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Antti Lähtevänoja, who started as a university lecturer in entrepreneurship at the School of Business in October 2025, describes himself as a teacher, salesperson and entrepreneur. He initially graduated as a special education teacher, but has sold various IT and artificial intelligence solutions, as well as virtual reality, practically his whole career. Antti’s journey as an entrepreneur began in high school when he founded his first company, repairing his friends' mobile phones, and he is still partly on that entrepreneurial path. After graduating from the University of Jyväskylä, Antti worked for a couple of different companies and founded his own startup called Invested. 

‘My high school friend Jani Järvinen and I noticed that there was no gamified way to learn stock investing. You had to start learning with your own money, which of course carried the risk of losing your money. We solved this problem by developing a mobile app where players are given ten thousand euros in play money, which they could invest in real stocks, and thus learn stock investing. We sold Invested a couple of years later in 2023. After that, I have been involved in the startup sector, among other things at Liquido VC, where we advise early-stage startups.’ 

Successes and failures

Antti Lähtevänoja knew last autumn that he would complete his doctoral thesis in late winter 2026, so it was time to think about what to do next. 

‘I was browsing LinkedIn and noticed that Aalto University was looking for a lecturer in the Entrepreneurship Unit of the Department of Management Studies at the School of Business. The job advertisement was as if it had been made for me. It said that the position included teaching topics related to entrepreneurship, conducting research on the subject and advising students on starting a business.’ 

In October 2025, Antti started as a lecturer in entrepreneurship and immediately began teaching the Go to Market for Founders course. The course is part of the Aalto Founder School's Founder Minor. The course teaches students how to take a company's product or service to market – students learn sales, marketing and practice, among other things, competitor analysis and market research, assisted by AI.

‘I have brought many real-life case examples to the course and invite guest speakers from my startup network, of course without forgetting academic sources. In my lectures, I also talk about my successes, but especially my failures. I am happy to read the students’ feedback, where they state that the lecturer's own motivation and passion for the topics are clearly visible to them.’

Antti says that he himself has had excellent role models in his career, such as Professor Petri Parvinen, who is also the main supervisor of his doctoral thesis. ‘I started teaching at the university by working as Petri's assistant teacher. Petri serves on many company boards and shares a lot of practical examples from the business world. He also has an excellent ability to listen to students and take feedback into account to create a course that meets the needs of today's world.’

Using artificial intelligence wisely

Antti Lähtevänoja believes that higher education institutions should also teach very practical skills, such as the use of artificial intelligence, without forgetting academic models and frameworks. 

‘This prepares students to think and act so that their skills match the changing work environment, where AI plays a big role. Many students have already very good ideas on how to use AI well. One of my goals is to learn together how to use AI wisely.’ 

Antti is also creating a guide for teachers, researchers, service personnel and students on the use of artificial intelligence at Aalto. He has discussed with Petri Suomala, Vice President in Education, what we as a university generally want to teach and what skills students should master in the current world, especially related to artificial intelligence.

‘There seems to be a genuine willingness to develop this issue at Aalto. I want to engage in discussions with those who have slightly more negative thoughts about artificial intelligence too. They provide very good perspectives to the discussions.’ 

Acting as an advisor to startups supports teaching work

Antti Lähtevänoja thinks that, since he teaches practical sales and startup topics, he should also engage in these activities himself practically. 

‘Otherwise, practical knowledge slips away from you and there is a risk of teaching outdated frameworks and theories. When a teacher can tell that they have such and such projects ongoing, the students listen in a completely different way.’ 

Currently, the Go to Market for Founders course includes a very interesting company from Aalto called ‘NoCFO’ as a case study company. Students get to help the company with its go-to-market plan for the international market.

‘It is very motivating for students to work for a real company and have discussions with entrepreneurs. Many students who choose the course either already have or are planning their own startup, which is reflected in their motivation to learn more about the subject. There are a lot of discussions in the classes, and different perspectives are sought for various issues.’ 

‘It is also completely okay for me if one of my students is better than me in, for example, a 30-second pitch practice – but I must be able to deliver a pitch “on the spot” at any time. In modern pedagogy, the roles of teacher and student can sometimes reverse, and it is important that both parties accept this – the student may very well know more about something than the teacher and thus can provide valuable information to the learning situation.’ 

Educational selling as the subject of doctoral research

This spring, Antti will defend his doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki on the topic of educational selling. The dissertation is titled Customer Education in Sales. The research provides additional information on what educational selling is, how it has been researched and what its basic components are. 

‘I present different ways that salespeople educate their customers by giving webinars or workshops, for example. My research also found that it is very important that psychological safety is established between the salesperson and the customer, where both parties can be open and honest, and switch roles between “teacher and student”, just as described in the teaching situation above.’

In a sales situation, salespeople may have the best knowledge about the product or service and how it could serve the customer, but customers usually have better knowledge about their own company’s situation and needs. 

‘Here both parties need to be open and honest. For example, the customer can say that they don’t know something or that such a thing doesn't work in their organisation without fear that the salesperson will use this information to their advantage. In an open atmosphere, the salesperson does not sugar-coat their product either, but tells completely honestly, for example, if a product cannot solve the customer’s problem.’ 

According to Antti Lähtevänoja’s doctoral research, customer satisfaction and loyalty improve in educational selling. ‘Educational selling seems to create clear added value to the sales situation – when the customer's understanding of the product and the market is increased by teaching, the customer’s trust in the salesperson improves, and it becomes more likely that a sale will take place.’

Antti Lähtevänoja was interviewed by Terhi Ollikainen