Startup entrepreneur, competitive athlete and father of a baby – Antti Hämmäinen has a secret that explains everything

The wind has picked up at the rowing stadium and it’s freezing cold from the sea. Startup entrepreneur Antti Hämäinen the morning has started like every weekday morning. He woke up at six o’clock and arrived at the rowing stadium at half past seven.

“The morning goes efficiently when you start early. I usually row 10-15 kilometers, it’s a basic workout. Today I was in the water for 40 minutes, the weather is pretty bad now,” he says.

Hämäinen cabins on the shore of Rowing Stadium and maintains his new boat. The boat is eight meters long, but only 30 centimeters wide. How can it stay upright at sea?

“It requires balance and technique. The boat is very nimble,” says Hämmäinen.

Classic rowing is a traditional endurance sport in which Finns have reaped success in recent years, less so in recent years. Now the sport has a new passionate racing enthusiast in Antti Hämmäinen whose goal is to compete at the SM level.

What is special is that the 28-year-old Hämäinen has time for competitive sports in his calendar, because he is also rapidly growing Synergy-startup CEO and one of the founders – and also the father of little baby Matilda.

But according to Hämäinen, there is plenty of time. His secret is a time management technique that boils down to the idea of ​​168 hours.

Weekly hours for full use

At the edge of Helsinki’s Old Church Park, there is a prestigious building whose conference room echoes the sound of a tram rumbling down the Boulevard. Hämäinen sits in Synerg’s office and explains his idea of ​​168 hours – that is, how he has enough time for everything.

168 is the number of hours in a week. Hämäinen calculates that it takes about 50-60 hours to fall asleep. He calculates that he works for 10 hours on a weekday, a little less on the weekend. About 60 hours remain.

“After all, it’s quite a lot of time. If I train 15 hours in a basic week, there’s still quite a lot left over.”

Everything supports everything, that’s another of Hämäinen’s main ideas. When you are physically and mentally in good shape, you can give more of yourself to others. Family is her number one priority, and at home she also wants to be active and participate instead of collapsing on the sofa.

“I feel that I’m a pretty stress-free person.”

Competition in the blood

The competitive spirit has always driven Hämmääi forward. When he was young, he played basketball at the championship level. Before he found sudu, his sport was triathlon, where the goal was to run a full triathlon in less than ten hours.

When that achievement was on the poster, Hämäinen’s appetite drew him to a new sport. And then we found rowing.

“I’m really competitive. That’s probably also the reason why I ended up in a business career. I feel like entrepreneurship is the closest way to measure your own potential.”

He went to Aalto University of Economics and Business straight from high school, and in Aalto he immediately found a path to growth companies.

The ketchup bottle popped

Four years ago, we lived in the period after the war of aggression in Russia, when everything became expensive by force. The shocking rise in the price of electricity created an energy crisis in Europe. At the same time, households went through electrification and electric transition.

Antti Hämmäinen and Harri Iisakka saw that the moment had come and founded their own startup, Synergi.

Synergi’s application helps households to optimize their electricity consumption during the cheapest electricity times and to equalize the demand pressure on electricity networks from time to time.

“A typical user of Synerg is a household with an electric car, air heat pump and solar panels. He uses our software to optimize, for example, car charging for the cheapest hours according to spot electricity or to optimize the use of a heat pump.”

The application aimed at households is Synerg’s original idea and product, but last year it was joined by a new business area. According to Hämäinen, it has knocked over a bottle of ketchup.

It is a service provided to energy companies and electricity network operators, which Hämmäinen calls technical aggregation. It brings together household consumption and production into one big entity, which Synergi offers via an interface to energy companies and various consumption flexibility marketplaces.

According to Hämäinen, the technical aggregation service has quadrupled its turnover since December and now the growth is fast.

“We have been on time in the market. Now that the market is starting to be ready, we are in a good position.”

Synergi’s turnover last year was 111,000 euros, and Hämmäinen says he expects it to increase tenfold this year.

“We expect to achieve a turnover of around one million euros this year.”

The company now has users in 15 countries and its core markets are Finland and Switzerland. It has 10 electricity companies as customers.

Synergi’s team has also grown, although according to Hämmäinen, it is still quite moderate. There are now 13 employees.

The feeling of inadequacy bothers me

At the rowing stadium, Hämmäinen has completed his morning training, taken a warm shower and changed into work clothes.

In the afternoon, Hämmäinen goes on a business trip to Stockholm to meet investors and customers. Synergi has completed two financing rounds, and now the next financing round is already in sight.

Finns have been the main investors in Synerg Lifeline Ventures and Greencode Ventures.

The startup entrepreneur has not had to lose many sleepless nights because of work.

“I used to think I was efficient, but now there’s new pressure. You have to think about what you’re doing at any point in the day.”

Before the start of the working day, he makes a point of greeting his spouse who has gone for a carriage walk Iris Amazing and baby Matilda in the pram.

Matilda’s birth changed Hämäinen’s priorities. With the baby, there was also a new variable in the time-use palette, with whom he wants to spend time.

“We have been lucky, because there have been no health concerns and Matilda sleeps well.”

Hämmäinen says that he doesn’t want to be an absent father, but the opposite.

“I don’t want to be a father who is never present, and for whom other things come first. Yes, family is the most important thing, then work and then sports. It is difficult to combine everything, but I feel that it has been extremely successful. Even though the days are long.”

However, one new thing has become familiar: a constant feeling of inadequacy.

“I laughed at the monthly meeting today that nowadays there is always a bit of a bad conscience in one direction or another,” says Hämmäinen.

“If you’re at work, you feel bad for not being at home. When you’re at home, you feel bad for not being at work. And when you’re playing sports, it goes both ways.”