The weeks after the 1st one
Dear diary. Our last blogpost was named Week 1 in Finland. I was supposed to release a post after every week but hey, this is the 4th week already! This is the first 30minute time slot after a long time and I try to get most out of it. So the program is intense. There has been fear of failure, too honest feedback, tears. But no complaints here. We have moved a huge step forward. We have been selected as one of the TOP15 teams to present ourselves in Arctic15 pitching competition. YESS! But that’s it. There is a lot of ups and downs. There are days when you lose all of your motivation. Then take the late night hours to figure things out and you go to bed already motivated to
continue. We have found new fresh competitors, but this is just the proof that the market exists. We didn´t get traction in Finland with our MVP because the Finns manage harbours differently. But we have new harbours in Estonia every week and we know that Swedes manage the harbours like Estonians. Actually all the Europeans do except the Finns. And this is not our problem.
So, by the end of the 4th week we have 15 marinas signed up. Doesn´t seem like a lot, but considering the minimum functionality we have today to offer, a great result. After two weeks there will be an iOS app to service the majority of yacht owners and there will be invoicing functionality for marinas. The first functionality we can start to monetize.
Startup Sauna will end in Arctic15 where Relika will present us on stage both, on 2nd and 3rd of June – on Startup Sauna demo day and on the Arctic15 pitching competition. And I´m still amazed. As said before, Marina Ahoy was chosen among the TOP15 nordic start-ups to keep an eye on this year by ArcticStartup. Let´s stop here and hope I can write another blogpost covering the overall emotions from Finland next week.