In January, a group of six ambitious Japanese students and their mentors from the frogs program visited Oulu to see, what kind of startup ecosystem has been developed in Oulu area. Frogs is a Japanese educational program dedicated to boost students’ entrepreneurship skills. Every year they select students with high motivation and an idea of a startup. The program includes an annual education trip abroad, and this year the destinations were Oulu and Tallin.
In Oulu, the trip included visits to BusinessAsema Startup Station, Fingersoft, Oamk Business Corner and Hintta Design School. They also visited Koitelinkoski with the Finnish-Japanese Society of Oulu, and other sightseeing destinations. The main goal for the students was to get wider perspective about local startup network and culture, network with other students and discover differences between Japan and other countries and challenging their business ideas in the global market. One of the key discoveries was the supportive atmosphere.
– The city seems welcoming for startups, and I like the atmosphere in general. It’s very different from Japan, and I’d like to learn more of how people work in Finland, said a 3rd-year secondary school student Fumika Yokokawa.
Pitching abroad is part of the program every year
At Startup Station, the students presented business pitches of the services they developed through the frogs program. Each of them offered a creative solution to a unique challenge, mainly with help of technology and AI. The ideas varied from designing community spaces and decoding industry slang, to helping customers decide what kind of second-hand outfits to buy based on their music taste in Spotify or maintaining family connections across distances through lifelike characters modeled after loved ones to facilitate meaningful conversations even when separated.
After pitching, each student received feedback and encouragement from BusinessAsema startup specialists. Mii Uchino, a first year Master’s Program student from University of Tsukuba, was grateful for the event’s kind and relaxed atmosphere.
– I felt a bit nervous in the beginning, but everyone was so positive and encouraging. We arrived in Oulu only this morning, but I have already discovered a lot. For example, making startups into an ecosystem like here was new to me.
For a second-year high school student, Ruka Nemoto, the experience was a success. She discovered that understanding industry slang especially as a newcomer in a company is an issue also in other countries, not just in Japan. Her startup idea is to build an application that translates the meaning of slang in real time within the same language.
– I’m keen on starting a global business, so I wish to meet more people with similar issues and discuss, what kinds of solutions they are seeking for.
After visiting Startup Station, the group continued on to Fingersoft, where the students got a closer look at the Finnish working culture and delivered their second round of pitches, this time to a different audience and receiving new feedback. At Oulu University of Applied Sciences, it was their turn to hear pitches from Finnish students and then have the opportunity to practice giving feedback themselves. Hintta Design School offered a deeper insight into the Finnish education system and STEAM pedagogy, sparking many questions among the Japanese students.