Finnish Startups: Success factors, challenges and reasons for failure
Nyman, Caroline (2020)
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052714551
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052714551
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to explore success factors and challenges of Finnish startups. The aim was to examine whether there are similar reasons for success and failure amongst startup companies – something that would imply that success or failure follows a certain pattern. The research questions “What are the success factors for a Finnish startup” as well as “What are the challenges for a Finnish startup” naturally pursues the aim of the thesis.
Finland is the home to a startup scene that is known for its collaborative community and the country has been recognized for its high level of innovation. 4000 Finnish startups emerge every year, of which 70 survives the forthcoming five years. However, only 2% of these are considered to be scalable startups. The literature review consists of themes that are closely connected to a startups success or failure: key challenges, critical success factors, the startup life cycle, predicting success, unforeseeable uncertainty, business models and funding. The method used for this thesis is a semi-structured deep interview, which is the most proper method since it gives valuable insight into a founder’s journey with the startup, exploring the choices that have been made and how it affected the success of the company. Six startup founders participated in the study, which also affects the limitations, as a larger sample could have produced clearer evidence.
The empirical study suggests that founders are driven people that are willing to learn and experiment, but a certain amount of business and people skills are needed as well to survive in this world. Funding is considered the most important reason for success but needs other components such as a skilled team and a customer-centric philosophy to achieve real success. The most substantial challenge for startups is lack of funding, but failure is also the product of several components.
Finland is the home to a startup scene that is known for its collaborative community and the country has been recognized for its high level of innovation. 4000 Finnish startups emerge every year, of which 70 survives the forthcoming five years. However, only 2% of these are considered to be scalable startups. The literature review consists of themes that are closely connected to a startups success or failure: key challenges, critical success factors, the startup life cycle, predicting success, unforeseeable uncertainty, business models and funding. The method used for this thesis is a semi-structured deep interview, which is the most proper method since it gives valuable insight into a founder’s journey with the startup, exploring the choices that have been made and how it affected the success of the company. Six startup founders participated in the study, which also affects the limitations, as a larger sample could have produced clearer evidence.
The empirical study suggests that founders are driven people that are willing to learn and experiment, but a certain amount of business and people skills are needed as well to survive in this world. Funding is considered the most important reason for success but needs other components such as a skilled team and a customer-centric philosophy to achieve real success. The most substantial challenge for startups is lack of funding, but failure is also the product of several components.