Carnegie 2.0

work in progress

• Life Sciences are awesome. Progress report from Baltymas. Former CEO of Pfizer joins Ro5 as chair of advisory board. Droplet Genomics debuts the New Microfluidic Screening Platform (check their website - it's NASA 3000).
• Media. Bitcoin taxi to global CoinGate story with co-founder Dmitrijus Borisenka (Socialhack podcast). Interview with HeavyFinance team (in LT). Visiting Robolabs (in LT).

rounds & capital

• Following the incredible startup bull market, Startuper's Smoothies raised EUR 400,000 to feed you all. Should hear more soon.
• Workee, a client management platform for freelancers, secures $600,000 round led by Lighthouse Ventures (also investors BRISE Capital, Startup Wise Guys, and Ihar Mahaniok). Originally from Kyiv and also have been granted Startup Visa in LT.
• Estonian EyeVi Technologies raises $2m seed, and Iron Wolf Capital joins the round. Also in Estonia, eAgronom has closed a $7.4 million Series A round led by Yolo Investments and ZGI Capital - again Iron Wolf joined since it already was their portfolio company.
• Specialist VC (formerly United Angels VC) has announced the first close of a new €50 million fund at €42 million. Will make over 40 investments in startups from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland.
• With the final closing at €49M, Change Ventures Fund II is now the largest seed VC fund raised in the Baltic States. They also run great data sets on all things Baltic fundraising, valuations, etc - see 2021 update.

New IT hub in town! SME Finance Ecosystem is building a team of 50+ developers in-house to meet the needs of the rapidly growing alternative financial services provider. With the expansion to LV, EE, FI and other European markets you will have interesting challenges to build innovative fintech solutions.

We can boast to have one of the best views of Vilnius from the 18th floor, the usual benefits from snacks to days off, and properly good salaries (seriously, they are that good😉)

Oh, and we are also looking for the Master Architect to lead the IT Hub - more here (or reach out directly)

insights

• Why the New York Times has acquired Wordle in low seven figures? (audience)
• We eat more during the flight because of noise (and other reasons)
• What is the superpower of cities? They are anti-fragile. Cool new newsletter for you. (Note that superpower of countries are institutions - and small democratic economies outperform the rest)
• Devastating presentation Blackwells has put on Peloton. Includes "hiring McKinsey is a clear declaration of failure" and other mighty hits.
• Sebastian Mallaby releases a new book - on power law, but more importantly, asking what is venture capital good for? Here's fun podcast with Matthew Clifford. (As economic models evolve, they require new operational/organizational frameworks, including financing. Venture is a solution for the new idea-driven economy, where experiments, brave bets, and iterations are a must. So VC not going away anytime soon).
• The remarkable Baltic performance told again by Sifted  

founder's guide

• Nathan shares how profit-sharing works at ConvertKit, a bootstrapped ESP provider. There is also an interesting story about how they decided not to sell to Spotify, which made some people upset. Somewhat unexpected ConvertKit ran a secondary to provide liquidity. A plausible scenario for some scale-ups in LT, with Siena and the likes active in New Nordics.
• What is a good monthly churn? (Lenny's newsletter)
• Product-Led Sales Benchmark Report
• Tips to negotiate Term Sheet
• How to Manage People (especially remote) from Andreas Klinger

roleplay (hit reply to add your job opening)

ecosystem

Fascinating dive into US public libraries, and how they were scaled across the country. The effect is far beyond buildings & spaces - they shaped new institutions, practices, and mindsets. What is Library 2.0 of our age?

"If Bezos wanted to invest in libraries on a scale comparable to Carnegie, it would cost more than 30 billion dollars". Here's the blueprint:

• Put some truly massive grants on the table
• Leverage the activism of those passionate about the future
• Come up with conditions that guarantee sustainability over time
• Fund something adaptable, that can be a framework for future needs
• Fund something that scales as cheaply as construction in 1901
• Find a niche with huge demand and need (take your pick!)
• Build a simple process run by capable administrators
• Surpass Carnegie by prioritizing equity

Thank you and see you again next week!