Founders, friends and foes

work in progress

• VPN. Big news as Nord Security and Surfshark becomes one - internet security powerhouse. While reporters are trying to sort out how much friends or foes these two have been, we are curious what is next to come.
• Founders. We need to hear more founder voices. Here Monika says there's too much grind, and she wants to spread "patient, joyful growth" - within the team, as well as support other founders.
• Fintech. Together with Worldline, kevin. has developed the first kernel for POS payment terminals that take A2A payments - no card scheme involved! DeepFin launches Premium plan - freelancers to receive help from an accountant.
• Media. 0 to 1 of building a venture firm, and developing your edge - podcast with Contrarian Ventures (Rokas and Tomas). Behind BitDegree with Danielius Stasiulis (in LT). Interview with Marius (Mark ID), on his journey (in LT). Workee relocation via Startup Visa to Lithuania (from Ukraine) - welcome!
• Calendar. Why do investors say No? (or perhaps when is it Yes, since it is No most of the time!) with Ernests (Superhero), Andris (Change Ventures) and Jone (SWG)

rounds and capital

• Employee benefits platform benme has attracted a second investment – 100,000 Eur from two private business angels.
• Productpine seed (€2.5M) led by Acequia Capital and NFQ Capital, the family office of the founders of HomeToGo, Swoodoo and Alaiko.
• Active investor in Edtech space (Tamo, Eduka), Zabolis acquires educational publishing house – Šviesa. "We like to live in Vilnius and work in the world"

Did you know that your startup can receive free Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to use their cloud services?

At the very beginning, resources are always scarce, and AWS is willing to make this path less bumpy for you by giving out up to $100,000 in free AWS credits throughout the startup’s lifecycle.

Interested? Cloudvisor, AWS Advanced partner and an official Scout of the AWS Activate program, can guide you through this journey. Fill in the form to learn more.

founder guides

• Norrsken impact accelerator is live with $125k pre-seed tickets
• Basic preparation CoInvest Capital expects from the startup founders
• eCom DTC metrics, and mistakes
• PLG (product led growth) and why you should expect your VP Product to sign up for a lead quota
• Angel investing learnings by Lenny Rachitsky, and also experience of setting up an angel syndicate in Europe. Related - The Unbundling of VC.

insights

• Understanding stock market? Don't bother, "the market is no longer driven by fundamentals—it’s driven by memes. No longer a metaphor, but a living structure—the stonk market." The Gamification of Finance
• How will the Apple car look like? Let's start with the doors, if they'll use this patent.
• Amazon ad revenue is $31bn in 2021 - roughly the same size as the entire global newspaper industry
• Now Physical Jobs Are Going Remote Too

roleplay
(thanks for submiting - reply to suggest, especially early stage teams)

ecosystem

• When the ecosystem grows, it diversifies. One emerging field - PropTech - has just launched an association (release in LT), to support and inspire entrepreneurs in real estate, and related services.  
  
  Leveraging awareness and Lithuania's market as the perfect playground to develop and test PropTech products, they intend to x10 startups in this industry. Estimated around 30 teams are currently active.
  
• There's only one direction in this grahp - up, and a good reminder that costs are not the factor of startup output, productivity is. Source