Dare to Suck - Inspiring changemakers opening up to young adults (and their parents)

What a life story: Tomi dropped out of school when he was 16 years old, worked at a construction site, as a trash collector in the Stockholm metro, found his inner calling, re-entered high school, finished with straight A's in all subjects, went to University, worked as an asset manager, quit his job, founded his own start-up, worked with some of the biggest sports clubs in the world, did not manage to break even in Spain, took the product to Asia, started with Triathlon and finally burned out in 2017. Now Tomi writes a book and works as a Keynote speaker.

His current platform: License to Fail

5 key takeaways

1. Education is key.
2. Determination is key.
3. Money and material things are not key.
4. A sense of meaning is key.
5. When looking for investors, being young of age is not key. Getting paying customers is key.

Ways to connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomikaukinen/
https://licenceto.fail/

In this episode, we will meet rising star entrepreneur Bettina Hernberg who will share her remarkable story. 
Her fight against an eating disorder has been put in the rearview mirror a long time ago. Today, Bettina´s business evolves around yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. All sprinkled with a hint of granola.

The Top 5 key takeaways from her story:

1. Share your story with others - make your mess your message. But don´t share just to seek validation.
2. You don´t need to have thousands of social media followers to make a dent. Start sharing your message, focusing on people who can benefit the most of your experiences.
3. Ask for help if you need help or if you are unsure of how to proceed.
4. Allow yourself to rest. It is not a weakness - it is a strength and makes you more productive.
5. Time is a healer.

Ways to connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettinahernberg/
https://www.instagram.com/bettinahernberg/
https://puhujatori.fi/puhujat/bettina-hernberg/

In this episode, we will dive into the exciting world of rising star entrepreneur Sara Hammoud, who is the founder of Benzinati and co-founder of Maktaba Tech.

The Top 5 key takeaways from her story:

1. Redefine yourself constantly. The 21st century is very fast-paced. 
2. Entrepreneurship is not for everybody. Teamwork, creativity, out of the box thinking and innovation are crucial skills to have.
3. Don´t be protective of your ideas - spread them and ask for feedback. The hard part of entrepreneurship is execution.
4. Identify your ideal customer profile persona before spending any time on go to market.
5. Don´t put a lot of load on yourself and be coachable. Move from point a to point b to point c until you have reached your destination.

Ways to connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hammoud-a7635815a/
https://www.instagram.com/_shammoud_/

In this week´s episode, we will meet All-star entrepreneur Peter Vesterbacka, who comes in all colors of the rainbow and has been founding and co-founding more companies than we would have time to list here. 
Finland knows him as Rovio´s Mighty Eagle and the creator of Slush - the worlds leading startup event,  which brought more than 25.000 attendees to Helsinki in November of 2019. I still do not know what he has been eating for breakfast as a child but he surely has a massive talent for entrepreneurship and relentless energy!

The Top 8 key takeaways from his story:

1. Success is always a team effort despite the fact that the media likes to present single individuals as heroes.
2. Working with the younger generation is especially rewarding since young adults are full of energy and don´t yet know what one is not supposed to do.
3. Think about how you can create a powerful story or a powerful brand, which is easily understandable and approachable.
4. Chip in when somebody needs help. Don´t always expect something in return. Live the mentality of Finnish “Talkoot”, which basically means that people voluntarily help each other.
5. Engage passionate fans in your projects, repeat the mantra of “Why” you are doing what you are doing, and try to become scaleable. 
6. It is crucial that more people have entrepreneurial thinking as it is the main driver for development and future growth.
7. You can´t lead by following.
8. Don´t think! Do - think! Don´t overanalyze and think too much. Go out there, try, learn.

Ways to connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/petervesterbacka/
https://twitter.com/pvesterbacka