Networking and learning at Maria 01’s business incubator

Jessica Pitherin / CHAOS
Lead text
Based in a former hospital in central Helsinki, technology start-up incubator Maria 01 is one of the best places in the city for networking. One company based in the campus are CHAOS, who cultivate a working environment in which learning and bouncing ideas off each other are encouraged.

"I love how peaceful it is on the metro during rush hour here. People are silently typing and scrolling on their phones. You could hear a pin drop," data scientist Jessica Pitherin from CHAOS says about Helsinki, her adopted hometown.  

The CHAOS offices are located on a former hospital campus in central Helsinki. Named after the hospital, Maria 01 is a incubator hub for tech start ups, and one of the best places to network in the city.

When the hospital was shut down in 2012, around 20,000 square metres of space were left behind. Today around 130 start ups with 850 employees are based on the premises. And more companies want to join them than the space currently allows. 

According to Helsinki's mayor Jan Vapaavuori, Maria 01 plays a strategic role in guiding the city's development. The plan is for Maria 01 to become one of the best places in the world for start up businesses. Helsinki co-founded Maria 01 with the Startup Foundation in order to create a central hub to give room and life to start ups, capital investors and accelerator companies. 

Maria 01 moves the start up scene to downtown Helsinki

The atmosphere at Maria 01 is very international: every fourth professional is non-Finnish. New companies are accepted based on their applications. And once the space has been fully renovated, there will be even more room for newcomers to join. 

Pitherin first arrived in Helsinki in May 2015 from America to work for an American consultancy firm. Jessica has an MA in Mathematics and a BA in Statistics. She also does data science work in her free time. 

"Half of our employees are international, and the other half are Finns. We work in an open office and it took some getting used to the silence. Tearing open a snack bar felt too loud at first," Pitherin explains. 

Her first working stint in Finland lasted 15 months after which she returned to the USA for a year. But Helsinki had stolen her heart: "Traveling in rush hour is noisy, hectic and stressful in the United States. I had worked in several international communities and moved around almost every year. At the beginning of this year, I felt like it was time to settle down. I longed to go back to Helsinki. I had my job interview on Skype at 6am US time," says Pitherin. 

English

Finland feels really safe. Even my first visit left me with good friends. Helsinki is a good place to find culture to balance your working life with, and there are spots in the heart of the city where it is easy to form connections with people from different fields.

Jessica Pitherin
Data Scientist, CHAOS
Jessica Pitherin / CHAOS

CHAOS create better functioning cities through data 

CHAOS’s aim is to turn cities into better functioning living environments that follow sustainable development guidelines. To do this, they gather a large volume of data from different contexts and organise it wisely. Decision-makers are granted access to all of the data they need to make good urban planning decisions. 

"I'm the first data scientist at CHAOS. We listen to the needs of our clients, examine data related to them and figure out how to meet these needs. In order to achieve this, we dive deeper than traditional statistical analysis allows," Pitherin explains. 

CHAOS employs about 10 people. Their days start at 9am and ends at 5pm. If needed, there is room for flexibility. As often is the case with start ups, CHAOS is agile and heading in several directions simultaneously. The job profiles do not have set borders, and tasks tend to vary from week to week, or even from day to day. 

"I try to use half an hour every day to research and boost my knowledge," Pitherin says.

"We love learning and we share new ideas between ourselves constantly, even if they aren’t always related to our work."  

In her free time, Pitherin meets her friends and visits restaurants. She also plays the flute in the brass orchestra Louhi, and her friends have signed her up for a local rock band. 

"I like Helsinki because the sea is so close," she says. "I can reach the waterfront by foot right near my house. Aleksanterinkatu and Esplanadi in the centre are always full of life."

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Teaser text
Based in a former hospital in central Helsinki, technology start-up incubator Maria 01 is one of the best places in the city for networking. One company based on the campus are CHAOS.