Orimattila-based Star Basket's entrepreneur Petri Selkee: “Doing things is the best!”
Petri Selkee, entrepreneur at Star Basket, encourages entrepreneurs to fearlessly try out new business ideas.
Petri Selkee, CEO of Star Basket from the town of Orimattila, participated in LADEC’s webinar series in spring 2022. The series introduced the process of quick trials and a culture of testing new business ideas. A concept originally developed by Selkee for adults to start basketball from scratch proved its functionality even in badminton and floorball.
- “I have a curious nature, which is why I joined this course. Lean and startup thinking have also interested me for a long time, and I wanted to learn about them in theory. I had also hoped to meet other participants face-to-face, but due to the pandemic, that was only possible on the last day of the seminar series,” says Petri Selkee, CEO and owner of Star Basket.
The company, founded in 2015, focuses on basketball and sports services. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the business almost completely, but did not stop Selkee from coming up with new ideas.
He participated in a webinar series held by LADEC as a part of the Suomen paras yrityspalvelu (‘Best Business Development Service in Finland’) project. The series introduced the process and stages of the quick trial process for business ideas.
- “The concept called Pystymetsästä pelikentälle has been a pillar of my company for seven years. The idea is to teach adults unfamiliar with the sport to play basketball and gain a pleasant hobby,” Petri Selkee says.
- “Before the pandemic, casual basketball was well underway, and we also developed camp activities abroad around it. The idea for the camp came from the basketball participants, who also suggested expanding the concept to other sports. The best ideas always come from the customers, so I thought ‘why not’ – the idea was worth testing, at least!”
Survey provided confirmation
The quick trial carried out by Petri Selkee began with a customer survey that studied which games and team sports adults would be interested in learning and playing.
- “The most popular sports were badminton and floorball, so we started to expand our concept to them. Things like productisation and marketing have never been difficult for me, as long as I get confirmation that there is demand for the new product and the service can be provided with high quality.”
While Selkee launched the marketing for a trial course in casual floorball, he also recruited the best possible person to lead the course.
- “When a person discovers a new sport through us, we will offer them such a good course that they will want to continue the hobby. We teach them the rules and fulfil our promise of offering sweating, cardio and smiles. Those are the key elements of exercise and the core of our operations.”
Power from networking
According to LADEC’s Business Developer Mikko Kyle, a total of 14 small and medium-sized enterprises participated in the webinar series in the quick trial process.
- Quick trials are pilot projects that are particularly suitable for companies that are only getting started or looking to develop new business. For a company, light and easy practical testing of new business ideas can be both profitable and ground-breaking.
For Star Basket, the trial model worked since the concept for starting sports was permanently expanded to badminton and floorball.
- “The whole set of webinars was excellent for the fact that it involved entrepreneurs from various fields. The most knowledge is gained from getting out of the comfort zone, trying new things and learning from others’ successes and mistakes. The people who remain in your network are a great treasure.
- And doing things is the best! If you only sit at your computer pondering about your ideas, you’ll never know if the product or service would have worked in practice. You have to test things boldly, focus clearly on your core product or service, and prune out extra branches. Running around aimlessly will not yield results,” Selkee sums up what he has learned in his career as an entrepreneur.
He assures everyone that there is always work to be done.
- “Sports have taught me that you need to give it your all. Despite that, there will be losses and failures. You just have to analyse them and move on.”
---
Text: Taru Schroderus
---
In the main photo at the top: Petri Selkee, CEO and owner of Star Basket.
---
