Meet Our People – Growth Hacking Intern Midora Linden

How did I end up in a startup?

My way to TalentAdore

In mid-January 2021, I got an email from Icebreaker.vc’s Anni Pyhäjoki who was asking if I was interested in participating in their two month intensive growth hacking internship program. The program is about learning hands-on growth hacking methods by solving weekly growth challenges for Icebreaker.vc’s portfolio companies or other early-stage startups like TalentAdore. I had heard a lot of good about the program and told that I’m definitely interested. Thus, a few weeks later Anni connected me with TalentAdore.

The recruitment process was quite different to what most job seekers probably have experienced. First, I didn’t apply for the internship program at all, as Anni contacted me first. Second, I didn’t apply for TalentAdore either, as Anni connected me with the company as well. I also had only one online meeting with TalentAdore’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Miira Leinonen and CEO Saku Valkama before the first day.

What is my role?

The internship itself started in February, just a few days after the meeting with Miira and Saku. My responsibility as a growth hacking intern is to solve the bottlenecks that are preventing the company’s growth. Icebreaker interns can generally solve problems at any department of their company, but I focused on marketing.

More specifically, for the first two months, I did all kinds of tests with different marketing channels and tried to figure out what works best in each channel. I also tried to come up with new ways of gaining brand awareness especially outside of Finland. I have also had wider tasks, such as updating visuals and content of existing guides and writing blog posts as well.

What have I learned?

Growth hacking is mainly about very simple iteration of analysis, hypothesis, prioritization and testing. The biggest simplified learning about growth hacking has been that if something is not working, you should stop doing that and do something else instead.

With the support of TalentAdore’s CMO Miira, I have done numerous tests, for example with paid ads and chatbots. Some of the tests have turned out to be successful and some of them have failed. Actually, the failures have been valuable learning points since they have enabled us to focus on something else. In growth hacking, every failure is also a great possibility to learn, and validating your measures is the key to success.

TalentAdore as a work place

As I started in the company in the middle of the pandemic, the whole onboarding process was obviously all online. I have only met two people face to face during the time I have been working. Nevertheless, I’ve had a warm welcome from everyone and the onboarding process was very carefully planned. There was also pre-onboarding material about the company culture and the product that I got to read before the first day, so it was easy to start.

TalentAdore really wants their employees to prosper and be happy. To make that happen there is an active desire to do things together outside of work. Even during the pandemic, there have been outdoor and online activities. In addition to that, we have our own personal trainer, masseuse and the possibility to e.g. play badminton together.

The greatest thing about TalentAdore is that they don’t believe in defining a position strictly prior to meeting with the candidate. Instead, the position is fine-tuned to optimally suit one’s true interests and qualifications and the level of responsibility is set alike.

If you want to be a part of a company that works hard towards a common goal and celebrates achievements together, you should check out TalentAdore’s career page for open positions! If you didn’t find a suitable position for you, join the Talent Community so we can contact you when we have new job opportunities available.

Midora