Finding meaning and purpose in your work can be a challenge. Kasperi Karesvuori knows this, as he was looking for something meaningful to do in his career. Now he sees the direct impact of his efforts and gets to take ownership of his actions at work
Before joining us, Kasperi was working in a financial management company and was actually quite happy with his job. But the role didn't offer him much in terms of personal fulfillment or purpose. He felt like something was missing.
It was 2021 when he stumbled upon Fiksuruoka–Foodello’s job ad looking for a Fullstack Developer. As Kasperi had already been saving food waste by ordering goods from our online store as a customer, he felt natural to take a chance on this career opportunity as well.
“The company mission matched my personal values which I was longing for, so I decided to apply.”
“I had great experiences as a customer and thought that it might be cool to develop the service I’m already using. The company mission matched my personal values which I was longing for, so I decided to apply”, he thinks back.
Kasperi already understood the mission of fighting against food waste and working towards a sustainable future at Fiksuruoka – Foodello. In addition, he had a growth mindset for developing our product as well as the wish for taking more ownership of his own work.
“What caught my eye in 2021 was that Fiksuruoka–Foodello was a small start-up and the ways of working required taking ownership and developing processes. During my 1,5 years here, we have become a scale-up, so our ways of working have evolved. However, in our product team, we still have startup-minded ways of working”, Kasperi thinks.
As a Fullstack Developer Kasperi works as a part of our eight-person Product team. The product team is responsible for coding and developing our online store, ensuring that customers can easily access expiring goods and have a great experience while doing it.
“I feel like I am able to create and develop a solution that fits our customers' routines and makes it easier for them to reduce food waste on a daily basis”, he says.
“I feel like I am able to create and develop a solution that fits our customers' routines and makes it easier for them to reduce food waste on a daily basis.”
Everything Kasperi’s team does is based on our company strategy but the team has full ownership of the actions they decide to do.
“For example, we wanted somehow to contribute to boosting our sales. We decided to renew the front page of our online store to make it more effective and customizable for customers. Our team interviewed customers about their experiences and we then executed our plan together”, Kasperi says.
“In another company, boosting sales might feel a bit controversial depending on the product or service being sold. But here, the more our sales go up, the more food we have saved. So that’s definitely something I want to work for. It feels like I am part of something bigger”, he continues.
“In another company, boosting sales might feel a bit controversial depending on the product or service being sold. But here, the more our sales go up, the more food we have saved.”
Kasperi is also inspired by the data-driven approach. “No one here acts without first looking at the data. Our data team is supporting all our functions which enables us to only use time on projects that are first validated to be important because the data says so”, he says.
“Everyone is open to new ideas and happy to try new things. That inspires me to come up with new ideas as well”, he says.
When it comes to ownership, Kasperi has gotten a chance to take on some bigger projects such as contributing to opening our new market in the Netherlands and Belgium. Especially when we opened the Belgian market he was given the main responsibility of the project.
“My responsibility as a developer was to act as a technical project lead when it came to taking care of our team’s schedules and the bigger picture”, he says. Kasperi also planned and created the architecture and different components whilst documenting everything for the future and learnings.
“Taking responsibility in opening new markets was a big step for me and I really enjoyed it”, he looks back.
“I truly believe that we are the best place for a person who wants to develop their coding skills – whether it’s web development or architecture. We are evolving fast so there are always new things to learn and develop”, he thinks.
Now Kasperi has been with us for 1,5 years. How is feeling about aligning with his values?
“I can be proud of what I am working for. Together we are building a more sustainable future and it’s pretty cool I can participate in it by doing what I love: coding”, he thinks.
And as the mission of our business is clear, it brings reliability and comfort to Kasperi’s everyday life.
“I don’t have to worry that there would come some kind of huge change in the business goals that would affect my work heavily. That’s something I’ve experienced in the past. As everything is transparent here, we all get to participate in thinking and deciding where we are going as a company”, he says.
So, Kasperi has now got what he was looking for: he gets to live by his values, be himself, take ownership, see the direct impact of his work, and work towards a bigger mission.
The mission of fighting against food waste is seen in Kasperi’s everyday life now also in an unexpected way.
“You can spot me carrying my doggy bags of leftover food everywhere I go. I also brew my tea leaves until there is no flavor coming out of them so they won’t go to waste and make a huge pot at a time for the whole day. So, you could say the fight against food waste mission is quite deep in my personal life as well”, Kasperi laughs.