Menox wants to cre­ate gen­uine encoun­ters and bring peo­ple togeth­er

Maar­it Pasa­nen, Petra Puo­lakana­ho and Vesa Lehti­nen met at Start­up Sta­tion last autumn. Now they have their own start­up.

Menox start­up founders Maar­it Pasa­nen, Petra Puo­lakana­ho and Vesa Lehti­nen met at the Start­up Week­end event at BusinessAsema’s Start­up Sta­tion in autumn 2023. Pasa­nen and Lehti­nen were gen­er­al­ly inter­est­ed in the top­ic of entre­pre­neur­ship. Puo­lakana­ho, on the oth­er hand, had been think­ing for some time about a busi­ness idea for a phone app that would bring togeth­er the region’s events in one place.

- The idea came out of my own need, when I went on a week­end trip to Tam­pere. I want­ed to find events in the area eas­i­ly and con­ve­nient­ly in one place. But there was no such thing. Frag­ment­ed event mar­ket­ing means that peo­ple miss out on inter­est­ing events because they have to search for events through many dif­fer­ent chan­nels. Menox solves this prob­lem by bring­ing one clear plat­form for events, says Puo­lakana­ho.

Pasa­nen and Lehti­nen were con­vinced by the idea of bring­ing togeth­er events in the region in a sin­gle appli­ca­tion, and the three of them decid­ed to take the project for­ward. The first step was to par­tic­i­pate in the three-month Start­up Express pro­gramme, which pro­vides sup­port for set­ting up a busi­ness. After the Start­up Week­end, it felt like a nat­ur­al pro­gres­sion.

Start­up Express pro­vides answers to ques­tions and valu­able con­tacts for bud­ding entre­pre­neurs

Start­up Express is a 100-day pre-incu­ba­tor pro­gramme with a total of ten coach­ing ses­sions. The pro­gramme is open to any­one inter­est­ed in start-up entre­pre­neur­ship, whether you have your own busi­ness idea or are look­ing to join a new team. Con­sist­ing of lec­tures, expert pre­sen­ta­tions and indi­vid­ual or team men­tor­ing, the coach­ing ses­sions will pro­vide par­tic­i­pants with essen­tial sup­port for their first steps in start-up entre­pre­neur­ship through con­crete tools.

The coach­ing pro­gramme cul­mi­nates in a fun Demo Day, where future entre­pre­neurs can present their ideas to a larg­er audi­ence. Of course, before that, the coach­ing pro­gramme has also pro­vid­ed lessons for a suc­cess­ful pitch. For Menox, the pro­gramme as a whole was use­ful in help­ing them to move for­ward in a con­crete way.

- We got sup­port and infor­ma­tion on things we might not have been able to do our­selves. For exam­ple, apply­ing for fund­ing and trade­marks were process­es we were not famil­iar with before. In addi­tion, the net­work we gained from the pro­gramme was a great help to us. We also learned a lot of new things for our work­ing life and for the future, says Puo­lakana­ho.

Lehti­nen says that the pro­gramme was very sup­port­ive of inde­pen­dent work on spare time.

- The Demo Day was a par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant turn­ing point for us, a kind of seal of approval for that peri­od. Until then, we had been prepar­ing things and absorb­ing infor­ma­tion, but after Demo Day we took a big step for­ward and start­ed to imple­ment things in prac­tice. We start­ed con­tact­ing poten­tial cus­tomers, plan­ning our brand, and get­ting the web­site up and run­ning.

As far as com­ing par­tic­i­pants in the pro­gramme are con­cerned, the Menox part­ners would like to encour­age peo­ple to active­ly utilise the men­tor­ing and peer sup­port per­spec­tive.

- It is worth­while talk­ing to oth­er par­tic­i­pants and experts. They will give you sup­port and inspi­ra­tion, and you will think of things you would not oth­er­wise think of.

Menox keeps going strong

Puo­lakana­ho, Pasa­nen and Lehti­nen are already plan­ning the next steps. The main goal is to devel­op the appli­ca­tion for pub­li­ca­tion. Its progress will large­ly deter­mine the pace of the startup’s progress as a whole. The timetable for the application’s release date is still unknown.

- In addi­tion to devel­op­ing the appli­ca­tion, we are cur­rent­ly look­ing for event organ­is­ers who want to be able to offer their events in a new way with Menox, says Pasa­nen.

The trio wants to mod­ernise the mar­ket­ing of events, to give peo­ple new experiences and new mem­o­ries.

- Menox is about bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er and cre­at­ing gen­uine encoun­ters around shared inter­ests. Events bring peo­ple togeth­er when they share a com­mon inter­est, such as sports or music. We want to get peo­ple mov­ing!

Third cohort of Start­up Express will start next autumn

Next Start­up Express pro­gramme to start in Sep­tem­ber 2024

The coach­ing lasts 100 days, includ­ing 10 coach­ing ses­sions

The coach­ing is organ­ised by Business­Oulu and deliv­ered by Crazy Town

You can par­tic­i­pate with your own busi­ness idea or with the enthu­si­asm to join a new start­up team

The pro­gramme is free and open to all those inter­est­ed in start­up entre­pre­neur­ship

Apply, if you are

• Start­up team with an idea (pre-y-tun­nus) seek­ing con­fi­dence, skills, and men­tor­ing: If you have a start­up idea and need sup­port to build your con­fi­dence, skills, and access men­tor­ing, we’re here to help.

• Indi­vid­ual inter­est­ed in join­ing a start­up: If you want to be part of a start­up team and have a can-do atti­tude, we can con­nect you with teams active­ly look­ing for enthu­si­as­tic indi­vid­u­als like you.

For more infor­ma­tion: jan.schmidt@crazytown.fi