Arctos, an Aalto University native start-up, encourages you to explore the nature

Aalto University supports entrepreneurship in various ways, and many of the students test their skills by starting their own company. Arctos was founded by our students and it has been built during many of our courses.

Robert Nuorteva is a master level student at Aalto University School of Business, majoring in Creative Sustainability. On top of his studies he also manages his own start-up, Arctos, for which he got the idea when he travelled with his friends to northern Norway to hike.

– We realized that the coolest thing you can do on your free time is to explore the nature. Why don’t we do this more often? Nuorteva describes the beginning of the idea for Arctos. – The problem was that we didn’t have proper equipment, so we had to always borrow them from somewhere else. On the other hand, where should we go? So it isn’t easy to get to the nature, but once you do, the feeling is amazing.

Help from the courses at Aalto University

Inspired by this, Nuorteva began to think how going to nature could be made easier, especially for those who live in cities. He took this thought to the year-long multidisciplinary Product Development Project (PdP) course at Aalto University. During the course students, in multinational teams, design a product or service, usually in co-operation with companies.

During the PdP course the team working with Nuorteva’s idea dove into the outdoors industry and pondered what nature means to people. They interviewed different people to gain more insights, and in the end they found a business model that would fit.

– We came up with an idea of a service that would make it easier to go to the nature by giving a platform where you can choose a place to go to and the equipment you need in one place. You can try out the gear on your trip, and if you like them, then you can also buy them after your trip, explains Nuorteva.

"This project has been strongly supported by the School of Business and especially Aalto University."

The formation of the start-up was also affected by other courses taken by Nuorteva. Aalto Ventures Program (AVP) minor offers teaching in themes related to entrepreneurship and Nuorteva developed his idea during a few of these courses. In one of them, he was given a mentor with a strong background in both business world and entrepreneurship, and with his experience Arctos was able to move forward.

The other founder of Arctos was also found in one of the courses offered at Aalto University, and together they decided to apply for the Summer of Startups program, which is held by the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoee). Being accepted to the program and the following summer full of work helped: Arctos is now at the point where piloting the idea is the next step.

– This project has been strongly supported by the School of Business and especially Aalto University, we have developed the idea on many courses, describes Nuorteva.

Aalto University indeed has an ecosystem with various players supporting entrepreneurship. The students can also study it in different ways: for example in the above mentioned AVP minor or in the master level Entrepreneurship major at the School of Business. The idea is that as many students as possible get to know entrepreneurship during their studies.