(Yes I could have vibecoded a fancy page with the shiny AI tools, but decided to stick to simple HTML, as it works on every device and connection.)

(If you wanna see some of my vibe coded stuff visit: https://hslguesser.fi/, btw you can also ask me to play)

Jonas Papathemelis, 

LUTES Presidential candidate 2026

Hey guys! I’m running for LUTES President 2026.

But why?

To put simply, we need to think about and take action towards strengthening the foundation and backbone of LUTES for the future years to come.

LUTES has grown a lot in the past 5 years, where it tripled its budget, quadrupled its membership count, doubled the team size and actually started getting the first serious companies to start up out of it. Something when I was a fresher I could just dream about. 

Like wow. I cannot even ask my first ever LUTES related question anymore:

“Do you guys even do anything?"

And we are still growing at an astonishing pace.

But there are things that have not been keeping up with the growth. 

And yes I’m talking about the fun little things that require a bit of bureaucratic governance housekeeping.

While the amazing Start-Up culture fosters us to break rules, think about things in new ways, there are still things that we can’t forget about.

To keep the pace up, we need to make sure that the governance and the organisational structure can support it, legally and as well as financially. 

We also need to make sure our amazing team members feel motivated to stay active,

and that LUTES is the most welcoming community there is on the Skinnarila campus.

But most importantly, LUTES needs more professionalism and startups!

My background (key points) 

Read more on my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-papathemelis/

• LUTES Active member since fall 2021 (#oldofficegang)
• LUTES Marketing team 2022, 2023
• LUTES Board, Finance Manager 2024
• LUTES IT infrastructure Lead 2025

• SLUSH Pre-Badge claim volunteer lead 2025
• SLUSH Badge claim volunteer 2022, 2023

• School related Internship at Microsoft Flux Start-up co-working space, fall 2016

• LTKY Representative council, Vice member 2021-2027 (3 terms)
• NEON RepCo group contact person and coordinator

• LUT Business School Academic council Student representative (Halloped) 2025-2026 term

• 2 terms as Elected member of the Espoo City youth council 2016-2019
• Part of the Board
• Represented the youth council in various city committees
• Represented the youth council in the Elinvoimainen Espoo program’s steering group (Related to promote Espoo’s livelihood and entrepreneurial landscape)

My todo/thoughts/action points list for 2026 (sure, I can leave this here and update them on how they are doing during my presidential year :)    )

• Review the internal practises of LUTES (Documents, Processes, Finance tracking)
• Governance of LUTES
• Get all governance documents and processes up to speed, and create some that are missing
• Financial management procedures
• Decision-making procedures
• Setup financial audit for LUTES
• Make sure the Board is fully aware of the legalities of associations and know to take it into consideration
• Make sure that short and long term risks are noticed and mitigated
• Build decision making routines and meeting structures
• Create a LUTES strategy for the coming years (creating a guiding path for the coming years)
• Look into ways to make the board’s decisions to be more transparent (more transparency in documents / decisions)
• Notice board in parvi which would be used to post for example:
• Taival excursion attendee decisions and the used decision criteria and explanations
• Board meeting excerpts
• List of current project leads
• Create a culture where legalities are not frowned upon but embraced and seen as essential building stones to take into account

• Project management (Better communication, Structure and Accountability)
• Create a way of tracking all ongoing projects and little tasks
• Big table which shows all projects happening this year with all the needed details (Who are in charge, what is the project timeline, what is it about)
• Why?
• Build transparency regarding decisions
• Making sure everyone knows who is in charge of what
• What is happening when?
• Is there progress happening in everything we are doing?
• Define clear working practices for independent teams for larger projects and programs (Forward, Taival, Solutions)
• For, Program leads, Define:
• What are they allowed to do? 
• What resources they have access to?
• Create ways for larger projects and programs to function independently even when the board changes
• Create clear paths on how the larger projects can be spun-off out of the core LUTES organisation (Forward, Solutions)
• Create a project containerisation framework
• Structured way to have projects run on their own autonomously
• Have a  project work independently across the change of the board (Right now tons of things just stop happening and there is a gap always in December-January, I want to fix and fill this gap)

• Get more Startups rocket off parvi (like actually…)
• Create a tangible founder pipeline and put it into action
• Have an ongoing open event series throughout semesters that will go through all the stages from taking action to founding a company
• Ways to engage more collaboration and casual conversation between parvi goers
• To foster more ideas that would eventually turn into startups
• Firewood example: LUTES Members are pieces of firewood, ideas are tinder, and flames are all the contact points where these ideas will turn into fire -> the startup
• Develop Kitchen further
• Network and partner up with VCs, Legal companies, Various industry advisors and experts
• These partners can bring the needed help that our ever growing community of Kitchen members need
• Make forward even more amazing (It already is doing great, but we can always improve!)

• Collaboration with other ES-societies
• Connect more with other societies
• Events, hackathons, excursions etc together.
• Share knowledge and networks
• Create a stronger network of young doers in Finland
• Go on international excursions together
• Have excursions to other ecosystems across Finland & Nordics 

• Bring the LUTES Community closer to students and remove barriers that make it feel distant
• LUTES has been seen a bit distant in the student community 
• We have a too hard of a outer shell that we need to make softer
• People should feel more welcome and encouraged to join the community
• Create more collaboration between guilds and other student organisations on campus
• Breakfasts together, Events together
• Board members and LUTES actives are actively encouraged to engage with the student community 
• Visiting student events in a casual way with LUTES merch
• Preparing everyone in the team to be ready to answer LUTES related questions
• But refrain from creating a culture of forcing LUTES all around though

• Turning LUTES into a human accelerator program and a learning platform
• LUTES gathers the most ambitious and curious minds of LUT and LAB. Students who crave challenges and want to learn more hands on. 
• In current economy it is hard to gain relevant work experience
• Create opportunities that fosters synergies for LUTES from the different fields of study we have on campus
• Also create opportunities for students from all fields to learn more skills through LUTES by volunteering as a team member or through programs:

• A few examples
• Learn to do stakeholder relations with public sector organisations, and official communications (Social Sciences) 
• Learn to do analysis of current political trends regarding Entrepreneurship and possible market opportunities that LUTES and its startups can use. (Social Sciences, Business, IEM)
• Opportunities to learn how VCs think and see VCs as a career path. (Business, IEM)
• Learn how to handle larger organisation budgeting, accounting etc. (Business)
• Learn about entrepreneurship and startups in general (All students)
• Learn how to handle and develop organisational strategies and processes. (IEM) 
• Learn the upkeep of IT infrastructure of LUTES (IEM, Cluster)

• LUTES teaches all aspects of the startup world. Skills that all startup founders need, but also are a strong advantage in other career paths as well.
• Out of the box thinking
• Having an overview of a lot of different details that affect the outcome
• Understanding the connections between business, technology and people.
• Default to action mentality (DON’T THINK ->  DO.)
• Organise events/lectures a few times a year that teach about the basics of startups and the ecosystem: LUTES 101, Startup world 101

• Create a “LUTES” VC fund
• Create the foundation for a VC fund that can provide seed investments to LUT/LAB student founded companies and new companies in South Karelia in general. 
• 101 000€  in founding capital
• Helps a baseline for companies to begin
• Creating opportunities for students to learn how a VC is managed and run. 

• Partnerships and collaborations with LUT university (Academic Affairs)
• Deepen partnerships and start active collaboration with LUT and it’s schools (LENS, LBS, LES)
• LUTES courses available to be included in degrees for more students
• Develop LUTES presence in courses
• Introduction to entrepreneurship courses should have stronger Start-Up elements and be organised in partnership with LUTES
• Example idea: Hackathon where students go through a “Mini Forward”
• Collaborate to create a Start-Up funnel that stretches to the time before a student applies to LUT
• Turn LUTES and the startup culture of LUT into a reason why future founders apply here to study

• LUTES goes international
• Develop how LUTES connects with people internationally
• Create and keep track of international stakeholder relations
• Use Taival as a platform to stay in touch and connect with international partners
• Example: companies and organisations we visit can be referred to Forward accelerator program teams
• Create a network of international organisations that LUTES’ startups can refer to regarding market entry
• Make LUTES more known abroad. Have first international teams apply for Forward, because it is “The best accelerator in Eastern Finland”
• Make LUTES a reason why international students apply to study or come for an exchange in LUT

• LUTES’ 15th year
• Celebrate LUTES’ 15th year 
• Build a set of special events around the milestone year
• Get LUTES alumnus to show up and tell their experiences from the past
• Organise a LUTES annual ball (For LUTES members & Invite stakeholders + Guilds to bring them closer to LUTES)

• Sustainability
• LUT as a university is already strongly promoting sustainability in its values, which define a lot of things happening on campus.
• Integrate sustainability aspects into LUTES
• Recycling in Parvi
• Startups have the opportunity to have their sustainability graded and analysed, for them to understand aspects of sustainability to take into account

• Nice things section of fun action points because in the middle of being serious we need to still be human and have fun (also nice to see that you have read everything through here)

• I will show off my personal Animal Crossing: New Horizons island in parvi after the general meeting
• Launch a community exclusive board 2026 instagram account with regular posts of the board life

Questions, thoughts?

Feel free to contact me:

Telegram: @jonasthepapa

Email: Jonas@lutes.fi

All the best, enjoy the SLUSHy weather and see you at the general meeting on Monday!

Best,

Jonas Papathemelis

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