back in 2002). I also go into talking about entrepreneurial atmosphere in Finland and the nordics, etc..

The photoshoot for this was fun to do. We went into an old bloody (literally) boxing ring to get a few good shots. I have been training kickboxing and such for a number of years, and somehow the journalists always like the analogy of a boxer to an entrepreneur.. I guess both get regularly beaten ;)

One of the flying legendary slogans from the technical department of Taika Technologies was to call just about anything other than a black&white VT100 terminal a "bunch of useless multi-media".

So, I'm offering you a bunch of useless multi-media ;-) in the form of Facebook video clips on the TV stuff done recently.

All clips are from the finnish telly. Unfortunately none of the clips have subtitles, it's all in the finnish language - except for the last clip where there's some english in Steve Lee's part.

Some clips have a bit de-synced audio track (audio is early or late, a few seconds at the worst). This is due to crappy code with Facebook's video importer: it messes up .mov format by de-syncing the audio..

Also since these are Facebook links, they all require you to have an account and login before you can actually see them. Otherwise clicking the link will just redirect you to the FB login page.

Stuff from "Good Morning Finland" (Huomenta Suomi) MTV3:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=6285808654

From 11.10.2007, Taneli talking about www.Muxlim.com

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30944844163

Taneli in "Good Morning Finland" 15 Oct 2008 chatting with Dr. Risto Penttilä about the economy, innovation, Internet business etc. Later Risto decided to enter into the political race for a seat in the European Parliament. And it happens that I have been somewhat involved in the online side of his campaign. Check out his blog from: http://www.ristoejpenttila.fi/

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=35234349163

Taneli talking about immigrants and how teh internets can help everyone adapt to society better.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=78205479163

This time the topic was: entrepreneurship in the middle of the downturn. How come all the optimism? etc.

Other TV clips:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=94782305439

Interview with Taneli Tikka & Stephen Lee, as well as footage from around the Muxlim office.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=35833764163

Me and Steve in Finnish Broadcasting Company's Uutismixi, the news for the youth. Same story in a bit more relaxed style perhaps.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=35030944163

Muxlim was on the main national news broadcast for the evening on 12.11.2008 This is the few minute clip from that. Myself and Steve Lee talking about Muxlim in Finnish and English, with some journalistic narrative and footage from around the office.

----

There you have it. Does anybody know is there a FB to Youtube (or to Vimeo) exporter/importer? Would come in handy, and remove the requirement for FB login.

Also: Does anybody have any ideas how to avoid the FB video import audio messup?

I have another early wake up call scheduled for tomorrow. Will be in MTV3's Huomenta Suomi again, this time at around 07:49 or so.

As always with live TV you never know what the final topic will be. It might have something to do with innovation and growth companies. Entrepreneurship. And possibly stuff related to the chinese buying companies from Finland.

Take a glance if you happen to be awake, or watch from www.tvkaista.fi later on ;-)

I hear TV-Kaista is in the middle of quite successful recommendations campaign together with www.runtoshop.fi

On Tuesday morning I'll be speaking at the Deasign breakfast event I blogged about earlier.

Busy week ahead. Will disappear towards Asia later in the week for a while..