Ahti Heinla talks about building companies that impact a massive amount of people, how even successful founders struggle and fail at times but also what’s the right approach to build a business case. He also reveals how his company managed to pull off something that a tier-one VC told to be impossible.

See the episode notes: https://www.petrikajander.com/ahti.

Guest bio

Ahti Heinla is the co-founder and CTO of Starship Technologies which is the world’s leading company creating local delivery robots. In 2002, he was part of the founding team of Skype and was the company’s Chief Technical Architect for the first five years. In 2008, Ahti helped to mobilise 3% of the population to clean Estonia's forests in a day.

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Podcast website: https://www.petrikajander.com/talkswithpetri/. Subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or Youtube. Follow on Twitter for updates. You can also send suggestions. Please consider leaving a short review or share the episode so that others can find the show.

Hannu Ryopponen talks about working with Ingvar Kamprad, how he was as an entrepreneur and what made IKEA successful. He also reveals what happened when he travelled with Kamprad and met dignitaries.

See the episode notes: https://www.petrikajander.com/kamprad.

Guest bio

Hannu Ryöppönen is a private investor and board professional who, since the 1970s, has served as CFO of many international companies in London, New York, Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Stockholm. He worked for over 10 years in Ingvar Kamprad’s inner circle as a group CFO for IKEA.

Ryöppönen has held top executive positions in companies like Royal Ahold, Industri Kapital, Stora Enso, and he has been in non-executive positions on boards of Amer Sports, Samworth Brothers, ICA, Novo Nordisk, Billerud Korsnas and Neste, among others. Apart from his extensive experience in finance and strategy, he has spent well over half of his career in different sectors of the retail industry.

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Podcast website: https://www.petrikajander.com/talkswithpetri/. Subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or Youtube. Follow on Twitter for updates. You can also send suggestions. Please consider leaving a short review or share the episode so that others can find the show.

Micke Paqvalén talks about building award winning companies, rough times, and almost dying while working too hard. He also reveals his first startup at early age, and founding of a flying boat company.

See the episode notes: https://www.petrikajander.com/micke.

Guest bio

Lars-Michaël (Micke) Paqvalén, M.Sc. (Econ.), is a company builder who has lived and worked internationally for over 25 years and exited four major software companies. He is the founder & chairman of TRÄ Group and Buildbite, co-founder of Brandbassador, Learning Intelligence Group (Claned & GraphoGame), Kiosked, Telepo, HansaWorld and an active early-stage investor in many disruptive companies, such as Proof Analytics among others. He is also on the Advisory Board of Nordic Innovation and Nordic Scalers, a pan-Nordic initiative to find and accelerate next-generation unicorns in the Nordics. During his tenure as an entrepreneur, he has been awarded the European ICT Grand Prize, the award for Best Enterprise Software solution at the Mobile World Congress, the growth entrepreneur of the year in both Finland and Sweden, the American and European Business Awards etc. Micke is a proud father of four children.

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Podcast website: https://www.petrikajander.com/talkswithpetri/. Subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or Youtube. Follow on Twitter for updates. You can also send suggestions. Please consider leaving a short review or share the episode so that others can find the show.