Inception
In early 2017, in Aalto Ventures Program’s Startup Experience course, I pitched a concept for a B2B product that capitalised on the European Union’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I raised a team and we envisioned a product focused on customer service, data mapping and data portability.
Our team and concept gained notoriety after winning TeamUp at Kiuas, through which we were introduced to several notable Finnish investors and venture funds.
investment
In summer of 2017, I led two fundraising rounds - the first a private angel round with the founders and soon thereafter a pre-seed round with Wave Ventures and Lifeline Ventures.
Development
From there I oversaw strategic operations and product development whilst acting as lead software developer. I oversaw funding bids for Business Finland’s TEMPO grant (won) and Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument (lost). I was invited to speak at several events concerning data privacy, including MyData 2017 and GovTech Summit 2018.
In May 2018, as GDPR’s deadline passed it gradually became clear that the market was still maturing and Portyr began to encounter financial difficulty. As a response, I negotiated a difficult restructuring in which our team was reduced from 6 to 3 in order to preserve runway for future product discovery.
We took note of our strong technical capabilities and significant human capital in the legal sector and the board elected to pivot towards our latest product, Collective, an AI-assisted document drafting tool for legal teams.
Since then, I’ve led our technology team in prototyping and evaluating new product concepts whilst simultaneously conducting sales activities to executives in the legal teams at some of Finland’s leading law firms, banks and corporate powerhouses.