Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, the idea of founding a business had long appealed to Mikko Ampuja prior to him launching Vapaus in 2018.
Both his parents had started companies in their younger days and although neither found success, it instilled a level of confidence in Ampuja to go things alone and face the consequences.
Now six years on, Vapaus has purchased close to 30,000 bikes at a value of €60 million and built a client base of 1,600 businesses in Finland and Sweden, ranging from small SMEs to larger international firms.
“We want to create one million new cyclists in the next decade,” Ampuja, who now serves as Chief Business Development Officer at Vapaus, tells Zag Daily.
“The word Vapaus means freedom and there is no freer feeling than riding your bicycle through the city. We want more people to experience this.”
Finding your purpose
Growing up in Kuhmoinen, Finland, a town with around 2,000 inhabitants, Ampuja graduated from high school in 1998 before completing his compulsory military training and then spending a year in Kosovo as an officer of a Finnish peacekeeping force.
“Part of me wanted to go for the adventure, while part of me just wanted to do something good for society,” Ampuja explains
On his return to Finland, Ampuja took a part-time sales role to help fund his studies in International Business at Haaga Institute Polytechnic in Helsinki. He continued to work in the field for several years post graduation, including in various senior roles at consultancy firm 15/30 Research.
“We did a lot of market research and new concept development for several publicly listed companies from around the world, including the likes of Unilever,” Ampuja recalls.
“The first five years or so were great as I was always working on finding ways to solve problems for the customer.”
Ampuja was promoted to the firm’s executive board in February 2016, before being appointed CEO not long later. However, this also coincided with him becoming disillusioned with the role and thinking about finding a new challenge.
The penny truly dropped for Ampuja in April 2017 when his daughter was born – a seminal moment which convinced him that after 10 years with 15/30 that he could not keep working on projects he didn’t believe in.
“One particular task that still sticks out to this day involved us marketing sugary soft drinks to teenagers,” he explains.
“I remember imagining my daughter asking me when she was older what I did in response to the climate crisis. And I just couldn’t bear the idea that I was going to keep on wasting my time selling sodas to teenagers.”
Starting Vapaus
Ampuja left 15/30 in August 2017 and immediately started re-evaluating the various business ideas he had been filing away over the years.
“I had worked with a few mobility firms as a consultant and became really interested in the booming e-bike market,” he says.
“After developing the idea for Vapaus, I posted about it online and immediately got a response from Tatu Mäkilä. We set up a meeting to discuss our ideas and decided it was worth setting up a business together.”
To test how the idea would be received, Ampuja called 20 businesses to pitch the concept.
“I have never heard such a positive response to an idea in my life,” he recalls.
“Despite having no financing or product at this point, one of the businesses signed a letter of intent to use the service once it was operational. This was proof to us that we were onto something.”
There is a particular quote from Barack Obama about how to “get stuff done” that inspired Ampuja to take such a risk with Vapaus, and he believes it serves as an important message for people looking to drive change in the world.
“I’m the sort of person who cannot sit and wait for something to happen.
“I have the tendency to jump on things when I see that no one else is doing something about it.”
A business with purpose
Ampuja’s enthusiasm for the startup’s purpose has been unwavering throughout the past seven years, enabling Vapaus to grow quickly and build a talented team. The quality of candidates applying for roles, Ampuja believes, has in part been influenced by the firm’s focus on offering sustainable transport alternatives.
“Climate quitting is real and it benefits companies that actually take sustainability issues seriously,” he says.
“We want to grow and succeed of course, but while doing something good for society and building a human business that is great to work for.”
Ampuja’s stated ambition to create one million new cyclists within the next decade certainly sounds ambitious, but he says that provided the business can maintain its current trajectory the target is achievable.
“To meet this goal we would need to be in six to eight different markets. We’re in Finland and Sweden right now, but we hope to launch in two more countries in the next six to 12 months.”
The success of Vapaus is not just evidenced by its client list – it was recently one of the gold winners of the European Startup Prize for Mobility.
More than 700 startups entered the award and the top 10 were invited to do a live pitch in the European Parliament.
“I remember my smart watch sending a stress alert 30 seconds before I went up to do the pitch because I was so nervous,” Ampuja says.
“But it went really well as is reflected in us being one of just four winners.”
Far from being satisfied, the next few years hold more hard work for Ampuja and the Vapaus team. Only that way can they deliver the seismic change that they hope to help deliver.
