Niko Karstikko

Bob W is heading to EXPO REAL (Messe München), and we'd like to meet you there – Hall A1, stand 350, from 5–7 October 🇩🇪 With new signings across Europe, we're looking for the next buildings to become a Bob W. Eight of the team will be on the stand: Sebastian Emberger, Philip Grace, Herman de Beer, Taavi Pettai, Frank Esmeijer, Badis Boudjakdji, Renato Sciannimanico, and Laura Meehan. If you own or develop buildings in Europe, come and say hello. #EXPOREAL

Bob W is coming to Rotterdam 🇳🇱 We've signed a long-term lease with Dudok Real Estate to convert four floors of office space at Weena 147 into Bob W Rotterdam Central, a 160-unit flagship property targeted to open in summer 2027. Niko Karstikko, Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, said: "Weenahuis is exactly the kind of opportunity we look for: a prime, exceptionally well-connected location where we can repurpose existing real estate and give it a new lease of life." Full announcement on the Notebook – link in the comments 👇

News from Rotterdam! Keston Hospitality advised Dudok Real Estate on the agreement with Bob W. for its first location in Rotterdam together with MADE Real Estate B.V.. Four former office floors at Weenahuis will be transformed into Bob W Rotterdam Central, featuring 160 studios and apartments. Opening is scheduled for summer 2027. We are proud to have contributed our hospitality expertise and network to this exciting transformation. Congratulations to Pascal Groenendijk and the team at Dudok Real Estate, Sebastian Emberger, Herman de Beer & Frank Esmeijer and the team of Bob W. W, and many thanks to Desiree Wolters & Marco Clarijs for the great collaboration. #KestonHospitality #Hospitality #HotelRealEstate #Rotterdam #BobW #Weenahuis

I don’t post too often, but when I do, it’s something exciting! 🚀🙌🏻🥁 We’re growing fast across the Nordics, and our Nordic team is expanding! I’m excited to share that we’re looking for a new colleague! You’d get to work closely with me and my fantastic Swedish colleague, Johan Henriksson 🤝 If you’re looking for a great team at Electude , exciting opportunities, and an international environment, this might be the opportunity for you. Come join us! 💙 🔗 https://lnkd.in/easCQndB #hiring #CustomerSuccess #NordicTeam #careers

Why have 40+ startups come out of Smartly.io so far? I get asked that a lot, especially after Zero's $10.3M round and Elina's post https://lnkd.in/eYURhqMj   Accel tracks founder factories across Europe. Of 400+ unicorns, only 26 have produced more than 20 companies. Smartly never made the list as we never raised at +1bn valuation. We peaked at around 1,000 people, a fraction of Klarna, Revolut or Delivery Hero. And we've produced 40+. On a per-employee basis, Smartly looks genuinely unusual.   So what did we do differently?   𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀. We openly told them you are here to learn, and one day we'd be proud if you went and built something bigger yourself. It turned out to be a great talent strategy, and when someone left to build, we celebrated it.   𝗪𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿. We hired brilliant technical people straight out of university, trained them for a few months in Finland and sent them to the US alone to handle our biggest and most demanding customers. I remember one large customer calling to tell me they had never had this good of an AE. I didn't dare tell him that Juho had been with us two months and had no prior advertsing experience. Many of them are founders now.   𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆. Twice a year we brought the whole company into drafting the vision and strategy — not a presentation of decisions already made, but the actual work of making them. People saw how a company gets steered: what we argued about, what we chose not to do and why.   𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀. Financials, business metrics, raw survey data, meeting notes from every team including the leadership team, open to all. If you've read a P&L for years before you start a company, you're not learning it during your first fundraise.   𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱. Engineers owned their part of the roadmap, sat with customers, and joined sales calls. It ran the other way too — salespeople who could code and shipped into the product. Everyone did support, including me. People had run the whole loop, from customer problem to shipped feature to closed deal, for years before they started a company. That loop is the founder job.   𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗿𝗲. We paid for impact, not seniority. The person closest to the customer made the calls. It's also what makes leaving feel survivable — if you've already been trusted far beyond your years, starting a company looks like a smaller leap than it is.   What am I missing? What can we all do to build more and better startup factories?

Bob W is coming to Rotterdam 🇳🇱 We've signed a long-term lease with Dudok Real Estate to convert four floors of office space at Weena 147 into Bob W Rotterdam Central, a 160-unit flagship property targeted to open in summer 2027. Niko Karstikko, Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, said: "Weenahuis is exactly the kind of opportunity we look for: a prime, exceptionally well-connected location where we can repurpose existing real estate and give it a new lease of life." Full announcement on the Notebook – link in the comments 👇

Bob W is coming to Rotterdam 🇳🇱 We've signed a long-term lease with Dudok Real Estate to convert four floors of office space at Weena 147 into Bob W Rotterdam Central, a 160-unit flagship property targeted to open in summer 2027. Niko Karstikko, Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, said: "Weenahuis is exactly the kind of opportunity we look for: a prime, exceptionally well-connected location where we can repurpose existing real estate and give it a new lease of life." Full announcement on the Notebook – link in the comments 👇