From a Small Village to CTO

I’m Risto — a coder and entrepreneur from Oulu, Northern Finland. I grew up in a tiny village where you learned to build things properly or not at all. I started writing C++ for car systems. Today I lead tech for a media house with 300K+ users, build a marketplace for Nordic natural products, and help companies put AI to real use.

CTO · Full-Stack Developer · AI Solutions · Startup Founder

10+ years building softwareCTO at two companiesFounded 2 startups

Get in Touch

Slush Oulu 2025

Startup Pitch Competitor

10+

Years Experience

1M+

Monthly Users on Platforms Built

300K+

Registered Users

Production Platforms

Risto presenting at Startup Oulu launch event

Risto networking at Together we'll change the world event

From a Small Village to Building AI for Nordic Companies

I didn’t start in tech hubs or VC circles. I started in the forests of Northern Finland, where you learn to build things that actually work.

Roots

Grew up in Arkala, a small village in Ylikiiminki near Oulu. Forests, fishing, and berry picking shaped how I think about building things — practical, rooted, no waste.

2016

Started in embedded systems and automotive software, writing C++ for car infotainment systems at Unikie and Neusoft for major OEM manufacturers.

2020

Moved into full-stack — React, Django, Node.js. Built SMS platforms processing 10M+ messages monthly at NextUp. Shipped fast, learned what scales.

2022

Joined Fintech company as an external developer. Built cloud chat applications serving 2M+ banking customers on AWS and Kubernetes.

2024

Became CTO at Rakentaja Mediat — took on 40+ years of legacy systems across 7 media sites with 300K+ registered users. Cut page load times by 60%, built AWS infrastructure from scratch.

2025

Founded Willit — a marketplace connecting Nordic producers, fishers, and foragers directly with consumers. Featured in Kaleva. Pitched at Slush Oulu. Honored by the Polar Foundation's Arctic Futures Award.

Now

Running dual CTO roles while consulting on AI lead generation and custom assistants for Finnish B2B companies. Building from Oulu, shipping to the Nordics.

Stop Wasting Time on Manual Work

See what changes when AI handles the heavy lifting

Sales team wastes 5 hours/week finding leads

AI finds and enriches 100 leads while you sleep

Support inbox drowning in repeat questions

AI assistant handles 80% of inquiries 24/7

No technical co-founder to guide architecture

Fractional CTO brings 10+ years of leadership on demand

Three Ways I Can Help

Focused services that deliver measurable ROI for B2B companies

AI Lead Generation

Automated prospecting, lead enrichment, and personalized outreach. Your sales pipeline fills itself while your team focuses on closing.

Custom AI Assistants

Purpose-built for your business, deployed on your servers. Customer support, internal knowledge bases, and workflow automation that actually understands your domain.

Fractional CTO

Part-time technical leadership without the full-time cost. Architecture reviews, team guidance, roadmap planning, and hands-on development when needed.

Discuss Your Project

Case Studies

Rakentaja Media Network

As CTO, I led the technical transformation of Finland’s largest construction media platform — refactoring 40+ years of legacy systems into a modern, scalable network serving hundreds of thousands of users monthly.

700K+

Monthly visits

300K+

Registered users

Interconnected sites

40+

Years of legacy modernized

Key Results

Reduced page load times by 60% through modern stack migration

Built AWS infrastructure from scratch achieving 99.5% uptime

Unified 7 branded sites on a shared microfrontend platform

Modernized content management powering editorial workflows

Willit Marketplace

Founded Willit to connect Nordic producers, fishers, hunters, and foragers directly with consumers — eliminating unnecessary middlemen. Built from scratch as a Rails 8 monolith with 99.9% uptime.

Rails 8

Monolith

99.9%

Uptime

Nordic

Market scope

Featured in Kaleva — “Like Vinted, but for forest products”

Skoutti

AI-powered B2B lead reports, delivered automatically. You give us a company name and website. Our AI analyzes the business, scans hundreds of sources, and delivers a ready-made report with targeted leads, decision-maker contacts, and personalized outreach messages.

~10min

Report delivery

100+

Sources scanned

Output

No manual research. No generic lists. Just relevant leads with reasoning for why each one fits.

Try Skoutti

Your Data Stays in Finland

Security isn’t an add-on — it’s the foundation. Every solution is built for European data sovereignty from the ground up.

On-Premise Deployment

AI runs on your servers. Your data never touches third-party infrastructure.

GDPR by Default

Built for European compliance from day one. No retrofitting, no surprises.

Full Data Sovereignty

You own and control every byte. No vendor lock-in, no data sharing.

Let’s Talk

Tell me about your project. Free 30-minute consultation to see if we’re a good fit.