Aalto R2B monthly meeting (December)

What makes a research-based startup investable, and how do you move from a promising innovation towards real product-market fit?

In this R2B Monthly Meeting, Ville Heikkinen, Partner at Butterfly Ventures, will share an early-stage VC's perspective on building and financing research-based startups. Drawing on more than 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Ville will explain how venture capital works, what investors evaluate in early-stage companies, and what founders can do to find their first customers and validate real market demand.

Learning outcomes

After this session, participants will be able to:

Understand how early-stage VCs operate and why they look for large, scalable opportunities.
Recognize the key factors investors evaluate in research-based startups.
Understand what investors expect from founding teams, ownership, IP, and early commercial validation.
Approach product-market fit through early customer interaction and hands-on experimentation.
Understand why founders themselves need to drive the first sales and customer relationships.
Recognize the value of starting with a narrow market and doing things that do not yet scale.

Who should attend?

This R2B Monthly Meeting is intended for Aalto Research to Business project teams. Business Developers, Technology Champions, researchers, and other R2B team members are all warmly encouraged to attend.

The session is particularly valuable for teams preparing for spinout, early fundraising, and the transition from research-based innovation towards first customers and product-market fit.