ÄûÃʵ¼º½

Master of Arts Lotta Partanen is in her dream job leading VTT's LaunchPad deeptech business incubator. As a business incubator lead, she can utilise her previous studies and career experiences.

‘VTT’s approach to research is an endless buffet. The aim is to create high-quality startups based on VTT’s research and technology owned by VTT that are well-funded and aim for global impact,’ Partanen describes.

This requires the company to attract millions in funding from venture capitalists right from the start. Therefore, both the team and the business plan need to be strong.

Before VTT, Partanen had changed direction several times both in her studies and career. When she ended up at the then University of Art and Design in 1999 to do a master’s degree in furniture design, she had already abandoned the idea of a career as an engineer while at IB high school, tried political science studies, and studied at a Dutch academy of arts and design.

She abandoned political science studies because she realised that the students in the field had no idea where they would find employment in 90s Finland going through a recession.

A designer always finds work

‘I thought that when I become a designer, I will always find work: the world is full of problems for which I can develop a solution.'

Partanen ended up at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam because she had already lived abroad before and wanted to leave Finland. The school was experimental and abstract, and much was done on the computer. Partanen had chosen architecture, but felt her path was blocked.

Then Partanen found out that it was possible to get into the master's programme at Taik based on a portfolio without a bachelor's degree. She returned to Finland.

‘At Taik I really got to learn techniques. It was very concrete, I realised what creative ability and business logic are. I learned, however, that the designer’s share of the product is small.'

Partanen realised she had no passion to design yet another chair to add to all the chairs in the world. The next step was to become a minor subject student at Taik’s newly established MediaLab and then continue there for her master’s degree.

‘MediaLab was a more familiar and safer environment for me. We all came there from very peculiar backgrounds and wondered what this new digital world was. The atmosphere was open, curious and uninformed. This created the opportunity to realise a vision for those who had one.'

Partanen’s vision was to find out how material-based objects and structures can be combined with a digital layer and have this interaction serve people.

Studies encouraged fearlessness

‘Studies encouraged fearlessness: just go and do it. The teaching also provided support for doing and helped find ways to realise vision in practice.'

But even when she graduated with a master’s degree, Partanen did not have a clear idea of how she would start her career. She took a break by staying with the university’s research group until 2004. 

Then she found a job advertisement on the website of Philips, known as a pioneer in design, that suited her perfectly: an interior architect who is also an interaction designer, on the east coast of the USA.

However, a typical twist for Partanen occurred. After a long and non-transparent recruitment process, she ended up in the unit developing new business for Philips Design in the Netherlands.

‘There, I began to understand innovation design, creating new business through multidisciplinary collaboration. I realised I am not interested in traditional design but in creating something new.'

Before VTT, Partanen also worked for six years at Nokia as an innovation manager, in futures forecasting and strategy unit, and for a couple of years at Fortum as an expert in customer-centric design.

'Now I want the power to make a difference'

'But I had a terrible longing to get back to applied research. I had never aspired to leadership positions, but then came the thought that I want to set up the shop myself and live with my own mistakes, to have the power to make a difference.'

Partanen noticed that VTT was looking for someone to create a new business incubator. VTT had been spinning off technology-based companies for a long time, but the new VTT LaunchPad was meant to be the most advanced version of this activity.

'I applied persistently for the job, I already came to the first interview with a blueprint.'

The new job got off to a flying start: when Partanen started in April 2019, the goal was to have the first teams selected by Midsummer.

Originally, Partanen got Tiia-Maria Jaakkola as a working partner, who had just defended her dissertation at Aalto University in the bioproduct field. The team has since grown and offers accelerator services to external companies as well.

In VTT LaunchPad, employees propose their ideas and all teams that meet the criteria are brought into the incubator. According to Partanen, her background in the arts had made him frustrated with various juries that have the right to decide what is good and what gets eliminated.

'I think in the business world as well, those who show that they can reach the goal should be rewarded. Teams either progress or do not progress in the incubator, this all-in mentality has proven to be correct.'

There are 5-10 teams in the incubator. The duration of the phase varies greatly according to the quality of the idea and the maturity of the team. The fastest team progressed in four months, the slowest in four years.

'We aim to tailor the support according to the case. Usually, it is based on coaching teams and planning funding.'

The success rate of the incubator is impressive: about half of the ideas have turned into fundable companies. The total value of 15 startups is 500 million euros.

Closet designers unite

While working in large companies, Partanen wanted to share what she had learned in working life by lecturing and giving a collaboration course in Medialab.

'For a couple of years, I was also selecting master's students there. I hope to be able to give back to the community that I have gained so much from in the future as well.'

Partanen has recently participated in a podcast series with serial entrepreneur Maija Itkonen related ÄûÃʵ¼º½'s International Design Business Management programme's 30th anniversary. Itkonen's latest startup, Onego Bio, is one of VTT's incubator success stories.

'Maija and I are both closet designers, meaning we have avoided telling the business world about our design education. We know others who hide their Master's of Arts degrees in business. Other closet designers are welcome to get in touch!'

Partanen also wonders about the current dilemma at Aalto: a relatively large proportion of university-based companies in Finland come from Aalto's School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. Yet, arts and design students often feel that business is not for them. Despite this, Aalto has enormous potential in combining creative thinking with business thinking.

'I would say to students to be curious, experiment and do different things, let your curiosity guide you. Always seek out those who are more skilled than you and strive to learn in everything you do. In the commercialisation of innovations, as in everything else you do, aim primarily to be among the world's best.'

Text: Heidi Hammarsten