About

The Travelling Salesman is an epic and adventurous journey around the Nordic regions, meeting people, companies, students, startups and entrepreneurs. A trip where the aim is to bring individuals together and work with each other, to inspire towards entrepreneurship, to find new technologies and create new ones and to create an unforgettable story of the communities and people doing their best to become the next success stories. It is a story of Sisu.

It is one man and a car, with a blog, with events and with collaborators and guests from all around the region. There is no Silicon Valley here, where everyone comes, so we have to go out there to find them.

Ready To Head Out

The Details

Tour Plan

The trip means driving over 10000 kilometres, visiting every single city in the Nordic region that has a computer science department. That is about 30 cities and 5 countries, each containing stories of innovation and creation. I will be blogging every single day of the tour and writing the businesses and the ideas that I stumble across, as well as any mishaps that take place along the way. A networking and pitching event, a continuation of the famous Arctic Evenings (organised by Arctic Startup) will be put together at each location.

As I travel along I will also be taking passengers. Entrepreneurs, investors and mentors. People with stories and advice, who will be travelling with us from one city to the next. A camera will be located in the car so we can get the full story and stick it online. Let us know if you'd like to be one of the guests!

The trip will take place in the midst of the Nordic winter, with days when there might be no sunlight whatsoever, and temperatures as low as -30C. Conditions will be the harshest you can imagine. Yet we will continue to drive onwards and meet the folks who are beating the odds, wherever they live. To top it all, we are hoping to meet the world's northernmost tech startup!

How You Can Help

The trip is all about community spirit, and many have already contributed. There are many ways you can get involved. The easiest is just to visit one of the events as we travel around, and to follow us on Twitter. However we also need a lot of assistance to put together the events at each location. Please look at our list of locations and get in touch if you operate nearby. We will mention your company or organisation when talking about that city.

Finally you can help to sponsor our journey. We have sponsorship packages for both small startups and larger corporations. The cheapest being a "leg sponsor". So you can sponsor our drive from Jyväskylä to Kuopio, for instance! Your company will be highlighted on our blog for that day, and you have an opportunity to showcase your product at the local event.

If you want your sticker on the car, and who wouldn't, then please get in touch ASAP for that kind of sponsorship!