Fondion's first customers love the product, which practically solves specific and critical business problems. Month after month, Fondion has set sales records. In the coming months, Fondion will grow its go-to-market and tech teams with colleagues that are eager to join a high growth story.
But let's go back a bit, and start with the story. What kind of company is Fondion, how did the founders come up with the idea, and what should you know about us as a workplace?
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#1 A jaw-dropping problem to solve
The man behind Fondion's business idea and one of our founders, Mauno Valli, was still working in the construction industry a few years ago. He did daily work that Fondion's current customers are doing now. Mauno was surprised about one thing, day after day.
There were no tools in use that would support the company's core operations in real time. In other words, there was no comprehensive software that helped companies to deliver construction projects on time and on budget. And if daily decision-making was based on data, it was always just like looking in the rear-view mirror: digging up some old data and looking at the past. It was not real-time nor future-oriented.
“As a problem solver myself, I thought this problem must have been resolved already. I asked other people how they handled it. My jaw dropped more and more finding out that there is actually no system that solves these central problems of the businesses yet”, Mauno thinks back.
#2 Smoother everyday life for businesses and people
A software solution was needed that would have certain key business-supporting functions in the same package. Of course, there were partial solutions on the market: one solved one problem, the other solved another.
“Personally, I longed for a view where all the most important decision-making data was in the same package – a view of today and tomorrow. I wished it would be possible to accurately monitor what is essential for the business”, Mauno describes.
An idea for a new software business began to shape. The idea was to increase financial visibility, to create more accurate tenders, to streamline economic processes, to bring in appropriate automation and to eliminate administrative routines and human errors.
“Our product would bring real-time transparency to how the business is doing. For example, customer management, projects and the business situation would be in one view. Our purpose would be to make every day smoother for businesses and people”, Mauno says enthusiastically.
#3 Steadily growing business and happy customers
Fondion’s business was founded in 2020 by Mauno and other founders with backgrounds in business and technology. Now, by 2023, Fondion has gained more than 100 companies as customers, and is about to start expanding in the international markets.
Today, Fondion's short-term goal is to enter the market strongly, gain more recognition and get a growing number of happy customers as users. Fondion has already succeeded in building a solution that customers are really excited about.
“There has been an accelerating pace with getting new customers. For 8 months straight, we have set a sales record. Customers are ready to pay for our product. We have been amazed, because our customers talk about us and recommend our product proactively”, Mauno says.
#4 Employees are generously rewarded for great performance
“We have proactively awarded our people for their outstanding performances. Salary discussions are being held, and salary raises are being suggested without our people having to ask for them. For example, recently, one of our people had developed considerably, so I called and asked if it was okay to increase their salary”, Mauno says with a smile.
At Fondion, we want to engage excellent employees on our growth journey. A certain share of Fondion's ownership has been reserved for employees in order to engage key people.
“We are building a successful business and a good workplace, so we want people to work for us long-term. As a result, employees who join us to create the growth, also have the opportunity to become company owners”, Mauno says.
#5 Always one step ahead – The green transition is a great example
Fondion lives as it teaches, looking (instead of the reversing mirror) to the future and future problems.
“I have a childlike passion to be one step ahead. An example of this is the green transition, which most system vendors are still not responding to. In Kauppalehti, it was news that you can read the carbon footprint realization from the purchase invoice. We aim to plan proactively for these things – past knowledge is only nice-to-know”, Mauno says with a smile. This is something we will focus on in the future.
“We already thought 3 years ago, what will be important in 5 years, and how to expand so that the system enables the green transition in the future. We aim to achieve a situation where it is easy to calculate the environmental burden already at the design stage. A roadmap has already been made to support it and we've put a huge amount of effort into it. It will be easy to calculate already in the planning phase how much, for example, the house to be built will burden the environment”, Mauno says.
Things don’t have to be more complicated than that, do they?
#6 The leadership lessons that have made us wiser
“In our team we have seen in our previous careers that someone has been a key player, but the company hasn’t engaged them in any way, or the salary model hasn’t been rewarding enough to keep key players. In many companies, for example, 100 % ownership is kept private. Our founding team doesn’t want to repeat the same leadership mistakes that we have experienced ourselves,” Mauno says.
Instead, Fondion’s founders have really put thought on how the company is being led. Fondion’s leadership can be described as solution-oriented, supporting and collaborative.
“I approach problems with a solution-oriented approach. We handle challenges with brainstorming, not merely feedback discussions. Or if the success rate is low, we reserve a couple of hours, gather experiences and think about solutions together. As leaders, we want to be people you can rely on”, Mauno says.
#7 Culture and workplace based on openness and learning
Integrity, openness, proactivity and ownership are traits that are valued in Fondion’s team.
Mauno says that he wants to keep the culture as such, that all things can be talked about and said directly. Also, everyone can say their ideas out loud – there is no hierarchy in who gets to suggest new ways of doing things. Even the most recent newcomers can throw their ideas on the table.
“One of the newest additions to our team said that they have an idea on how to develop our sales deck. We arranged a meeting to go through the idea and talk about it. And the idea they presented, that was ridiculously good!” Mauno says enthusiastically.
“The professional development of employees is also important to us: we want to support it constantly. We see learning and development as an investment, and the whole company gets more when people can do and know more”, Mauno adds.
#8 Collaboration through interfaces
A smooth everyday life, with a view to tomorrow – solving the customers' core business problem is central to Fondion's strategy and product roadmap. This mission is also supported by a modern way of positioning in the market.
“Our goal is to get all core things to work as easily as possible for our customers. However, we don't have to solve everything ourselves, but we aim to build partnerships. We are a bit of an unusual operator because we do not see competitors as competitors, but as potential partners”, Mauno describes.
For example, our solution connects to the services of different companies through interfaces. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we focus on solving novel problems, utilizing integrations.
“We are now starting to be ready for the market, and the main pain points are soon solved. Our product can then serve 80 % of the market with the help of interfaces, and new interfaces will be ready within weeks. In this way, we will soon get out of the pressure and can move to innovative development as a team”, Mauno says.
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