Entrepreneur, speaker and host, working across creativity, culture and business. I make ideas real, and make people care about them.
Founder of ODDfest · Co-founder of Ambitious.Africa and Norders
Entrepreneur, speaker and host, working across creativity, culture and business.
Good ideas need people who care.
AI is putting more of the work of writing, designing and building within reach. As making gets easier, the question gets sharper: what is worth making, and why would anyone care?
I work where creativity, culture and entrepreneurship meet, turning ideas into things people can experience, use and be part of.
How I work
I started in entrepreneurship while studying at Hanken. Since then, I’ve co-founded ventures, worked with founders and brought people together across business and culture.
I learn by doing: put an idea into the world, see what happens, and make the next version better. Before any of it, I was the basketball player who never grew tall enough. It’s in the local paper.
The basketball part: Svenska Yle and Keski-Uusimaa, November 2024.
Founder and CEO, with the ODD team
2024 · The idea, on the record
In 2024, I told Svenska Yle that I wanted to bring the best of the startup world into arts and culture: places to meet, exchange ideas and build together.
Svenska Yle · 3 November 2024 · Julie Ebbe Ronny Eriksson vill ta kulturen till uppstartsvärlden: ”Det finns pengar” The interview: startup experience brought into culture, an event planned for the following June, and a cultural hub. Read the 2024 interview (opens in a new tab)2025 · The first edition
In 2025, we made the first ODDfest happen in Helsinki. Artists, speakers, partners and audiences brought the idea into the same spaces.
2,600+ participants. allthingsodd.co (opens in a new tab)
The ODDfest 2026 launch, 28 January 2026.
2026 · An event and a place
By 2026, the work included ODDfest and ODDference, and ODDspace in Vallila: a place for people to work, meet and make things together.
June 2026: 150+ acts across central Helsinki, and two days of ODDference at Bio Rex, made with a core team, guest curators, volunteers and partners.
Figures: allthingsodd.co.
The year-round part of ODD: workspace, studios, meeting rooms and an event floor, where people from art, design, music, media, technology and business work, host things and cross paths. A pilot, shaped by the people using it.
allthingsodd.co/oddspace (opens in a new tab)
Built from the ground up, learning as we went, with a team, collaborators and people willing to join in. That is the experience I bring into other people’s projects too.
Before ODD, and beside it
01 · Connecting across places
It grew out of the startup incubators three of us from Hanken were building in Rwanda. From spring 2020: events in entrepreneurship, education and entertainment, linking young changemakers in Africa and the Nordics.
Co-founded with Peter Vesterbacka, Vincent Forsman and Victor Lindahl.
02 · Making ideas viable
A creative marketing agency: film and content for clients.
I co-founded the Venture Studio. At Hanken Business Lab, I’ve led fundraising of more than €1.5 million across multiple sources, and since 2025 I’ve been the lab’s Development Manager.
03 · Bringing people into the room
In Finnish, Swedish and English.
Stages
Public voice
(opens in a new tab) News
Ronny Erikssons udda kulturfestival får 200 000 euro
Hufvudstadsbladet, 13 April 2026. The Alfred Kordelin Foundation’s two-year grant to ODDfest. Card photo: Cata Portin / HBL.
Column
”Teknologia ilman merkitystä muuttuu helposti raaka-aineeksi.” In English, our argument Finland builds technology well. The contest is moving to what automation can’t answer: what feels real, earns trust and builds community. That is competitive advantage.
Suomi osaa rakentaa teknologiaa – mutta ymmärtääkö se, mikä maailmaa kiinnostaa?
Kasvuryhmä, 2026. By Ronny Eriksson and Aki Pöntinen.
Radio
Väärinpäin, my Sunday programme on Radio Helsinki, spring 2025.
Also on the record
Work with me
Some ideas I build as my own ventures, others with clients. Either way, I aim to leave a team that can carry it without me.
For a conference, company day or programme that wants a real point of view.
One argument on creativity, culture or entrepreneurship, built for your room.
Polar Bear Pitching, Oulu, 2026: the organiser’s recap (opens in a new tab)
For a team with a concept, story, pitch or decision that needs to move.
People work on their own material and leave with a sharper version and a next step.
For an event, panel or programme that needs its conversation held.
Preparation with your speakers and one thread through the day, in Finnish, Swedish or English.
Väärinpäin, Radio Helsinki: twelve Sunday episodes, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
For a venture, organisation or cultural initiative with an idea to shape, test or build.
Consulting, hands-on work with your team, or recurring advisory. The work decides which.
For conferences, companies, universities, cultural organisations and founders.
Tell me what you have in mind. I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person, and where we’d start.
Thank you. It’s with me.
I’ll reply by email.