The following is an entry from Layar CEO Raimo van der Klein.

Last year, Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio asked me to present in Helsinki, Finland at Slush, the leading startup conference in Northern Europe.

Peter is a great supporter of the Finnish startup scene. Helsinki is not an uncommon place for me being half Finnish and having worked for Nokia earlier in my career, but the startup scene is certainly new to me.

I was kindly invited to visit Startup Sauna at the Aalto University, a great hub for startups that now even extends the Finnish borders and has links to the Baltics. I was really impressed with what I saw. I met many super ambitious Finns hungry to conquer the world and a healthy ecosystem between governments, schools, industries and entrepreneurs.

To me, it seemed to be very fertile ground for people with great new products in the technology sector. Recently, a video of my presentation became available online, so I thought it would nice to share it. In my talk I provided answers to the questions that young startups ask me most. These include:

• How did you get started?
• How did you get funding?
• How did you get traction?
• How do you build a great team?
• How do you earn money?

So check out the video below or watch it on YouTube. I want to thank the Slush11 team for being extremely great hosts and for organizing an amazing inspiring event. Also, thanks to Peter for inviting me.

Readers of Jackie magazine will find a nice addition to one of the magazine’s interviews in the current issue on newsstands today.

Dutch fashion designer Joline Jolink is profiled by Jackie in the magazine’s Style Files section, and she managed to include Layar alongside her interview. In her own words, here’s Joline’s take on how this collaboration came together.

“The magazine contacted me for the style page. I was immediately thrilled about the possibilities to use Layar on my images in magazines. They will make the step so much easier for women to explore my online store after seeing a publication,” she says.

“So, when Jackie asked for text and images, I offered them a picture of one of my favourite looks with the Layar logo in the corner.” 

The image Joline provided shows off her “summer must-have look,” and has been enhanced with Layar. Scanning the image shows a few simple buttons: one to Tweet about the look and another which links to Joline’s online shop to buy the items. It’s a really simple implementation, but it’s very effective for bringing readers of Jackie directly to a place where they can buy the items.

“I expected that Jackie would not recognize the icon or realize the wonderful extras it can bring to their readers, so I explained it to them up front,” adds Joline. “They then suggested to add a little info about Layar to the text under the picture.”

This is a perfect example of just how easy it can be to add engaging and deeply connected content to otherwise static print pages. Click through to see more photos of the Jackie magazine featuring Joline Jolink and Layar!

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