Buutti Oy grew from an idea of four students to a growth company — "We saw potential in young people, and they turned out to be super talented"

Mikko Koistinen and Peetu Nuottajärvi, founders of software company Buutti Oy, visited our living room for an InnoVisitor event. The duo opened up to the audience about Buutti's journey from 2016 until today.  

The story started with four students and their idea to help people code better. The founding team wanted to help young people, students and the unemployed to develop their programming skills and get into the industry. As many junior coders have noticed, getting a job in the industry without experience can sometimes seem almost impossible. The consultancy business in particular relies heavily on CVs, and a coder's own enthusiasm and high motivation can easily be overshadowed by a short CV.  

The idea of teaching coding and robotics to young people came up, so the men got down to business. In 2016, the code school took its first steps, and Koodikärpät was born. It allowed young people to work on programming, robotics and graphics in a two-week summer job. The following year, the University of Oulu jumped on board, and code clubs were held at the university's premises. The summer 2017 Koodikärpät was also organised by the university. Peetu and Mikko were surprised by the skills of the young people at the various clubs and training sessions.  

"Many companies don't want to hire young people because they think it would take a huge amount of resources to train them. We saw potential in young people, and they turned out to be super talented. You don't need to train them for years before you can put them to work," says Peetu.  

New growth in the consultancy business  

In 2017, programming and robotics training started to be offered under the name Buutti. The trainings brought a large number of skilled and motivated people into the company's networks, which led to a new insight.  

"We started to wonder if we could do more with this group. Around the same time, companies started asking for experts for their own projects, so moving into the consulting business seemed like a natural next step," says Peetu.  

Eventually, a separate business unit was set up alongside the training activities: Buutti Consulting. The founders of Buutti also received a lot of support from outside the company as it entered a new phase.  

"The biggest help was Kielo Growth. They gave us our own office space, which was important because it allowed us to get together. They also helped us with the bookkeeping," says Mikko.  

"We were also fortunate to have outside mentoring help. More experienced people were there to support us. When we were about to panic, they helped us to calm down and avoid making hasty decisions," Peetu continues.   

The company continued to grow and in 2022 they reached the 100-employee milestone. In 2023, the company's journey took another turn when Buutti Oy was acquired by Netum. Mikko and Peetu have seen a lot of good things come out of the deal.  

"The company cultures of Buutti and Netum have matched well, and there are more career opportunities for employees in areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity. And of course, this has also helped me in my own life," says Mikko.  

"Juniors deserve respect and appreciation"  

A lot has happened since 2016. Today, Buutti has more than 100 employees in Oulu, Tampere and Helsinki, and about 80 software development consultants. New winds will certainly blow in the future, as Mikko and Peetu are planning to enter the international market. At least one idea will stay with them in every turn:  

"Juniors deserve respect and appreciation just like seniors. People often seem to think that you can just throw juniors to fix bugs for a monthly salary of €1500. We give them responsibility, challenging projects and a good salary — and they haven't let us down!" Peetu says.  

Peetu and Mikko's top 3 tips for starting your own business:  

• Sales should be valued much more and invested in at an earlier stage, as it drives new businesses forward. So, pick up the phone and start calling! As the creator of your product or service, you are the best salesperson because you understand why the solution exists and how it can help customers.  

• Remember that there is a lot of help available for the early stages of your business. For example, Kielo Growth helps build start-ups into growth companies. The Innovation Centre at the University of Oulu can help with sparring ideas, as well as financing and patenting, for example. It is also possible to apply for Proof-of-Concept funding through the Innovation Centre, which aims at the first implementation of an invention or idea with commercial potential. You can apply for up to €5,000 for a single project.  

• You don't necessarily need hundreds of thousands of euros to implement your first idea. You can start very lightly. Your business probably doesn't need a fancy and expensive appointment booking app right from the start — just a phone number is enough.  

We hope that Buutti's story inspires other students and researchers at the University of Oulu to develop new ideas all the way to entrepreneurship! For help, feel free to contact our business expert Ville Saarenpää: ville.saarenpaa@oulu.fi