Slush (event)

Slush is a startup and tech event held annually in Helsinki, Finland. Slush facilitates meetings between the founders of startups and investors such as venture capitalists, accomplished with events such as matchmaking and pitching competitions. Slush aims to build a worldwide startup community. In 2021, Slush brought together 8,800 attendees from around the world to participate together in this global networking festival.[1]

Slush
StatusActive
GenreTechnology, startups
VenueMessukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre
Location(s)Helsinki
CountryFinland
Inaugurated2008
Attendance25,000 (2019)
Websitewww.slush.org

Since 2015, Slush also run events throughout the world. These include previous events such as Slush Tokyo, Slush Shanghai and Slush Small Talks events.[2] Since 2021, Slush'D has served as the primary avenue for international offshoots of the main Helsinki event.

Slush has created various products and resources available year-round to support and inform founders and investors. Among these products are Soaked by Slush, a startup media platform established in 2019,[3] and Node by Slush, a startup and investor community established a year later.

The company's turnover is more than ten million euros.[4]

History

There are two stories of the founding of Slush: The original story is that the first Slush was founded and organized by Kai Lemmetty, Ville Vesterinen, Helene Auramo, Peter Vesterbacka and Timo Airisto (HS[5]) and it was covered by Taloussanomat. One of the original founders, Ville Vesterinen has written an article about the early days to support this storyline.[6]

Later variations of the Slush origin story explains that the founders of Slush were Peter Vesterbacka, then working at Rovio with Angry Birds, together with Timo Airisto, a lawyer.[7]

In 2011, Miki Kuusi became the CEO, and together with Atte Hujanen and Jenni Kääriäinen organized the event at Kaapelitehdas, with 1500 attendees. The event was staffed mainly by student volunteers from Aaltoes (Aalto Entrepreneurship Society) of Aalto University.[8]

Slush 2019

At Kaapelitehdas, 2009-2015

Slush was held for the first time in 2008 at Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamo. Slush was founded by Kai Lemmetty, Ville Vesterinen, Helene Auramo, Peter Vesterbacka and Timo Airisto.[9] In 2009, the event moved to Kaapelitehdas. For the first three years, the event was aimed at local entrepreneurs and investors. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of participants increased from 250 to 500. The winners of the Slush pitching competitions in those years were Illtags, Sibesonke and Dealmachine. The 2011 event had 1,500 participants, 150 growth companies and 15 private equity companies. The pitching competition was won by Ovelin (now Yousician), a developer of music-related technologies.

In 2012, 3,500 people, 560 growth companies and 41 private equity firms participated in Slush. FishBrain, the social media aimed at fishermen, won the pitching competition of the year.

In 2013, Slush gathered a total of 7,000 people, 1,200 growth companies and 120 private equity companies at Kaapelitehdas. The event received a great deal of international attention and was listed in The New York Times[10] and The Wall Street Journal,[11] among others. Speakers at the event included Toomas Hendrik Ilves (former President of Estonia), John Riccitiello (CEO of Electronic Arts), and Niklas Zennström (Founder of Skype).

The 2013 pitching competition was won by Weekdone, which is developing a job tracking tool for teams.

At Messukeskus, 2014 - present

In 2014, 14,000 people from 79 countries visited Slush. The event was attended by about 1,400 growth companies, 750 investors, 700 suppliers and 140 private equity firms. Speakers at the event included Martin Lorentzon (founder of Spotify), Wang Yang (Deputy Prime Minister of China), Leland Melvin (astronaut at NASA), and Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor and composer). Nokia unveiled its first Android tablet, the Nokia N1.

The event in 2014 was the largest technical production in Finnish history, surpassing the Eurovision Song Contest held in Finland in 2007.[12] The 2014 pitching competition was won by Enbrite.ly, which develops internet traffic management services.

Slush 2015 was held from 11 to 12. November. Slush Hacks was held for the first time with the participation of Ultrahack, Junction, Industryhack and the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) Hackathon. The winners of each challenge were able to pitch their ideas on the Slush stage and the best idea / team won €20,000.[13]

Slush received the President of the Republic's Internationalization Award in November 2015.

In 2016, Slush was held from November 30 to December 1. At the Helsinki Fair Center. A new sister event was Slush Music, which was expected to bring 1,500 technology and music professionals to the Cable Factory for one day.[14] Slush, in cooperation with Finnair, organized a direct scheduled flight from San Francisco to Helsinki.[15] The nickname "Nerd bird" is also used for scheduled flights.[16]

The 2017 event was held on November 30th and December 1st. The main trends were analytics and artificial intelligence.[17] The 2018 Slush was attended by 20,000 visitors. The content of the event sought to highlight the actors and background influencers of technology companies, which are not usually presented in public. Experienced entrepreneurs as well as executives such as Werner Vogels (Amazon's CTO), spoke at the event.

In 2019, Slush grew to 25,000 participants and Slush also organized major side events on product management and game development, among other things. The event featured 200 speakers, including investor Michael Moritz and Stripe founder John Collison.

Event summary by year
Edition Year Dates Theme(s) Notable speakers Attendance
1st 2008 November 24 N/A Risto Siilasmaa, Ilkka Paananen, Michael "Monty" Widenius 250
2nd 2009 November 23–24 N/A Anssi Vanjoki, Jani Penttinen, Andreas Weigend, Risto Siilasmaa, Jussi Pajunen 600
3rd 2010 N/A The premier entrepreneurship event in Northern Europe Mårten Mickos, Burton Lee, Ilkka Paananen, Taneli Tikka, Peter Vesterbacka, Jan-Erik Nyrövaara 400
4th 2011 March 1 N/A Sonali De Rycker, Mikko Hyppönen, Timo Vuorensola 1,500
5th 2012 November 21–22 N/A Marko Ahtisaari, Serguei Beloussov, John Lindfors, Aydin Senkut 3,500
6th 2013 November 13–14 N/A Taizo Son, Jian Wang, Niklas Zennström, Taavet Hinrikus 7,000
7th 2014 November 18–19 N/A Wang Yang, Martin Lorentzon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leland Melvin 14,200
8th 2015 November 11–12 Digital healthcare & life sciences

Innovation in developing countries

Entertainment & media[18]

 Caterina Fake, Martti Ahtisaari, Niklas Zennström, Ilkka Paananen N/A
9th 2016 November 30 – December 1 The Mind of an Entrepreneur Chris Sacca, Steve Jurvetson, Joel Spolsky, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Danae Ringelmann (co-founder of Indiegogo) 17,500
10th 2017 November 30 – December 1 A Call for Solvers: how entrepreneurship can solve the biggest problems of the world Al Gore, Martin Lau, Daniel Ek 20,000
11th 2018 December 4–5 Arrival Werner Vogels, Justin Rosenstein, Julia Hartz 20,000
12th 2019 November 21–22 Futurism Re-Imagined Michael Moritz, John Collison 25,000
13th 2020 N/A N/A N/A N/A
14th 2021 December 1–2 Entrepreneurial Renaissance Tony Xu, Renate Nyborg (CEO of Tinder), Tony Fadell, Luciana Lixandru 8,800
15th 2022 November 17–18 Break of Dawn TBA TBA

See also

References
  1. "Slush 2021 for attendees". Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  2. "What Is Slush". Slush. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  3. "About Soaked". Slush. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  4. Lappalainen, Elin (June 24, 2019). "Miki Kuusi nappasi entiset Slushin toimitusjohtajat Woltiin – Onko Slush-nuorisosta muodostumassa Suomen oma PayPal-mafia?" [Miki Kuusi captures former Slush CEOs in Wolt - Is Slush Youth Becoming Finland's Own PayPal Mafia?]. Talouselama (in Finnish). Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  5. Pitkänen, Perttu (October 28, 2008). "Start-upit tukevat toisiaan". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  6. "Slush Helsinki". ArcticStartup. September 22, 2008. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  7. "Luulitko, että opiskelijat perustivat Slushin? Näin 15 000 hengen startup-festivaali sai oikeasti alkunsa ja nimensä". November 24, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  8. "How Slush started from a casual coffee shop chat in 2011 – and became Europe's leading tech conference three years later". November 25, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  9. "Slush Helsinki - ArcticStartup". arcticstartup.com. September 22, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  10. Scott, Mark (November 15, 2013). "Finns Pitch Frightful Weather as a Competitive Advantage". Bits Blog. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  11. Grundberg, Juhana Rossi And Sven (November 14, 2013). "Finland's Prime Minister Looks to Startups". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  12. "Slush tavoittelee ennätysyleisöä Suomen suurimmalla tuotannolla – "isompaa kuin Euroviisut"". mtvuutiset.fi (in Finnish). September 15, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  13. "Slush Hacks | Slush 2015". January 20, 2016. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  14. Welcome to Slush Music 2017, retrieved May 5, 2022
  15. The Slush Flight 2017 Teaser, retrieved May 5, 2022
  16. "Piilaakson kerma lentää Slushiin luksuskone "Nörtti-Tipulla" – Mukaan pääsee myymällä heille liikeidean laskuvarjohypyn aikana". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). November 27, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  17. "Analytiikka ja tekoäly ovat tämän vuoden trendit Slushissa". ts.fi (in Finnish). November 29, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  18. https://assets.slush.org/2015/08/Slush-20151.pdf
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