Attention infra

Hey friends, hope this finds you on the beach? This week we've got quite a few of content / media ideas to cover – including an interview with Modestas Mankus, who hit Forbes 30 under 30 list very recently. Like it or not, startup founders need to understand / embrace what makes the current economy run, especially so in the US (by Kyla Scanlon)

work in progress

• Save the ball. Tesonet Global founders are taking over Twinsbet arena. Tournated will power the biggest padel event in the Baltics. Matas Buzelis becomes new Pulsetto ambassador.
• Renewable. Contrarian Ventures is full-on offensive when the market perhaps wants to snooze. Launched a Substack. Brought Michael Huerta as Venture Partner. Have Impact Loop talking with Robin Von Stein. And co-led EUR 4m seed round with Anthemis, adding Cariqa to the portfolio (startup rebuilding EV payments with an infrastructure-first approach). Also, Estonian Jälle Technologies secured € 2M pre-seed round.
• Edtech. BrAIn Club experimenting in the US, to replace scrolling waste with immersive learning. Looking forward to learn what Jonas is building in stealth. What might be an overlooked edtech founder with an impressive track? Rasa Strumskyte, co-founder of Talent Garden (CPH-based); they shifted into edtech years ago with Hyper Island acquisition and a suite of products. Also, this Danish startup went through YC to build "Doulingo for exams" – much better idea compared to adding 10 points..
• Racing. How fast is your startup/scale-up if you are not backing racing yet?

• Scalers. Fascinating interview with Egle Eidimtaite as she covers Tesonet scale and reach, various portfolio companies and beyond – consolidated revenues broke EUR 1B last year. Oxylabs hit 80m in 2024. Eneba sales surge, again. Martynas is driving Flanco into hundreds of thousands of square meters via partnerships.
• Defence. ILTE is proceeding with two calls for defence funds: allocating 40m to select two managers. Estonian Threod Systems reached 38M revenue and exploring an exit. Miltech Sandbox started in LT.
• New attempts. Remigijus and the team launch Nannow – a marketplace for nannies. Povilas releases MojoVis, an early-warning systems for workplace wellbeing. Klero’s AI Assistants and docs guide product building, just thinking I've seen those little robot characters before.. Spotwise turns real-time radio ad tracking into automated lead generation.
• "Your nutrition is my margin". Pixbite is AI for nutrition – just take a photo. Titas enabling (accelerating?) nutrition discussions with Persikas founders. It's been a month and we are still waiting for news from Better Market. Acala drinks celebrate 5th year, they have been profitable already 2023-2024. Crunch is growing. Nootri is software for nutritionists and health coaches.
• Naming names. Not long ago, Smartproxy become Decodo – but did you know, that OpenAI was about to become Cogito? Surfshark also has Incogni brand, and now you are totally confussed.
• Content–first plays. One of these things you cannot unsee once you start building yours. Simas started Bloom Labs writing about biodiversity credits. Austejos blogas was already super popular before the launch of the first kindergarten (reputation + lead gen). Mokesciu sufleris is another smart model: monetising information when it is both high-value + updates at high-frequency (certainly Jim VandeHei building Politico Pro was genius move in this). To put things into AI perspective, Ben Thompson just dropped a great piece, called Content and Community.

• Hack. David launches of a new event series by Cursor (Anysphere), in collaboration with basedspace_ and AQ22. September 12–14.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [making online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
Google For Startups [cloud credits up to $350K, expert support & faster growth]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Superangel [Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A for tech companies]

rounds and capital

• ZioSec has closed a $2.1M seed round to help enterprises secure their AI agents before and after deployment. Led by Access Venture Partners, with participation from Jason Calacanis's LAUNCH Fund, Superhero Capital, Greater Colorado Venture Fund, Kickstart, and a network angels. Boulder-based Andrius is co-founder and CTO.
• Coinvest Capital backs Starflight Dynamics (Germany; pre-seed) in push for next-gen orbital infrastructure; round is joined by experienced business angels, including the founding members of the newly-formed Space & Defence Committee under EBAN.
• Nter is launching ROIX equity crowdfunding platform, with the first project – acquisition of EKSMA Optics.
• Jälle Technologies secured € 2M in funding to scale battery recycling tech: Kiilto Ventures, 2C Ventures, EIS, KIK (Environmental Investment Centre), and angels Andrus Purde and Priit Viru.
• Estonian Lifeyear secures EUR 2.8m in funding, from Verge HealthTech Fund, Tilia Impact Ventures, PurposeTech, Estonian angel investors, and EIS | Enterprise Estonia (through the Applied Research program).
• TELETACTICA, a Ukrainian/Estonian defence tech company developing jamming-resistant comms systems secured $1.5 million investment from MITS Capital and Green Flag Ventures.
• Estonian Nortal Acquires Nearsure, a U.S.-Based Technology Solutions Company (large deal, note that Nortal is already EUR 228m in rev)

three questions

Modestas Mankus, Founder at Talks, Editor in Chief at Our Culture.

What led you to start Our Culture, and how did you find early traction in such a competitive space?

Early traction came from the consistency of content and also because we covered new angles that others weren't doing. None of it was genius, just pure interest and love for the arts so the initial growth. Essentially, we earned traction by showing up every day. A lot of the success we had was luck, being unoptimised, and not having too many rules. We essentially rolled the dice and stuck with what performed well. We still do that and it works.

What's helped you build a sustainable media brand when so many struggle?

Focusing on the long term and understanding the importance of adaptability. Like any other company, a media company can die by concentrating on something that worked before but now doesn't. It's been a slow burner, but we prefer it this way. It's also about knowing the audience, what they want, why they want it, and what they will want the next week.

How do you see the agency and media sides of Talks evolving together long-term?

The media side builds the audience and brings us customers. Essentially, it does 95% of our sales. We don't have a sales team at Talks. We don't even run GA ads for most of our work. Only experimental projects.

The agency then takes on the clients and brings back new ideas for the media side to focus on. It's a loop in which we feed ideas from the media to the agency. And vice-versa.

founder's guide

• From Product to $32B (and AI plays in marketing teams): How Wiz’s Non-Traditional CMO Built a Marketing Machine.
• What metrics do you need to hit for series A? Well European scene is little more grounded still, but things are getting very vague, don't be discouraged.
• 10 Fill-In-The-Blank Headlines if you really need to clickbaity post
• How Much Should You Raise (If You Only Raise Once)?
• Hamlet asking:

further insights

• Tech – media – culture, this keeps spinning further. New playroom for reporters and journalists: Founder Box pairs founders with former editors-in-chief, investigative journalists, and long-form profile writers, to help craft captivating narratives. "Founders Films" aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism (Palantir CTO raising for a movie studio).
• Myanmar's proliferating scam centers, or modern slavery.

ecosystem

• question is simple – how can you 10x places like _basedspace? You need 10x the people that can start them.

roleplay