HELSINKI, Finland — Supercell is known for two of the most popular iOS apps — combat strategy game Clash of the Clans and social farming game Hay Day — but they are the only survivors of several developed apps from the company in recent years. Instead of ignoring killed off products, Supercell embraces each failure, always with a bottle of champagne.
"We celebrate failures," Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen said during a meeting in Helsinki this week ahead of the country's Slush conference for startups. "We don't pretend failing is fun — people dedicate their lives to gaming production and sometimes they get killed — but we get so much from that failure. We analyze and talk about what went well and what didn't. We pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate what we learned."
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Supercell, which is still in its infancy at 3 years old, has evolved as the new tech darling of Finland — replacing Nokia after the recent sale of its mobile division to Microsoft and joining the ranks of Rovio (known for the Angry Birds franchise).

The company is valued at $3 billion and last month, the company sold 51% stake for $1.53 billion to Japanese investor SoftBank and GungHo Online Entertainment. The move is part of a larger effort to expand its global business.
Paananen highlighted on Tuesday plans to become the "first truly global gaming company."
"We have a long way to go, and it's still the very early days, but we're thinking about games differently," he said. "You can watch apps go up and down in popularity, but we set out to make apps people want to play for years, not for weeks or months."
The two titles have become a mainstay in the top iOS apps for more than a year now — and at times, both in the top three for global downloads — and it's quietly testing a new iOS app in Canada (called Boom Beach), which will likely roll out to more markets later this year.
"We make more than we succeed," he said. "It's the nature of the business and if you don't take risks, you won't get anywhere."
Supercell currently operates out of the building once occupied by Nokia's development team before the sale to Microsoft. Similar to many startups, it embraces a creative workplace atmosphere. When arriving at its Helsinki headquarters, you're asked to slip off your shoes — a common practice at Finnish tech companies. The small effort makes employees feel more at home, while also keeping the rugs dry from outside slug during the cold, darker months.

In the spirit of Facebook's iconic wall at its Menlo Park and New York offices, Supercell encourages visitors to use chalk to write messages.

There's also a board game section and an arts and crafts room in the making to foster creativity, as well as an interactive, gesture-controlled screen that displays gamer data and tweets in real time.

"From the beginning, we wanted to have the best environment for employees so that once they are recruited, they stay," Paananen said. "It's like a football team. It's not about the size; it's a small group of individuals that are really good at what they do."
Every morning, each staffer — from trainees to the CEO — receive an email with performance indicators, stats and other details.
"Everyone gets the same email," he said. "We are all about transparency. If we provide people with the right information, you don't have to tell them. They already know."
Employees are also encouraged to leave the office each day at 5:00 p.m.: "We don't track hours worked. When you are trying to make the best games in the world, you will sometimes have to put in extra hours, but it's important to take time off too. You have to be flexible if you are trying to make history."
Although Supercell's user base is growing fast, Paananen said he wants to keep the company relatively small in size for now.
"When you are small, you don't need layers of management... and it's also more fun," he said.
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Images: Mashable