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Getting started on startups

Aleksi studied engineering at the University of Cambridge, specialising in control systems, machine learning and robotics. He joined the university’s solar-powered car team, where a friend told him about the ELS programme. Aleksi spent some of the funding on “getting up and going” as an entrepreneur. “This was themed around building some contacts, going to events and getting exposure.” He also visited Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to look at their startup ecosystems and visit their solar car teams.

How the ELS helped...

Training: “The fact that you have to think about what you want is super valuable,” Aleksi says. He made a 10-year career plan, which proved remarkably accurate. “It was helpful to look at how you want to build your skillset, network and abilities so that you can travel in the direction you want to go,” he says.

Network: Aleksi says it was amazing to spend time with people with similar interests and ambitions. “The ELS programme network is a really powerful tool to understand where you are and where you want to go to in your career.”

Funding: “The cash allows you to do the things you might otherwise not be able to. It goes remarkably far".

“The cohort that you’re in becomes a peer group you keep for life.”

Aleksi Tukiainen

Thinking about a sustainable future

After graduating, Aleksi co-founded Secondmind (formerly Prowler.io), a technology startup that uses machine learning for decision making, with applications in automotive, logistics and finance. He led the development of the finance application and helped grow the startup to 100 employees, before deciding to found another company.

Sticking with healthcare

Aleksi has a strategic role in another startup, Alchera Technologies, as well as heading up product and technology strategy at BIOS Health, which is building a neural interface designed to decode and encode signals from the brain to the body in a bid to treat chronic health conditions. He has more entrepreneurial ambitions too. “I want to start a company in sustainability, but because of the coronavirus situation I’ll try to stay in healthcare for a bit. 

Advice

“Part of the process, which involves writing down your interests and core strengths, forces you to think about what you want to be, and that’s good. Even if you don’t get in, you get many of those benefits from the interview process”

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