Our ways of working are changing — and Covid-19 has acted as a catalyst for this change. Many companies are now opting for a combination of remote and physical office work, even after the pandemic has been tamed. As a result, firms have developed new expectations for their office spaces.
This is where Innovation Home hits the spot. Instead of providing just one physical office space, Innovation Home offers you a pass to a network of offices in Finland and abroad. And more importantly, Innovation Home is a community. Consisting of small startups, corporate partners and investors, it offers valuable connections to its members.
The idea for Innovation Home came from across the ocean, as co-founder and CEO Petra Erätuli-Kola was impressed by the collaborative working spaces in Silicon Valley. She then united with her childhood friend Katja Aalto, who was already running a meeting venue, and they founded Innovation Home together.
“Our dream was to change the Finnish working culture and take Finnish innovations out to the world. We wanted to create a more open office platform and bring startups and corporations together,” Erätuli-Kola says.
In 2017, Innovation Home opened its first office space in Otaniemi, in Espoo. Now the company has nine locations, two of them abroad. The rapid growth signals an ongoing change in our working culture.
Innovation Home’s community is a treasure chest of matchmaking opportunities
Innovation Home is a community of 200 startups and corporations. In total, it comprises 2000 individual members. Thus, Innovation Home’s community provides an optimal starting point for networking and matchmaking.
"We wanted to create a more open office platform and bring startups and corporations together."
Innovation Home arranges networking events for its members, often with renowned speaker guests ranging from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists. Furthermore, it is a treasure chest of matchmaking opportunities. Corporations turn to Innovation Home’s community for fresh ideas and the latest innovations.
“For example, Danske Bank joined us as a corporate partner to find startups from our community,” Erätuli-Kola illustrates.
To further facilitate matchmaking, Innovation Home decided to expand its office network abroad — first to Erätuli-Kola’s former hometown Singapore and then to Los Angeles, California. To both locations, the company recruited locally residing well-known Finns, such as Viivi Avellán and Sirpa Selänne, to help its customers settle in and leverage connections in their new environment.
In just four years, Innovation Home has grown into a network of nine offices. Even the pandemic couldn’t ruin its momentum. In Spring 2020, Innovation Home established a virtual office platform that its members developed. The virtual office enables matchmaking for startups and corporations, and it is a handy tool when reserving a meeting room.
It is impossible to know where Innovation Home’s journey will lead. But it is safe to say that whatever comes up, the company is always ready to adapt — with a little help from its community.
