Suggestions
Aapo K.
CMU Ph.D., Habbo & Moves app co-founder, ex-Meta AI Infra etc.
Aapo Kyrölä, a well-known figure in the technology and entrepreneurship space, has worked in some of the biggest companies in the world, including Facebook, NVIDIA, Twitter, and Microsoft Research Asia. He is the founder of two pioneering startups, including Habbo Hotel, a web-based virtual world that reached 75m$ annual revenue, and Moves app, a fully automatic activity and location tracker for iOS, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014.
At Carnegie Mellon University, he completed his Ph.D. with distinction and invented and developed GraphChi, a disk-based large-scale graph computation system that was featured in the MIT Technology Review. With more than 20 years of experience in the software engineering industry, Aapo is a talented individual and has a broad range of expertise and skills.
He has worked as a Software Engineer, Technical Lead in AI, and is currently a Software Engineer at Facebook, working in the AI infra team. He has also been a CEO, Co-founder, and Chief Scientist of Sulake Corporation. Additionally, he co-founded ProtoGeo, a machine learning firm, and worked as a Member of Technical Staff at Cerebras Systems.
Aapo's rich experience in the technology and entrepreneurship domains has made him highly skilled and competent. He remains heavily involved in the industry and continues to be a source of inspiration for many young entrepreneurs seeking success in the highly competitive tech industry.
Highlights
Tehtäväni startup-alan tukityöllistettynä, eli Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) Lifeline Venturessa, päättyy suunnitellusti ja seuraava varsin kunnianhimoinen projekti jo hyvässä vauhdissa, erittäin mielenkiintoisella tiimillä.
Kiitos Petteri Koponen mahdollisuudesta päästä näkemään sisäpuolelta miten VC toimii, arvioi yrityksiä ja tekee päätöksiä! Ehdottomasti parasta oli itselleni saada mahdollisuus tutustua uuden polven suomalaisiin startup-yrittäjiin, 12 vuoden Amerikan seikkailun jälkeen, ja auttaa muutamassa ihan käet savessa.
Kuvituksena Rembrandtin taulu "Tuhlaajapojan paluu", jossa kuvataan kun Piilaaksosta palannut entinen yrittäjä anoo Lifelinen partnereilta mahdollisuutta päästä EIRiksi Suomen parhaaseen VC firmaan. Taustalla myhäilevät Timo Ahopelto Elina Holkko ja Juha Lindfors.
#Slush was an awesome experience (and I use "awesome" in the Finnish way, not the American way). For example, the quality of the startups pitching was very high, and huge difference to my previous Slush (2008). No comparison at all.
This made me wonder, that I think I never did an investor pitch for Habbo Hotel, although we ended up raising up to 30 meur over time. In fact, in the first and only meeting with our first major investor Elisa (3 meur in 2001), VP Matti Carpén kind of pitched to us by reading a letter from his daughter how she loved Habbo Hotel (then "Hotelli Kultakala")!
I guess the lesson here is that if an investor reads a love letter of your product from her or his daughter, it is unlikely that your pitch would make things any better, so just shut up. #uselessadvice
