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The aroma of coffee fills the air, and laughter flows freely in the meeting room. Antti, seated at the table, and Sami, standing opposite him, dive into stories from DA’s early days—a time when the engineer-driven company hired its first employee without an engineering background.

“They didn’t stay very long,” Sami quips with a twinkle in his eye, playfully referring to the engineers’ technical world. The room erupts in laughter.

Originally, Sami was only supposed to escort Antti to the interview after a tour of DA-Group’s premises. Moments later, however, he finds himself swept up in the storytelling as well. Memories come flooding back, and alongside the laughter rises a warm sense of gratitude when the conversation turns to long-serving employees.

“It’s amazing that the same people have enjoyed working here since the early days. Or at least stayed,” Sami grins, and the group bursts out laughing once more.

But behind the laughter there is deep appreciation. When speaking about long-term employees, there is warmth, respect, and recognition of the commitment that has carried the company forward year after year. It is by no means a given that DA has been able to continuously employ people for 30 years.

With a few closing remarks, the door shuts. The room falls quiet for a moment. The memories still linger in the air, and it’s time to begin the interview.

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Antti Aaltonen, one of the four founders of DA-Group, left the company in 2011. Behind the decision was a desire to make a lifestyle change and try something entirely different.

“I left all technology behind and moved into advisory and customer-focused work. It was liberating to do something completely different from what I had been doing for the past 15 years,” Aaltonen says.

Although DA grew significantly during his time there, growth alone was not enough to offer new opportunities.

“It just happened,” Aaltonen reflects now, recalling that he didn’t give the decision much thought at the time.

After his career at DA, Aaltonen has followed the company’s journey with admiration, though no longer very actively: “DA is a life left behind.” He has been particularly impressed by the scale and specialized expertise with which the company operates today. He also highlights several major acquisitions as significant achievements.

Founding a company while studying felt natural to him.

“As a student, it was easy to start a company because there was nothing to lose. It was truly open-minded. If we hadn’t founded DA, nothing else that came later would have existed either,” he says.

In hindsight, Aaltonen has reflected on his career, which included both successes and failures. He admits that he should have listened to employees more and taken their feedback into greater account. Those moments helped him grow as a leader.

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Colleagues Were a Matter of the Heart

Still, he highlights the work community as the most rewarding part of his career. Especially in the early years, everyone was friends with one another—young people in their twenties, having fun together both at work and outside of it. Sauna evenings were highlights that people attended unless there was a truly serious reason not to.

“Colleagues were friends, and that’s the greatest thing DA gave me,” he sums up.

Aaltonen hopes that DA-Group will continue to nurture employee well-being and a strong sense of community in the spirit of a family business.

“We may not have systematically thought about taking care of employees back then [during Aaltonen’s time], but it came naturally,” he notes.

Despite all the challenges and problems, DA has always moved forward. Behind the company’s long history lies a clear goal and a vision of what kind of company it wants to be: “That’s what has made a 30-year company story possible,” Aaltonen concludes.

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The recorder clicks off, and thanks are exchanged. Coffee cups are returned to the cafeteria counter, and a few final jokes are thrown along the way.

Warm light floods in through the large windows of the lobby, casting long shadows across the floor. Footsteps echo softly as they head toward the exit. The door opens, farewells are said. Antti returns his access badge to the doorman by the gate, takes one last look back, and continues on his way. The car starts, and moments later he is already driving off—still returning in his thoughts to the work community that felt above all like a group of friends.

As the final question of the interview, he was asked what he would write in DA-Group’s 30th anniversary book. Antti smiled and replied:

“Forward together – have a great journey.”

The sentence lingered in the atmosphere, warm and uplifting.