21:09Founder · Finest Future · Ho Chi Minh City
Building companies across borders.
I bootstrapped Finest Future from an idea in Finland to €9.3 million a year, selling through partners in 15+ countries, with no investors and no loans. Now I help founders and leadership teams with the hard parts: growing without funding, selling through partners, and building in new markets.
Co-founded with Peter Vesterbacka (Angry Birds, Slush)APEA award winner, 2024 and 2025
HELHelsinkiSGNHo Chi Minh City
- €9.3Myearly revenue, reached in four years
- €0outside funding. No investors, no loans
- 15+countries in our partner network
- 100+partner schools in Finland and Estonia
- 2×Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards, 2024 and 2025
About
Operator first, speaker second.
Everything I share comes from doing it, not from a slide deck.
In 2020 I co-founded Finest Future with Peter Vesterbacka and Bambi Dang to bring young people from Asia into Finnish schools that were running out of students. We grew it to €9.3 million a year in four years with no outside money, ran it from Ho Chi Minh City, and built an organisation that is 75% women in a field that doesn't usually look like that.
Then Finland changed its law. Five years of pushing back against our own government ended with the Finnish company going bankrupt, and the mission carrying on from Vietnam. Some of it we lost. Most of it made us. I keep the receipts.
What I care about now is passing the useful parts on: how to grow without funding, how to sell through partners, how to lead across cultures, and how to keep your judgement when everything is on fire.
The full storyOn YouTube
The unfiltered version
Each video is the long version of a talk. Every one has written notes with the numbers and the documents.
21:09
18:10Don't Hire Salespeople! How To Build A 10m USD Company From Scratch
Read the notes
14:40You Are Wasting Money Trying to Scale Too Fast
Read the notesRecognition
Award-winning, and on the record
Finest Future Vietnam was recognised at the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards two years running.
Fast Enterprise AwardAPEA 2025
Enterprise Asia's award for the region's fastest-growing companies. In under five years the Vietnam company grew from its first 15 students to more than 1,000 across Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Inspirational Brand AwardAPEA 2024
Presented at the GEM Center in Ho Chi Minh City.
Work with me
Three ways to work together
Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a price list. Tell me what you're trying to move, and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.
Keynote speaking
Founder talks for conferences, leadership offsites and founder communities. High on story and receipts, low on recycled LinkedIn wisdom. In English, tailored to your audience.
- Bootstrapping to eight figures without funding
- Don't hire salespeople (yet): selling through partners
- Leading across cultures and continents
- Holding your nerve under regulatory or financial pressure
One-on-one coaching
Private, ongoing work with founders and CEOs who are scaling something real and need a sparring partner who has been in the seat. Not a life coach reading from a framework.
- Founders scaling past their first few million
- Leaders taking a company into new markets
- Decision-making, hiring, and holding the line
- Confidential, direct, and pointed toward action
Company consulting
Hands-on advisory for companies expanding internationally or rebuilding how they operate, especially teams eyeing Asia. I work with your leadership, not around them.
- Market entry and expansion into Asia
- Organisational design and scaling operations
- Introducing AI into the business, sensibly
- Turning a plan on paper into something that ships
Notes
The playbooks, written down
The long version of each video, with the numbers and the documents.
How to get event sponsors with no budget: our five-star venue cost nothing
In-kind sponsorship, worked through: a five-star hotel for free, celebrities paid in a trip to Finland, free flights from an airline partner, and what it cost.
When to build your own sales team: ours beat our biggest partner in five months
Partners took us to 15 countries, then their focus drifted. When to build your own sales team, and how ours out-sold our biggest partner in five months.
Founder-led sales: how we closed our first seven deals in six months
Why the founder should be the first salesperson: who to sell to first, how to price with no track record, the first 50 deals, and when to hand over to partners.
Get in touch
Let's talk.
Tell me a little about what you have in mind: a keynote, coaching, or a consulting engagement. I read every enquiry myself and reply personally, usually within two business days.
Prefer email? hello@tuomastiilikainen.com
Thanks. Your enquiry is in.
I'll read it personally and get back to you within two business days.