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Meet the Team: Topi Tiihonen
After completing a master’s program in civil engineering with a major in water engineering, Topi began his career as a researcher, project manager, developer and CTO. He later joined forces with co-founders Timo and Hannu to create SkenarioLabs.
A basketball fanatic and sustainability expert – get to know the man himself in this exclusive interview.
1. What led you to start the business?
2. What do you see as the USP of the business?
We are in the decision-making business – whether it’s giving a loan, detecting risks or making a real estate investment. We provide accurate and transparent information to support critical decision-making. Climate and sustainability-related regulations are tightening all the time and we give our customers the means to navigate this landscape so they don’t have to worry about anything other than their usual business operations. This allows them to make more money through loans. For digitally-enabled banks, our solutions enable them to be more future-proof and competitive in their loan origination and regulatory management processes – providing an edge over slower, more traditional banks.
The whole regulatory aspect seems the obvious answer, but I’d say our real or most interesting USP is that we give our bank customers, especially the challenger banks, the means to make money in this changing environment.
When banks allow more green mortgages or renovation/retrofit-related loans, it contributes to making our buildings better which is the whole reason we do what we do.
3. What advice would you give to founders who are just starting out?
You HAVE to be passionate about what you do. It cannot feel like work – ever. And you have to be super, super resilient.
You don’t necessarily need to be a 100% match with who you are putting the business together with, but you do need to trust them completely. More than your loved ones even, since you will probably spend more time together in the beginning at least. Back in the day, we did one of those psychological matchmaking tests for founders which showed that we were all very different (which of course we knew anyway!). But, these different mindsets, ways of working, management styles and backgrounds create a dynamic that really helps a founding team.
4. How do you define success?
It’s not just one thing. For me personally, it would broadly be leaving a legacy for the better. Not always in the sense of improving efficiency – it could be changes that contribute towards greener homes, a better environment, overall sustainability and so on.
Looking at how long we have been around and what we do for our customers, we’ve already transformed some aspects of the lending process, and are seeing positive changes in how renovation loans are granted too, so we are on the right path. You of course need to measure success in terms of revenue and value, but it starts with the impact then the rest follows.
5. What is the biggest growth opportunity for the company?
Green finance…*laughs* – well, this is our usual pitch…
We know 80% of the buildings that stand today need to be renovated. No matter where you are, they need to be renovated. What we do is make it easy for the people responsible for driving this green transition. We make it easier for them to do the actual financing, and easier to navigate the regulatory challenges that come with that.
That’s the biggest growth opportunity, but it’s not one single solution or thing that we do. You need to manage the loan process, tracking, risk detection and everything reporting-related, as well as ensuring engagement from the borrowers living in the homes. So there’s lots to do – and opportunities to excel in every one of these areas.
6. What are some of your daily habits?
I try to do sports every day. I play amateur basketball to quite a high level, very amateur football (or soccer), and I run.
I don’t take too many vacations, and instead, try to make my everyday life include everything inside a normal day that makes me happy. I have a big family too and always wake up early, so will do sports before work or after I put the kids to bed – sometimes both, depending on the day.
7. If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing instead?
I’d probably be doing something around water engineering. That is my background and something that still puzzles me.
I’m happy that the company has gone a little bit in that direction with the physical risks side. My whole career before this was dedicated to assessing the effects of climate change on water resources management, infrastructure and systems – so perhaps something like being a researcher.
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Thank you Topi for the interview!
