Overview
Slush is the leading startup event on the planet attracting thousands of the most promising young ventures in the Nordics, Europe, and beyond. Several of today’s unicorn companies have walked the halls of Slush in their early days, and the Startup Team has always been there to help them. As a member of the Startup Team, you will be 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 within your Startup Team, and report to the Head of Startups, Kalle. The Startup Team also works closely with the other core audience teams (Investors, Media, and Program), and with the Partnership, Growth, Production, & Product Team to realise its own and joint targets.
Startup Team Responsibilities
As the Startup Team focuses on our most important customers, the startup founders, it’s our responsibility to build relations and create activities that attract the world’s leading startups to Slush. As a team, we:
- Act as the primary point of contact for 6,000 startup and scaleup founders attending Slush 2025.
- Identify and create a deeper relation with the world’s most promising startups.
- Build startup activities and curate startup focused program, both within our team and together with other teams and external partners.
- Create the world’s best Meeting Experience working closely together with the Product and Investor Teams.
- Provide startups with exceptional customer service, including reviewing and accepting startup and scaleup company applications to Slush.
- Connect early-stage founders with investors and distribute actionable company-building advice year-round through Slush Online.
Role Responsibilities
In addition to the team-wide responsibilities, you will be directly contributing to the creation of the best startup experience on the planet by:
- Leading the digital, physical, service, and communication elements of the Slush Meeting Experience, working in close collaboration with the Product, Growth, & Investor Team. In practice, this includes:
- Running the operations and execution of the Meeting Area at the Slush main event.
- Running the marketing, comms, & customer information for the Matchmaking Tool & Meeting Area.
- Gathering insights on our Meeting Experience in past years and tracking key metrics for 2025.
- Ensure startups have meaningful touchpoints beyond meetings and minimize the number of zero-meeting startups.
- Understanding & obsessing over the seamless Meeting Experience both prior to and at the event:
- Planning & executing the Meeting Area volunteer operations, which includes recruiting and leading the Meeting Area Team Lead.
- Understanding how the user moves between the platform & the physical meeting spaces and communicating the user journey and needs to the relevant teams.
- Proactively researching our customers, reaching out to them and helping them score meetings to make the most of their time at Slush.
- Innovating & executing concepts for startup founders during the Slush week, such as Founder Re(DEI)fined and KONE Elevator Pitching Practice.
- Running and owning the operations of Matchmaking Sprints to connect startups and investors on Slush Online.
What We’re Looking For
You will grow into our in-house expert and evangelist of the startup ecosystem, so we’re looking for someone who has:
- A curious mindset to absorb the dynamics of the global startup ecosystem and understand the mindset and struggles of an early-stage founder.
- No previous experience is required from the field of startups, but we value an ability to learn quickly.
- Excellent project management skills with the ability to understand and lead multiple projects simultaneously with various stakeholders and deadlines.
- Strong self-leadership skills: setting personal goals and timelines and consistently adhering to them.
- Analytical skills to improve the Meeting Experience and Meeting Area operations by leveraging customer research, feedback, and previous data.
- Basic level SQL skills are considered a plus.
- Understanding of the nuances of relationship-building & networking, including excellent communication skills. Excellent written and spoken English.
- Ability to work and communicate effectively between internal teams and external stakeholders.
- Some experience in event organizing, e.g. through volunteering or student associations.
Most importantly, we don’t look for ready-made professionals, but 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 full-time, paid position, and ideally you would be able to start in June 2025. The contract is fixed-term until the end of 2025.
Our team works mainly at our Helsinki office to foster a strong team culture. 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.
Hiring Process
The recruitment process includes:
- Intro call (20 min)
- 1st round interview (remote) (60 min)
- Homework assignment (5-10 hrs)
- 2nd round interview at the Slush office (60 min)
We’re aiming to have the 1st round interviews during week 16 and make the final hiring decision at the end of April.
If you have any questions, feel free to send Kalle a message at [email protected].