Tuukka Korhonen

Originally from Finland, Tuukka Korhonen is thriving as a leader when it comes to advancements in technology. From an early age, Tuukka has always been fascinated by what technology had to offer; especially from growing up in different places around Europe. From Finland to Switzerland to Germany, he has been exposed to technology products all from a young age.

Tuukka Korhonen has worked with several companies; some he has founded and some he founded and was running for quite some time. Ever since his young age, he has been building a career as an entrepreneur. Through his accomplishments, he has been able to grow and sell businesses in the past. Tuukka believes his past has led him to where he is today, which is currently the managing director of Eve Devices, known as Eve Distribution Ltd.

Where did the idea for your career come from?

The idea came from a necessity. To wind back a few years. I was an early in employee of a company called Eve-Tech Oy, a company that back then was 4 people strong. I came in as the person to keep reigns on the company on a governance point of view. I was put in charge of building the financial systems, accounting, applying for different kinds of funding and other business development. The company at that time had a idea of crowd development of technology which I was very into, being very interested in technology myself and the idea of having people essentially build something they could then get. As a business model the company opted out for licensing the brand and product in the later part, which didn’t all succeed well. But at this point in the summer of 2019 this opened a possibility for me. I was able to negotiate terms with Eve-Tech Oy on selling and manufacturing the Eve V, an outdated computer. Since my background in finance activities and governance related tasks, already being in Hong Kong for longer periods of time, made the decision easy for me to go and open a company. From there I have been implementing processes for the company to be able to operate. Getting acquainted with the nuances of the business. Quickly there after we commissioned the development of the Eve Spectrum monitor. Utilizing the network, I had previously made in China and the development emphasis from the eve Community. Now the plan we have is to make the community aspect more intuitive and more engaging. We will be making audio visual content and engaging customers in different product tests. In the future I envision a research and development center were community members and engineers work both physically and virtually together in different fields of development and showing the crowd how the products they consume are designed and manufactured in a very detailed way.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I usually get up around 7, it really depends where I am and what I am doing. I travel quite frequently, and time zones tend to become a blur, of course currently this is limited. Once I wake up, I check my phone, basically for messages that would require my attention. Especially when in Europe since the time of day is limited in China. After this I take a tablet, these change from time to time, currently I am testing out the 11-inch iPad Pro. On the tablet, I go through the sales amounts and emails I have received. At around 8 I go to the shower etc. Then I read international news revolving around general news and technology to understand where the world is today. For breakfast I typically have a big breakfast with eggs and vegetables. Then I’m off to the office around 9. Usually on the drive I will sync up with my colleagues or tackle a phone call that needs to be done. Arriving at the office around 10 in the morning. Once at the office I go through my task list. Once through the task list, I prioritize tasks and check the calendar for events. Then I sync up with somebody from the team and see if they have issues that I can help with. After this I dive into my tasks. I normally work on the tasks for a few hours. The task list is the most important thing for me to keep up with the workload. After a few hours of tasks, I usually go out for lunch, in my opinion it is very important to try to get out of the work environment in the day to get a perspective on the surroundings also. I usually have a lunch meeting with a mentor or colleagues. Once back from lunch its usually time for meetings. I have a few meetings that are around 1 hour. I feel it important to talk to people and understand what needs to be done so that you can later act on that. Too short meetings in my view don’t get to the root of the issues and the actions become too vague. Of course, there are cases which take 10 minutes in and out of the door. At around 5pm I am getting ready for the evening. Usually I try to get an hour of reading in or I go to the gym to get the blood pumping. Usually home by 7 pm and start unwinding from the day. At home I tend to cook or watch some TV, I also do play video games here and there. I try to get a short walk in during the evening. For me sleep is very important, and I try to get around 9 hours of sleep. It has become a small obsession of mine, going through literature and seeing how to track my sleep better. The better I sleep the better I perform overall.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Ideas are great, everyone has an idea. It’s the acting on the ideas that bring them to life. You need to be able to commit to the idea and push like crazy. Mainly when I want, and this is really wanting, to get an idea into life it requires an immense amount of effort. It requires an immense amount of pushing. That is what my task list mainly is: Follow ups and follow ups. Getting to the goal that I need to achieve to get to the next level. This is a fact that is not talked about anywhere. Getting your vision to life needs pushing, relentless pushing. I find that because of the immense amounts of pushing needed you cannot take too much on your plate at once. Otherwise you will drown.

What’s one trend that excites you?

There are so many. I think the way you consume media and live a digital life. Not so much a trend in one word, but if we take a step back and look at what did our lives look like 15 years back and how has technology come and changed that. Today I have yet to get home and I have interacted with my smartphone, three different headphones, my tablet, my Eve V, my kindle and smartwatch. During the day I have gone through digital print magazines, YouTube videos, read pdfs, listened to music, had calls on 4 different platforms with people on three different continents. And basically, I can do this almost anywhere at almost any time, which is rather insane, taking the 2005 perspective. If you jump back 30 years nobody would understand half of what was said. And this is a very short period, 1/3 of a human life. But the change has been immense.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Taking a step back and analyzing the issues at hand. We have a saying in Finland, to not run up a tree backside first. This has been a thing that has enabled us from big mistakes.

What advice would you give your younger self?

The most important thing is to make everything simple. Make the implicit explicit. Always make progress and push the envelope. A small step forward is a step closer to the goal. Its not going to be easy, nothing worthwhile is.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Being an entrepreneur is most about pushing small things incrementally all the time.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Read. The more you read the more you soak in experience from others and get a perspective on your business and life in general.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

For strategy the main thing is to make things. In our case its also literal. But mainly the strategy is to keep moving and improving. Sales, marketing, finance the problem that I think many businesses (small) have that they are trying to build something too fancy be it a simple thing as a plan to a business process. Get things started very small, but quick and then iterate on that working out. On a monthly basis I might try out many different micro sized strategies which go and change the way we operate after a few months. Our main strategy is to offer the end consumers something they have created together with us, at the right time and the right distribution channels. This might change from product to product and even region and habits.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

There are many failures that you go through as an entrepreneur. The main thing that I have learnt is failures ultimately lead to success. There are many quotes on the matter, but the actual thing is that it is a mindset to first learn from mistakes, then adapt to the condition whatever it may be, and after this adjust and see if it works. This mindset change is the important part for overcoming the challenges that lay ahead. A great book on the subject to some extent is Ryan Holidays “The obstacle is the way”

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Make a working software solution for a cashflow building tool, then augment it with AI. I will be among the first customers.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I’m a product enthusiast in tech. It might sound quite stupid and not the most technical product, but I would say the Google Pixel Stand wireless charger. The product is nice aesthetically and quite functional even with a case. They made a nice effort on the product and I do not regret buying that charger, even though it is more expensive than others and doesn’t work too well with other phones.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Webservices there are many that I use. Asana for task management is good for now, but I have been migrating personal task management in and out of different services quite much. To understand what they offer and how. Some work better on desktop, some better on mobile etc.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Again, many books. My favorite book is How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. Also, a good read is Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki. And then just as leisure read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

What is your favorite quote?

“The only way I can get you to do anything is by giving you what you want.”
This embodies to me the meaning of the community and why it works as a development platform. We try to make a replica of what the end consumer wants.

Key Learnings:

• There are things to strive towards.
• Entrepreneurship is a lot about getting things done
• Go and make things