NS27
Become a partner
NS27 is a crucible.
A crucible is the vessel a furnace melts metal in, built to outlast a heat nothing inside it survives. What enters it leaves altered, or does not leave.
Heat has no interest in what the metal intended to be. It takes the dross first and then whatever was never as solid as it looked. It returns less than it was given.
A room can do the same to a person. Nobody tells you which parts of your work were real. The room shows you.
So we built one out of two carriages, forty builders and eight hours of track. There is no door out of a moving train and no quiet corner on it.
Most people never find out how good they could have been, because nothing ever asked. The train asks in December.
Arturs Zustars and Gleb Ershov
There are forty seats and we choose everyone who gets one.
The room closes at forty. That is the point of it.
First seat held · two remain
The Arrival
Everyone lands and we all meet at maria 01, an old hospital that is now full of startups. The evening is introductions and getting to know the rest of the room. That is where we reveal the challenge.
The Build
Two carriages, forty builders and forty of us. The clock starts when the train leaves Helsinki and stops in Rovaniemi. Every team pitches the main challenge at Kaamos Lodge.
The Lodge
Two smaller challenges at once, five hours each, twenty builders on each and the teams shuffled. There is a spa, there is snow and there is a long dinner that night.
The Return
The train back to Helsinki. Everyone goes home. The group does not really break up after that, which is the part we care about most.
For eight hours, forty builders will work on nothing but the problem you set them.
Main challenge
You choose the problem. All forty spend the eight hours on it. Three of your team ride the train and judge. You see what they build thirty days before anyone else.
Side challenge
You choose a problem for twenty of them at the lodge and they get five hours on it. Two of your team judge and you hand out the win at dinner.
Investor seat
Two of your team ride the whole thing and meet all forty before they have a deck or an open round. You are on the judging panel and at every dinner. We introduce you to anyone you ask about.
Six sponsor spots in total. Once they are taken, that is it.