Founder Story

It started at age 5

I told my parents I would someday found an IKEA — or something like that. Not a shred of modesty about it. By high school the dream had sharpened: the next Marimekko, the next Finlayson. I enrolled in an entrepreneurship track, and from that point on I was immersed in the world of founder stories — I wanted to know what paths people had actually taken.

Years of searching

The interest carried through university, but the textile industry turned out not to be for me. Instead I found the food industry and dove in completely — the marketing side of it was my dream, but starting a company in that specific field never felt right.

Toward the end of my studies I joined LUTES. The startup world was completely new to me, full of terms I barely understood — but the environment, the people, and the energy sparked something. I decided this was worth committing to. Before long I was on the marketing team. When I missed the sign-up deadline to volunteer at Slush, the FOMO hit hard — I promised myself I'd be there the following year. And I was: I volunteered as a team leader's helper on the Badge Claim team.

Before the right idea arrived

After my first year at LUTES, I ended up at a startup where I was eventually offered the CEO role. I stopped myself. The title felt absurd. The founder saw potential in me, and that energized me — but the idea was influencer marketing, and even though I knew the space well, it wasn't my passion. And if anything matters in the startup world, it's passion. I stepped back and started actively searching for my own idea, certain I'd recognize it the moment it appeared.

The moment that started it all

One afternoon at LUTES, a friend asked me: “If you started a company right now, what would it be?” I told her about a photo service I'd been thinking about for an upcoming marathon of mine — something like that. The idea stuck, and I couldn't let it go.

I entered a pitching competition during Female Founder week with only two hours to prepare — and placed 3rd. Maybe there was something to the idea after all.

It started from looking at an existing type of service through a different lens: weddings. I wanted loved ones to actually be present instead of everyone filming on their phones — a photographer there, and everyone getting their real photos, right away.

Two experiences that confirmed it

During Slush week, I noticed professional photographers dropping photos into one shared bank of roughly 10,000 images. I didn't want to spend my time digging through them for my own. Why couldn't I just get the photos I actually appear in?

A week later I ran a marathon. I wanted to share the experience again, but even though a photo service was in use, the photos arrived a week late and cost money. It didn't work. That's when it hit me: events lose an enormous amount of visibility when attendees don't share anything.

That's where it began.

Learning by doing

I took part in the Velocity Week program, competed in IdeaRace and placed 3rd, graduated from university, joined Maria 01, went to events, founded the company, vibe-coded the product, and built the brand. Learn and do — learn more, fix, test, try again.

The journey is just beginning. But the roots are strong.