SLUSH 2022 – highlighting the topic of light!

Let’s start this post with a fun fact: “Slush”, in our opinion, translated nature outside into the convention center: dark, with a lot of artificial, artsy light sources. Which makes even more sense, because the first thing we noticed when we arrived in Finland was … close to nothing, it was so dark! 

Turns out that the sun sets at around 3.30 PM already in Finland. So during our stay, we saw little to no sunlight, which definitely struck us as we were not used to this kind of weather back in Austria. In addition to that, it was also very cloudy, so when the sun was out, we still couldn’t see it. Another fun fact: Talking about the weather, especially if it’s not optimal,  is a very Austrian thing to do, fyi. But in this case, we really noticed just how much the lack of sunlight impacted our circadian rhythm – especially in the mornings, as we use the sun to set our internal clock to “wakey” time. Here another topic comes into play: with the lack of natural sunlight, we were exposed to a large amount of blue light – which (again) has negatively impacted our sleep and mood (our circadian rhythm). So, what to do about that?

One way to reduce the amount of bluelight entering your body is through blue light blocking glasses. You can also counteract some of the effects with Red Light Therapy (especially after it gets dark, to support your sleeping rhythm and help achieve states of deeper sleep). But that’s a different topic – let’s talk more about Slush!

Slush was mainly focussed on startups and investors to get together and make magic happen. So we put our focus and efforts on meetings with potential investors and partners. In getting to know all these people we learned that there are many kinds of investors and that the whole process of finding one that suits you is very similar to dating!

There are many VCs, family offices, business angels and we are just starting to learn what fits best to our needs. Slush even dedicated meeting areas with tables, spots to stand and share a coffee and chat a bit – what we found very creative!

Even though our technology of Photobiomodulation is new and experimental, we are determined to bring it to the mainstream by enhancing user experience, usability and dosing/tracking. Our vision plays a big role in the next steps and we are really narrowing down the priorities and where we go first.

When we weren’t having conversations with partners and investors, or busting our brains on the next steps in our company’s development, we loved listening to talk at the event. There were talks held by founders from all around the world, divided up on multiple stages. Our favorite talk was by the founder of Affirm, Max Levchin. He shared his story from being the “finance” guy,  starting PayPal together with Elon Musk, then trying to find his own way with another topic, but finding and embracing his passion for finance. In his talk, he underlined the importance of failing, as PayPal was business no. 5,6,7,8,9,10 – which all have failed before!

Another highlight was the side event at Hästens beds. They invited coaches and biohackers and talked about sleep optimization. We were seated in the middle of the store on the most expensive beds in the world and talked about self optimization – it can’t get better than that! Our highlight here was meeting Kanerva Ahonala, Kaisa Merelä and Teemu Arina (THE OG european biohacker!)

All in all, Slush gave us a lot of impressions and filled our heads with things to think about!