How did we get here? The history of MyNextRun

The story of MyNextRun begins in 2010, when the founders first met each other. It’s now time to shed light on the events that have led to what MyNextRun is today:

How it all began

In 2010, MyNextRun’s current CEO Emma Huovinen was still a student at the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. Daring as she is, she’d decided to take part in the Stockholm Marathon without any training. The Stockholm Marathon happened to fit her schedule better than any Finnish event, not that she really even knew of other events at the time. When a spot for the sold-out marathon was arranged through a travel agency, she went through with the decision. The no training -part was no exaggeration, and the experience without any proper running background was brutal, to say the least. Halfway through her aching back and ankle almost forced Emma to quit, but she fought all the way to the finish.
 

Emma started to run actively after Stochkholm Marathon 2010 (picture source: Kauppalehti)

The marathon experience, brutal as it was, did leave something in the back of her mind, as it didn’t take long until she found herself discussing the topic with her future MyNextRun founder colleagues Tatu Mäkilä and Sami Granfors. At the time, all three were teaching future business minds at Valmennuskeskus, a training program to prepare for the entrance exams of the School of Economics.

Sami, a passionate runner with several marathons under his belt, was well on his way on a bank career at Nordea, where he had ended up after his studies. He did, however, find the bank world to be bureaucratic and inflexible for an entrepreneur-at-heart. Sami had also spent a year in France at the highly-regarded Insead, and come back with an MBA and a pocket full of ideas.
 

Sami running at The Summer Run 2013

Be it destiny or not, but what had especially stuck in Sami’s mind from Insead was Andy Phillips’ lecture about marketplaces. Andy himself had created a successful marketplace for accommodation in Active Hotels, later to be known as Booking.com. Neither Andy nor Sami knew at the time, though, that Andy would become one of MyNextRun’s investors.

In the summer of 2010, Emma, Sami and Tatu Mäkilä were at the summer party of Valmennuskeskus, when the three got to talking. Tatu ended up telling the others about a website he had found that was enjoying decent monthly traffic just by listing different sports events. Here, the three runners saw an opportunity for something new, exciting and needed - a site that would gather running events and enable signing up for them directly. According to the founders, this was one of the first discussions that finally led to them pooling their resources and starting MyNextRun that same year.  
 

The Company is Born

During the years 2010 to 2012 the firm existed mostly as a dormant company, although some preliminary iterations were already conducted. At the time, none of the founders worked on the company full time, until an office was rented in 2012 in Eerikinkatu street, centre of Helsinki, and the operations really got started. At this point Samuli Heljo joined the group as a developer to build the service.
 

Our first office, Eerikinkatu Dungeon, behind the red taped window

The original Urheilemaan.fi website was rapidly updated into the next version, and the name was changed to MyNextMarathon. In the minds of the founders, MyNextMarathon shone as a future marketplace for running - an outstanding online destination to search for running events and sign up for them, a website where runners would rush to from all over the world to find their next running adventure.
 

MyNextRun was first born under the name Urheilemaan.fi

However, attracting users wasn’t all that simple. Starting the operational service and establishing cooperation with payment providers took a lot of time, effort and bureaucracy. Then, of course, the running event organisers needed to be convinced to cooperate - this wasn’t a piece of cake with organisers who already had their own registration system.

Tatu started to spend all his time and effort on the matter, and had countless talks with the event organisers. In no time, the first partnerships had been set up. At this point the chosen strategy was to grow through event organisers, and trust that page visitors would follow.
 

Growth and Challenges

The visitor traffic did grow alongside the partner count, but the visitor amounts were not high enough, and not growing fast enough. All too often MyNextMarathon was a registration service on the side, and the flow of visitor was simply insufficient. The business did grow through these activities, despite occasional doubts about the chosen path.

Things were naturally pondered and analysed a lot, and improvement ideas thrown around. At this point it dawned on the founders what many business creators had noticed before them: no one has the right answers ready. The pressures of a new business felt all too real, and with the resources at hand, emphasis decisions had to be made in part blindly.

After countless discussions and brainstorming, it was decided to remain on the chosen strategy to search for growth through an increasing number of partner events. Partnerships were established at a growing pace both in Finland and now also abroad. The quest for new partners was executed with hard work and persistence. At the end of 2012, the name of the company was changed to what it is now - MyNextRun.

In early 2013, the company reached the landmark of 100 partner events. In the Eerikinkatu office the achievement was celebrated with champagne, brought by MyNextRun’s first investor Jari Malmivaara. Jari wasn’t, however, the only person in the background at the time - the startup activist Asmo Halinen had worked as a mentor for the company even before the office was rented.

Reaching the landmark strengthened the belief that focusing on the supply side of the marketplace would lead to the goal and bring the desired user amounts, and the critical volume, that would eventually create the marketplace.

In 2013, the company got investments from Reaktor Polte, Juha Saarinen and Pentti Mansukoski. The collected funding of 150 000 € was of course a sign of the potential of the business, and brought valuable support and confidence to the founders, who were still battling with everyday challenges.

Ironically, the most difficult moments of the company’s history also happened in 2013. Despite the funding, the increase of the turnover was slow, because typical to the business, the revenue often follows much later, latest in the following year. The growth of the company resulted in increase in expenses, so the runway looked dauntingly short. Another factor in the hardship was the rejected Tekes-application, a funding application with much at stake. Money was about to run out.

It was two things that finally resolved the crisis. The first was a change in strategy to a stronger emphasis on an extended registration service where MyNextRun handles all the registrations of an event. In sales, the full potential of existing customers was utilised, alongside bringing in new customers. Another turning point was an investment from Dreadnought Finance, among others, that helped the company back into the clear.
 

The Rest is History

The 300 partner event mark was celebrated in January 2014. In the same year, the again renewed website received a million visits, in comparison to the visitor amount of 250 000 in 2013. The year 2014 also saw new investors come onboard, such as the previously mentioned Andy Phillips, as well as Moaffak Ahmed, both meritorious marketplace creators.
 

In 2013, MyNextRun moved to Autotalo in Helsinki, where the current office is also located

Fast forward to the present, October 2015. MyNextRun has 800 partner events from 35 different countries, and an estimated 2 million visitors to be expected on the site this year. Several people have become a part of the MyNextRun story along the way, as employees, investors and friends. The company currently consists of 15 people. Location has changed into now the third office since Eerikinkatu - the house warming party was held last week.

The growth continues, and so does the hard work. MyNextRun team is constantly growing - a top result can only be achieved with the help of top notch people. More will follow, stay tuned!