Work / 03 · Bolder Helsinki
Bootstrapping a creative agency
A creative agency making brands, events, campaigns and digital products — for clients from family-run businesses to publicly listed global corporations.
- Role
- CEO
- Timeframe
- 2009 – 2011
- Focus
- Leadership · Brand · Business
A perfect storm: young, ambitious people starting an agency in the middle of a recession, before the startup boom, and growing it into a contender with over €1M in annual turnover.
- Role
- CEO
- Timeframe
- 2009 – 2011
- Focus
- Leadership · Brand · Business
Outcomes
- Grew to over €1M annual turnover while staying profitable
- Hired and led a team of ten people
- Owned strategy, sales and the monthly pipeline
01Making Helsinki bolder
CEO of a bootstrapped agency
Responsible for strategy, sales, hiring and leading the team. Headcount peaked at ten people; the biggest client was ING, with the brand-new Kluuvi shopping mall development project.
Joined shortly after founding and became CEO soon after. The company grew from a small startup into a creative agency employing ten full-time professionals across disciplines — bootstrapped with the partners into a profitable business.
Being responsible for sales and the monthly pipeline is the best teacher of accountability and hard work.
02More than client work
A community, not just a company
Beyond client brands, the agency built a community around itself that became a phenomenon of its own — championing the entrepreneurial spirit and the value of taking risks.
Campaigns and branding were produced ahead of their time in a lean, profitable way, for clients across industries, in an era when social media and virality were just taking shape.
What this role taught
Hiring, mentoring and leading creative professionals with diverse backgrounds — while owning the numbers — teaches a kind of accountability that carries into every later role.