Join us to explore how your technology and entrepreneurial agility can drive real-world impact in transforming the built environment.

This workshop brings together innovators, researchers, and startups to explore collaboration opportunities within the KONE Renaissance 5-year R&D&I Program, with a special focus on two thematic areas: Data & AI-enabled operations and Climate Tech in the built environment. The Renaissance Program, co-funded by Business Finland, aims to transform and revive existing buildings to enable low emission living and working by 2030.

Through this workshop, participants will identify new opportunities at the intersection of cutting-edge research and entrepreneurial agility. This is a unique chance for deeptech startups to connect, co-create, and explore novel ways to renew the built environment.

As the first Renaissance collaboration incubation workshop with startups, this session marks an important opening step in building impactful partnerships for the program’s future.”

Traditional recruitment methods — job ads, headhunting, and other standard techniques — often attract what we call “Talent Traders”: professionals seeking a higher salary, a bigger job title, or a better-known brand. While valuable in some contexts, this mindset rarely aligns with the realities of an early-stage deep-tech startup.

Startups building the next big breakthrough need a different kind of person: talents who are ready to invest their skills into a company, betting on its growth, vision, and the potential for a 10X return in the coming years. These are entrepreneurial talents — builders, not just employees.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore a new way of thinking about how to find, engage, and recruit these truly disruptive individuals. Together, we’ll work through key questions:
1. How do we identify entrepreneurial talents within our networks and beyond?
2. How do we engage, evaluate, and ultimately recruit them?
3. How can startups with limited capital set up the most attractive and fair compensation structures?

Join us for a practical, thought-provoking session that will change the way you think about team building in deep-tech startups.

Patents shouldn’t be dull work that ends up being an expensive paper weight. In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to turn your inventions into strategic assets, and avoid the common traps that dilute IP value.