Human Agency

work in progress

• Products and launches. LABA7 launches a new product - wireless race car scales. Salesforge is in closed BETA and is onboarding the first clients to start stress testing. Jonas launched Fiestos - an event calendar for not-so-busy people who will attend these gatherings. Kilo Health announced the Greatness app, which we featured a while ago - led by Gytis. Learning from a few mistakes, multiorders will be coming back with a new SaaS solution.
• People. The end of the UBER era for Vaidas, and he chooses Argyle for the next chapter. Karolis joins TechZity and Blue / Yellow at the same time. Lukas is now Chief Advisor at the Office of the Government. Dziugas is now COO at Myriad Capital. Tim Vaino joins Change Ventures as Investment Manager.
• Divergent pathways. Stark contrasts as the venture landscape changes. For many at early stage, it's now a sprint towards profitability as the only survival, otherwise hoping to get acquired (which is never a reliable strategy). The fit ones are in a position to take over - first, talents, but also other assets in the market (see PVcase acquisition below). It is still a great time to join the likes of Nord Security, Vinted, Nanoavioncs, CarVertical, or PVcase (list is much longer, but seek equity).

• Gold. Best in the world - Learning & Education solution at World Summit Awards went to Teachers Lead Tech! Making a true impact on 100k+ students. You can get what it takes in Edtech by learning about Turing College, as an example. The founders in this field tend to be true missionaries, not mercenaries. But what should we learn at school in the age of AI?

The goal of education must be the development human agency. This refers in particular to the ability to set and implement goals that people consider important and valuable.

First and only private equity & venture capital course in Lithuania, led by industry insiders, managing around 2B EUR in assets. This open online course, "Private Equity & Venture Capital in Practice" is dedicated to everyone interested in investments, entrepreneurship, and strategies for building and scaling successful companies.

What to expect from the course?

• Top-notch investors - see the lecturers
• First-hand knowledge
• Exclusive content
• Practical tips & tricks

Join the course!

• What's happening? Siim (Lemonade stand) adds nuance to the Inventure's review of the funding environment in the region. Guessing we need to wait for Vinted IPO for fresh strong talent to hit the track.

What the article doesn't mention is that there have been fewer strong founders starting out (or they decide to bootstrap longer) so the ones that do stand out get proportionally more attention compared to 2020-2021.

rounds and capital

• PVcase has acquired Anderson Optimization, the world’s most popular solar siting software platform. The firm said it is making the acquisition to streamline the process of designing utility-scale solar power plants in EU markets.
  Congrats PVCase, will meet you at 100m ARR!

• See the team of Scalewolf, accelerator and VC fund targeting dual-use technologies. Acceleration cohort selection starts Sept 2023.
• Okredo raises a EUR 245k round from Business Angels Fund and 6 LitBAN angels.

roleplay

founder's guide

• New podcast episode with Andrius Biceika. Interesting insights into the early journey, including how to join a unicorn even if your resume does not scream "top 1%".
• Prioritizing an app my users don’t want to use? We do it (Loctax)
• How PLG (product-led growth) is taking over other types of GTM in edtech, too
• Resources. Google for Startups Startup School is back with a new edition. Katalista Ventures Impact Valley accelerator (deadline today)

further insights

• Addressing ideas directly to "you" increases the resonance of an idea. The most highlighted Kindle passages are addressed to “you” and songs that refer to “you” are more likely to be popular.
• Sequoia Is Splitting Into Three VC Firms. The late-stage portfolio companies from Europe, US, and Asia are getting into direct competition.  
• Seth Godin released new book, The Song of Significance. Podcast appearance is big part of publishing these days, so you can enjoy one w/ Tim Ferris. And here is Seth's advice for authors, in 2006:

Consider the free PDF alternative. Some have gotten millions of downloads. No hassles, no time wasted, no trying to make a living on it. All the joy, in other words, without debating whether you should quit your day job (you shouldn’t!)

• Stratechery on Apple Vision
• Speedinvest surveyed European VCs and released a fresh report

Main points where Europe needs to improve the most: The different and often complex regulatory environment, capital markets, the LP market, and especially, the engagement of pension funds. Tackling those three areas would result in massive upside potential for the European VC ecosystem.

But the feedback is also very clear. Europe is on the right track. The data shows that the European ecosystem is vastly improving in the eyes of its investors and that they believe it’s getting better with each passing day. We are confident that this trend will continue.

three questions, previously

• Domas Janickas, Co-founder at edON
• Milda Jasaite, Senior Director of Corporate Development, Vinted
• Darius Zakaitis, Founder & CEO, Tech Zity
• Roman Novacek, Partner, Presto Ventures
• Lina Zakarauskaite, Principal, Stride.VC
• Justinas Pasys, Managing Director, LitBAN
• Magnus Hambleton, Investor, byFounders
• Povilas Poderskis, Development Director, Darnu Group, ex-COO Nord Security
• Gytenis Galkis, Venture Partner, Superhero Capital
• Daniel Kratkovski and Dominykas Milašius, co-founders, Delta Biosciences
• Kasparas Aleknavicius - Co-Founder and CPO, Loctax
• Andrius Milinavičius, General Partner, Baltic Sandbox Ventures
• Laura Korsakova, Founder and CEO, Psylink
• Paulius Uziela, Investment Manager, Coinvest Capital