Jarkko Hyvärinen

Most boards of companies selling into financial institutions have investors, technologists and salespeople around the table. What they usually lack is someone who has been the customer.

I spent twenty years inside Nordic wealth and asset management. Private banking and investment advisory at OP Financial Group, then wealth management back office and fund administration, then system Product Owner for pension investment insurance and markets systems. I have been the person who evaluates a vendor, and the person who has to live with that decision for the next five years.

What I bring to a board is a reality check on the thing that most often kills these companies: the sales pipeline. I can tell the difference between a pipeline of genuine buying processes and a pipeline of interested conversations that will never reach a decision. I can say which regulatory or procurement gate a deal is actually stuck behind, and whether the promised timeline is realistic or a year optimistic.

Who benefits most: fintech, wealthtech and regtech companies selling to Nordic banks, asset managers and insurers, particularly at the stage where go to market is the risk rather than the product. Non Nordic vendors entering the Nordic market. Mid sized Nordic wealth and asset managers facing platform modernisation or outsourcing decisions. And investors who need an operating advisor with genuine buy side depth in a portfolio company.