# 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.

## 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

- **10** people hired and led as CEO
- **€1M+** annual turnover
- **Profitable** bootstrapped, without outside funding

## CEO of a bootstrapped agency
_Making Helsinki bolder_

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.

## A community, not just a company
_More than client work_

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.

https://pekkahartikainen.fi/work/bolder

This page in other languages: [fi](https://pekkahartikainen.fi/fi/tyot/bolder.md) · [krl](https://pekkahartikainen.fi/krl/hommat/bolder.md)