Slush’D helps propel nascent startup ecosystems globally with events tackling bottlenecks that hinder local startups from reaching their full potential.

On top of our brand, organizers will receive tools, mentorship, and guidelines that allow them to hit the ground running. Beyond that, only the sky’s the limit—Slush’D events are organized independently by local teams. We envision gatherings ranging from 100-person cocktail events to 1,000-person conventions. Oh, and did we mention it’s all free?

Over the past decade, Slush has helped propel Helsinki into one of the most thriving startup ecosystems in Europe. With Slush’D, we want to replicate that trajectory in nascent ecosystems around the globe.

Thus, in putting together a concept for their Slush’D events, organizers should predominantly answer the question: “Right now, which bottleneck is most critically holding our local ecosystem back?”

For our pilot event in Trondheim in the fall of 2021, the ecosystem gathered around the theme “from startup to scaleup”—unpacking how the university town’s budding entrepreneurial activity can blossom into enduring, important deeptech companies.

When we got going in 2008, we knew absolutely nothing about organizing events. However, what we did know was that Finland needs a new era of innovation—one in which people aspire to build the future rather than optimize the present.

This is the spark that we look for in Slush’D organizers as well. Any individual or team with a deep-rooted passion for entrepreneurship and an early hypothesis of the bottleneck that their event would address can qualify.

Oh and by the way, we’ve come to learn that onboarding someone who knows a little bit about events doesn’t hurt.

Importantly, Slush is a not-for-profit movement—and we’re aiming to make Slush’D one, too. While for-profit entities can qualify as organizers, Slush’D events should not be organized with the intention of turning a profit. In fact, we will require that any bottom line be reserved for subsequent events, or that it’s reinvested into the local ecosystem.

What’s more, government trade missions or corporate innovation programs do not fit the grassroots mentality of Slush’D.