Peter had a great idea. Why not do someting mindlifting just when it's the darkest and most depressing time of the year in Helsinki. Add a bit of mad energy, rain, snow, "talkoot" spirit, and  - presto - Slush Helsinki was born.

[Talkoot (from Finnish: talkoo, almost always used in plural, talkoot) is a group of people gathering to work together unpaid, for instance, to build or repair something. It is the cultural equivalent of common work in a village community, although adapted to the conditions of Finland, where traditionally many families lived in isolated farms, often miles away from the nearest village. A talkoot is per definition voluntary, and the work is unpaid. The voluntary nature might be imaginary, due to social pressure, especially in small communities; and one's honor and reputation may be severely damaged if one doesn't show up — or proves to be a poor worker.]

Below is an invite that's going around in our Mobile Brain Bank network , but Slush and Startup Talkoot are open for anyone. For Mobile Brain Bank entrepreneurs, some of who are seasoned professionals and have a long experience from the industry, this is a good opportunity to link with the idea-rich students from Aalto Entrepreneur Society. That's talkoot at best, people with different skills and backgrounds coming together and creating something sustainable.




Cold. Dark. Slush on the ground.

This is the setting for the Slush Talkoot, a great opportunity for MOBB members to discover what is going on in the startup ecosystem in the region. At talkoot you will meet some companies that you have never heard of, but there's a good chance that you will in the future.  And maybe you will be part of the reason that the world will hear about these current unknowns. The opportunity to change the world that you have been waiting for all these years. You probably hadn't heard about Linux, MySQL, maybe not even about Nokia 10-15 years ago. At the Slush Talkoot you might discover the future big thing.

Talkoot is a good old Finnish tradition of working together, you will not get paid, but you might be offered some beer and barbeque in
return for your efforts. And of course sauna. All of which you will find at Slush as well. And as said, you might discover the next big
thing and decide to join the ride. A little like joining Nokia in 1992;-)

In any case, would be great to see you, fellow MOBBer, in the Slush. You can register at http://slushhelsinki.com

Besides the cool new startups in the Slush, you can also listen in on some interesting presentations by people like Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia, Andreas Weigend, ex-chief scientist for Jeff Bezos/Amazon, Risto Siilasmaa and many others. A great learning experience to be expected.

See you in the Slush!