About Emmy's Founders

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The founders of the new clothing company pictured at Emmy's first office in Espoo in January 2015

Hanna Autio, Chief Operating Officer and Founder

I am a 36-year-old mother of children aged 0, 5, and 6. Through my other company, I have worked with children and young people who need special support.

I met Markus about ten years ago through my husband. In the summer of 2014, during an evening get-together, Markus told me about his idea for recycling children's clothes and I was sold! I thought, this would be a great service that would solve the problems of busy families with overflowing wardrobes.

My favorite hobby is sewing. At the moment, I sew everyday clothes for my own children from cheerful patterns and high-quality fabrics. Previously, I also sewed clothes to sell. I greatly appreciate small-scale seamstresses and artisans working in Finland. Their products are in many ways comparable to branded clothes, and that's why they are also included in Emmy's selection.

I support recycling and ecological choices and try to buy both my children's and my own clothes second-hand. Emmy's operations perfectly meet my own needs, as I currently don't have time to sell clothes myself at flea markets or to shop there. I also find selling on online flea markets too troublesome, especially if you have a lot to sell. When buying from online flea markets, the challenge is that the selection is too scattered. It takes a lot of time to find the right product, and you have to arrange each purchase separately. I am really happy that Emmy's product selection has grown very large, and I notice that customers also find many of the items they are looking for at once.

Markus Rautopuro, Founder

I am a 40-year-old IT entrepreneur from Espoo, who has founded and grown several software technology companies over the past 16 years. My family also includes two now school-aged children.

Over the past six years, I have developed, produced, and been involved in creating several different consumer services. I have noticed that for some reason, online shopping in Finland is still somehow difficult, not to mention if you want to sell items you have accumulated to others.

The idea for Emmy was born back in 2012, when I was thinking about the challenges of buying children's clothes. This idea went by the name KidWear, but it then got buried under other ideas and work commitments. The summer before last, while cleaning out our clothing storage, the thought resurfaced and I started to consider the concept from the perspective of the whole family. Through various pilot phases in the autumn, Hanna and I shaped a "turnkey" concept from a huge pile of ideas and possibilities, which includes children's clothes for families as well as women's clothing.

Recycling used clothes is a rising trend. This is proven by the huge buzz in various Facebook flea markets and the very active user base of local flea markets. My own thinking started from the fact that for busy people, using flea markets is too troublesome and takes too much time. So far, all of our family's children's clothes have either been given to friends, and those not given away have been donated to charity. Why couldn't there be a service where someone even comes to your home to pick up unused clothes, photographs them, and puts them up for sale on your behalf? Well, that's the service we have now developed.