15 years of Greenstep - a journey from a small family business to an international group

The story begins in 2010

Greenstep was founded in January 2010 with a vision to bring financial management to SMEs on a large scale. Soon, we got our first customers and opened our first office in Espoo, Finland. During the first year, Greenstep grew rapidly: the first CFO, financial management and payroll consultants joined the team and the small but ambitious company took its first steps towards something bigger.

What are the most memorable moments in Greenstep's journey? We asked founder Tore Teir for his thoughts on the early days of the company and the most important milestones.

When you founded Greenstep 15 years ago, was it your vision that one day Greenstep would grow to its current size, an international company with 800 employees, acting as a one-stop-shop and supporting the growth and development of our customers? What were your goals?

"From the beginning, Greenstep's mission was to do as much good as possible. There was no plan to be a company with 800 employees in 2025, but when you work with good people, you get good results".

Could you tell us about your early successes? How did you get started?

"In the early days, we were able to get some big customers through our networks. That helped us a lot in our growth. I used to work at Nokia, and with the extensive network we created there, we were also able to attract good people to join our team".

Greenstep has grown steadily and profitably since the start. What has made this possible?

"I think that Greenstep's growth has largely come from a passion for helping our customers, and at the same time we have been able to inspire the best people to join our team. I think our strong values have also played a big part in this. It's important that people are happy in their working environment so that they can provide the best possible service to customers."

What do you consider to be the most important things in Greenstep's history?

"We have always been bold. We have seized new opportunities, expanded our service offering and even started operations in several different countries. All this requires courage, determination, the ability to take risks and to believe in the future. Greenstep has always had all this and I am very happy about it! We will continue to be agile, curious and dare to jump into the unknown from time to time!"

We also asked employees who have been with Greenstep since the early years about their memories of working at Greenstep:

Juho Pietilänaho, Partner, joined Greenstep in 2010:

"At Greenstep, we have always valued long-term partnerships with our customers. I remember when we went to meet a potential customer in the spring of 2011: He had already poured a cup of black coffee for everyone in the meeting room! I had never had a cup of coffee in my life before that meeting, but by the end of the meeting, my cup was empty. We went on to win a new customer that I have been helping personally for 14 years".

Taru Laukkanen, Head of HR and Culture, joined Greenstep in 2013:

"It has been great to be part of Greenstep's growth story from an early stage. Together we have enabled growth by systematically building our culture and developing new operating models to meet the needs of growth. There are so many great memories along the way that it's hard to choose the best ones to share.

The first memory relates to recruitment, which has been a key driver of our growth over the years. The year was 2017, the anniversary of Finland's independence, so we launched the "100 jobs, 100,000 euros for charity" campaign in honour of the 100th anniversary of Finland's independence. Our services were expanding and we knew we needed a lot of new Greenstepers, so we promised to donate €1,000 to charity for every new employee we hired until we had €100,000 and 100 new employees. The new Greenstepers were able to vote on which organisation they wanted to donate to. It was great to reach the goal and honour Finland's anniversary with a donation!

Another memory is about internal communication. Our first internal communication tool was the so-called Monthly Publication, which I had the honour of publishing for two years - a magazine with company news distributed by e-mail. Of course, our internal communication tools have evolved since then, and today we have an internal communication environment and a virtual company briefing every second Friday, but somehow the Monthly Publication has remained a great memory from the early years of my Greenstep career. Writing it was fun and a different way of sharing information also with Greenstep employees who were mainly working on-site at the customer".

Eeva Rautio, Manager, GS Accounting, joined Greenstep in 2013:

"I applied for a job at Greenstep 12 years ago because I knew that my former boss worked at the company and I wanted to be back in his team. I knew from the interview that this was the place for me. I started working in February 2013 on the same day as Taru Laukkanen (Head of HR and Culture), with whom I have worked together all these years, she leading the internal HR team and I leading the internal financial administration.

When we started, there were about 40 Greensteppers and 30 of us in Otaniemi, Espoo. The office may not have been the most glamorous, but the atmosphere was wonderful. The community spirit at Greenstep has always been warm and it was nice to come to the office. The strong do-it-yourself spirit added fun to the more ordinary working days and was especially visible when we organised parties and trips abroad.

On a trip to Copenhagen in 2013, the walk from the restaurant to the hotel seemed too long, so we took rides from a group of fun local rickshaw drivers. One rickshaw had a flat tyre, but everyone had a sense of humour, and the next driver came running to help, laughing.

The tent for the annual crayfish party was bought and set up in the Teirs' garden for the party, where Tore also smoked salmon for the whole group. The years went by and the tent grew bigger, but we were still welcome in the Teirs' yard. Once, for the pre-Christmas party, we bought a bunch of chocolate Santas to give away as prizes at Greenstep's Oscar party, which we planned with Taru. Every year it was our fun task to think of nice things to do, and the Greenstepers always seemed to enjoy it. I have always felt part of the Greenstep family."

Next, let's take a trip back in time to see the different stages of our growth over the years.

2011–2012: Building awareness

Strong networks provided a good basis for the initial journey, but raising awareness about us also required active PR work. As one local newspaper put it (Turun Sanomat 13.7.2011):

”(Tore) Teir has 20 years of experience in management positions in finance and accounting in various companies, including Nokia. In these positions he has been involved in several start-ups.
- This led to a desire to help companies create a financial management infrastructure that allows management to focus on their core competencies."

After establishing the Espoo office, we expanded rapidly. New offices were opened in Turku and Oulu, and at the same time we expanded our services - scalable back-office services for funds brought new opportunities and customer relationships. By the end of 2012, Greenstep had more than 100 customers and the growth journey was well underway.

2013–2014: Well-being and charity together

At Greenstep, the desire to do good is not limited to customer work – in 2013 we launched our first employee wellness challenge, which has since become an annual tradition. The idea was a simple but effective way to combine exercise and charity: employees raise money for charity by walking or cycling during the working week. The person who collects the most kilometres or steps gets to decide where the money goes.

On the business side, our growth continued at a rapid pace. We hired our first HR professionals to support our customers with their HR needs and opened new offices in Tampere and Vaasa, further strengthening our local presence.

2015: Our recipe for growth seems to be working - a healthy team, satisfied customers

"Take good care of your team and they will take good care of your customers".

This was the idea that guided us from the beginning - and it really worked. Our customers recommended our services to their own networks, and the power of referrals was tangible: up to 70% of our new customers came through referrals.

As our we grew, so did our team, and suddenly we had 100 employees. We celebrated this significant milestone by taking the whole team to Budapest - an unforgettable trip that crowned Greenstep's first five years!

2016: Team spirit grows by getting to know your colleagues

The well-being of our employees continued to be at the heart of our operations, and we invested in this by organising social events to strengthen the team spirit. The traditional crayfish party in Tore and Michaela's backyard, in a large tent, was a much-anticipated celebration where the team could relax and get to know each other better.

At the same time, our company continued to grow - as the team grew, it was time to move to larger premises in several of our locations to provide an even better environment for our employees and our customers.

2017: Growing together with our customers

Our customers grew rapidly and we grew with them. We opened a new office in Jyväskylä and took the next big by partnering with the NetSuite ERP system. This was a significant step towards offering even more comprehensive services. At the same time, we invested in our own development: We set up a subsidiary through which we began to develop our own SaaS products. The first of these was Bezala, an expense and travel accounting application, which made our customers' everyday lives even smoother and strengthened Greenstep's position in the digital transformation.

2018: Expanded service offering to include BI analytics

We continued to recruit skilled people, and by the end of 2018 we had 200 employees. We launched a new service in BI analytics, offering our customers the implementation and development of BI platforms.

Greenstep's annual family trip, which had already become a tradition, took place in Riga. The trip also included a charity event on the beautiful sandy beach of Jūrmala, where we collected a large amount of rubbish.

Our cycling enthusiasts went on a tour around Lake Vettern in Sweden and we also organised a ski trip to Åre in Sweden. That's when we decided to open an office in Sweden one day!

2019: The first step towards internationalisation

In 2019, we loaded a van full of furniture and sailed to Tallinn to open a new office. We also quickly found new, qualified colleagues from Estonia. At the same time, we started a new phase in our competence development: the Greenstep Academy was born. Through training and courses, we continuously strengthen the competence of both our customers and our own employees, so that we remain pioneers in our field. The year also marked the first step towards a more responsible future: we hired a Sustainability Officer who started to develop our systematic sustainability strategy.

All these achievements deserved to be celebrated, so the whole company travelled to Tallinn to celebrate growth, collaboration and shared dreams!

2020: Profitable growth continues despite pandemic and remote working

Greenstep turned 10 years old and we celebrated with a bonus for our employees. Each of our 300 employees received 1,000 euros for each year they had worked at Greenstep.

In March the whole company switched to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our HR team took good care of us - they sent us monitors to make our work easier, speciality coffee to spice up our breaks and many other little surprises to create a sense of community while working remotely.

We expanded to Norrköping, Sweden, and also set up our own M&A team, which managed three major acquisitions in its first year!

2021: A "Together" bonus is set up for the employees

We opened an office in Stockholm and three new locations in Finland: Mariehamn, Lahti and Vantaa. In addition to Greenstep's internal sustainability work, we established a team to provide sustainability services to our customers. We also published our first sustainability report in the spring.

In addition, we decided to distribute 10% of our profit to our employees each year and to invest 10% of our profit in renewable energy over the next five years. The Bank of Åland's Wind Energy Special Investment Fund was chosen as the first investment target.

2022: Together we can do anything!

2022 was full of ambitious goals - and above all, achieving them. We started our operations in Norway with the opening of our first office in Moss. This event was celebrated with a grand ceremony, where Tore Teir cut the ribbon, and we gathered to mark this important milestone. We also opened several new offices in the Nordics and recruited 200 new Greenstepers. All this was achieved with the same tried and tested recipe: If we take care of our team, they take care of our customers. Satisfied customers recommend us and that's how we continued to grow together!

Our service offering continued to expand with the addition of legal and tax services, offering our customers more comprehensive support in different areas of their business.

Sustainability was once again at the heart of our thinking - and this time we made a promise: Greenstep's operations will be carbon neutral from 2022. This is not just a goal, but a concrete commitment that we have achieved by systematically avoiding and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all our operations.

2023: The Greenstep family trip was possible again

In 2023, we launched our operations also in Oslo in Norway and opened new offices in various cities in Sweden and Finland. Our service offering was further expanded with our Automation & AI services.

After the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, we were finally able to organise a traditional Greenstep weekend trip. In September, our employees from all the different Greenstep countries gathered in Levi for the weekend to spend time together with various activities and to enjoy the beautiful autumn landscapes of Lapland. After a long period of working remotely, colleagues were finally able to meet face to face. The weekend was rounded off with a crab party and a performance by a talented band made up of Greenstepers!

"One of the best moments of the trip was when the company band sang Coldplay's Viva la Vida and the whole team joined in. There was an incredible sense of togetherness at that moment," recalls one Greenstep employee.

2024: Significant investment in information security and technology

2024 was a year of bold leaps and new territories. Our international growth continued at a rapid pace as we expanded into the Netherlands and the UK. At the same time, we continued to diversify our service offering - partnering with Salesforce to provide customers with even more comprehensive technology solutions, and launching services for the public sector.

In April, we became the first in our industry to achieve ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, as part of our preparation for the ever-increasing security threats. We also launched Greenstep Hub, a secure customer portal that streamlines collaboration and brings greater transparency to our services.

In the midst of all this growth and development, we also had time to celebrate together again! Hundreds of Greenstepers gathered in Turku for an unforgettable #GreenstepGoesTurku weekend, where we enjoyed team spirit, circus fun and Venetian festivities. The weekend was crowned by the company's own Green Beats band, who raised thespirits with their amazing performances.

2025: Greenstep continues to grow organically with good profitability

Today, the Greenstep story is still going strong! We currently have about 800 experts working in six different countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, the Netherlands and the UK. We continue to grow steadily and profitably, and we do it our way: by investing in people. We are actively recruiting more top professionals to our team so that we can continue to provide the best possible support to our customers. Together with our more than 2,000 customers, our goal is not just to grow, but to do as much good as possible - helping businesses succeed, innovating new solutions and building a more responsible business landscape for the future.

The journey continues - moving forward together

Over the past fifteen years, Greenstep has grown from a small family business to an international expert organisation, but one thing has remained unchanged: the belief in the power of working together. As we look to the future, the direction is clear. We will continue to grow, innovate and create together with our customers and our team. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey!