News

One Lecture Changed Everything

In the 1990s, Heino Ruottinen from Tammela, the founder of technology company Mitron, stepped into a lecture hall at Häme University of Applied Sciences to speak to engineering students about employment opportunities in the field. He spoke candidly about career prospects but also introduced an option that many young people at the time barely dared to consider seriously: entrepreneurship.

Sitting in the front row was a group of four—Sami Kotiniemi, Kari Vainio, Antti Aaltonen, and Jussi Tiensuu—who seemed to listen to every word with particular focus. They asked questions, nodded along, and took notes of every practical piece of advice.

Some time later, Ruottinen learned that these same students had founded their own company, DA-Design.

“I thought, well look at that—they really meant it,” Ruottinen recalls.

The newly founded company began looking for customers quite literally by going door to door, knocking on every possible door. One of those knocks led them to Mitron, where the reception was warm.
“They came to us as well to present their work and expertise. Somehow that led to me joining DA as an owner,” Ruottinen says with a smile.

Ruottinen describes his early role at DA-Design primarily as that of a mentor.
“The boys ran the company themselves. I sat on the board for five years until I realized they were doing just fine on their own,” he laughs.

Although Ruottinen stepped back and gave space as DA moved forward independently, cooperation between Mitron and DA continued naturally. DA-Design provided product development services to Mitron, and in 2006 it acquired Mitron’s media research business unit. The acquisition took DA into a new area: developing and selling TV audience measurement devices for international markets.

According to Ruottinen, DA’s success has been driven by the courage to make bold moves and to take on things no one had done before—profitably at that.
“You have to do things differently and better than your neighbor,” he sums up.

---

Curiosity and New Opportunities

Thirty years later, Ruottinen is still pleased and proud to have been part of a local success story.

“It’s not a given that the same leaders have managed to grow and move a company forward continuously for three decades,” he notes.

Ruottinen believes new entrepreneurs should be supported, but he also admits that he himself learned a great deal along the way. What began as an entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur relationship ultimately evolved into a mutually beneficial symbiosis.

“You have to remember to learn something new every day. Things that are two weeks old are already outdated, and you need something new on the table,” Ruottinen says.

Ruottinen remains on friendly terms and in contact with DA’s founders. For a long time now, they have been colleagues, as the former engineering students have grown into accomplished technology leaders—“as they should,” he says.

What began with curiosity now continues as growth and new opportunities.