Icebreaker.vc

I know some of you have been waiting eagerly for this... Today marks a defining moment for Smart Microscopy as we open up usage for Cytely Essentials – the self-serve product that advances microscopy from an image-driven art to a data-driven science. Cytely Essentials delivers rapid population-level insights without the complexity. Perfect for screening experiments, identifying trends, and comparing effects. When you need to understand the big picture quickly, Essentials delivers clear, actionable results. For too long, microscopy, and thus critical research, has been constrained by manual operation, subjective image selection, and fragmented workflows. cytely.io breaks these constraints by delivering: 🔬 Hardware agnostic intelligent microscope control that autonomously captures critical biological events in real-time 🔬Advanced quantification that transforms subjective observations into robust measurements 🔬Comprehensive data management that ensures complete experimental reproducibility 🔬 Scalable infrastructure that handles petabyte-scale imaging data with ease Early adopters of Cytely at leading research institutions are already reporting 1000x increases in throughput and the ability to, at scale, capture fleeting phenomena that would be impossible to document manually. This launch represents more than a new service; it signals a paradigm shift in how we approach the process of microscopy in scientific research and more. When microscopy becomes truly data-driven, researchers can focus on discovery rather than technical complexities and technique. Interested in 1000x increases in throughput and more? Comment "waitlist" below for free early bird access. And check out the comments for an early easter egg ;) (Thank you for all of the support to make this happen from heroes like Vinay Swaminathan, Karin Stenkula, Pontus Nordenfelt, Anders Ruland, Sandor Albrecht, Oscar P. Ridell Ph.D., Alex Evilevitch, Blazej Cegielski, Swathi Packirisamy, Sanja Popovic, Ulrika Ringdahl, Tomas Eriksson, Thomas Unt, Jacob Lundgren, Lasse Lehtinen, Riku Seppälä, Jesse Tinell, Oscar André, Johannes Kumra Ahnlide, Karl Johansson, Arvid Larsson and ofc more but Linkedin will cap my post soon...) Please share this post with important researchers and scientists in your life - the more we can help them the faster they will produce the life-saving innovations they work so hard for. And extra special thanks to Blazej Cegielski for this fantastic user interview we did :D #ScientificImaging #Microscopy #DataDrivenScience #ResearchTechnology #LabAutomation #BioMedicalResearch #Research #DeepTech #Startup #DataDrivenMicroscopy #SmartMicroscopy Cytely AB

I’m very happy to announce my promotion to Partner at Icebreaker.vc! Starting today, I’m investing up to €1M in idea-stage startups in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. Looking back, the journey to get here started early… At 15, I hacked together my first “startup” (think Quora, but worse). In 2013, I got my first *real* taste of early-stage startups, building Triggerbee from day 0. (thanks Olof!) From then on, I was hooked—obsessed with building something people truly wanted. I lived on ProductHunt, hunting for ideas and hacking on projects at night. Many failed. Some found users. One idea even hit revenue in just 10 days—my personal record (pre-GenAI! 😄). Every idea, every MVP, every failed launch sharpened my instincts and idea-validation skills. One key lesson from this obsession: The easiest products to build are the ones where you live the problem. First-hand experience beats theory every time. Those insights led me to write the first lines of code for Swiftr (now part of Bruce Studios) in 2016, where I joined as CTO. While working a full-time job, I relentlessly built our MVP in every spare minute I had. The MVP was scrappy, but we proved the demand. A few months later, we landed our first angel investment. It felt great to have someone believe in us and finally go all-in on our idea. But my biggest shift came after Swiftr. I realized I wasn’t just obsessed with building—I was obsessed with what makes startups succeed (or not). I studied everything I could about building great companies. I got better at spotting the difference between “cool” and compelling. Between “would be nice” and must-have. My passion for early-stage startups eventually led me to join Icebreaker.vc in 2021. And man… I love working with founders who are all-in on solving tough problems! So, if you’re a builder, let’s connect. If you’re solving a problem you know inside out, I want to hear your story. If your idea keeps you up at night—DM! Or just come hang out at my event, BuildGPT, in Stockholm soon (link in the comments) 😄 Finally, the ultimate privilege is working and learning alongside world-class founders and colleagues. Some exceptional founders I first met when their ideas were just taking shape (now icebreaker fam): Calle + Hector building Tab (🍿👀) Philip and his top-tier squad from Cytely AB Gustav, Håkan, Lotta – doing life-changing work with Letterlife Lasse, Riku, Aleksi – truly grateful for your trust and excited for what we’ll achieve together!

The future is No UI and we'll design agent-first AI is eating the interface. The other day I was going into my reporting software, which requires me to input data from a contract. I need to go find the contract which has been sent by a signing service to my email. I find the relevant data and input it in my software. Then I extract the data from the software to do an analysis on the data, where I have to setup the data properly, then figure out how to write a formula to run an analysis. It's a very usual workflow - you get data from someplace and put it somewhere else and do something with it. What I really need to do is "Store the new data about X in my email, and run analysis Y". AI can do that now. So really I only need to tell my AI to do that and it will execute, faster and better than I can myself. The new mobile interface will be empty, just a chat, you can talk, but you will not need to go into apps and press buttons. The future iPhone and software interface will just be a blank screen that brings up what you want. In the background, we will have agents running on top of software, talking to other agents. Such as a Docusign talking to my data and document storage and putting data and other information in the right places. But I will not need an interface for this anymore. I'll probably have a dashboard and a chat with access to everything I want to do. For software and AI companies, this will mean designing "Agent-first" as we used to have "mobile-first" The best software won’t be the one with the best interface. It will be the one you never have to see. ps. It might seem like the human role is vanishing. But I don’t think so. AI will take over execution, but humans will still do what AI isn’t good at—communicating with people, making decisions, and thinking about what to do next. Work will be a lot more enjoyable when we don't have to fight with software.

NEW RESEARCH: "From Last-click to MMM: Unlock +6.5% more sales" Sellforte stands for business impact and we are proud to announce the latest research on how adding MMM to your media spend optimization stack adds business value. Our latest research shows that switching from last-click attribution to Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) unlocks up to +6.5% more sales—without increasing media spend. That’s an additional $1.4M annually for eCom/DTC brands (median researched company $21M annual sales) and $19.2M for Omnichannel retailers (median researched company $1.2B annual sales). Basically, this is the amount of revenue you give to your competitors by sticking in the comfy, last-click attribution bubble. Where does this extra revenue come from? - Smarter campaign-level optimization (+2.9%) - Better channel-level allocation (+1.6%) - Improved budget pacing throughout the year (+2.0%) Curious to read more about it? See the article from the comment section ------ Want to unlock this to yourself? Sellforte offers a limited amount of Free Trials. DM for more information.

Introducing a New Era of Geopolitical Intelligence I'm sure we can kind of agree that the world is changing faster than ever. Geopolitical risks and trends are no longer something that only people who can't give their real names whisper about; they're immediate, tangible forces impacting global value chains and demanding proactive business strategies. For companies that build the physical world – from cars and computers to electronics and machinery – understanding these forces is a necessity. Our platform is designed to empower enterprises with the geopolitical intelligence they need to thrive in this complex landscape. To be clear, we're not building threat intelligence or security platform. We're building a one-stop-shop for understanding the business impacts stemming from geopolitics, offering a proactive, holistic view that goes beyond reactive risk management. We're building the platform to empower businesses to not just survive, but thrive in the age of geopolitical complexity. #geopolitics #riskmanagement #supplychain #businessresilience #corporateintelligence #SaaS #B2B #enterprisesoftware #globalbusiness #trade #sourcing #logistics #strategy

There are still a few days left to apply. Please, apply via aTalent - link in the comments! We are searching for a skilled senior analyst with deep expertise in geopolitical analysis and structured analytics techniques, who thrives in a fast-paced startup environment. You are a proactive and adaptable professional who thrives on making a meaningful impact, even in the face of uncertainty and change. You enjoy mentoring others and contributing to the growth of your team and organization. This is a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of technology and geopolitics! #HiringAlert #Geopolitics #Technology #IntelligenceAnalysis

A milestone week for Valpas and the movement for safe, sustainable travel: 🤝 Announcing our strategic partnership with Canon and their fantastic team, live from the 🇯🇵 4th Hospitality Japan Conference #HJC2025 🇯🇵 (Read the release: https://bit.ly/3WRGlWj) 📺 On air on Japan’s most-watched morning show, reaching 15M+ daily viewers (View the highlights: https://bit.ly/4jL4bwP) 🌏 Expanding into mystical 🏯Kyoto🏯 and vibrant 🪩Osaka🪩 by welcoming our first local community of 10+ member hotels committed to best-in-class quality and sustainability – both front and center in Japanese hospitality. Travel safe, stay Valpas 🧘🌱

I’m going to move to Austin, Texas with family. Gridraven Inc. has been registered. The US economy is booming, power demand is surging, so the US grid needs to be a lot stronger to support it all.   GridRaven's AI solution for boosting grid capacity by 30% will quicken economic growth. With it, generators can produce more power, data centres can access cheaper energy and markets are better interconnected.   I'll be setting up our US business and building the sales, marketing and customer success teams in Austin that will propel the company in the US and globally.   To enable the next phase we secured EUR 4 million funding from the VC firms 42CAP from Germany and Icebreaker.vc from Finland. Thanks Alex and Aleksi for your support.   Most importantly, the move will only be possible thanks to strong core support from my family. Thank you Lee.

Inspired by the awesome people and everything about #Slush, I'm thinking about how we turn this energy and intelligence into prosperity and well-being. Growth comes from freedom, people identifying problems that they want to solve and freedom to just do it without absurd taxes and regulations. I've seen and been involved with small teams that create wonders. And they do it themselves, they don't need support from anyone, they just need the freedom to operate. We should tax and regulate outcomes, not action. What’s surprising is that people are still shocked when, once you stop suffocating citizens with absurd taxes and regulations, the economy breathes and prospers.