During the 10-week Kiuas Accelerator program, we host a variety of weekly recurring sessions that have changing themes related to startup entrepreneurship and growth as a founder. The idea is to have the week scheduled so that it doesn’t distract from the main task that all our participants have, running their startup. But at the same time, we keep everyone engaged in the program and provide the right amount of support, resources, and networks every week, depending on the individual needs of the teams.

One of our weekly favorite events, obviously as it includes food, is the Community Breakfast that we host every Thursday at Startup Sauna and stream online. It’s a combination of a breakfast get-together, a presentation by a guest speaker, and of course networking. The best thing is that the Community Breakfast events on Thursdays are open to our whole community, including all the founders and companies that have participated in the Accelerator program in previous years.

Last Thursday our topic was internationalization which is especially crucial for startups that are based in smaller countries with limited domestic markets. We always aim to learn from the best and therefore this time we had Tony Honkanen from Wolt sharing the story of their international expansion. Furthermore, we had members of the 90 Day Finn program by Helsinki Partners with us to share their experiences and expertise.

The Thursday Community Breakfast sessions essentially capture what the Kiuas Accelerator program is about. For learning, we always lean on the people that have been working on the topic before with success. Furthermore, we encourage discussion and idea sharing. This often means that half of the session time is spent on the questions and discussion by the founders that are participating in the Accelerator program. We also strive for diversity and that’s why having people with significantly different backgrounds, like the 90 Day Finns, participating is valuable.

If you are already part of our community, stay tuned for the upcoming Thursday Community Breakfasts as they can provide just the kind of learnings, motivation, or networks that you are looking for! And for those that would like to join all the fun, the applications for the next Accelerator program will open in early 2023.