Raoul Lehtonen

Raoul Lehtonen leads AI adoption and automation at OpenOcean, a €400M Nordic venture firm, and is a working example of a new kind of operator: someone who builds the software they need rather than waiting on engineers or settling for off-the-shelf tools. He vibe-codes internal tools in Lovable, wires automations in n8n, stands up data pipelines, and puts AI directly into everyday workflows, proving how much output a small team can unlock when the people closest to the problem can also build the solution. Just as important as the tools is the culture: he's turned "use AI" from a mandate into a habit across the firm, and now helps other Nordic companies do the same. His background is in finance, leading fund, ESG and portfolio operations, which is where the build-it-yourself approach has paid off most visibly, but the playbook travels to any team willing to pick up the tools. Raoul is passionate about getting AI genuinely used in small teams, vibe coding for non-engineers, and talking about why most rollouts stall before they become a habit.