Grundlage
Briefly
Grundlage is an advertising agency that, in its own words, dares to do things differently. The agency specializes in solving brand growth challenges through strategic marketing planning and conceptualization. True to its name, Grundlage always starts developing a client’s brand from the foundation.
Grundlage’s CEO, Mari Tauler, turned to Aamu in the summer of 2021 when the agency was at a point where they were opening a second office in Helsinki in addition to Turku. The growth had been so rapid that Mari needed systematic support and assistance in managing the company. Mari also had a personal goal: to genuinely achieve a five-day workweek focused on her core competencies – sales and implementing projects that exceed client expectations. With Aamu, Grundlage began to strengthen the foundation of its growth and ensure success in the coming years as the scale of operations grows.
“It is very important in management to recognize the moment when you have to ensure things through data and do scenario modeling, even though your own intuition and gut feeling have always produced great decisions. Of course, those feelings are based on 25 years of experience, so there’s some data in those decisions too,” laughs Tauler.
Significant Changes Require a Good Progress Plan
At the beginning of our collaboration, we focused on creating a clear progress plan. The goal was set that Grundlage would be managed based on information, monitored monthly, and implement decisions systematically.
The CEO wanted a clearer picture of how the company was doing. She needed a proper target metric system with the opening of the new office. Targets included enhanced new client acquisition, setting up systems and data collection tools, and creating systematics in internal processes.
With Grundlage, we explored possible additional financing options in case they were needed later. Afterwards, we worked with Aamu on a cash flow forecast model for future fiscal years, allowing for justified, front-loaded recruitment and growth investments.
High Enough Targets Have Helped Exceed Expectations
A great client relationship with Grundlage has formed in a relatively short time with Aamu, and a significant change in how Grundlage is managed is already evident.
With a solid foundation in management, the focus has shifted to the business itself, such as strategic goals and their implementation. The sales targets set in the summer have already been exceeded ahead of schedule. Setting the initial phase of sales contracts at a high enough target level has helped guide sales focus, and the value of new sales has doubled from the original target. Grundlage has not needed additional financing, as the company now has good visibility into future cash flow and sales figures look positive. Still, there are several alternative plans for organizing financing, providing the entrepreneur with peace of mind in the longer term.
Entire Executive Team in Tight Collaboration with Clarity
In the future, Grundlage has even higher growth targets, and the company is systematically working on the next steps and business methods to achieve these goals.
Aamu has already helped with making the right and timely key personnel recruitments, considering cash flow impacts. Sales responsibility has been distributed more widely in the organization, and investment has been made in growing and systematically monitoring the proposal backlog in monetary terms. Going forward, the plan is to involve not only the CEO but other members of the executive team more closely in the Clarity collaboration. Operational efficiency monitoring will also become even more prominent.
Grundlage’s outlook on the future is becoming increasingly clear, and the work continues in good collaboration to further refine it.

I am very satisfied with the service from Aamu's team, especially Ville Poikolainen, who feels like part of our company. I thought to myself that we could even hire Ville, but let's not pass that on.Mari Tauler, CEO, Grundlage