AVANTO - Conversations on Finland's Global Ambition

Philip Aminoff - On Openness, Exports and the Will to Prosper

Episode 8 of AVANTO with Philip Aminoff, Chairman of Helvar Merca and Helectron. Finland is often described as cautious, inward-looking and modest in its relationship with growth. Yet in the decades before independence, it was a strikingly international economy, shaped by foreign-born professionals, entrepreneurs, investors and a strong export orientation. In this conversation, Philip Aminoff takes a long historical view of Finland’s development. We discuss the international Helsinki of a hundred and forty years ago, the role of foreign-born professionals in building parts of Finland’s industrial backbone, the culture of reinvesting profits for the long term, why Finnish listed companies often protect stable earnings instead of investing in growth, how export promotion moved from the private sector to the state, the commercial skill that was lost along the way, the disconnect between leaders and customers, over-regulation, and what it would take for Finland to want to prosper again. A conversation about openness, exports, long-term ownership and the will to recover a capacity Finland once had.

Atte Jääskeläinen - On Renewal, Courage and Turning Knowledge into Action

Episode 7 of AVANTO with Atte Jääskeläinen, President of Sitra. Finland has talent, technology, strong institutions and promising companies. Yet the country has struggled to create economic growth for a long time. In this conversation, Atte Jääskeläinen explains why renewal is difficult even in a capable society. We discuss institutional change, the role of crisis, Finland’s public finances, incentives, demography, capital, distributed decision-making, and what it takes to act before change becomes unavoidable. A conversation about diagnosis, courage and the mechanisms that turn understanding into action.

Ari Tulla - On Scale, Focus and Finland’s AI Bet

In this sixth episode of AVANTO, Ari Tulla speaks from San Francisco. Ari is Co-founder and CEO of Elo Health, formerly at Nokia in Silicon Valley, founder of BetterDoctor, early investor in Oura, Verda, Donut Lab, and Verge, and LP in Lifeline Ventures and ByFounders. He brings a perspective no previous guest in the series could: he left Finland, built in Silicon Valley, and invested back into the Nordic ecosystem. The conversation starts inside Nokia. For Ari, Nokia was not beaten by lack of intelligence. It had extraordinary engineers, deep talent, and global reach. What it lacked was focus. “If you don’t focus, you will never win.” From there, the episode moves to Silicon Valley, BetterDoctor, Oura, Finnish growth capital, scale-up leadership, visibility, Donut Lab, Linear, Singapore, the Finnish Long Drink, and Ari’s boldest idea: making every Finnish citizen native with AI. His diagnosis is direct, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately optimistic. Finland’s problem is not that nothing works. Much of the ecosystem now works far better than Finns often admit. Capital exists at the beginning. International capital can be reached later. The country has talent, examples, institutions, and technical credibility. The problem is what comes next. Finland must build more people capable of scaling companies globally. It must become more visible. It must focus. And it must make bold national choices before other countries do. Episode 6 — Ari Tulla On Scale, Focus and Finland’s AI Bet

Jarmo Sareva - On Reputation, Boldness and Finland Seen from New York

Jarmo Sareva is the Consul General of Finland in New York and former Ambassador for Innovation. From New York — the city where global capital decides what to look at and what to overlook — he describes how Finland is read from the outside, and what that view reveals about the country itself. Reputation is real, but limited. Finnish modesty has a cost in the global market. Reliability is a virtue at home and a liability abroad. Finland is now behind Estonia in per capita exports. The reasons, in Jarmo's words, are multifaceted: cultural, structural, and "between the ears of so many people." Episode 5 of AVANTO. Following Pauli Heikkilä, Mikko Suonenlahti, Johannes Korpela and Petri Lahesmaa.

Petri Lahesmaa - On Brussels, Power and Finland's Place in Europe

Most people assume Brussels is a closed system. That the big countries set the rules, and everyone else follows. Petri Lahesmaa has spent more than 25 years inside those institutions. And his view is different. Small countries can move faster. Alliances matter more than size. And the door is open — if you walk through it with data, with solutions, and with something to show. The problem is that Finland doesn't always walk through it. In this conversation, we talk about how power actually works in Brussels, what Finland gets right, what it gets wrong, and what it would take for Finland to stop hiding what it has.