NEXT

Jouko Ahvenainen, chairman of Grow VC, is an investor and entrepreneur across the US, Europe and Asia and is active at a senior level with many web and mobile enterprises. With more than 15 years experience in international business management, he is passionate about the challenges in finding and supporting the next great venture. He believes that 2.0 will significantly change all business, and finance cannot avoid that change. Now is the time to create new open models to accelerate early phase company funding.

Starting his first software company at the age of 16, Ahvenainen then held progressively senior positions at diverse technology firms including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Powerwave Technologies, Nokia, and Sonera. He is a pioneer in the field of social media marketing, and played a significant role in developing the first social marketing intelligence solutions for mobile and media companies. He is on the boards of various start-up companies and is a co-founder or seed investor at six companies, including Replicon and Xtract. Ahvenainen is a certified advisor for NasdaqOMX Stockholm and Helsinki early phase company lists.