ABOUT Mika Tikkala

    I COACH SCALEUP FOUNDERSout of FOUNDER MODE.

    Scaleup founders running €1M+ companies hire me when the business is winning and every decision still routes through them. Founder-led growth has hit its ceiling. Most clients run founder-led companies between €1M and €10M in revenue, and some are larger.

    ORIGIN

    WHY BIOLOGY,NOT MINDSET.

    I spent a decade building companies, surviving two bankruptcies, and burning out hard enough to learn what most founder advice misses: the biology underneath the mindset usually sets the ceiling, well before mindset does.

    Founders running €1M+ companies are missing a baseline. No HRV trend, no protected window for decisions, so the biggest calls land at the end of the day, after everything else has taken the good hours.

    Once you see it in the data, you stop arguing with feelings and start changing the structure. That's what we do.

    "I treat the body the same way I treated my P&L: read the numbers, find the leak, fix the system. The business of running a business is biological before it is strategic."

    WHO THIS IS FOR

    THE PROFILE I CAN HELP.

    • Funded scaleup founders and CEOs in Europe and the US, €1M+ in annual revenue
    • Winning on paper, running on an empty battery
    • Tried therapy, found it too slow
    • Already optimizing the business; ready to optimize the operator
    HOW I WORK

    FOUR PRINCIPLES.

    BIOLOGY BEFORE MINDSET

    Most founder problems blamed on mindset are downstream of HRV, blood markers, or sleep. We start with the data.

    SYSTEMS OVER MOTIVATION

    Motivation is a finite resource for someone running a €1M+ company. Systems are not.

    STRUCTURAL RECOVERY

    A holiday resets the symptom. A new operating system removes the cause.

    DIRECT OVER COMFORTABLE

    If something in your operating system is breaking decisions, you'll hear it. That's the job.

    WINNING THE BUSINESS,LOSING THE OPERATOR?

    Apply for a call. If we're not a fit, I'll say so on the call.