Sun, screen

work in progress

• E-commerce. These hit some serious numbers. A year ago we talked about Furniture1 hitting EUR 100m in sales, an impressive firm that keeps giving. Orbio World sheds more light on their business and products – coming around with EUR 156m in annual revenue. Burga is another one to track, a well-defined segment and expanding rapidly from its current base (tens of millions in revenue). For them and others in e-commerce to help, Genus AI automates creative production – the AI engine has processed $571m in revenue and $208m in spend on Meta in 2023.
  • E-commerce is also a never-ending power play on who is the ultimate aggregator. Locally, one of our friends tipped looking at kaina24: it looks like a team of four, revenue was EUR1.7m, with stunning EUR1m in gross profits! Just a price comparison site, so operationally light as a feather. Compare it to running Varle LT as an e-commerce business: warehouse, 130 people staff, financing. logistics.. while that brings you 45x revenue, the profits are merely EUR500k larger!
  • Some idea where DTC multiples are on this thread
• Sales – the way we know it – is dead. Machines took over.

That's from 20VC pod with Brendon Cassidy. With AI landing in our hands, the outcome variable between sales teams becomes huge. Differentiation goes beyond hard work and effectiveness. With AI, one's effort can get multiplied 10x-100x, if you learn how to do it. When it works, the outcome will be dramatically different compared to a peer salesperson calling cold leads from a spreadsheet.

• On that note – Sales Tech Day will run ABX workshops and giveaway GPTs (our readers get 15% discount, code TECHPHILOMATHS15)
• Legal industries. Entrepreneurs like to talk about how law firms should run differently, and some arrive with solutions. Karolina started Crespect with Estonian co-founder, and built SaaS for legal practice management. Amberlo, another law firm platform, has been making progress in multiple markets (70V, Iron Wolf portfolio company). Another way to combine law with tech - join Dina and her team at Nord Security. Related, slightly different, but should keep track: Estonian Pactum AI started 4 years ago, and their chatbots run contract negotiations with suppliers for large companies.
• Fintech is doing fine, likely to re-bounce soon after a longer reckoning as an industry. Congrats to all who received 2024 awards: PAYSTRAX, SUPER HOW?, Gintare Baciuliene (Invest LT), HeavyFinance, AMLYZE, smeGO, Paysera. Also recognized - Argyle, among Most Innovative Companies of 2024 by Fast Company.
• Railways to success. Can still jump on a train – a train to Techchill, of course (April 17th)
• People move. Voldemaras Vanagas becomes CEO of QS Lasers. Gerda Sakalauskaite joins LitCapital as Investor Relations Manager. Justas Saltinis joins Nter Asset Management. Olle is joining VC Lab and raising early-stage fund (art/tech/game). Liutauras joins AMLYZE to pursue strategic partnerships.

sponsors

Privileged to receive support from a group of core sponsors, who decided to get onboard. All spots taken. They have some newsletter invites, too!

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups], Vinted [largest C2C European marketplace, always hiring], Tech Zity [tech hubs and campuses], Presto Ventures [investing in early-stage B2B startups and marketplaces], 15MIN Group [all the news you need to know], Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers].

resources for supporters

• Startup lists for the Baltics - Drone startups, Marketplaces, Sportstech
• Repeat Lithuanian founders (added Gajus Kuizinas and Justinas Katkus)

rounds and capital

• OTB Ventures closed a second fund, EUR 185M in total, deeptech focus. They have previously invested in kevin. and Ondato.
• Defence Tech - European Resilience Investor List. (Also, they've got some free TechChill tickets)
• FT Ranks top European incubators/accelerators - interesting to see, SWG scores very high.
• Non-obvious networks around LT tech. Eugene Malobrodsky lived in Kaunas until he was 13, moved to US, built and sold AnchorFree, and now is investing in immigrant founders with One Way Ventures. Another fund with immigrant focus - Geek Ventures - already did Spike Technologies and Filmustage. After Devbridge got acquired by Cognizant, Aurimas, Martin and Tomas launched Chicago-based Moose Ventures; they already have softloans in their portfolio.

three questions

Siim Teller, Managing Partner, Lemonade Stand

What excites Lemonade Stand the most these days? Which startups are you eager to meet more frequently?

Portfolio companies making money, bringing home contracts and new funding :)

Of the new stuff - I like to see a technology challenge and/or energy/sustainability focus but also after making the first defence investment back in 2020 have committed to two additional teams in drones+autonomy. But that’s that for now.

Always founder-driven but don’t like areas where yes, you can make money but there’s no real change of how things work. Case in point Axiology - opens up securities to retail investors.

With investments across the Baltics, you possess a regional perspective. Could you share a few aspects of the startup ecosystem here that continue to surprise you, for better or worse?

Latvia underperforming. Still a mystery.

Energy and hunger in Lithuania. Not new but cool to feel the buzz.

Volume of quality founders and new startups dropped in summer of 2022 and hasn’t really recovered.

Meanwhile from the investment side early stage was very active in 2023 with Firstpick, Specialist VC, Baltic Sandbox firing on all cylinders. Angel activity in Estonia subdued, lack of liquidity. Lots of bets placed now in wait-and-bake mode.

An Andreessen Horowitz partner visits Europe and finds herself in a Berlin bar with a few hours to spare before dinner. At the next table, there are founders from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Who is likely to deliver the most compelling pitch?

Estonian founder calls CEO of Ready Player Me, asks him to drop the A16Z guy a message that he should talk to the founder ;)

But otherwise - it depends - who are the founders.

founder's guide

• Founders, wear sunscreen – and other advice we need to take note '24

Don't waste your time comparing; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind…the race is long, & in the end, it's only with yourself.

[it is based on this famous '97 commencement speech that did not get delivered. It is beautiful, also can listen here. It got erroneously credited as a commencement speech given by Kurt Vonnegut at MIT, but he never did. Vonnegut said he would be proud if these were his words.]

• When SaaS gets scaling, the engineer-to-sales ratio drops from 2:1 to 1:1.
• Train yourself to "focus on the most important things in life: Faith, Family, Friends and Meaningful Job"- David from PVcase getting inspired by Arthur C. Brooks (he is worth a read/listen, for example here)
• With regards to Comms - go direct

Founders need to take their narrative as seriously as they take the rockets or robots. They would never outsource their product — and when it comes to convincing others to support the mission, the story is the product.

further insights

• Exceptional 2024 startup list – the ones growing fastest, mostly US
• Might be exceptional – Thiel Foundation Announces Next Fellow Class (some previous include Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum..)
• Which African countries promote entrepreneurship best? Mauritius, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Cape Verde.
• In terms of emissions, it's more important what you eat, compared to "local" produce - transport tends to be a small share.

ecosystem

• Great initiative with a bunch of experienced practitioners – "Breaking into the Finance World: Private Equity and Venture Capital", a course open to all. Hurry to register before March 29th.
• Marius Jurgilas on STEM education and AI. It's extremely frustrating, we are hugely underinvesting and it will show up. My only thinking is.. how to get more smart people into government?
• The upcoming major Tech Zity campus is in search of partners for catering and coffee – an ideal opportunity for brave concepts to flourish.
  • Related – Plug and Play Accelerator chose Sapiegos for their office, likely to hit more runaway companies than the brave Startup Highway team had (website is still there)

roleplay