Edward Dutton talks to Andre Juffer, a scientist who has set up software company Triacle Biocomputing in Oulu.

Andre Juffer has what he calls a ‘dual role’ in Oulu. On the one hand, he is a researcher in biocomputing at the university . . . but on the other he is businessman both in Oulu and beyond.
‘It just started with curiosity really’ said the Dutchman who has also been a researcher at universities in Germany and Canada. ‘It was a nice experience . . . to see if I could try setting up a business . . . and it was a supplementary income because at the time it started we only had one income.’

Simulation and Modelling

At the university, Andre’s research involves, ‘using computer software to simulate processes in the human body, such as enzymes or the growth of tumours and understanding the time-scales involved.’ The complexity of the calculations that this requires becomes clear when Andre takes me along the corridor to see the room crammed with computers. ‘These do all our calculations’ he says.
Down other corridors there were interesting smelling laboratories full of scientific equipment and people in white coats. ‘But we don’t really use those,’ smiled Andre, who was not a wearing a white coat. ‘It’s really just computers that we use.’
Andre, who is married with three teenage sons, has lived in Oulu for eight years and his software business Triacle Biocomputing is related in some ways to his research but he emphasised that, ‘Of course, I have to keep them absolutely separate from what I do at the university! It’s an important ethical issue.’
Andre’s company’s first product involves developing and marketing a programme which helps people to organise conferences.
‘It’s a package for conferences,’ says Andre. And it makes it easier to collate and bring together all the information about the conference into a useful form.
‘It could be used for all conferences,’ continues Andre, ‘but so far it has mainly been for academic conferences.’
Andre himself had only had contact with Scandinavia through academic conferences before he moved to Finland. ‘I’d been to Denmark and Sweden . . . on private holidays but also on two conferences,’ he recalled.
The second product more obviously relates to the kind of scientific expertise which Andre has.
Andre has developed software which involves the ‘simulation of the processes required for producing proteins in a fermentation device’.
This simulation assists people that want to produce pure proteins and Andre is developing a client base with Pharmaceutical Companies and Biotechnology Companies.
Andre admits, light-heartedly, that it might also assist people who wanted to produce beer but he doesn’t yet have any breweries amongst his clients.
The third product helps with what are known in the trade as SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). It is a programme that assists laboratories in easily and efficiently documenting their own standard procedures – which they are obliged to do – by offering a system that will administer all this for them.
‘And they are prepared to pay for that!’ added Andre, as it seems to be rather complicated and time-consuming. ‘I suppose “modelling” and “simulation” are the key words that sum up what my businesses do.’

‘It takes a few minutes . . .’

And Andre has actually found setting his company in Oulu to be very easy.
If you want to set up a company where ‘you’re the single employee then it’s a very easy and straightforward process. It takes a few minutes . . . it’s simple!’ he smiled. Also Andre’s company operate throughout the whole of Finland without difficulty.
Also, when Andre came to Oulu, his field of ‘simulation’ was quite new both at the university and in business circles.
‘When I first came here there wasn’t that much in simulation. It wasn’t a standard in life science and maybe people underestimated the importance of the field,’ he said. ‘But you gradually find out about the market for it by talking to others.’
Andre claimed that there was also a ‘duality’ in his own interests whereby as a scientist he simply wanted knowledge of something for is own sake . . . but as a businessman these ideas had to provide something useful for people. ‘I have to keep the two things very separate!’ he stressed again.
Andre was also quite pleased with Oulu as a place to live. He first came here because he had a job offer and his Dutch wife was finding it difficult to get work in Canada.
‘I think it’s a good place to bring up a family, it’s safe . . . there’s a high level of education. House prices are still quite affordable . . . which isn’t so in Helsinki . . . If you don’t like the winter then it’s not for you . . . but there is a very good quality of life.’
Andre has been gradually promoting his company in Oulu and beyond.
‘My market is everywhere! I have a client in Helsinki for example’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking into seed funding and I travelled to Stockholm to talk to some people about this. But you need clients before people will invest . . . and I now I think I am in that position . . . I will have decent clients.’
Andre has also promoted his businesses at a number of ‘business fairs as well.

‘Wiggling Their Toes’!

When I asked what he missed most about Holland, Andre was very forthright, ‘Nothing’ he said ‘because I have lived abroad for so long!’
‘But it was difficult when I first got here because I was suddenly foreign. I never felt that foreign in Canada because I can speak English . . . but here . . . I don’t speak Finnish!’
Andre had certainly found a few of the Finnish cultural quirks a little surprising in his time in Oulu.
‘Finnish people are very different from the Dutch. They’re quiet, they’re difficult to read in a way . . . you have to really get to know them. Someone said to me that Finns communicate by wiggling their toes!’
He’d also found the legendry Finnish directness a little surprising.
‘I was in the customs office registering my car into the Finnish system and, wanting a form, the women said, “Give me this!”’ Andre jumped back in his seat and acted out his surprise dramatically. ‘They don’t have “please” here . . . and it can come across as aggressive almost!’ he laughed. ‘It’s not negative . . . it’s just part of the way of life!’
And he recalled his amazement watching a particular TV commercial when he was first in Finland.
‘It was about this whole of idea of makkara (Finnish sausage) and sauna and being Finnish but I didn’t know that!’ he laughed.
‘I was watching TV and a Finnish man smells this sausage,’ he said, acting out the commercial, ‘and starts going wild. He starts following the smell, walking like a wolf . . . before long he’s completely naked . . ! We were so shocked by it! We just thought “What is going on”!’