I manage the European Space Agency Business Incubation Center in Finland. My job is to make sure everything flows. Starting from negotiations with ESA and our partners, the aim is to help startups to leverage their potential in space tech. I reach out to startups, organize events for interested and coach the applicants to in the process. When they are accepted to our program, I help them for example in finding investor, research or customer contacts, and develop their business and solution. I also oversee that they fulfill the needed project documentation and reports.

My homebase is Aalto University Startup Center and we have several incubator and accelerator programs in our unit. The common goal is to make the startups' path to growth quicker and smoother. Our team of 15 people all have their own responsibilities but help from colleagues is always available. We also work closely together with the innovation services and technology transfer offices in our university, to make sure that the spinoffs get the best possible start.

I ended up in space through project management and entrepreneurship training, but I have worked with engineers and tech people all my life. Early in my career I worked in Nokia, as so many people in Finland did that time. My long-term goal was to become a diplomat, but that did not work out and now I'm quite happy about that! I worked in project and training roles in the Nokia business infrastructure unit, which managed and deployed IT tools for in-house developers.

Then I moved on to manage training projects for entrepreneurs and wanna-be entrepreneurs in the Helsinki School of Economics. Fast forward a couple of years and twists and turns, we became part of Aalto University and in 2021 I started to manage another incubator, Urban Tech Helsinki, with the focus on sustainable tech for cities. And in summer 2024, I was offered the next position, the ESA BIC manager role.

So all in all, I am still not "in space", I am an incubator manager and space is a new vertical for me. There are, of course, many similarities in startups, no matter what kind of technology they do. Space is still something special and I have learned so much in the past months!

I have described myself as a translator (which I am by education). I can speak and understand some engineer, business and project, as well as public sector and research. I am not a specialist in any of these languages but I know enough to be able to act as a connector.

Someone just recently commented that my role is more like a librarian, because if I don't know the answer to your question, I will most probably know someone who knows. This kind of generelist, multi-disciplinary skills are definitely useful when you have to address challenges from multiple directions. It's not just space startups who have the questions, it's also our university and city collaborators, students, colleagues, corporates other partners,...

I enjoy learning something new every day and working with startups is a perfect place for that. When you add space to the equation, it feels that the learning opportunities are endless.