Slush 2025 was HEL-la fine!

CONTRIBUTED BY

Karolina, ExpertHub Team

DATE

Nov 25, 2025

We like to say that Slush was not just another startup event, but a true innovation feast. Why though? Is it really that big?

Yes. The ease of approaching investors is spot-on, but it was definitely not only about talking to investors (or, pardon me, investors, talking to investees). Besides raising funds and pitching, it is about learning, experiencing and absorbing. It is about shining, entertaining, mingling, and realizing your idea’s place in the starry sky of those.

What we need to thank for is the vibe that Slush Crew managed to bring to life, through both attention to designing the space, recruiting the right volunteers, and inviting the most relevant minds to speak and attend.

In this post, we don’t want to recap everything that happened, which is anyway, frankly, quite impossible. Not only would that be overwhelming (just like for those who, before Slush, were planning on how to multiply themselves across all these spaces in just 3 days!), but anyone can still read the agenda of this year’s event.

Slush is also one step ahead in this regard, having compiled a set of AI-written summaries from each of the panels. Surely, together with the content libraries and diverse contact bases, that’s a big bank of knowledge, ideas, networks, and inspirations. We are sending wishes of luck to all Slushers who now dived into their follow-ups.

Instead of summarizing the event, we want to lead you through our own Slush 2025 paths. Come along, hop into the s l u s h.

Day 0? Starting from 1 is too boring

Joining the Office Hours of Scaleups was a mental tour into where founders want to be very soon. We visited some of the fastest growing Finnish companies, to meet the founders, see the headquarters, and uncover their secrets. Among them were plenty of… the ones we expected to hear (not so mysterious), knowing them from lean startup methodologies all over the world: firm and uncompromising company culture, customer prioritization, going to market as fast as we can, testing, and design… Alright, but we do know that, right? Weren’t they just very lucky? Well, they not only knew these things but also got them right in practice. Hats off, truly.

Maybe the mosaic of success path does have a bit of luck in it. But these founders were outstandingly dedicated, ready to put themselves on the line, ready to be cringe (as Shensi Deng put it in her keynote). And what we’ve noticed – they knew how to tell their story.

Later on, we moved to Arabia to XR Center, where we listened about talking products and AI twinning. We all nodded our heads when the observation of new technology stuck in its own bubble was shared. AI, even though ubiquitous, in its more advanced form, still remains the topic of conferences, rather than something that everyone uses, not only in a mindful and aware manner, but also in every-day life spaces, outside of work.

To us, it was a spark that began the validation for SolveStack.ai’s emergence on Slush. There’s need for those who will translate, overview the projects, and make them happen in real life, be it business’ or customers’ perspective.

Our paths divided at night, when we headed to two simultaneous events, The Founders’ Night (officially called a Day, but hey – it was real dark) and Startups & Hotdogs at Helsinki’s Incubators. Connecting to the startup ecosystems and talking to as many entrepreneurs as possible was one of the priorities for us, so the opportunity to network with peers, listen to their pitches and find out more about their solutions was something we are especially grateful for.

Day 1. AI came to the fore, who would have thought?

You already know that maintaining the conversation without mentioning AI is almost impossible during the events revolving innovation. For us – this was a great thing, actually, constituting a chance to connect to the most curious AI Use Cases and bring them to our platform. Hence, we spent a lot of time speed-dating the founders in the meeting area. And honestly, we left in awe! What an amazing energy coming from inventors and explorers – or so-called startup builders.

But interesting AI discussions were spanning not only the dimmed tables of Meeting Area. They were right there in the spotlights, on both main stages and side events, led by Slush partners.

In the session on “Leading Change in the Age of AI”, apart from delicious snacks, there were also some good stuff happening on the stage. Fin x Legora x Personio set of founders held a fireside chat that was a pure pleasure to listen to. Main takeaway: Context-awareness is the biggest challenge, limitation and direction of development for AI-driven businesses, and thus an opportunity area – to remain (or become) leaders, when others join the AI hype.

As Poland-based company, we could not refuse ourselves the pleasure of attending the panel on the ICT potential in Poland. And we were not only inspired this time, but also proud of the innovation stemming from ExpertHub’s homeland. Our desire to promote and support Polish startups via SolveStack.ai, and at the same time connect the global startups with the Polish enterprise market, grew even bigger. Poland now makes the headlines, and it makes us happy.

Day 2, did I mention they “welcomed us in HEL”? Well, now it started snowing, too!

Yes, the sign at the entrance screamed: Still doubting Europe? Go to HEL.

Bold, like the whole event. But what was even a bolder move is that the first snow appeared in Helsinki right during the Slush, providing us with the real slush around the venue. Controlling the weather now, huh?

While our discovery of AI-driven use cases continued, we also directed our focus into how AI can be applied internally in our own team, and even in personal development. The many dilemmas spanning the sector in general are also present in specific niches, like education. The question of cognitive decay versus augmentation is one we’ll all experience the effects of in the coming years. The side partner event on “Future-Proofing the Talent: Learning in the Age of AI” has filled us with hope that there are bodies around that monitor the process, and that not only the regulations but also the public awareness and comprehension will soon start catching up with the unstoppable stream of development.

Before heading to concerts, karaoke and all unwinding activities, we took some time to discover the booths of European startup ecosystems, beautifully showcased in the event. The booths were amazing, merging the promotion of innovation with cultural flavours. You could see a cable cart in the Austrian booth, taste some wine in the Italian one, or get some Dutch student party experience in the stand that was, by the way, very orange.

So, did you enjoy the ride?

We did. We are happy to return from Slush with more direction for our platform development, GTM validation, more partnerships established, and a lot of interesting AI Use Cases that already began populating our SolveStack.ai database.