Tour de Helsinki 2010 from Ville Vesterinen on Vimeo.

You can feel the rush just by watching. At least I can. Tour de Helsinki 2010.

But given the massive news overflow caused by instant access to every imaginable news source, I am constantly left with the feeling that I might be missing out on something really important in politics and current affairs. Thank god there is The Economist with its excellent newsletters rounding up the most important political and business events every week. But as I live and work in Helsinki, I’m still left yearning for a high-quality Finnish publication telling me what I need to know.

Whilst I can’t say anything too much yet, I’m happy to reveal that my call has been answered. The very near future will see the launch of a new Finnish news website. It will be an editorially run publication with a strict focus on only the most important and interesting news. Think Huffington Post with a Finnish twist.

The team behind the website has done an excellent job in first conceptualizing and then executing what I believe online news should be about in the 21st century. With this I mean carefully thought out, web-optimized editorial processes and fully transparent linking to other news sites, just to name a few examples.

In the long run, I firmly believe the site will shake up the Finnish online media space and pose a serious challenge to the current top news sites.

The website will be called Topiikki (‘topic’ in Finnish). It already has a Twitter feed providing every day ten important news items from around the web. Make sure to follow it to be among the first to know when the site launches.

Full disclosure: I’m an advisor at York Media, the company behind the website.

Special thanks go to two cool cats, Sami Niemelä and Samuel Klinkmann. These guys eat product spec for breakfast and shoot beautiful design and fireballs from their eyes by lunch time.

On that note, I’m back blogging at tippingeurope.com so stay tuned. There’s been a lengthy dry season, but I feel like it’s time to get back to writing. Of course I’ve written obsessively at ArcticStartup all along, but I feel there’s room for more.

Enjoy the new look & feel and make sure to either Subscribe to the RSS or join an email mailing list. Much is happening and I plan to share it all with you.

Finnish Industry Investment Ltd is a government-owned investment company. It invests the proceeds accrued from the privatisation of state-owned companies in stimulating the growth and internationalization of Finnish businesses.

Finnish Industry Investment invests in venture capital funds and directly in growth companies, together with private co-investors. The targets are in all sectors. Capital investments are needed for financing the growth of investee companies, and for spin-offs, major industrial investments, and sector and corporate restructurings.

The investments of Finnish Industry Investment amount to MEUR 650. You can see some other key figures here.

This post was crossposted to Nordkapp Blog.

There’s a saying that people come to our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. It’s my time to move on. I have been fortunate to have the amazing people at Nordkapp in my life for last year and four months. It’s mind boggling to think how far we have come with the company.

Nordkapp is on clear trajectory of growth and past the stage where it was a mere agency and currently leaving many companies in the dust that were not so long ago thought of as industry leaders. We worked hard to crystallize the focus, decide what market we are really in and educate the customer to see what we saw. Now it’s all executing to scale and making sure the organization can keep up with the growth. It’s not an easy job to be on the bleeding edge, but I have all the faith in the team I leave behind to hold the fort. Even though it was only a season I worked at Nordkapp, I believe they will be with me for a lifetime. Thanks guys!

What’s next? It’s time for me to spend my days with what I have used to do all my evenings and nights. The Nordic and Baltic startup scenes have come of age and we are determined to make sure ArcticStartup will evolve and ride the wave with the same determination we caught the wave to begin with almost two years ago. There’s much to do, not enough resources, too little time, and it’s coming 3000 km/h at us, but we are loving every moment of it.

I reiterate my friend who quoted Hugh MacLeod: ‘The Hunger will give you everything. And it will take from you, everything. It will cost you your life, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. But knowing this, of course, is what ultimately sets you free.’

I believe this quote sets the pace for me for some time to come.

At the end of the email my friend wrote this (partly in Finnish):

PS. Luin eilen gapingvoidin postauksen siitä nälästä, joka meidän kaikkien sisällä asuu. Melkein itkin – saattoi tosin johtua siitä punaviinipullosta ja cocktaileista. This is the shit:

WELCOME TO THE HUNGER

The Hunger to do something creative.

The Hunger to do something amazing.

The Hunger to change the world.

The Hunger to make a difference.

The Hunger to enjoy one’s work.

The Hunger to be able to look back and say, Yeah, cool, I did that.

The Hunger to make the most of this utterly brief blip of time Creation has given us.

The Hunger to dream the good dreams.

The Hunger to have amazing people in our lives.

The Hunger to have the synapses continually fired up on overdrive.

The Hunger to experience beauty.

The Hunger to tell the truth.

The Hunger to be part of something bigger than yourself.

The Hunger to have good stories to tell.

The Hunger to stay the course, despite of the odds.

The Hunger to feel passion.

The Hunger to know and express Love.

The Hunger to know and express Joy.

The Hunger to channel The Divine.

The Hunger to actually feel alive.

The Hunger will give you everything. And it will take from you, everything. It will cost you your life, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

But knowing this, of course, is what ultimately sets you free.

I don’t think I need to add anything to this. It’s all there.

Senseg E-Sense Technology Prototype from Nordkapp on Vimeo.

This is a video that epitomizes our times. Not only the content and the explicit message but also the setting, the concept of TED, the medium and the experience. I’m happy that this is the signal of our day. Can’t wait for the next phase when the desire and the talk become action. Better start putting my money where my mouth is.

There’s a strong Euro gang going. The panel includes Robert Gaael from Wakoopa (Netherlands), Alexander Ljung from Soundcloud (Germany/Sweden),  Renato Valdés Olmos from Hello My Name is E (Netherlands), Bruno Pedro from Tarpipe (Portugal), Stefan Fountain from Soocial (Netherlands), Peter Robinett from Bubble Foundry (Netherlands/Silicon Valley), Matt Biddulph of Dopplr (UK) and me.

Here’s the spiel: US companies often know little about the European startup environment and the opportunities to be found there. Panelists will share both the highs and lows of their startup lives and will answer questions regarding funding opportunities, cultural idiosyncrasies, legislation and differences between Europe and America

As Peter stated “One thing we all agree on is that we want this panel to be a thoughtful consideration of how technology entrepreneurship happens in Europe today, rather than a session where people just complain how Europe is not Silicon Valley.”

So please go here to read more and vote for us!