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ABOUT US

Slush is a not-for-profit organization on a mission to help and create founders to change the world. Based in Helsinki, Slush annually hosts the world’s leading startup event bringing together a curated crowd of European startups, world-class investors, and tech journalists. We stand by relevance over scale, bringing tangible value, and sharing actionable company-building advice. No fluff.

In addition to our event, we serve founders and investors with a year-round online community and matchmaking platform, Slush Online, and support nascent startup ecosystems globally to build their own local events through Slush’D.

Slush is owned by the Startup Foundation, a Finnish not-for-profit working towards strengthening the Finnish startup ecosystem. Most of any profits made by Slush go back to the foundation which uses it to support other ecosystem initiatives.

Slush is run by a group of students and recent graduates, and our main event is made possible every year with the help of 1,600 volunteers.

OUR MISSION

We believe entrepreneurship is the most efficient way to change the world at scale. We need more builders. However, at the same time, we know that building companies is hard.

Therefore, our role is three-fold: inspire, help, and collide.

  • We aim to inspire the current and future generations to solve hard and complex challenges through entrepreneurship.
  • We want to help these people to build impactful and durable companies.
  • We ensure that the people building and enabling the success of such companies collide.

In other words, we want to create and help founders to change the world.

OUR FOCUS

At Slush, we believe that entrepreneurship is the most efficient way to change the world at scale. Right now, perhaps more than ever, we face pressing problems to solve.

Our goals for the decade are derived from Entrepreneurship Redefined, a whitepaper we wrote in 2020. In it, we explore three important axes of change we think the entrepreneurial ecosystem should focus on.

  1. Firstly, we need companies to be built by a diverse set of individuals. After all, people solve problems they themselves face.
  2. Secondly, we need those companies to take extraordinary risks that, if successful, change the future beyond recognition.
  3. Thirdly, we need them to pursue the most pressing problems of our time. For that, we need the society at large – investors, LPs, academia, corporates, and regulators – on board.

The change doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it something we can just focus on during one event, tick a box, and consider it done. That’s why we’ve dedicated the 2020s to really working on it.

READ OUR WHITEPAPER HERE

OUR VALUES

BE CURIOUS

Slushers are some of the most curious individuals you’ll encounter. We have strong opinions, but we’re curious to hear reasons why we might be wrong.

We’re curious to understand how great companies are built and how technology is shaping the world we live in. We value people who get excited about entrepreneurship—about building and solving hard problems. We value time spent on learning about the ecosystem, whether through consuming content by others or actually getting outside of the office, getting to know people, and forming our own opinions. We share what we’ve learned in Slack channels like #learning_and_news and #great_content.

This is important for three reasons:

  • Slush is a workplace that will give young people more responsibility than any other. What we lack in experience, we must make up for in curiosity.
  • With 15 different teams, curiosity is essential to understand how our own work fits into the broader goals of Slush, what’s happening in other teams, and what makes this company run as a whole.
  • Slush is meant to be human accelerator and a launchpad to the startup ecosystem. We acknowledge we’re not (yet) founders ourselves, and make an effort to understand the founder mindset by going out there to ask, listen and read.

TRUST BY DEFAULT

At Slush, trust is not earned, it can only be lost. From your first day as a Slusher, every person will believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

We show this trust in ways that set us apart from most workplaces:

  • Slush trusts you more than you do. To complete our work, we first ask ourselves “can I do this myself”, and only then ask for help. More often than not, we learn something very useful along the way.
  • At Slush, leadership is a division of responsibilities, not an expression of hierarchy or a command chain. We trust every Slusher to act as the founder of their own domain. This means taking full ownership of projects, planning your work, challenging the status quo, and making decisions as if Slush were your own venture.
  • Decisions should be made as close to the team as possible and by the person who owns the corresponding domain. We trust each other to seek out the necessary perspective to make an informed decision, and even after heated debate, once a decision is made, we expect our colleagues to stand behind it.
  • We recognize that while we’re at Slush, we have been put in charge of a project that is not our own. Each year, the team is trusted to shape the company and event to look like their own. We strive for leaving Slush and our own domain in better shape than we found it.

WORLD-CLASS STANDARDS

To achieve world-class results, two things are essential: A) Understanding what excellence looks like and actively pursuing it, and B) Holding each other accountable to the mindset that “if the basics aren’t right, nothing else matters.”

To that end, we maintain high standards for ourselves in doing the basics right:

  • Clarity. We believe everything is “work in progress” and therefore document and share our work publicly for feedback already ****before it’s ready. We recognise the difference between half-done and half-thought: we ask the right questions while providing the needed context, instead of making our colleagues to do the thinking for us. Clarity and complexity can rarely be reconciled verbally—therefore, we default to writing.
  • Communication. The most common root cause of failure at Slush is unclear or insufficient communication. We always show up on time, communicate promptly, and close the loop—both internally and externally. If we are unsure, we say “I’ll figure it out and get back to you.” We put extra effort into documentation because we know it’s a gift to current and future Slushers.
  • Leadership. We recognize that the most important job of leaders at Slush is to reduce complexity. We help our teams do intentional, clear and specific work. We ask “why?” over and over again. Whenever needed, we get our hands dirty and tackle the challenge together. This way, we set our teams up for success.
  • Prioritization. We separate what truly moves the needle and what is noise, and focus on the former. When tackling complex tasks, we break them down into actionable steps. We understand that there is always more work to be done than hours available to do it. Therefore, we actively take time to prioritize, deprioritize, and plan our work.
  • Frugality. We are frugal like a startup, and default to solving problems with creativity over budget. Whenever it makes a difference, we are ready to do things that don’t scale. We want to ensure that money is being spent where it has the most impact for our core customers.

CRAZY AMBITION

Over the past decade, Slush has grown from a local gathering into the world’s leading startup event: a remarkable achievement for a team of inexperienced students and recent graduates. However, the ecosystem is ever-evolving, and we must be too. Stagnation and reliance on past successes are sure paths to irrelevance.

Therefore, we must constantly evaluate our work from first principles, as if nothing had come before us. Every day, we must answer questions that haven’t been asked before. Equally, we don’t hire people who can execute a checklist—we hire those who can throw it out the window and redefine what success looks like in their role. Concretely, this means we don’t rely on an existing playbook; instead

  • We ask what the startup ecosystem truly needs and how Slush can answer that need.
  • We reimagine how Slush works and make it memorable both for newcomers and returning attendees.

We ask over and over again, ‘Why does this matter?’, ‘Why are we doing this?’, and ‘What’s next?’, because at Slush, every day is Day 1.

*We understand the importance of using our resources , especially time and money, wisely, and not reinventing the wheel for concepts that already work. Instead, we focus our efforts on aspects that truly need redefining.

CARE DEEPLY

We care deeply for our work, our colleagues, founders and the surrounding startup ecosystem. Work at Slush is about us, not me. We are curious to get to know our team members, and proactively ask how they are doing. Even if in a hurry, we take time to pause and listen.

Caring takes many formats in the Slush team:

  • We win and lose as a team, and help beyond our own responsibilities. We own our failures and embrace them as collective opportunities to learn. Internally, we spread positive news through channels like #posiposiposi and celebrate our colleagues both in public and private.
  • We give and ask for candid feedback to help each other grow. By giving and receiving feedback, we’re able to create a feeling of accomplishment, foster personal and professional growth, and resolve issues proactively.
  • We steer clear of gossip and encourage giving feedback directly by asking “have you said this to…?”. When encountering something uncomfortable or against our culture, we don’t close our eyes but run towards the pain.
  • We know that doing what’s best for Slush translates into maximal personal learning for ourselves. To pursue our mission, we actively put founders first in everything we do. It means that we obsess about solving founders’ problems at all stages, from pre-seed to exit and everything in between.
  • Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and sustainability guides every decision we make, demonstrating our care for and dedication to improving the European startup ecosystem.

OPEN POSITIONS

The Slush Team consists of students and recent graduates looking to build a better world through entrepreneurship. Slush is not a destination, it’s a launchpad—we’re here to learn how to build great products and companies, and the measure of our time here will be everything Slush helps us do down the line.

MOTION DESIGNER

Overview

The Design Team at Slush crafts the DNA of our brand across all touchpoints – from the main event to digital products and partner collaborations. We’re responsible for pushing creative boundaries and delivering world-class design that captures the unique Slush experience (Slush magic). Through bold visuals, copywriting, and outstanding motion design, we bring the Slush brand to life and ensure its growing impact and value in the global tech ecosystem.

Requirements

Hard skills:

  • 1-3 years of experience in motion design through professional work, personal projects, or formal education.
  • Strong portfolio demonstrating variety in motion graphics, animation, graphic design, and visual effects work.
  • Advanced proficiency in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro.
  • Strong understanding of animation principles, typography, and color theory.
  • Proficiency in graphic design across Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and/or Figma.

Soft skills:

  • Proficiency in English.
  • Excellent communication skills to articulate creative concepts and receive feedback effectively.
  • Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail and timelines.
  • Strong problem-solving skills to tackle technical and creative challenges.
  • Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Bonus points:

  • Experience with Cinema 4D or Blender for 3D animation.
  • Basic understanding of front-end web animation.
  • Audio editing basics

Responsibilities

  • Create engaging motion & static graphics, animations, and visual effects for all Slush-related digital assets & content.
  • Closely collaborate with the Creative Director to ensure consistent brand identity across all static and animated content.
  • Lead and support coordinate freelance designers, including briefing, and project management to support with temporary project-based graphic & motion design work.
  • Explore and push the boundaries on how the latest AI tools can power your work
  • Stay current with motion design trends and techniques to continually improve our visual content.
  • Maintain organized project files and documentation

What you will get

  • Opportunity to work on diverse projects from main event design & promotion, external partnership campaigns, to digital product offerings.
  • Freedom and encouragement to experiment with the latest animation techniques and creative approaches.
  • Industry-standard software and resources for the best-possible motion design work.
  • Collaboration with a talented team that values high ambition, speed of execution, and creative playfulness.

First Month Focus Areas

  • Visuals planning & execution for Secret Sales campaign
  • Social media plan & execution for event launch campaign
  • Designing video templates for short-form “builder”-content together with our Video Editor in the Growth team.
  • (Design 3D-animated assets for website landing pages)
  • (Support with ad-hoc design needs for social media)

Practicalities

This is a full-time, paid position with a start date in the last week of March or first week of April 2025. The role is fixed-term until the end of the year 2025. Our team primarily works at the Slush Helsinki office, due to the physical nature of our work and to build a stronger team culture within a continuously rotating team. Therefore, 3-4 days per week of office presence is required. However, partial remote work is possible if the team is aligned and kept in the loop with reasonable prior notice.

The position reports directly to the Creative Director Carlos. The nature of the work also requires close collaboration with various internal teams.

Hiring process

We opened the recruitment process in March. The hiring process consists of:

  1. Introduction call (20 mins)
  2. First round interview call remotely (45 mins)
  3. Homework assignment (6-8 hrs)
  4. Second-round interview in-person/remotely (60 mins)

If you have any questions about the role or the process, feel free to send an email to our Creative Director Carlos at [email protected]

APPLY HERE

MOBILE APP DEVELOPER

Requirements

Technical:

  • 1-2 years of experience with full-stack development, specifically app development
  • Git and common Git workflow
  • Typescript (TS)
  • PERN stack: PostgreSQL, Express, React Native, NodeJS
  • Databases, SQL and schema designs
  • Cloud Platform and containerised deployment

Non-technical:

  • English fluency (technical and casual work settings)
  • Creative, driven, and adaptable to changes
  • Passionate about technology
  • Ability to learn quickly through work experience
  • Excellent problem-solving and critical thinking skills, task division and prioritisation
  • Time management, balancing tasks, and scheduling work autonomously
  • Ability to communicate effectively, both to technical and non-technical audiences

Responsibilities

  • Write maintainable, logical and testable applications
  • Document software and write effective tests
  • Communicate with stakeholders/customer technical support
  • Collaborate with different internal teams
  • Identify and implement effective internal tools for teams, volunteers and customers

Team

  • You will be part of the Dev Team for this role.
  • The team is responsible for building the digital tools and products surrounding the main event, used by internal teams, volunteers and event attendees.
  • The team is also building year-round solutions for startups and investors, facilitating deals, ecosystem growth and startups discovery. You can affect technical choices, planning and contribute to the final product decisions.
  • The current team comprises of 6 full-stack developers, closely working with the UI/UX team.
  • This position reports directly to the Head of Tech.

Bonus points

  • Interest in specialized fields: data engineering, machine learning, UI/UX, DevOps
  • Experience working in collaborative software project or opensource
  • Product management skills
  • Interest in the startup ecosystem/Slush
  • Entrepreneurial mindset, ambitious
  • Good-to-know technologies/concepts (non-mandatory, in order of priority):
    • Expo/React Native
    • styled-components, zustand
    • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
    • Gitlab
    • Vitest/Jest
    • Monorepo
    • Microservices

Practicalities

  • This is a full-time, paid position.
  • The ideal start date is in April but can be adjusted
  • The role is fixed-term for 12 months from the starting date.
  • The team primarily works at our Helsinki office. Due to the physical nature of our work and culture, some office presence is required. Partial remote work is also possible.
  • If you have any questions, feel free to message Anshul – [email protected]
  • Looking forward to hearing from you!

APPLY HERE

FOUNDER STAGE CURATOR

About the team

The Founder Stage Curator is part of the Slush Program Team, together responsible for managing up to 200 main stage speakers at Slush. The team’s mission is to bring the leading experts and brightest minds from the startup ecosystem to our stages—sharing their knowledge, learnings, and stories with the audience. These stages and the speakers they host are a defining feature of Slush, leaving a lasting impact on the event and the ecosystem for years to come.

The Founder Stage is the largest and most high-profile stage at Slush, which highlights founding stories, scaling journeys, and hard-earned lessons from the most successful tech entrepreneurs on the planet. As the Founder Stage Curator, you’ll be responsible for sourcing, engaging with, and bringing these visionary startup founders to Slush. You’ll also lead the planning and execution of intimate, Chatham House Rules-style mentoring sessions, where selected speakers share honest and personalized advice with some of the most promising early-stage founders attending Slush.

What You’ll Do

  • Research emerging startups, influential investors, and industry trends to identify the most compelling speakers and relevant topics to be discussed on stage at Slush 2025.
  • Identify, contact, and secure the world’s leading startup founders and tech leaders as speakers.
  • Develop stage content: brainstorm relevant topics and curate the stage discussions together with the speakers in a way relevant to early-stage founders.
  • Lead the communication with speakers and their teams, from the first outreach messages to the moment they arrive in Helsinki. Concretely, this means continuous contact over email and calls throughout the year.
  • Lead and execute intimate mentoring sessions, ensuring meaningful interactions between speakers and early-stage founders attending Slush.
    • Concretely, this means persuading speakers to take time for the mentoring sessions, curating the topic(s), inviting relevant founders to join, and leading the volunteers who run the practical operations during the event days.
  • Build and maintain multi-year relationships with founders, investors, and other ecosystem leaders. Being a Program Curator means not just optimizing for this year, but maintaining great relationships that will benefit future Slush events as well.
  • Work closely with internal teams to ensure a seamless speaker experience from initial outreach to their time on stage.

What We’re Looking For

  • Excellent communication skills in English: clear, persuasive, and capable of building trust with high-profile speakers. Ability to navigate complex discussions with see the other person’s perspective.
  • Extreme curiosity about startups, entrepreneurship, and the global technology ecosystem.
  • A natural researcher and networker—someone who thrives on discovering emerging talent and industry trends.
  • Deep understanding of what makes a great founder story and how to translate it into a compelling stage experience.
  • Entrepreneurial mindset—comfortable taking initiative, working independently, and making things happen.
  • Organized and detail-oriented, able to juggle multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Practicalities

  • Full-time (40 hrs/week), fixed-term role until the end of 2025 based in Helsinki
  • Start: April 14, 2025 (flexible if needed)
  • Salary: 2,600€/month

Want to learn more? Reach out to Elin Dölker, President at [email protected].

APPLY HERE

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