Sharing our entrepreneurial story at the 4th International Week for Research, Development and Innovation at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland

1. Less Miserables - Path to Entrepreneurship and
Cooperation with Tamk

2. • Maria Ruokonen, Team Mastery-coach (Partus Ltd.)
• Lauri Holja, Master Degree Student at Innovation Management Program (University of
Eastern Finland)
• TAMK Proacademy alumni, graduated as BBAs in Entrepreneurship 12/2013
• Company established 03/2014
• Global entrepreneurship education, coaching and knowledge-intensive business services
© Less Miserables 2015 - www.lessmiserables.com

3. © Less Miserables 2015 - www.lessmiserables.com
Learning by doing at Proacademy in a team company for 2,5 years.

4. Doing real projects with real customers with real money through team
company. Started with small projects and gained bigger ones through learning.

5. • Revenue ~ 100 000 €
• Profit ~ 40 000 €
• Employed four team members for two
summers
• The business idea was sold this year to
a younger Proacademy team and the
café continues as a heritage project
Summer café

6. 45 days, 450 experiences, 45 000 km
To succeed as a team, we needed a motivative and inspiring common goal. We wanted to
travel somewhere but couldn’t agree where. Then we thought, why wouldn’t we go to many
places? We ended up doing a trip around the world that included a project in East Timor. The
6-week-long trip was made in the last part of our studies.

7. We worked with the launch of the first public library in East Timor. We used the skills we developed in our studies
to benefit the library in the future. This was the first trip of its kind in Proacademy. We achieved a goal we set in
the very beginning, which was to do something that we would be remembered as a team for a long time.

8. TEAM SPIRIT
FINANCES
6 months 1 year 1 year 6 months 2 years 2 years 6 months
Getting to know!
the team
First projects
Team identity
crisis : “What are
we doing?”
COMMON GOAL
Financial reporting!
“Where is the money coming from?”
“Everyone goes to the trip or
no one goes”
PROCADEMY
TEAM OF !
THE YEAR
A lot of the team
abroad, still
working towards
the common goal
CAMP 45!
• Singapore!
• East-Timor (International project)!
• New Zealand!
• Fiji!
• New York
230 000€
“In one year we want to travel
around the world with the team.”
“No one has done the trip
around the world,!
you won’t succeed.”
Individual
Thesis
Successful
projects
Summer Café
Figures at the end of 2,5 years:!
• 230 000€ revenue!
• 130 projects!
• Customerships 20!
• Number of representing !
Proacademy abroad: 14!
!
Summer Café!
-project
Successful project
Smaller
projects
Graduation as Bachelors of!
Business Administration,!
specialized in!
entrepreneurship
This is the evolution of our team company, Extempo. The graph shows well the team development in team spirit
and finance. Crucial to our team’s success was the common goal to travel around the world with our team and
finance the trip through projects.

9. • Interactive workshops, co-
creative approach
!
• Team learning methods, creativity
and innovation, knowledge
creation and management,
leadership, coaching and team
working
!
• Our customers are universities,
entrepreneurs, municipalities and
projects that aim to improve
education and entrepreneurial
skills among youth
Proacademy's way of studying and the learning experience was so meaningful for us, so we want to share the
idea and make it possible to everybody in the world to learn that way so that education would answer the needs
of the working life and people would chase their dreams and be less miserable.

10. The aim of our workshops is to share and create new knowledge in teams and create
successful team environments and good leadership.

11. In the workshop I got some concrete ideas on how
knowledge is created and how the principles of dialogue can
be applied.
-Anne Rechain, Consultant, DIMe-network,
Barcelona, Spain
The task ”Current stage - vision” was very good and
instructive. I’m glad we can put the outcome in practice.
There’s power in teams when developing services and
procedures. Team works got a new meaning. Until now I have
”hated” team works. Now I felt that it’s important.
-Minna Nurminen, Coordinator, Service Manager,
City of Rauma, Finland

12. With Tamk we have coached Omani students about business idea skills and project
management and we are co-creating learning visit modules with Proacademy.

13. maria@lessmiserables.com, +358 50 574 5975
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/mariaruokonen/
!
lauri@lessmiserables.com, +358 440 622 130
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/holja/
www.lessmiserables.com I @lessmsrbls
!
Interested in learning more or taking team learning tools into your university?
Contact us or visit our website and blog. We are happy to help.
!
Let’s create future success stories together!
© Less Miserables 2015 - www.lessmiserables.com