Entrepreneurial mindset in NYC

Besides having a lot of world-renowned sights NYC offered us the chance to have a couple of inspiring excursions. The things that we take home from the excursions are of course not easily explained in a short blog post, but we try our best to give an impression about the interesting talks we had while in New York.

Edmund Phelps at Columbia University

Our official program started on Tuesday in a very exciting way, when we had the chance to visit Columbia University and Edmund Phelps, a Nobel Laureate of economics and the director for the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia. Mr. Phelps has recently focused on researching what makes countries dynamic and innovative, and written a book around the concept of “mass flourishing”. The basic idea is that all people of a nation would be motivated by meaningful work, self-expression and personal growth and as such contributing to innovation, and these themes perfectly suit the purpose of our trip.  In our one-hour chat with him we got to hear some more insights on the topic and for example discuss the current situation in Finland in the light of his findings.

The excursion ended with the traditional giving of the “excuhalko”, a wooden log with a Prodeko plaque that Mr. Phelps himself had to attach. We are very grateful for the opportunity to talk to Mr. Phelps and hopefully we’re able to take the learnings we got back with us to brighten up the Finnish economy.

Reaktor

Tuesday evening continued with a visit to the Finnish technology company Reaktor’s New York office. Our host, Mikko Kiesilä welcomed us warmly to their WeWork coworking office space on Park Avenue. In Finland Reaktor has been a highly successful provider of end-to-end solutions in digital services for quite some time, combining a deep technical understanding with design and project management capabilities.  Already since 2013 they have an office in Japan, and recently the company also expanded to the U.S..

Mikko had a lot of interesting experiences to share about setting up a company in the States and how doing business in the Big Apple differs from Finland. Reaktor’s story and offering seem to work very well in the American market, building confidence that there is no reason why other Finnish companies shouldn’t try their wings oversees as well.

After hanging out at the office Mikko took us to a nearby rooftop terrace. In the blinking lights of New York we engaged in more informal discussions with our host and enjoyed the warm summer night in a nice urban atmosphere. We warmly thank Reaktor for taking the time to host us and wish them all the best luck for conquering the demanding U.S market!