Graduating from Kiuas Accelerator

The personal experience of Founder and CEO Timothy Tavarez in Kiuas Accelerator

Combine graduated from Kiuas Accelerator this last month. Kiuas Accelerator is an award-winning 10-week program designed to enable early-stage founders to build world-changing companies. Kiuas joins as a minority equity holder for Combine DAO with 1% ownership.

Kiuas has been a key part of our early journey. Combine DAO was incorporated in December 2022 after discussion amongst a small group of stakeholders over a year about the future of decentralized employment opportunities.

Kiuas was one of the first external organizations to make a bet on our company and they were a key part of my immigration story and the company’s establishment in Finland.

Our motivation

Combine was interviewing with multiple accelerators at the time and I had to choose between competing priorities:

1. International programs offering participation and capital in exchange for a large amount of equity (7-20%) and preference rights
2. Domestic programs in Finland, typically offering less or no capital in exchange for less or no equity

Ultimately, the prevailing wisdom was that a local program such as Kiuas was the right move. It offered us an opportunity to form a local network, get our bearings, and integrate into a community that we were completely new to.

We may yet participate in another accelerator if there is an adequate fit, but we're happy with the decision to pursue Kiuas, and their willingness to fold us into the community.

The European story

Founder and CEO Timothy Tavarez immigrated to Finland in March 2023. The very same month, the first Combine DAO entity outside of the United States was incorporated in Helsinki, Finland.

Finland was a natural fit for us to use as the European market headquarters. Finland has a compelling position as one of the most transparent, trusted, and innovative governments on Earth. A significant amount of information is public by default, fitting naturally with our own Open Core strategy.

Even now, as we participate in the European Commission GovTech Bootcamp program, we find that doors are opened in the interest of reducing barriers to information and services. It is even our key challenge statement:

European GovTech Challenge Statement 1
How can we use technologies to promote transparency about sustainability outcomes in government projects?

What we learned

And the things you'll want to consider if Finland could be your startup base.

Creating your own luck

Entrepreneurship is a game where you need to create your own luck, unless you’re already lucky and privileged enough to enjoy advantages out of the gate such as connections or wealth. Kiuas offers you opportunities to create your own luck. The dizzying array of mentors available are often willing to take their time with you.

Every week was an opportunity to meet a new set of mentors who would challenge us in bite-sized chunks as we discussed our work, progress, and vision. Ultimately, every Founder in the program needs to take their own initiative to build on those relationships, like any other. The time is too fleeting during the program to build much.

If you're coming from outside Finland, this is probably a major advantage for you. The rapid-fire exposure to a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and personalities can enable you to find the right fit.

Risk aversion in capital

I've found that that funding opportunities in Finland tend to be risk-off, and valuations for companies here can be depressed 50-75% below peer companies across Europe (with a much more extreme deviation between the United States & European Union).

Founders need to be more savvy in operating with less, especially now with less capital inflows to early stage companies in general.

In other words, if you’re purely chasing venture capital, Finland isn't going to be a good fit. On the other hand, if you’re looking to build a company on a trusted governance base, there probably isn’t a better choice. Our long term plans are to focus on establishing national hubs around our headquarters in Philadelphia and Helsinki, so we may be able to balance this approach, but it is no guarantee that we will have any easier access to capital.

Fortunately, Kiuas mentors across the spectrum of founders and investors prepared us for this, so we're not going into this strategic environment blind.

The insular nature of Finland

Finland is an odd and wonderful place. The very concept of sisu was foreign to me, but when I read about it after my many experiences here, it clicked. The way Finnish cultural tenets permeate society here are obvious and widespread. New founders from outside of this will need to adjust. It has partially contributed to a naturally insular society.

The language barrier must be surmounted. You need to invest in your Finnish lessons and learning both early and often. Services across a range of industries will often only be available in Finnish, possibly Swedish. The central government of Finland has made obvious efforts to integrate lots of English translations into things like websites, but this doesn't translate to the private sector or smaller public sector entities.

Th entirety of the Kiuas program was conducted in English. This was a significant help, given my fledgling Finnish.

The whole country shuts down in Summer

This still baffles my United States influenced work-addicted ethic. It is fundamentally confusing to me. It seems far-fetched, but you will have to account for a slowdown in communication, investing, and potentially business (if you're serving the Finnish market) during 25% of the year. Honestly, I'm pretty envious.

At the same time, this isn't a luxury that anyone working to build services that are contingent on rapid progress and hyper-growth can take advantage of. It's a detriment.  You can't rely on the Finnish market alone due to this, but I'd hope that any technology startup would realize they need to aim for international exposure anyway (if it suits their business model).

Personal conclusion of the founder

Again, personal views.

Kiuas is making all the right moves

You can't argue with results. From a societal standpoint, there is solid ground here, and that culture permeates Kiuas too. The extreme emphasis in capitalism to pursue profit regardless of the side effects has damaged our world across equality, equity, climate, survivability, and much more. Tech has exacerbated many of these issues by creating feedback loops in rewarding anti-ethical founders and practices.

Never in the Kiuas program did I observe a greedy disposition where a founder was driven by the desire for more. Instead, there were other motivators. I've felt like I've always picked up on this in United States startup communities. Some people are very good at hiding it, others not so good, but it's there a lot of the time. Empty people driven by empty goals.

All of my interactions among the Kiuas cohort left me with the profound sense that they were driven for the right reasons. It is possible for technology companies, positive net impact culture, and capitalism's greatest success stories to co-exist, and I'm confident Kiuas is doing their part.

Personal thanks

My personal thanks to the Kiuas team who contributed during our batch: Nea Harjanne, Mari Lahti, Magret Jokela, and Juha Honksalo. Our mentor throughout the program Johannes Torppa and of course all of the coaches, mentors, and investors that participated throughout. Owe you one.