Slush
DEI Partner for the World's Leading Startup Event and the Largest Gathering of VC on the Planet
DEI Consulting | Learning & Development | DEI Communications
Slush is a not-for-profit organization on a mission to help and create founders to change the world. Based in Helsinki, Slush annually hosts the world’s leading startup event bringing together a curated crowd of European startups, world-class investors, and tech journalists.
Slush believes that entrepreneurship is the most efficient way to change the world at scale. To help create the world’s most founder-focused event, Slush partnered with deidei to develop and embed inclusion across its organization, team, volunteers, and the event itself.
"The collaboration with deidei was smooth and effortless, and we felt that deidei’s services were well tailored to our needs. By working together, we were able to achieve the DEI goals we set for 2024 — both within our organization and among our volunteers."
Elina Laurila
Head of People, Slush

During our 2024 partnership, we:
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Built inclusion skills within the Slush core team to help scale inclusion across the broader team and operations.
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Hosted a ”How to Create the most Inclusive Event in the World” keynote for 900+ Slush volunteers
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Provided consulting to the Slush team, e.g. to their internal DEI Survey and Founder Redefined -concept
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Hosted the most inclusion-focused Slush Side Event for founders, CEOs, VCs, and people professionals: Inclusion Metamorphosis – A Call for Real-Life Transformation
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Contributed to Slush’s content: our CEO Jasmin wrote a blog: Rethinking How Startups Can Change The World at Scale about operationalizing and scaling DEI development in startups
“In 2024, we aimed to ensure that everyone in our organization was familiar with DEI topics and could embed DEI initiatives into their work. The DEI workshop for our full-time team proved to be extremely useful and impactful. While the DEI acronym was familiar to most, the different dimensions of diversity and the importance of inclusion can never be overstated.
As for the keynote, we can confidently say that all 900 volunteers who participated left with a clear understanding of what DEI stands for and why it matters at Slush. Whenever we needed DEI consulting, deidei was always there to support us – even with the tightest schedules – helping us make Slush 2024 more inclusive than ever.” Laurila continues
Shaping a More Diverse and Inclusive Future – The Work Continues
Slush approaches their mission the same way deidei approaches DEI development: Change doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it a one-time box to tick achieved through one event. In order to change the world at scale through entrepreneurship, we need companies to be built by a diverse set of individuals. The work to create and help founders to change the world continues – and diversity and inclusion will remain integral to that journey.
“Slush is meant to be a fully inclusive event for all attendees from start to finish. Our collaboration with deidei played a crucial role in shaping diversity and inclusion development at Slush 2024. We are committed to continuously improving and making Slush the most inclusive event on the planet, and having deidei by our side made this journey significantly easier.
From increasing DEI skills within our team and volunteers to enhancing our accessibility guidelines, deidei’s support was invaluable. At Slush, we are always looking ahead, and thanks to our work with deidei in 2024, we now have a stronger foundation to create an even more diverse and inclusive event in 2025.” Laurila sums up.