The ecosystem of expertise

Salla Syrjäkari founded Havina in October 2025 after 20 years in HR technology, and Kalle Lepola came to Accede, the newest company in the Reaktor Ecosystem, by way of HP, SAP, and an AI startup. Havina works on the HR side of SAP and Accede on ERP and data, which reinforces the ecosystem’s SAP expertise from two directions. Their founding stories, however, started far apart.

"After high school, I worked as an au pair in Brussels. The father of the family worked in HR consulting, and many of our conversations convinced me that I wanted to pursue a career in HR and consulting," says Salla.

After university, her first job was as an HR technology consultant, focusing on HR analytics and reporting. Over the 20 years that followed, she worked in HR technology and transformation at Nokia, Stora Enso, and consulting firms.

"What keeps me interested is that HR technology is never really about technology. It's about helping people and organisations perform better."

Kalle’s story starts somewhere else entirely. He grew up with entrepreneurship close at hand.

"I'm the son of two entrepreneurs, so I guess I have the 'gene', and the example, rooted somewhere deep in my spine. I've always had the itch to build a business and create a great place for professionals to work."

After his years at SAP, Kalle's most recent work before Accede was with an AI software company in additive manufacturing, and the next step came at an unusual moment.

"Funny enough, I was on paternity leave after an intense stretch building the GTM strategy for an AI software company in Additive Manufacturing. After pivoting the product and GTM a few times, we decided to become a tech provider for consulting and services companies across different industries, and, at that point, my job was 'done', so to speak," he says.

Salla founded Havina in October 2025. The first months asked for everything at once.

"There was no such thing as a normal week. It was all about balancing sales, recruitment and setting up the foundations for operations across IT, HR, finance and everything in between," she says.

"During the first months, I was also working from my home office and quickly realised that I'm not built for working alone. I need people around me. I got to know quite a few cafés and libraries before we finally found a great office. Today, I'm genuinely happy every time I walk through that door."

"7 January 2026, that was when Havina started to feel like it was really on to something. That was the first day our core team started working together. We sat down in a library, talked about where we were as a company and what needed to happen during the year ahead," Salla says.

 

Accede came together through people already connected to the Reaktor Ecosystem.

"I feel like Accede is unique in the sense that my co-founders Einar and Peeter have been running an SAP consultancy for 20+ years, and that they were already involved with Reaktor through another ecosystem company Allies. I was lucky to get introduced to a ready-made business case to fine-tune and start executing," Kalle says.

"The idea of becoming an entrepreneur became real when the whole team, Peeter, Einar, me, and the Reaktor Ecosystem team got together at Reaktor offices and decided to pursue Accede together."

Neither path has been smooth, and both founders talk about the hard parts plainly.

"Of course, there have been difficult moments since then, and not every day has been my best day. But I'm no spring chicken anymore. Experience has taught me that tomorrow is usually better than today."

Kalle’s hard parts are still unfolding, yet the challenge is changing habits that have been in place for a long time.

"We're pushing a change in the habits and practices of SAP consulting and advisory with our hybrid architect offering, with a less bloated scope and cost. This will take a while to land on both sides of the table… We're finding ourselves deep in the conversations around extracting and accessing SAP data in a safe and database-agnostic manner on many fronts without having the slides or websites ready yet," Kalle says.

Stefan Fröberg, managing director of SAP Finland, has worked with both founders previously.

"Both Salla and Kalle combine an entrepreneurial spirit with a strong background in successful SAP sales and transformation initiatives. What stood out to me was their genuine drive to create real outcomes and to lead the conversation on how SAP technology—including SAP's latest innovations—can create value for customers. For me, the encouraging sign is always when a company is clear about what it wants to be good at, and for whom. That kind of focus, combined with credibility and customer relevance, is a strong foundation for building something lasting around SAP."

That Wednesday morning on October 7th, 40 experts of SAP gathered for breakfast to discuss these two important topics: the capabilities the market needs now, and the transformations under way in different areas.

For Kalle, it was one of several days that made the company feel real, alongside that first meeting at the Reaktor offices and the first invoice to a paying customer.

"And of course, the launch event itself at SAP offices was another 'OMG this is happening' moment I'll carry with me forever."

Salla has advice for founders starting out today, Kalle included, and it comes from her own first year with Havina.

"Looking back, nearly every meaningful opportunity for Havina has come through people I met long before there was a company, or even the idea of one," she says. "Be open, willing to learn and humble."

Both founders are looking well past this year, and neither is thinking small. 

"I hope Havina becomes one of the most trusted HR technology consultancies first in Finland and later in the rest of the universe," Salla says.

Kalle answers the same question with his crew in mind, which brings him back to where his own story started: the itch to create a great place for professionals to work.

"We want to build a sustainable, healthy business and workplace where people feel at home, like an appreciated, contributing member of the crew. Business-wise, we've set our goals rather ambitiously, and will keep expanding our expertise in Consulting, Advisory, and Data & AI capabilities."