People // Product // Leadership

Niki Dolenc

Short Summary: I'm concerned with leaving everything I touch in better shape than I found it, whether individuals, teams, or organizations. I strive to work for a better future where I am happy to raise my children.

I regard myself as a self-employed network entrepreneur. My skill set is as broad as my network. If something needs to be done and I do not know how to do it, I'll find someone in my network who can. I'm always concerned with maximizing the human capital of my network. I help where help is needed, knowing that true value is created in interactions as information does not become knowledge if not shared. I do not sit around and wait for opportunities in life; I create them.

The world will never change this slow again. I ensure change does not impede anyone I work with.

My experience comes from:
- Smartly.io a startup dealing with the positive challenges of hyper-growth
- Board membership in a couple of organizations engaging in endeavors I personally find interesting. 
- Leadership position at Slush, a non-profit organization serving the next world-conquering entrepreneurs 
- Professional basketball, playing through all youth national teams
- Studying Computer Science, major in Software Project Management and minors in Organisational Networks & Leadership.
- Event business, the fifth most stressful job in the world, is being an event producer.     
- Having a multinational background, we speak four languages at family dinners.

Specialties:
Business development, Agile working methodologies, Project management, Customer Experience Design, Coaching, Facilitating work & meetings, Event Production, Public Speaking, Knowledge-centered organizational design, Feedback and leadership training, Social Media Marketing

"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not?"
- Pablo Picasso

For more stories and thoughts: nicolasdolenc.medium.com

Radicl, for me, is a means to an end. I employ myself by taking part in interesting projects, and through my company, I help others accomplish their dreams. Whatever your quest is for a better future, know that I am here, so you don't need to walk alone. 

Radicl is not a full-time job if I don't want it to be, but it reminds me that working for anyone is always a choice, not a must.  

2021 - Present - Radicl Consulting
Revised focused of business to coaching CEOs & Business leaders on leadership, knowledge management, organizational design, and employee life-cycle strategies. Additionally, I deliver best-in-class training for managers on basic skills such as giving & receiving feedback, active listening, appreciation, and structuring teamwork. 

Also, networking is what I do. Whatever you're looking for, I might know someone who can be of value to you, and networking is not something I charge for. Happy to help!

Client projects: 
- Coaching ahead of people in talent development strategies in fast-growing global B2B startup (Series B ~40M) 
- Coaching a CEO in a well-established B2C company ~30M in global annual revenue.
- Helping a founder of a health tech startup of the ground (product-market fit, production partners, assembling team, funding network)

2018-2020 - No activity

2014-2017 - Radicl Entertainment

Through Radicl Entertainment, I've been a part of several event productions and produced some myself. Booked artists for venues and festivals, along with helping them in their careers. I've also consulted on several company business plans and helped fresh entrepreneurs with practicalities on setting up businesses.

Event projects: 
- Slush (Business event)
- Tikkurila Festivaalit (Music Festival)
- Floorluv (Night club concept)
- 80/20 Consulting (Night club events)

Manager projects: 
- Rony Rex
- Adry & OMR
- Laz Perkins
- The Ninth Floor

Human Synergist & Founder

Tesseract is a Fin-FSA regulated digital asset innovator backed by reputable investors, focusing on institutional brokerage and asset management. We serve investors, retail trading platforms, custodians, and borrowers of capital globally with novel technology solutions that safeguard client assets and optimise capital efficiency. Tesseract raised the countries biggest Series-A in June 2021.

Fix term contract helping with employee lifecycle initiatives, most of time spent on recruitment.

Head of Talent

Quit the previous job without a plan to take a creative break before figuring out the next worthy pursuit. Mostly trying to recover mentally and physically, as well as catching up with friends. Also spent time writing, producing several articles published on Medium: nicolasdolenc.medium.com.

Creative Break

At Smartly, I sat in the people team and was a part of or owned the following activities:

- Facilitating internal all-hands events weekly and yearly that both drive strategy execution and internal knowledge sharing. Additionally, driving new communication practices for improved transparency and clarity. 
- Developing and maintaining an internal leadership training program, in addition to designing and hosting sessions myself.
- Developed content for and facilitated the creation of the companies leadership handbook
- Sourced & Vetted leadership training coach for the leadership team. 
- Supporting teams and individuals by coaching/facilitating to overcome obstacles in their daily work
- Facilitating all internal engagement related surveys, analyzing them, and designing action suggestions for action plans
- Developing and maintaining onboarding practices for new Smarties
- Contributing to hiring practices, HR practices, performance management practices, employer branding, sourcing candidates, and hiring for special roles. 
- Developing and maintaining company values practices, in addition to how these are used. 

Whenever I wasn't doing development work of new people practices or helping different teams with ad-hoc requests, I spent time with new employees & new managers. 

What can my title Human Catalyst be compared to? Chief of Staff activities, Change leadership, Head of L&D, among others. I'm just "coining" a title for a role that should exist in all future knowledge-centered organizations experiencing hyper-growth.

Human Catalyst

The Shortcut is a community-driven organization that promotes diversity as an engine for growth.

We inspire and empower our community through gatherings, workshops, training, and programs that help people explore ideas, share knowledge and develop skills to enable new talents required in startup life.

We want more people from diverse backgrounds to consider creating or working for a startup to utilize their skills and aspirations best.

The main criterion for participating is ATTITUDE: if you are curious about technology and entrepreneurship, you are welcome to join us. This is your starting point to take an active role in (re)building your future.

The Shortcut is a non-profit organization owned by Startup Foundation sr. And a sister organization to Slush and Startup Sauna.

I joined the board upon being requested because I am a son of an immigrant who is a son of an immigrant. I've always made friends with people from diverse backgrounds, and being close to the shortcut allows me to help my network more efficiently. 

Board membership contributions: Connections in the startup community, effective teamwork, business modeling (especially productizing events, training programs, and services the shortcut provides to its stakeholders)

Board Member

Hook Finland Oy is a company producing creative content for the entertainment industry. Initiated the Slush Music project with them in 2016 during my time as president at Slush and continued as a board member.

Board membership contribution: Business modeling, Effective teamwork, Connection in the startup community

Slush is the focal point for Eurasian startups and tech talent to meet with top-tier international companies, investors, and media. The main two-day event occurs every fall in wintery Scandinavia amidst one of the world's most dynamic tech ecosystems. 

During my time and Slush, the event grew from one 14 000 person event in Helsinki with 1200 volunteers to 75 Slush Branded events across the globe with the 4 major ones organized in Helsinki, Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo, 38 000 attendees globally, and 4000 volunteers with over a 1000 event professionals in 2017. 

 As the president of Slush, I had to:
- Represent the organization whenever needed. Presenting at events, participating in conversations with government officials, startup/corporate CEO's/Executives, etc.
- Had to be the clearest embodiment of the values of the organization
- Provide clarity of purpose to the people working for the organization. 
- Most of the daily tasks included cultivating human capital by ensuring the right people were communicating with each other, about the right things and in a productive manner. 
- Ensuring the adequate training programs and education was conducted

President

As the executive producer, I was in charge of the event in its entirety. In other words, in charge of the companies core product. 

As the executive producer, I had to:
- structure the organization according to the business needs and ensure everyone had the information & tools to do their job. 
- Facilitating partnership discussions with key stakeholders
- Driving new business opportunities and the creation of new event concepts
- Overseeing the development of customer service programs and products
- Ensuring data was gathered and events improved based on gathered data

Executive Producer

Event producing, Event consulting, Artist management, Artist agent. Laid down this entity and started conducting the same business through my own LLC Radicl Entertainment Oy

Founder

As a member of the core team I'm responsible for running all side events outside of the main conference site.

Head of Parties

Event management, Team leadership, customer relations