The Gorilla team is expanding, and we’re proud to introduce Teemu Huhtala, our new Operations Manager and the first ‘hired help’ to join our team alongside the partners.
“Exploring new opportunities and gaining insights from the investor’s perspective is exciting.”
This is how Teemu describes his journey at Gorilla Capital, where he recently started in a versatile new role as an operations manager. His path to this point has taken him from the world of professional sports to the heart of the startup scene and ultimately to becoming a finance expert.
His path in the business world began at Tampere University.
“Business studies felt like the natural choice.”
He specialized in accounting and finance, completing his master’s thesis on funding decisions in startups—a clear indicator of where his career was headed.
His first major role in the business world was with a Finnish startup called Sulapac.
“After joining a startup, your responsibilities grow quickly,” Teemu recalls.
He spent nearly six years there, starting as a controller and eventually becoming acting CFO. In addition to overseeing financial management and systems, he played a key role in raising capital from investors.
After his time at Sulapac Teemu transitioned to an automation industry growth company as a business controller, where he managed financial and administrative operations for just over a year. Ultimately, his path led him to Gorilla Capital.
“Ami, an old colleague from my time at Sulapac - now a partner at Gorilla, reached out to tell me about an open position. Once I learned more about the company, I immediately knew this was the right fit for me.”
At Gorilla Capital, Teemu develops internal processes and supports the company’s partners in their investment activities.
“My goal is to ensure that all processes related to investment operations are as efficient and streamlined as possible.”
He is also in charge of financial management, contract documentation, and completing key processes.
Teemu finds that learning new things and developing his skills are the most rewarding aspects of his work.
“It’s fascinating to gain insight into the investor’s perspective and understand how investment decisions are made. At the same time, I can leverage my previous experience and apply it in this new environment.”
The broad scope of his role also presents challenges.
“Managing the bigger picture requires attention to detail and precision, but it’s also what makes the work so fulfilling.”
According to Teemu, Gorilla Capital’s culture is professional yet approachable.
“The team is made up of highly independent professionals who take responsibility for their areas. We avoid unnecessary jargon and aim to communicate clearly and understandably. I think this is one of Gorilla Capital’s greatest strengths.”
In his free time, Teemu enjoys spending time with his family. He is also an active sports enthusiast who plays ice hockey, golf, tennis, and skis in the winter.
“Staying active is essential for keeping both my body and mind fresh.”
Although Teemu has only been at Gorilla Capital for a short time, he has already learned a lot.
“Using limited partnerships as part of fund structures was partly new to me and incredibly interesting. This is exactly what motivates me—learning new things and having the opportunity to grow within such a dynamic organization.”
“Teemu was a natural choice for our team, seamlessly blending with our culture while bringing valuable expertise. His experience with startups through Sulapac, combined with his CFO background, is a significant asset. Paired with his strong work ethic and attention to detail, Teemu is a perfect fit for the role”, his colleague Ami Rubenstein sums up.
Lyhennelmä uutiskirjeeseen ja Linkkariin:
“Exploring new opportunities and gaining insights from the investor’s perspective is exciting.”
That’s how Teemu Huhtala describes his journey at Gorilla Capital, where he recently started as Operations Manager. With a strong background in startup finance and fundraising, Teemu is now focused on optimizing investment processes and ensuring smooth operations behind the scenes.
“Managing the big picture while keeping an eye on the details is challenging—but that’s exactly what makes the work so rewarding.”
Absolutely we want everyone to reach as high as their abilities allow them to! A unicorn would be fantastic! A lot of what we say should be preceded with “until proven otherwise”. As we believe in data and statistics, we assume the median type outcome as the placeholder – UNTILPROVENOTHERWISE. I.e. once you have evidence that you can do better and reach higher than the typical/median case, then raise the bar! But you need to prove you can walk until you try to run. And until you have proven your ability to run, you should stay on a route where running is not mandatory.
One reason is our personality – we are all “glass is half empty” people, so we look at everything from that angle. But we don’t intend to be negative or judgemental, we are simply analytical and fact driven and we believe in statistical math, not fairy tales. We are ultra-curious and we always want to understand. When we ask questions people have no good answers for, some people take it as a negative. Sorry, then we clearly do not have an alignment in the basic philosophies and we are not meant for each other.
No, but this is still more of an “exception” rather than “the norm”. Some investors who have a similar kind of basic philosophy (model is more of a “scalable Angel” rather than “VC”)
https://www.kimaventures.com/ (the only European on this list) http://rightsidecapital.com/ (we owe a lot to these guys for setting up a role model we have taken full advantage of. Big thanks to Kevin & al for the inspiration and openly sharing their thinking) https://svangel.com/ (building on the heritage of the original SuperAngel Ron Conway, they have the longest track record to demonstrate the strategy works) https://500.co/ (the most vocal on this list. For them investing is just one of the things they do) There certainly are more but most investors with this strategy tend to prefer a low public profile, they focus on their business rather than PR.
The overarching higher cause for us is about making the whole startup community aware of an alternative to the stereotypical “how to raise as much money as possible” thinking (which results in having to tell a really bold story to pump valuations up, and everything that forces you to do). We want to help build more successful startups, which reward the founders and investors for the risk-taking. One cornerstone of that is the acceptance of basic facts such as statistical probabilities of success in different scenarios. Hence we favour a rational approach to risk and funding, as on average the survival rates are much better when your plan does not depend on winning-the-lottery type odds.
(People who have already done several exits at tens of millions – you can skip this part)
If you want to make an informed decision you should understand the odds – some basic statistical math. What matters are not paper valuations on which money has been raised, but realised exits where founders and investors received money back. So lets look at some exit facts:
Median exit value in technology companies in Nordics hovers around 12-15m€ (disclosed exits - public companies have to disclose material transactions, so larger deals tend to be disclosed). There is a large number of non-disclosed exits that are typically less than this.
In the whole of Europe there are only a few >250m€ technology exists every year (half a dozen or so).
Trying to build a unicorn takes a lot of time (>10 years) and multiple investment rounds, resulting in big changes on cap table. Markets change, people change, preferences change, technologies change…
There are hundreds of companies who have raised money at Unicorn valuations, but only a few which have been bought (or IPO’d) at Unicorn level
Your odds of getting a Unicorn exit are much MUCH lower than your odds of hitting a hole in one in golf (regardless of your HCP) By all means dream big and set the target high, but learn to walk before trying to run. How about being worth 10M first, and then deciding whether you want to raise the bar or not.
Similar to product/market fit, there needs to be a match between what the startup needs and the investor can offer. This applies first to all “visible” elements of the investor’s screening profile: fit against investment strategy, stage, ticket size, vertical focus etc vs the profile of the startup. And it goes beyond the “visible” – there needs to be a strong alignment in values, philosophies, ways of working etc for the relationship to last during the rough ride ahead. We are not the right investor for many, as what we believe in is rather different from the stereotypical thinking.
Every investor should have a clear investment strategy, including an exit thesis. What we believe in is what professional Angel investors in the US have practiced for years and proven to work. Which results in a very different approach from the typical VC. So while we technically are a VC (=we make a living of investing 3rd party funds in startups), our philosophy is much closer to that of an Angel investor (who invest their own money, so the downside risk feels more real).
Gorilla partners have founded companies, scaled them (up to 100m€+ turnover) and exited them. We have worked hands-on with startups for 10+ years, of our 2 funds we have to date invested in 50+ startups (+ our own personal angel investments). We have screened thousands of startups, analysed closely hundreds and worked hands-on with 100+. We have an analytical mind so we have seen what works and what doesn’t. Everything we believe in is based on either our own first hand experience, or objective data available to anyone.
(non-Finnish startups: this does not apply to you) Any company seeking funding from us should be eligible for Business Finland funding. It is non-dilutive which is good for both current owners and new investors. In a normal case it forms a significant part of the overall funding package and we expect you to take advantage of it.
No, we don’t care about the ownership percentage. We think simply about the cash on cash return we can get. We would not want to become too big of a shareholder though, as we think it is better for the startup to have a somewhat diversified investor base.
Not really, we decide for ourselves only and expect the founders to reach out to other investors. It is also an acid test of the founder’s ability to sell – if you cannot sell yourself and your business to investors, you are likely to fail with customers as well.
Governance and Legal DD (Due Diligence) and Agreements. We have standardised processes and templates on both, there are no mandatory out of pocket expenses. The speed of the process is in your hands as you will do most of the work. We do not insist on our processes if there are better alternatives. We care about the end result, and are pragmatic about getting there. But we do need a proper DD and Agreements.
For us making the ”yes we’re in” decision is fast – can happen in days. Decision is made among the 3 of us, no committees needed. We work independently and our decision does not depend on what others do so we are often the first to commit. But getting to the closing including payment totally depends on you. If you are well prepared and execute promptly on all formalities it can go through in a few weeks, but usually it takes longer – can be several months. Two most common reasons for that are:
You do not have enough investors to close the round (we are never the only investor so you will need others)
The DD brings up issues that need to be addressed prior to final closing (such as unfinished paperwork in share transfers).
Our target is to have 100 companies in the portfolio. Our runrate is 20+ new investments per year. We are actively looking for new companies to invest in.
A good understanding of your target market, your customers, their problems, your competition, your strengths, why customer buys. Informative numbers about your past performance and future plans. You need to have done your homework so that you know what is important and what is not and you can tell your story effectively.
Send us a well thought out pitch deck (use whatever template you want) that demonstrates insightful understanding of the customer problem and their purchase behaviour. We process incoming proposals on a FIFO basis and we try to be quick in giving a response. Feel free to ping us if you think it’s taking too long. No need for introductions etc – we assess every case on it own merits anyway.
