Why am I here? Anders
My dream was always to be an entrepreneur. Before Aamu, I spent 30 years running my own companies. I went from a hands-on entrepreneur to a board member and finally an investor. On my journey, a question started haunting me, like an itch that I couldn’t scratch: how could information help CEOs lead their companies better?
From a storehand to a CEO
In a family of academics, I was always the entrepreneur. At the age of 7, I already wanted my own store. I was driven to make that happen, and so I ended up working every weekend and vacation I had. My career began in a general hardware and food shop in the Finnish archipelago, when I was 13 years old.
After two years in business school, I started my first companies. Yes, plural. The business idea that changed my life was salmiakkikossu. We weren’t the first ones to mix salmiakki and alcohol, but we were the first ones to do it commercially. And that was enough. All of a sudden, I was a 24-year-old with all the responsibilities of a CEO! Looking back now, that was just the beginning: just the first of many companies to come.
An itch to solve a universal problem
Once I was further along in my career, I started investing in businesses. This is where the itch began. I quickly realized that the information companies use to make decisions is unforgivably poor. There is a surprising amount of CEOs who come to their boards with numbers they don’t quite understand themselves.
When I spoke to my peers, I realized that this problem is universal and haunts everyone – not just me. We sat down with Sanna, Wilhelm, Alberto and Tuomas and decided that we needed to find a solution. The sun was rising over Töölönlahti, when our meeting ended. Aamu Partners had been born.
Guiding companies with information
Aamu Partners was created to give companies clarity in the midst of chaos. Hence, the name of our product: Clarity. Today, the biggest challenge with information is that there’s simply too much of it; hundreds of data points and things to track. It can fool anyone into thinking that quantity is better than quality. It isn’t.
I would say that Aamu is a continuation of my dream. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to scratch that itch: to channel the interest and scientific curiosity I’ve had into an instrument. Our solution is part technology, part consulting: we give you the most relevant numbers and help you understand what they mean. It’s exactly what I would have needed when I was a 24-year-old CEO, facing the challenges that come with the title.
What’s also rewarding about Aamu is that we get to help forward-thinking companies succeed. It’s something I’ve learned to enjoy with age. I can be happy for others, because I don’t feel like their success takes anything away from mine. It’s a comforting feeling.
Every day brings new lessons
What’s next? We always say our clients are going places, but so is Aamu. We have something unique in our hands; it’s exciting to hear that even investors in California are impressed by Clarity! My focus is now on making sure we grow smart. Instead of chasing opportunities left and right, we need to stay focused on what’s important.
Personally, I wake up every morning and think I’m going to learn something new that day. Ever since I was a 7-year-old who dreamt of being an entrepreneur, my life has been filled with business ideas. If there’s something I’ve learned, it’s that there’s always more out there. The day I think I’ve seen everything there is, I might as well retire.