Long experience in theaters gave Jarkko Loima a good foundation for entrepreneurship. By combining experience in the theater industry with programming expertise, he created a software product called Misto ART, which facilitates the management of theater operations in complex schedules and space reservations. Founded around the product, Riverside Solutions has now established its position in Finland and aims for moderate growth in Europe.
Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Loima worked in theaters and publicly funded organizations for twenty years. Along with work, he always had a side plot, sometimes it was studying and sometimes a small business name. In the background, Loima also had an information technology engineer's education, and sideline entrepreneurship was a way to maintain programming skills.
Loima's entrepreneurial career started as a side job when he worked at the Vaasa City Theater as a production manager and did his thesis in 2012.
- I did a thesis for a higher university of applied sciences degree on the implementation of theater production planning software and I noticed that this could be a software project that I should start doing myself.
- It combined the experience and need of the theater industry and the know-how of the software industry. I started developing a software product under a company name and noticed that there could be a demand for this.
A few partners came along and through a few twists and turns, Loima ended up founding a limited company around the product, which was named Riverside Solutions. For Loima, the transition from being a full-time entrepreneur happened slowly and carefully. Of course, there was a threshold to leave the well-paid day job. The grant received from Liveri for product branding and internationalization was one of the carrots that encouraged.
- I had attended enough schools that I understood that the Finnish market was too small and that I would not be able to make a living from such a thin sector. For these reasons, I already thought at the beginning that I would go in an international direction.
Misto ART is a reading order program for theaters that manages room reservations, play rehearsal times, theater staff work shifts, and it also has integrations with, for example, the payroll program. Theaters have complicated working hours and contracts, such as two-part working days with rehearsals and performances. Misto ART helps ensure that all employees know what they are doing, where and at what time.
Expectations for entrepreneurship
After becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Loima had to realize right away that things don't always go according to plan.
- At first, I made a roadmap and a budget to go along with it, and I expected that this is how it would go. A week after I had resigned from the Vaasa City Theatre, covid came and closed the doors of all theaters.
Something good came with the corona. There were so few exhibitors at fairs abroad that Misto ART immediately got really good visibility.
- Turnover growth has been more moderate and we had to accept that foreign money taps didn't just open up. It has also been realized that the basic work must be done in each country, and business and networks must be built from the beginning. Good domestic work and the good trust of customers is what makes everything easier.
- It's good to make an effort from Finland, they do trust us. There is no need to be ashamed when you say that you make software and come from Finland.
According to Loima, the freedom brought by entrepreneurship changed one's own time management and it had to be learned at first. Sometimes the work is outward-oriented marketing, which you have to be able to do in English as well. Correspondingly, sometimes you have to be able to hide in the study for a couple of days to get something important done.
- Coding is such an introvert world. If the calendar is completely full, it will not be possible to change those two roles.
Snacks for internationalization from Liveri
The brand of the product was also built with the help of Liiver. According to Loima, it was extremely important, because now the product is easy to present when all the materials have been carefully made. The brand has become part of softa's identity. An advertising agency was found as a partner, with whom a connection was established quickly, and Loima feels that he got even more from them than he could have expected. Marketing videos were also made with the advertising agency, in which Loima himself appears. Putting your own personality into the game has worked, because the field is small and is based on relationships between people.
- Even though I'm making a software product, in our industry deals are made between people. The theater is quite conservative in its core activities. Theaters as customers require a human encounter in order to create that trust.
The company's future prospects are good and stable. Misto ART is the market leader in Finland and growth is sought in a restrained manner from international markets.
- At the moment, I am planning to move from a service sold separately to each theater to a platform model, where many actors can connect to the production process and bring their own expertise to the platform, more in a network-like manner. That sea should be conquered first.
Loima has had time to get used to the freedom brought by entrepreneurship.
- I have been attracted to a very interesting and well-paid job. It didn't take long to think when I decided that I wouldn't sell this freedom of mine. It means so much. When you can redeem that freedom once in the middle of your adult working career and dare to take that step, the threshold to go back is really big.