Cell structure for the digital era ©Juuso Westerlund Power point: Supercell's Ilkka Paananen is pondering an Android launch after games such as "Clash of Clans" and "Hay Day topped Apple's app charts around the world for the iPad and iPhone Ilkka Paananen says his goal is to make himself "the least powerful CEO." Yet he runs a fast-growing company that is a leading light of the Nordic region's flourishing technology start-up scene. Supercell was set up in 2010 in Helsinki as a gaming company with a focus on Facebook. But after a disappointing first game, Mr Paananen bet the company on the iPad. In the middle of 2012, it put out two tablet games - Clash of Clans, a battle strategy game, and Hay Day, which has a farming theme - and by the first quarter of this year it was pulling in $179m in revenues and $106m in operating profits. About 10m people a day currently play the games. It may still have only two games and just 100 employees, but Supercell is making more money out of mobile gaming than Electronic Arts, which has more than 900 games for the iPad and iPhone including such stalwarts as Monopoly and Fifa 13. Moreover, the two games are in the top ranks of the highest-grossing apps for both the iPad and iPhone in countries from China and Japan to the UK and US. In many ways, Mr Paananen is seeking to create a new type of company, one better suited to the digital era than that of video games for consoles. The first, if superficial, sign of difference is at the entrance - everyone must take off their shoes before going into the open-plan office in an old Nokia building. But the shift is deeper. Supercell is brutal at killing off games that fail to meet its high standards, which is why it still has just two titles. Mr Paananen has a subversive streak. He gives the impression that failure at the company is in some ways celebrated more than success. The new games are developed by teams, or cells - hence the name, which also denotes a powerful thunderstorm - of five to 10 workers, all working independently. If a game is killed off, every member of the team receives a bottle of champagne. The reward for success? Beer. On the wall a map of the world shows where all the people playing the games are. A constant stream of players" comments is displayed. The decision over the fate of a game does not reside with Mr Paananen, however, or even a central committee. Instead, only two groups have such power: the team developing the game, and the players (or "users," as he calls them). Games are tested by all employees; if they meet with approval they are released in Finland or Canada - both small but tech-savvy markets - to try them out on the public. If the users or the developers don't like a game - as happened with one called Battle Buddies - the plug is pulled and the corks are popped. "I believe we build this company on top of the lessons that have come from all these failures we've had and the thing is, the quicker we fail, the quick­er we learn and the better we will become at creating these games," says Mr Paan­an­en, wearing a Supercell T-shirt, jeans - and black socks. But he is also clear that developing new products - the mantra of most companies - is not his top priority. The main thing is to keep existing players happy and returning day after day. Supercell has embraced the new freemium zeitgeist in mobile gaming. Users play for free but can pay to progress or speed things up. These payments bring in $2m a day. A data scientist sits in each game team, analysing how people play the games in order to suggest changes such as making a task easier or harder. Mr Paananen says: "Our goal is to create games for the first time for the mobile platform that people will play not for weeks or months but for years." The 35-year-old entrepreneur began in mobile gaming, but of time. Fresh out of university, he started Sumea in 2000 to develop games for the very different mobile phones of that era. There were no app stores; all selling was done through telecoms operators. He sold Sumea to Digital Chocolate, a mobile gaming business, in 2004 and stayed for six years. By 2010, Mr Paananen wanted to strike out independently again. He set up Supercell with the intention of rec­ruiting a whole team "like in football in the Premiership" to make the best possible games. Gunshine was releas­ed for Facebook and did moderately well at about 200,000 players, but it was no blockbuster. So Mr Paananen revealed his brutal streak and changed the strategy of the whole company to focus on the iPad. "We killed Gunshine and decided to, basically, bet the company on the tablet platform," he says. The decision is all the more striking because Supercell had received its first big funding only a few months before when Accel Partners, the venture capital firm, invested $12m. Mr Paananen describes it as the hardest challenge he has faced; several employees left. He stuck to his guns, however, and the two big hits arrived. Another financing round followed in February; the $130m of investment valued Supercell at close to $800m. Mr Paananen plays down the pressure to find a third game but it is still there, and there are other pressing issues too. The fin­ancing round was not strictly necessary, he concedes, but it reduced the need for an initial public offering. It also allowed employees - all of whom now get stock options - to sell some of their shares on the same terms as the six founders and the venture capital firms. Mr Paananen says the transparency, and feeling that everyone is in the same boat, were extremely important. So, if he wants to be the least powerful chief executive, just what is Mr Paananen's role? He says much of it is to keep that pressure off his employees so they can work on new games and improve the existing ones. Ensuring its cell structure does not end up with people working in silos is also crucial. More challenges loom. A launch on Google's Android operating system is under intense discussion, with the aim of unlocking Asian markets such as China and South Korea. Supercell is growing fast too, currently with around 20 job vacancies to fill. As befits a new company in a new in­dustry, Mr Paananen underlines that he does not have all the answers - but he makes clear that he would like to keep the agility that a start-up has: "We don't want to be Nokia. We want to stay as small as we can and I think we're still trying to figure out what that means. Does it mean we're comprised of these small cells but the number of cells that you can add is X? I still don't think we're coming anywhere near the limits though.