ML

Mari Luukkainen

Investments identity.vc (Seed & Series A) | Founder Herizon.io | Ex Growth Operator (idea to Series A)

Helsinki, Uusimaa

Invests in

Stages:

Locations:

  • Min Investment:

    $250,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $1,500,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $875,000.00

Skills

Early-Stage Startups
Fundraising
Strategic Planning for Growth
Profitable Growth
Public Speaking
Deal Screening
Nonprofit Organizations
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Non-profit Fund Development
Cultural Diversity
Government Relations
Diversity & Inclusion
Deal Closure
Deal Sourcing
Deal Strategy
Portfolio Management
Growth Strategies
Online Marketing
Start-ups
Growth Hacking

Education

Work Experience

  • Principal

    2024

    The first VC in Europe investing in early-stage startups with LGBTQ+ leadership. We invest across Europe and beyond.

2022

  • Founder, Chair, CEO

    2022

    Herizon is a non-profit with a mission to make the tech world more diverse by linking international talent with jobs in the Nordics. 2023 results: - 133 employed individuals (233 total since the beginning) - 501 learning community members - 1000+ Discord members (extended community) - A total of 71 nationalities in the community - 137 events for highly educated immigrants to help them integrate and land a job - Partnerships with the City of Helsinki, KONE, Slush, Solita, and several others - Lean 2-person team with experience from Nordic growth companies Freska and Supermetrics The ROI of sponsoring Herizon <€1000 / employed immigrant. Calculated by the average salary of the employed person (€3K) the impact is €400K /month in new salaries paid for formerly unemployed people during 2023.

2018

  • Keynote Speaker, Writer & Creator, Growth & Marketing

    2018

    I'm a - Writer of the first Finnish book about growth hacking "Kasvuhakkeroi tai kuole" and several others. - Active creator of digital coaching materials (ebooks, courses, templates). - Coach the boards, CEOs, growth teams and people, and the whole company in growth and marketing activities in several accelerators and as a keynote speaker. As a keynote speaker for startups and startup events, I bring a unique perspective and wealth of knowledge to the stage. With a focus on innovation, growth, and entrepreneurial spirit, my speeches inspire and educate audiences on what it takes to launch and grow a successful startup. I've held keynotes for over 1000+ different startups and scaleups mainly from Nordics and Baltics, bigger companies, startup accelerators, and other organizations such as Kiuas, TechChill, Nordic ScaleUp Academy, Boardman Grow, and Founder Institute. My style is to draw the story on a whiteboard. 🎨 The usual structure is 45 minutes of whiteboard presentation and 30 minutes for discussion for €2500+VAT. English & Finnish.

2017

  • Shareholder

    2019

    I own a bit of a home-cleaning company. Freska is the biggest and fastest-growing home-cleaning player in Nordics with excellent cleaner retention and customer satisfaction. (Enjoy my referral code for a 50 eur discount: EESU5O.)

  • Head of Growth

    2017 - 2018

    I ordered the service for 6 months before ending up being Head of Growth for the reason that my cleaner Ria was the first cleaner in 10 years who smiled and was genuinely happy to clean at my place. As a cross-functional solo growth team Head of Growth I did data iterative customer acquisition, cleaner acquisition, and retention optimization for both. The company grew from €175K to €13M annual recurring revenue in 2 years 15% MoM with happy customers and cleaners averaging an industry-leading 4.7/5 satisfaction rating. We hired over 800 cleaners and acquired over 200K clients from Finland, Norway, and Sweden. I left my operational role to do 20x Freskas. (Enjoy my referral code for 50 eur discount: EESU5O.)

  • Advisor

    2024

    Advisor for my portfolio companies.

  • Principal

    2022 - 2024

    My investments: Shook Digital, Vested, Starstuff, Theymes, Clock&Cloud Intelligence. Portfolio development of a portfolio of 100+ companies in Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A and Series B. €150K-€800K investments in idea-stage technology startups in Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.

  • Head of Growth

    2020 - 2022

    I trained 100 growth operators and built growth teams in the portfolio companies. Fund II of €100M invests €150k-800k tickets in early-stage (idea/pre-seed) Nordic and Baltic tech companies.

  • Head of Marketing

    2019 - 2020

    I wanted to find a place to do 20 Freskas so I joined an early-stage VC firm. I found out that the best marketing for a VC is the growth of portfolio companies and their funding rounds, so I started to build growth teams in our companies. Then I found out there weren't really experienced growth people in the Nordics and Baltics so I started to train them. I trained growth operators and built growth teams in our portfolio companies in the €20M B2B SaaS fund.

  • Angel Investor

    2020

    High-end craft brewery working with Michelin restaurants.

2019

  • Coach, Growth

    2019

    I coach my Strategic Growth Hacking Operating System.

2018 - 2024

  • Partner

    2018 - 2024

    At Freska I struggled to find outsourcing opportunities fast enough for a VC-backed startup. A common bottleneck is that most agencies are just way too slow and focus on the wrong things. So I bought a piece of Truly Agency in 2018 since the founders seemed to share similar thoughts. We started to scale but it wasn't that easy. 2018 Iteration from the 2017 company to something else. 2019 Product/market fit was missing and we struggled to find decent hires. 2020 We doubled our revenue, turned pretty profitable, and hired 10+ people. I sold €100K MRR of services through my network. 2024 Exit

2017 - 2018

  • ICO/STO Fundraising Advisor

    2017 - 2018

    It was fun as long it lasted. During the infamous ICO spree of 2017-2018 I was a token sales advisor in token sales raising almost $100M SeaHeal STO, Dealjoy ICO, Sentigraph ICO, Agrello ICO, Everex ICO, eByte ICO, Menlo.one ICO, ETHlend ICO, Nuvus.io ICO, Lamden ICO.

Strand & Lou

2017 - 2017

  • Growth Marketing Advisor

    2017 - 2017

    Growth marketing with my friend Jan. Including Paxful SEO, SEM and social media PPC. Agrello and Everex ICOs which raised almost $50M. Several eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, Shopify, Instagram etc. dropshipping projects including $20k/month revenue eBay store. Perheblogit.fi family blog media in Finland which was decently running for 2 years, concept and processes were later sold.

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