In recognition of Earth Day, we’ve been speaking to entrepreneurs who have used their education to make a difference. These individuals have created start-ups that solve a business problem in a sustainable way.
Aku Wilenius is a graduate of Aalto University. He used the skills he developed in his MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, offered by Aalto University Executive Education and Professional Development (Aalto EE), to found his sustainable business, Caidio, an AMBA-awarded global startup from Finland transforming the concrete industry through innovative technology.
We spoke to Aku about his inspiration for Caidio, and how his business school experience aided him in developing his start-up.
Can you tell us a little bit about your business and what it does?
Caidio’s mission is to tackle the industry’s significant environmental footprint, focusing on reducing CO2 emissions and the consumption of virgin raw materials, thereby contributing to the global effort against climate change and biodiversity loss.
With concrete being Earth’s most widely produced material, innovating in this vast industry is crucial for reducing our ecological footprint and advancing global sustainability efforts.
What inspired you to start this business and tackle this issue?
The inspiration for Caidio came from recognizing the concrete industry’s crucial role in modern urban infrastructure and its significant environmental impact and tenured working practices. My co-founder and I, coming from backgrounds in technology and automation in other industries, saw an opportunity to address these challenges through innovation. The idea was to bring a data-driven approach to an industry traditionally reliant on manual processes and substantially contribute to its sustainability and efficiency.
How has your business school experience helped you become an entrepreneur?
My MBA at Aalto University was instrumental in shaping my entrepreneurial journey, particularly through the mentorship and teaching of Doctor Fabian Sepulveda. As our mentor for the MBA Business project, which was conducted for Caidio, and the instructor for many of Aalto’s entrepreneurship modules, Sepulveda profoundly influenced the development of Caidio’s business model and early steps.
His insights and guidance helped bridge the gap between academic concepts and real-world applications, enabling us to refine our approach to tackling the concrete industry’s challenges. This experience gave me a holistic understanding of business operations and instilled the confidence and network necessary to translate our vision for Caidio into reality.
Interested in this series? You might also like this…