💡 The biggest tech event in Europe and it's not the Web Summit...

Céad míle fáilte!

I’m sure many of you woke up with a sore head and a pocket full of business cards after a very hectic week in Lisbon at the world renowned Web Summit.

The Web Summit is a perfect example of what we like to see here at irish insights. An Irish business shaping the future of tech across the globe. It has become the go-to conference in Europe.

But despite it’s obvious credentials for a full newsletter, I’m going to pass on writing about that this week.

Why?

Because a) Paddy Cosgrave is pretty good at generating headlines in more established media outlets than ours and b) we like to highlight the less well known stories that you might not have heard of.

So stick a coat on, get your big ski boots, and put on a pair of proper gloves because we’re not in Lisbon anymore. For the rest of this newsletter, you’re coming with me to Helsinki for a deep dive into Europe’s other massive tech conference held in November… Slush.

My soft spot for Slush ❤️

So yes, there may also be some personal bias coming into why I wanted to write about Slush.

As part of the Enterprise Ireland graduate programme, I was based in Stockholm. That meant in December 2021, I was part of the team that organised Ireland’s delegation to Slush.

A mix of Covid and lack of awareness of the event among Irish founders meant that we just about mustered up 8 companies to come to a freezing cold Helsinki.

But it was an incredible week filled with amazing speakers and side events. We made a pretty cool video for it too.

But that little crew we had in 2021 pales into comparison of what they have now. Next week, there will be 18 Irish companies travelling as part of that delegation. The interest in the event and the region is definitely growing.

There’s some good reasons as to why…

The Facts and Figures of Slush 📈

Slush is taking place across two days, 19th & 20th November. It first began in 2008.

Let’s just do a little comparison of what makes Slush different to the Web Summit. Here some interesting facts I dug out:

So the Web Summit is clearly the far far bigger conference. It’s impact extends much greater than the start up ecosystem. It’s a global behemoth.

But Slush is much more focused on building relationships between start ups and investors. As a founder, your chances of simply bumping into a VC are incredibly high at Slush.

Aside from that, the place is set up for meetings among attendees.

Raising investment is the reason it was created and the team that runs Slush lives and breathes start ups.

So who runs Slush?

Slush is powered almost entirely by students and recent graduates who are given a huge amount of responsibility from the start. They run partnerships, manage budgets, coordinate investor schedules, and operate in conditions that feel very close to real start up life. That level of ownership builds practical experience fast.

The impact is clear in the numbers. Around 15% of Slush alumni end up becoming founders—double Finland’s average for people their age. Nearly 70 former team members have already launched companies, and some have gone on to build unicorns. The most notable is Miki Kuusi, who spent four years running Slush before co-founding Wolt, later acquired by DoorDash.

Slush has also become a place where future co-founders meet. Many alumni team up with people they worked with during the event, and investors have taken notice. Firms like Lifeline Ventures and Accel regularly back start ups founded by ex-Slush operators because they arrive with genuine, hands-on experience.

☘️ The Irish Bit

Slush has already played a role in supporting Irish start ups, with some early wins beginning to appear. One of the best recent examples is DevAlly—a company we featured in the newsletter not too long ago as they recently raised €2 million.

DevAlly was a Slush 100 finalist in 2024 and is building an AI platform that helps companies make their products accessibility compliant. They’ve since grown quickly and are now working with organisations of all sizes, including Fortune 500 firms.

Here’s how Slush describe the Slush 100 competition:

“Slush 100 is the most coveted startup competition in the world. From over 1,000 applications, the 100 top ones are hand-picked to compete for a €1M investment by General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures—two of the leading early-stage VCs in Europe. The competition is open for any company founded in 2022 or later that has raised max. €2M in equity funding.”

Skip to 5:37 at the video below to see DevAlly’s CEO Cormac Chisholm ace his pitch at Slush last year.

What about in 2025?

We have another Irish founder taking the stage next week. Aidan Gray is a Stockholm-based founder who is building, Ogma.

We spoke to Aidan ahead of his big week in Helsinki.

The Mayo-man currently works as a Scrum Master with Swedish giant Scania and has been based in Sweden since 2017. Here’s his elevator pitch of what Ogma does:

“The most important moments in any company are the conversations between a manager and an employee. They shape performance, retention, and innovation, and they have huge financial impact. When these conversations go well, engagement rises, execution speeds up, and people stay. Ogma captures these conversations and uses AI to analyse what happened and turn it into continuous leadership development grounded in the company’s values. The result is lower attrition, higher productivity, and managers who improve immediately. Companies now need to learn faster than ever to stay competitive, and Ogma makes that possible.”

🚀 Slush & being an Irish founder in the Nordics

Why did you decide to attend Slush this year and enter the pitching competition?

“Slush wasn’t something that was on my radar until a couple of days before the competition deadline. I got a message from my friend, Michelle Cotter, demanding I submit an application for my start up Ogma. And I’m so glad she did.  A couple of weeks later I got an email telling me that Ogma was selected as one of the Top 100 Start ups at Slush. For me, that felt like real validation of what we are building. Ogma is bringing personalised and contextual learning to managers in a way that simply was not possible before the recent advancements in AI. Instead of sending managers on another generic training course, we use their actual conversations to give them feedback that is relevant, timely, and grounded in their own reality. Slush recognising that innovation means a lot.”

What are you most excited for at Slush?

“I’ve never been to Slush so I’m excited to experience the live pitching event in person this year. I watched the live pitch last year online and rooting for Cormac Chisholm and the team at DevAlly so it will be fun to watch (and learn) from the other founders who are going to live pitch. There’s also an incredible line up of speakers this year! I really want to hear from Eileen O’Mara who’s Chief Revenue Officer for Stripe and Max Junestrand who is one of the co-founders of  the Swedish start up Legora AI (who recently raised over $100 million in funding).”

We hear of all these incredible companies and founders coming from that part of the world. How have you found being an Irish founder in the Nordics?

“It’s all about relationships here. The start up ecosystem is very tight knit. I think it’s a little harder to knock on doors without having an in first so you need to spend time building trust and relationships within the ecosystem. I think that’s a main difference from home (and especially in the west of Ireland). People are rooting for you from the get-go at home and are willing to talk. But here, it’s all about trust before you can get the same type of support/ feedback or advice. I also think that it’s quite inspiring to be building in the Nordics because you are surrounded by other incredible start ups. Lovable, for example, raised $228 million (which is one of Europe’s largest series A investments ever) and are setting the bar for what’s possible for start ups operating in the Nordics.”

Lovable is great example of Nordic innovation. The region has so many unicorns and punches well above its weight, do you have any thoughts on why this is?

“I think the Nordics have always had a strong culture of innovation. Ericsson set the early foundation and companies like Spotify and Klarna proved you can build global products from Stockholm. You see that same momentum now with AI start ups like Lovable and Legora AI. People have even started calling it “Silicon Valhalla” which I find gas. But what really stands out to me is the mindset here. People take risks and back themselves, and I often wonder is that because the welfare system gives them the confidence to go for it. Stockholm right now feels like the right place to be building the next generation of start ups.”

To (ice) cap it all off…🧊🧊

I hope this wasn’t too cold an exploration for you. The key takeaways are:

• If you’re looking for a cool event to put on your list for 2026, Slush is a safe bet

• You’ll meet lots of investors if you’re a start up looking to raise money

• Irish start ups are killing it all over the world, including in the Nordics

• Let’s all root for Aidan and the rest of the Irish start ups pitching next week

• Helsinki is really cold in the winter so pack some warm clothes

Let us know if you’re going and we’ll make sure to connect all our irish insights subscribers in together!

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