Aaltoes

Aaltoes stands for Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, the largest and most active student-run entrepreneurship community in Europe. We want to make an impact and change the entrepreneurial culture around us to be bolder and more active. Our culture is based on an open community anyone can join and work with projects they feel passionate about. One crucial element in our community is doing rather than planning - asking for forgiveness rather than asking for permission. Aaltoes was founded in 2009 by Aalto University students to pull seams. The idea was to inspire entrepreneurs(-to-be) and help people to work for their own ideas and dreams. Founders of Aaltoes wanted talented people to admire entrepreneurship and see it as a way to create something new and radical. And definitely it should be seen as an option for working in a stable corporation. Aaltoes started with grassroot events, which are still the most valuable part of our activity. Aaltoes gave people opportunities to build their very own team, pitch their ideas and get feedback from experienced entrepreneurs and build professional network. In Twitter, #aaltoes became quickly the most popular hashtag in Finland. Startup Sauna Seed Accelerator Program and Startup Life Internship Program were created by Aaltoes. Three years ago Aaltoes started to take care of startup conference Slush - which is nowadays part of Startup Sauna - and it has grown to be one of the largest startup conferences in Europe.