Don't slice the mushroom

work in progress

• Layoffs/talent. Woolsocks is downsizing and bringing designers and other talents to the market.
• Compensation. Tech is increasingly visible in salary surveys (article in LT). Mostly it is scale-ups with local teams (UBER, Railsbank, Podimo, Deel), but now also Planner 5D and Cast AI.
• Agriculture. DOJUS agro, eAgronom to bring first carbon farming program in Lithuania and Heavy Finance is exploring carbon sinks, too. In Thailand, Matas is building Gaorai, a platform that connects farmers with freelance agri-drone pilots.
• COO next. Mantas Mikuckas reflecting 10 year journey with Vinted and sounds like he will be more involved in helping other startups.
• This week's headline is recognizing Arminas from Clearbit and his efforts to popularise Lithuanian folklore

tech philomaths
join our membership circle

We have introduced TP memberships, and sold out early bird offers. Join now if you want to support and contribute.

How does it work?

• Newsletter content remains public, arriving every week as usual
• Paid members see drafts of longer-form pieces in advance. They will be able to comment, contribute with their experience, suggest ideas or introduce to an expert.
• Members will also vote on topics to cover. Most of them will be around operating startups, investing, and discussing the ecosystem.

rounds and capital

• Great time for shopping for the likes of Vinted. Lithuanian unicorn is acquiring Rebelle, also a secondhand fashion marketplace from Germany, offering mostly luxury brands. Vinted is trying to take it over for around EUR 30m.
• Orion Ventures will be investing along with CoInvest Capital
• A couple of early employees sell shares of Kilo Health, bringing secondary investors (Nordic Secondary Fund and others) to the cap table.
• Startup Guide Pre-accelerator program (equity-free), led by Firstpick.

roleplay

insights

• What have been some of the largest outcomes ($1bn+ absolute return; highest MoM multiple) for European VCs?
• Drawing Bitcoin mining insights from past precious metals cycles
• Seven Deadly Sins of Consumer Tech (sloth=Netflix, greed=OpenSea..)
• How to flaunt your modesty online, in three easy steps
• Life in Lithuania is beautiful but not necessarily very long (in LT)

founder guide

Fundraising (early-stage) 2022

[Thanks Andris and other TP members for reviewing]

The current state of the funding market

• LT pre-seed funds have not started, and most seed funds have little cash to deploy
• Valuation corrections are ongoing to follow global trends, gradually cascading through the market from growth stages to Series A to seed
• Angel investing slowed down (tourist investors going cold)
• Drop in activity in Europe in summer as everyone reassessing the market
• Many more startups will be chasing investment in the fall and more competition

The key takeaway is that only better startups will get funding, including startups that run fundraising better. Here are some ideas & processes to follow.

Fundraising process

• Prepare now better, stand out of the crowd meeting investors in the fall.
  Make it easy to invest. There is plenty of resources, but also really good takes - including how to pitch - are by NFX. Also, bring the right mindset.
• Keep it tight (run an intense sprint).
  Many startups are around fundraising, going through many events. Now this will get even longer. But being around fundraising long time sends a bad signal. Better to spend months preparing and then try to raise in a limited timeframe (perhaps 6-9 months). If unsuccessful, get back to the startup, make some visible changes (product, team, sales, positioning) and try again.
• The value of intro is there - do what you can to get connected this way.
  One study in the UK found a warm intro from a mutual connection leads to a 13x higher chance of funding over a cold one.
• Reduce the risk.
  Remind angels (especially local ones) about Coinvest opportunity. It can have a big play on risk / return calculus.

Venture market

• Expand the top of the funnel
  Get to talk to many more angels and funds and expected last year.
  
  Resources: | finding angel investors (requires update but useful links) ventury.app (Baltics focus) | Baltic VCs (Kaari's list) | openvc.app | no-warm intro required | gritt.io | signalNFX | foundersuite |
  
  In terms of scale, here is the process Martins used to go after 1000 investors.
• Advisors.
  Never underestimate the value of advice and all benefits that it can bring. It can sometimes help to build an advisory board of some sort - for the network, insights, and support. But be cautious of poor advice.
• Which funds to go after first - remember funding cycles
  Founders often do not if the fund is actively investing - important in LT when many funds are at the end of deployment. Not much public info but angels will know, who is active and who is not. Also look for newly closed funds, and new investors in the market.