This blog post is part of The Founder Files series, exploring the human side of entrepreneurship, where the distinction between success and failure is often a fine line. From founding and scaling, all the way to the exit, we reveal the unfiltered, authentic stories behind entrepreneurial journeys. Ready to hear the truth?

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After standing on the brink of collapse in the early days of an economic depression, Vincit managed to turn their ship around and began to thrive. From 2009–2015, Vincit doubled its personnel every year. To make successful scaling possible, Vincit prioritized people and culture from early on.

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In software consulting firms, people can make or break the company. At the core of Vincit's strategy was the conviction that building a great place to work for those people would help to achieve the best results. 

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“In our business, revenues are generated from hourly charges. Charging by the hour is stupid, but it’s the best model that anyone has come up with so far. Ultimately, it comes down to the question of how many employees you can recruit – you can’t scale without people”, says Mikko Kuitunen, the co-founder of Vincit.

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“It was hard to get recruited. The ones who we didn’t end up recruiting went to our competitors. We were very selective and proud of it.”

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The focus on people was especially evident in two things: recruitment processes and employee experience.

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First, recruitment was never driven solely by business at Vincit – they sought people who fit the team. If even one person involved in the recruitment process said “maybe”, it was an instant “no”. 

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“It was hard to get recruited. The ones who we didn’t end up recruiting went to our competitors. We were very selective and proud of it”, Kuitunen says. “We didn’t pay the best salaries, so that wasn’t the reason people wanted to apply and stay with us.”

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Second, the employee experience was born on an individual level, they figured, so that’s where it should be nourished. Kuitunen avoided authoritative structures by applying something called leadership as a service. Leadership is really about helping others succeed, but no one leader can offer everything their subjects require. To solve this, in Vincit, everyone was made a leader. 

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“People have very different challenges at work, and we figured anyone should be able to help anyone to get the full potential of our organization to use.” 

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This guideline was applied throughout the company. Salaries were transparent, and if people wanted a raise, they needed to help others succeed and recommend a raise for them. 

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“I think that’s why it worked: our approach was individual-centered but community-driven”, Kuitunen summarizes. 

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“Our employee turnover was a bit unhealthy. No one left during the scaling stage, and that is not good either.”

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Their approach to culture was clearly effective. Vincit was recognized as the Greatest Place to Work, both nationally and internationally. This served as external validation for what the company's employees had already known.

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However, strong cohesion and distributed power structure have also posed challenges.

“Our employee turnover was a bit unhealthy. No one left during the scaling stage, and that is not good either.” 

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Publicly, Vincit’s culture has been challenged, especially on one occasion. In their 2019 recruitment campaign, Vincit was searching for “The Better Mikko” to join their team, which already included 26 Mikkos, including the CEO. On Twitter and in the media, this was interpreted as the ad excluding or alienating women and minorities.

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Kuitunen does not recognize himself or his company from the interpretations and accusations made. “I have nothing to apologize for.” The company apologized. 

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He is still happy with the changes the recruitment team made in a short amount of time. By shifting from 'The Better Mikko' to 'Better Than Mikko,' they crafted a slogan that conveyed the intended message, leading to Vincit's most visible and successful recruiting campaign yet.

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The contradiction between Vincit's rewarded culture and this media event remains.

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In the next part of the series, we will delve into the successful exit of Vincit. Why didn't the exit go as planned? And how has Mikko’s personal life changed after the exit?

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