Sanni Makkonen, Founder & CEO, Inspot

A company once built an ad around a fairytale — the exact lines from Little Red Riding Hood: "Why do you have such big ears? Such big eyes? Such a terribly large mouth?" One Gen Z viewer had no idea what he was watching. His friend recognized it instantly and retold the ad scene by scene, thrilled by how cleverly it had been adapted. By the end, both agreed: brilliant storytelling.

But here's the twist my master's thesis uncovered: stories like that one are remembered exceptionally well — the brand behind them often isn't. I researched how Generation Z actually interprets storytelling in advertising, and what it takes for a brand to stay attached to the story it tells. I presented these findings to Valio, and the room left with more questions than they came in with — in a good way.

I spent my university years working as a substitute teacher. My last lesson was on algorithms, taught to 7th–9th graders. Most of them had no idea how an algorithm actually works, or why it was quietly shaping how long they could focus. The class reported an average screen time of 7 hours a day — and I suspect the real number was higher, since several admitted they hadn't entered their true numbers.

This isn't a talk about putting phones down. It's about understanding the thing in your pocket well enough to make it work for you — including how I've "trained" my own algorithm to inspire my life instead of consuming it.

I've wanted to build something since I was five years old. It took a long detour — textiles, food industry, a CEO offer I turned down because the idea wasn't my passion — before the right idea found me in one afternoon conversation. I built Inspot by learning and doing: coding it myself, pitching it with two hours' notice, getting it wrong, fixing it, and doing it again.