Editor’s note: This is a promo for Helsinki Coffee Festival, but is a good excuse to talk about coffee in tech.
”Without coffee there’s no ideas” Reaktor’s Ville Valtonen states.
We heard some rumors about the developed coffee culture at Finnish technology company Reaktor, so we decided to dig deeper into on what coffee really means to the company. Finns are known for drinking the most coffee per capita on earth, and with 300 employees and dozens (if not hundreds) of partners coming in and out of the building every day we can estimate that the consumed amount of coffee per day at Reaktor should be counted rather in tanks than in cups.
But it’s not only the amount that counts at Reaktor’s case. As the company aims to seek for excellence in developing services for their customers – they seem to do it also through their great passion for coffee.
Here’s five aspects on how Reaktor looks at coffee:
1. Craftmanship
Valtonen makes a connection between coffee and producing services in their business – it’s all about craftsmanship. As they deliver their services handmade and customized to their customers’ needs (with style and precision) same trend has been adapted in their office coffee culture. Some Reaktor employees have even taken barista classes and they’ve learned to appreciate latte art.
2. Tech
As a tech company Reaktor is all about internetting things for the internet of things. As you can see in the video below, they’ve installed buttons at Brewdog in Helsinki, sending a beer your way at the push of a button. At one of their’s customer’s office they’ve done something similar with coffee as well – When the coffee is freshly brewed and still steaming hot, the employees can slam the coffee button alerting everyone on Slack that the coffee is served.
3. Well–being
“Coffee is part of the whole wellbeing at the office, the main thing is to do interesting projects and coffee is a good add on.”
Valtonen emphasizes that while coffee is a stimulant for the employees nevertheless it’s also an important ritual at the office. Some teams even have a “Coffee break police” whose task is to make sure that all team members have enough breaks during the day, or to make sure that everyone is enjoying at least some refreshments.
4. Coffee shop
With their intense passion for coffee, Reaktor might be looking at a pivot from tech:
“At the moment we are looking into different options on how it would be possible to have a coffee shop someday inside one of our offices”
5. Taste
Instead of the settling for the 4 hour old Kulta Katriina burning in the bottom of your office’s pot, Reaktor says that they prefer buying their coffee from small roasters. The method of preparing coffee changes from team to team, but the main point is that it still has to taste good to do it’s thing.
Reaktor’s Ville Valtonen will be speaking up on stage at the Helsinki Coffee Festival along with Juha Pesonen from Futurice about how coffee impacts their company. When talking to the Helsinki Coffee Festival organizers, they say that the B2B program on Friday the 20th has something to give for all the coffee enthusiasts in the startup sphere: Checking out the program they’ve got a good focus on coffee in the workplace as well as some talks on the business side of coffee, which we’re personally interested in.
The festival is taking place the 20-22 of March, with the B2B program on Friday.
And of course you’ll get the chance to taste some excellent coffee (which you are probably already craving for).
