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CELEBRATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Slush has grown from a single gathering in Helsinki to a series of events organized all around the world. Our crown-jewel event is our annual Slush event, but we also host smaller get-togethers around the globe.

It all started in 2008 in Helsinki with a one-day affair made up of around 250 people. Pretty intimate, if you ask us. While the size of our event has grown by leaps and bounds, our goal has stayed the same: we focus on how best to serve startup ecosystems across the world.

As a company, we try to serve startups, founders, and investors through our main annual Slush event as well as our products: online community Node by Slush, and our smaller global events Slush’D.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP REDEFINED

The pillars of Slush now and in the future are centered around the concept of Entrepreneurship Redefined. While our whitepaper is a long read, we reckon it’s absolutely worth it.

At its core, it looks at how we aim to connect founders with what and whom they need while building a new, inclusive, and more purposeful culture of entrepreneurship.

This is because we fully believe our actions as a society over the next decade will determine the course of humanity for generations to come. Entrepreneurs building scalable solutions will be at the core of creating the solutions that will make that future a bright one.

OUR FOCUS

Here’s a closer look at the systemic problems we aim to tackle through our events, products, and initiatives:

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION IN TECHNOLOGY & THE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

We are committed to tackling issues like biases, harassment, and the homogenous concept of what a “founder” is (the three-men-in-a-garage epitome is a thing of the past).

PURPOSE-DRIVEN FUTURE

We work to encourage and guide companies to acknowledge their greater responsibility not only to shareholders but to the planet, society, and their employees.

REVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION

We want to inspire the current and future generations to tackle complex problems and collide people from different areas of expertise.

OUR MISSION

We believe entrepreneurship is the most efficient way to create human progress. We need more builders. At the same time, building companies is hard.

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

  • Inspire the current and future generations to solve hard and complex challenges
  • Help these people to build
  • Ensure that these people meet each other

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

OUR VALUES

BE CURIOUS

Slushers are some of the most curious people you will come across. We ask a lot of questions. We have strong opinions, but we are curious to hear reasons why we might be wrong. We refuse to act on the information we don’t fully understand. Many of us read voraciously. When we meet new people, we delight by being genuinely interested in them. Internally, we share what we’ve read and learned. Some of us have personal interests that border on irrational.

This is important for three reasons:

  1. Slush is a workplace that gives young people more responsibility than any other. What we lack in experience, we must make up for in curiosity.
  2. In our efforts to build a one-of-a-kind event and community, we have ventured beyond where any other event organizer has gone. No playbook exists for the work we do. Every day, we must answer questions that haven’t been asked before.
  3. Slush is not a destination it’s a launchpad. While we truly care about the work we do at Slush ultimately, we recognize that the measure of our time here will be everything Slush helps us do down the line.

TRUST BY DEFAULT

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

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

  • At Slush, decisions should be made by the team member who owns the corresponding domain. We trust each other to seek out the necessary perspective to make an informed decision.
  • We share all information openly. We believe that ample access to information results in the best work, and trust our colleagues to do what’s best for Slush with this information.
  • We are remote-first and highly flexible in working habits. We trust and encourage our team members to arrange their work in a manner that maximizes their productivity and well-being.
  • At Slush, leadership is a division of responsibilities, not an expression of hierarchy or a command chain. We trust every Slusher to act as if they were the founder of their own domain.
  • From Day 1, we trust our colleagues to be exceptional spokespeople for Slush.

Importantly, a company operating at this level of trust can only ever work if each of us tries hard to live up to that trust. In doing so, we are guided by our other eight values.

NEVER SETTLE

At Slush, we believe that only those who never settle thrive. In the past decade, we’ve built the world’s leading startup event with a group of students and volunteers. However, we are only getting started. We will never stop asking “what next?” and “how could this be improved?”.

In fact, we work in an ecosystem that was designed to dethrone incumbents. Therefore, we, if any, should know that category leadership is transient. Getting here was the easy part. The hard one is that which stretches out ahead.

The startup ecosystem reminds us that legacy and creativity are hard to reconcile. While we build on the great work we’ve done over the years, we must constantly evaluate that work from first principles, as if nothing had come before us. Equally, we don’t hire people who can execute a checklist, we hire those who can throw it out the window and redefine how to get to their goals. At Slush, every day is Day 1.

EXCELLENCE IS A HABIT

Attention to detail compounds over time. Even in startups, excellence is nothing more than a habit. For that, we have high standards for ourselves in doing the basics right:

  • We respect the intense struggle of the entrepreneurial process. When dealing with our community, we always show up on time and communicate promptly.
  • We respect the time and effort of our colleagues. We stick to commonly agreed routines and aim to put our progress out there to ensure our team has full information at all times.
  • We always close the loop – both internally and externally. If we are unsure, we say “I’ll figure it out and get back to you.”
  • We understand that there is always more work to be done than hours for doing it. To achieve our objectives, we actively take time to prioritize, de-prioritize, and plan our work.

By being consistent with the basics – even when no one is watching – we create an environment where we can expect the same from others. That, in turn, preserves our headspace for solving hard problems that deserve our attention.

STRIVE FOR CLARITY

We are a complex company. Very few organizations of 30–50 people have 17 teams, 4 main products, and thousands of customers. Even fewer employ a team whose average experience with the company is less than a year.

For these reasons, we try to be very clear in the following three actions:

  • Communication. Unclear or insufficient communication is a common root cause of failure. Therefore, we communicate succinctly, ask the right questions while providing ample context, and question our colleagues when we suspect we’re being asked the wrong ones. We put extra effort into documentation.
  • Decision-making. Every Slusher owns nearly all decisions related to their domain. Even after a heated debate, once a decision is made, we expect our colleagues to stand behind it. Therefore, we seek ample perspective before making a decision, reason rigorously, and then communicate clearly. At Slush, a decision isn’t considered made before it has been communicated to everyone who it might affect.
  • Leadership. As leaders, we recognize that our most important job is to reduce complexity. We set goals that clearly communicate what we expect of our team members and by when. Subsequently, we help our teams do intentional, clear, and specific work. We ask “why?” over and over again. When a team member gets really stuck, we are there for them with clear guidance.

Each of these modes of clarity is underpinned by a clarity of thinking. That is one of the core traits we look for when hiring.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that clarity and complexity can rarely be reconciled verbally. Therefore, in pursuing clarity, we default to writing.

CARE DEEPLY

We care deeply for our work and about our colleagues. 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.

Work at Slush is about us, not me. We win and lose as a team and help beyond our own responsibilities. We own our failures and embrace them as a collective opportunity to learn. Moreover, we make sure to celebrate everything from the tiniest wins to major achievements.

We give and ask for candid feedback to help each other grow. 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.

DEFAULT TO ACTION

Like the startups we work with, Slush works best when we execute early and iterate rapidly. While we value rigorous thinking and thoughtful plans, we acknowledge that we rarely know the final solution before starting to work on it. We believe everything is a “work in progress” and therefore share our work openly for feedback, both internally and externally, already before it’s ready.

We recognize the difference between half-done and half-thought. While the former is acceptable and part of the iterative process, the latter is something we try to avoid. We aim to think-share-improve instead of making our colleagues do the thinking for us.

We are frugal like a startup, and default solving problems with creativity over budget. Whenever it makes a difference, we are ready to get our hands dirty and do things that don’t scale.

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.

STAY HUMBLE

Slush exists to help and create founders to change the world. To pursue our mission, we actively put founders first in everything we do.

We acknowledge we’re not (yet) founders ourselves but make an effort to understand the founder mindset by going out there to ask, listen and read.

At Slush, all founders are equal. It does not mean that we serve every founder similarly, as founders’ needs differ based on where they are in their journey. It means that we obsess about solving founders’ problems at all stages.

We recognize that, while we’re at Slush, we have been put in charge of a project that is not our own. Ultimately, we know that doing what’s best for Slush translates into maximal personal learning for ourselves.

REDEFINE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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.

For these reasons, we feel a sense of urgency about shaping a brighter entrepreneurial future in Europe. We believe that it requires three axes of systemic change:

  1. We need companies to be built by diverse individuals that build in collaboration with the rest of society, including academia, governments, and the arts.
  2. We need those companies to take extraordinary risks that, if successful, change the future beyond recognition.
  3. We need them to pursue the most pressing problems of our time.

We call this Entrepreneurship Redefined.

We cannot enact this change unless we as a company live up to these same virtues. Therefore, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability are core to the way we build Slush. While we think deeply about the ethical questions inherent in technological progress, we strongly believe that better tech creates a better world.

OPEN POSITIONS

HEAD OF STARTUP OPERATIONS

Overview

Slush’s mission is to help and create founders to change the world. We’re the most founder-focused event on earth, and early-stage founders are Slush’s most important customer group. As the Head of Startup Operations, you’re a key player in ensuring that we work towards our mission every day, attracting the most exciting startup founders to Slush and creating a fantastic experience for them.

You’ll work closely with your Startup team, and report to the President (Elin). The Startup team also works closely with the other two core audience teams (Investors & Media), and with the Partnership, Studio, and Production teams to realise its own and joint targets.

Responsibilities

  • Recruiting, onboarding and leading the three-person Startup team. This includes taking care of your team’s routines, managing your team’s workload and priorities, ensuring that the team reaches the set targets for the year, and maintaining and supporting your team’s well-being, motivation, and growth.
  • Growing into our in-house expert on early-stage startups and communicating the value proposition of Slush ****to the most ambitious founders and operators in Europe. Responsibility of expanding & maintaining Slush’s relationships with the most promising early-stage startups and their founders.
  • Curating & communicating the startup experience at Slush, which includes everything a startup can do at Slush. This entails acting as a “spider in the web” in the Slush team, ideating & creating value-adding concepts for startups not just within the Startup team, but also together with other teams.
  • Redefining the standard for the tools, concepts and services Slush offers startups to make the most of their time at Slush. This includes:
    • Rethinking long-standing concepts from first principles, like Founders Day and Startup Booths.
    • Creating the world’s best meeting experience together with the Product and Investor teams.
    • Conceptualizing & executing new value-adding concepts together with the team, both year-round and event-related ones.
  • Leading the development & execution of Slush 100, including planning the competition process, marketing the event & screening the applications, and closing & managing partnerships with the participating VC’s and other partners.
  • Selling out the startup tickets to Slush 2024 (together with the rest of the startup & studio teams), and providing excellent customer service towards startups looking to join the event.
    • This includes creating the startup application and reviewing applications continuously.

Requirements

  • A curious mindset to absorb the dynamics of the global startup ecosystem and understand the mindset and struggles of an early-stage founder. Previous experience working closely with startups is seen as an advantage, but an ability to learn quickly is equally important.
  • Leadership skills with the ability make decisions, set and prioritize goals, and delegate tasks to oneself and the team members.
  • Excellent project management skills, including an ability to comprehend and lead multiple projects at once with different stakeholders.
  • Understanding of the nuances of relationship-building & networking, including excellent communication skills.
  • Ability to work and communicate effectively between internal teams and external stakeholders.
  • Excellent written and spoken English.

Most importantly, we don’t look for ready-made professionals rather than people with limitless potential. We believe that passionate curiosity and the ability to learn fast are what ultimately make people thrive.

Practicalities

This is a permanent, full-time, paid position, and ideally you would be able to start on Feb 1.

Our team works mainly at our Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require some amount of office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to send Elin a message at [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you!

Applications close on Jan 7.

APPLY HERE

HEAD OF PEOPLE

Overview

We want for Slush to be a great place to work, where we build a great team, challenge people to do their best work, and empower everyone to make a difference. The exceptional people in the Slush team deserve the best working environment and support we can provide.

As Head of People, you will be responsible for helping to find, develop, motivate and retain the team at Slush. You will act as a champion for the company culture and will support team members, allowing the company to develop and grow quickly. In this role, you will be responsible for all human resources-related activities.

You will work closely with your People team, reporting directly to the President (Elin). Also, since people activities are interconnected to almost everything Slush does, you will work closely together with all other teams.

What will you get?

  1. A unique chance to lead the HR operations for a team of ~50 full-time employees and 1,600 volunteers. You will not have the same amount of freedom and trust in any other organization; leading a multi-million not-for-profit’s people operations and development will be fast-paced and highly rewarding.
  2. Due to our culture of “trust by default” and the constant need to renew ourselves, Slush has become one of the best founder and operator schools on the planet. In this role, you’ll get a deep dive into how people function works in a best startups globally and you’ll learn invaluable skills for your future career. Furthermore, you get to develop the Slush volunteer program, which is a door-opener and common first step into the European startup ecosystem.
  3. You will build a unique network of people throughout the global startup & innovation ecosystem, some of which might end up being your future colleagues, employers, or employees.

Responsibilities

  • Recruiting, onboarding and leading the two-person People team. This includes taking care of your team’s routines, managing your team’s workload and priorities, ensuring that the team reaches the set targets for the year, and maintaining and supporting your team’s well-being, motivation, and growth.
  • Establishing people-oriented policies and practices that align with and enhance our mission and core values, and see that they are adhered to consistently.
  • Taking care of day-to-day people operations such as conducting monthly pulse survey, leading Slush’s people-forum, having ownership of Slush’s administrative tools & organizing weekly team events and team fun activities.
  • Optimizing the employee life cycle: everyone’s interactions with Slush should be positive, from onboarding to offboarding and alumni status.
  • Taking care of office manager responsibilities such as office orders, office design and support efficient working & tools at Slush.
  • Taking ownership of the design, building and implementation of our volunteer organization & budget, including the Team Lead experience, with the help of the team.
  • Ownership of planning, producing and hosting several Volunteer events (such as Talkoot, Volunteer Day, Venue Tour and Volunteer Area).

Requirements

  • Excellent communication skills (written & verbal), excited to host trainings for the team on various people-related topics.
  • Excellent project management skills, including the capability to tackle multiple big projects simultaneously, and the ability to execute from the big picture to the smallest detail with creativity.
  • Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
  • Ability to strive, give high-fives and be proactive.
  • Team player: you’re easy to approach and create a positive atmosphere among the team.

Most importantly, we don’t look for ready-made professionals rather than people with limitless potential. We believe that passionate curiosity and the ability to learn fast are what ultimately make people thrive.

Practicalities

This is a permanent, full-time, paid position, and ideally you would be able to start on Feb 1.

Our team works mainly at our Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require some amount of office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to send Elin a message at [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you!

Applications close on Jan 7.

APPLY HERE

PARTNERSHIP MANAGER

Overview

You will work closely with our whole Partnerships team (including 3-4 Partnership Managers), led by the Head of Partnerships. Also, since partner activities are interconnected to almost everything Slush does, you will be engaged with many other teams like startups, investors, marketing, and finance.

What will you get?

  1. PS team is the commercial core at Slush, responsible for most activities seen from the outside during Slush week; 80% of events and 80% of production during Slush are organized by partners, 50% of all revenue, and most of all growth possibilities in the future.
  2. You will not have the same amount of freedom and trust in any other organization; leading a multi-million not-for-profit’s commercial operations and development will be fast-paced and highly rewarding.
  3. Due to our culture of “trust by default” and the constant need to renew ourselves, Slush has become one of the best founder & startup operator schools on the planet.
  4. You will build a unique network of people throughout the global startup & innovation ecosystem (VCs, founders, facilitators), as well as an international tech/innovation/CVC network through our counterparties (leading tech companies globally).

Responsibilities

  1. Be part of defining our partnership strategy to fund 50% of Slush operations and lead Slush towards its mission by creating value for startups through partner presence.
  2. Act as an account manager for tens of forward-looking companies – your deals total anywhere between hundreds of thousands and millions of euros. At Slush the account manager manages the whole relationship from first touch point to closing and from closing to collecting feedback after Slush 2024.
  3. Lead projects and own the decision-making for your own concepts (e.g. business development in a specific offering, partner comms, partner side events, or Partner Day -concept) based on your interests and abilities.
  4. Drive sales efforts in specific verticals, geographical areas, or offering packages – again based on your interests and ambitions.

Requirements

  1. Experience in having ownership of B2B deals and superb comms skills – grammar, rhetoric, and all the basic stuff. Empathy and understanding your counterparty’s perspective in client relationships and internal teamwork.
  2. Understanding the basics of client relationship work – maintaining good relations with your partners throughout the year.
  3. Analytical mindset – experience in breaking down complex business cases, approaching problems in a structured manner, or conducting analyses to support your decision-making.
  4. Deeply into learning and development – eager to learn about feedback, new industries, business models, corporate-startup collaboration, project management, etc.
  5. Understanding of, or curiosity, towards the tech & startup scene, and how stakeholders benefit from startup collaboration.
  6. Ability to strive, give high-fives, be proactive, and efficiently lead a team even under pressure.

Practicalities

This is a full-time, paid position, with a fixed-term contract until the end of 2024. We are recruiting 3-4 Partnership Managers at the same time. The first two roles start in early February, the third one in March and the fourth in May.

Our team works mainly at our Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require some amount of office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to send a message to Kalle at [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you!


Applications close Jan 7.

APPLY HERE

UI/UX DESIGNER

Overview

The Product Team at Slush is responsible for ensuring a high-quality event experience for our event-goers, from ticket purchases to our in-house Matchmaking Tool, as well as other products such as our year-round platform, Node by Slush. While our brilliant development team build these products, we are looking for talent to perfect the look and feel of our digital experience. This is where you come in.

What will you get?

  1. You’ll lead the design of products and tools and optimise the user experience for both internal teams at Slush and our diverse customer base.
  2. You’ll become an expert in the user experience of our core customers and users on the Slush platform, ranging from startup founders to investors and from media to partners.
  3. You’ll build a unique network of people throughout the global startup & innovation ecosystem (VCs, founders, facilitators), as well as an international tech/innovation/CVC network through our counterparties (leading tech companies globally).
  4. You’ll experience Slush’s unique culture of “trust by default” and constant self-renewal, making it one of the best founder & startup operator schools on the planet.

Responsibilities

  • Craft pixel-perfect user interfaces with a strong focus on delivering an exceptional user experience for our products.
  • Conduct user research and product experiments to continually refine and improve user experiences in our products.
  • Create wireframes, user flows, and prototypes in collaboration with developers, ensuring seamless integration of design and functionality.
  • Design graphic user interface elements that adhere to our brand guidelines, including menus, tabs, and widgets.
  • Contribute to the product roadmap and ideation, actively participating in the strategic development of our products.
  • Gather requirements and collaborate independently with different teams in-house to ensure a unified and cohesive user experience.

Requirements

  • 1-2 years of experience in web/UI/UX design through work, studies or hobby projects.
  • Strong collaboration skills, including the ability to coordinate, build consensus, and influence without authority.
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, rapidly learn, and master diverse web technologies and techniques.
  • Passion for building amazing products with a keen eye for user experience.
  • Proficiency in English and experience with design tools such as Figma and Adobe products.
Bonus points for
  • Experience designing products from ideas to real users.
  • Ability to independently make small design changes directly in code.
  • Entrepreneurial spirit.

At Slush, we value limitless potential over ready-made professionals. We’re looking for individuals with a passionate curiosity and the ability to learn exceptionally fast.

Practicalities

This is a full-time, paid position with an ideal start date in January or February. The role is fixed-term until the end of the year 2024.

The position reports to the Chief Product Officer and collaborates closely with the software development team and our Art Director.

While our team primarily works at our Helsinki office, due to the physical nature of our work, some office presence is required. However, partial remote work is also possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to message Henri at [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you!

Applications close Jan 7.

APPLY HERE

OUR TEAM

EERIKA SAVOLAINEN
CEO

ELIN DÖLKER
Chief of External Relations

LIISI KORVENRANTA
Head of Marketing

HENRI MÄKIVIRTA
Head of Node

MAXINE BUCHERT
Marketing Content Lead

MATTHEWS JOY
Partnership Manager

ANA FERNÁNDEZ
Node Operations

HENRI MARONEN
Developer

KIIRA AMECHI
Program Curator, Horizon Stage

KIMMO PESONEN
Developer

AMANDA PORKO
Researcher

KATARINA PICHNA
Partnerships

LINDA BJÖRKENHEIM
President

MARKO VOUTILAINEN
Head of Startup Operations

MAIJA MUNTILA
Head of People

LAURA ROCA
Head of Media

ELIAS TRITTER
Partnership Manager

VILMA JUUSONEN
Speaker Ops

JAMI SUOMINEN
Finance Operations

EKATERINA POVARENKO
UX/UI Designer

OLIVER REINIUS
Program Curator

KONRAD KORDOWSKI
Program Curator, Builder Stage

ANNASTIINA KOIVUSALO
Product Manager

AINO BERGIUS
COO & CFO

ANTONIA ENEH
Head of Finance

JULIUS THIMM
Head of Investor Relations

VALTTERI MERILÄINEN
Head of Production

JUHA HOVINTALO
LP Relations

DIANA IAMANAEVA
Designer

JESSICA JÄNTTI
People Operations

NIINA NISKANEN
Startup Operations

MARK HEIDMETS
Developer

ELLA NORJA
Investor Operations

SAMI AL-KHAFAJI
Startup Operations

HILLA UOTILA
Media Operations

AXEL ADLERCREUTZ
CPO & CTO

NOORA SAKSA
Head of Partnerships

ANNA SONG
Head of Program

NATALIE LINGWOOD
Expansion (Slush’D)

KAROLIINA PÄRNÄNEN
Art Director

MIRANDA LEHTONEN
Producer

HAU PHAN
Developer

KALLE KOIVU
Partnership Manager

ANGIE TRAN
Marketing & Comms

STELLA KORPIKUUSI
Marketing & Comms

JOMI KARSKE
Investor Operations

CONTACT US

VALUES
ENTREPRENEURSHIP REDEFINED
FOCUS & MISSION
OPEN POSITIONS
TEAM
CONTACT