In autumn 2014, Katja Järveläinen had just graduated with a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from Lappeenranta University of Technology and moved to Helsinki.
She was at the beginning of her career, entering a new city without an established professional network. The question in her mind was: Where to start her career, and in what kind of environment would it make sense to build something long-term?
“I knew I wanted to be where the momentum was. Technology felt like that space. It was changing so rapidly that it felt like the future of work was being written there in real-time.”
At the time, Gapps was a small Finnish cloud services company helping organizations adopt Google’s tools and modern ways of working. Katja came across the role during her job search and ended up in a recruitment process that felt different from the start.
“The people I met made a strong impression; you could tell things were still being shaped. That really appealed to me because I didn’t want to be a small gear in a finished machine. I wanted to be somewhere where I could see the direct impact of my work.”
She joined Gapps as a Sales Development Representative.
The work in her role was concrete from day one: cold outreach, customer meetings across the Helsinki region, and conversations with companies about how their work could change using cloud tools like Google Workspace (then known as Google Apps). At the time, much of the work was still about helping customers understand what these tools even were and why they mattered.
“It wasn’t abstract. You had to be on the ground, helping people bridge the gap between traditional IT and the cloud. It was a lot about showing people what was possible, and proving that real-time collaboration from any device would fundamentally change how work is done.”
That gave her a front-row seat to how companies make decisions, what slows them down, and what creates value in everyday work.
After a while, winning new customers was still important to Katja, but what happened after the deal started to feel more interesting.
“I started to think more about the long-term. How do you help a customer succeed with the tools and services? How do you ensure we deliver real value to their day-to-day work?
At the time, customer work for existing clients was still developing at Gapps. There was no structured Customer Success function, no clear ownership, and no consistent way of working. Instead of waiting for that to be built, Katja started building it herself.
She met with customers to uncover their pain points and expectations, and translated those insights into shaping the first models for managing ongoing customer relationships more systematically.
“It took some time, but we started to see the impact of proactive and strategic customer engagement. At one point, around 70 percent of our revenue came from existing customers. That’s when it became clear our long-term partnerships had become the engine of our growth.”
That work evolved into a formal Customer Success function, and Katja eventually stepped into the role of Head of Customer Success.
The original challenge, figuring out what meaningful work looks like and how to grow into it, evolved. Now it was about learning how to build something without a ready blueprint, how to make decisions early in your career, and how to carry responsibility when you are still figuring things out yourself.
“That’s where most of the learning came from. You don’t have someone telling you how to do it. You try, you iterate, you learn, and you keep going.”
After six years at Gapps, Katja made a decision that many experienced professionals recognize. She chose to leave a place where things were going well.
“I had basically built my whole career at Gapps after graduating. At some point, I felt I needed to see how these same things are done somewhere else.”
In 2020, she joined Heltti, a Finnish company focused on improving the well-being, performance, and work ability of knowledge workers, as Chief Customer Officer. The role kept her close to customers but placed her in a different context, where the conversations increasingly focused on people, organizations, and the conditions that enable sustainable performance.
That experience confirmed her thought that customer success and employee success are tightly connected.
“If people are not doing well inside the company, it will always show in the customer experience. Those two things are not separate.”
In 2022, Katja noticed that Gapps was hiring for the Head of People and Culture role.
She was not actively looking for a new role. She had not worked in a dedicated People and Culture role before. But the role connected directly to something she had already been thinking about.
“I had already been thinking that I want to work more closely with people, their growth, their ability to perform and succeed in a sustainable way.”
Gapps offered a familiar environment where she already understood the business, the customers, and the reality of expert work. That made it possible to step into a new domain without starting from zero.
“I knew the company, I knew the culture, and I knew what the work looked like in practice. That gave me a foundation - and courage - even if the domain itself was new.”
She decided to go for it and returned to Gapps at the end of 2022.
Today, as Head of People and Culture at Gapps, Katja plays a central role in the company's business.
Gapps helps organizations transform how they work, improve collaboration, and build more effective digital environments. That kind of work depends entirely on the people doing it.
“Our business is built on expert work. It starts with attracting the right talent and ensuring they are capable and well-supported. Only then can they help our customers transform and succeed. That is why People and Culture isn't just a support function, it is our core business.”
Her work focuses on making sure that Gapps’ people can succeed in that environment.
That includes supporting managers, developing ways of working, and helping individuals grow in their roles. Much of the work happens through dialogue, coaching, and understanding people's needs to perform well.
“In Customer Success, you’re trying to understand what the customer needs and how to help them succeed. It’s the same here. The context is different, but the core is the same.”
Looking back, the original 2014 challenge of where to start and how to build a meaningful career has been resolved in a very specific way. Stay close to real problems. Take ownership early. Be willing to step into things that are not yet fully defined. Learn through doing.
“That’s been the common thread. You don’t wait for a ready path. You build it.”
Gapps today is a more mature company than it was when Katja joined in 2014. It has grown; roles are clearer; ways of working are more structured; and there is more shared understanding of how things are done.
Still, one thing hasn’t changed: the environment requires people to be active participants in shaping their own path. According to Katja, that is what defines who thrives here.
"Growth is a partnership, but it starts with you. While Gapps provides the support, you need to be the driver - setting your own direction and communicating your aspirations. When you speak up, we listen and do our best to help pave the way."
For Katja, the future continues as developing Gapps in a way that allows people to do meaningful work well. Strengthening the connection between how people experience their work and what customers ultimately receive. And continuing to build something that is still evolving.
“This is not a finished environment. And that’s exactly why it’s interesting.”