Incubating unicorns

work in progress

• Products (you can touch). 8devices released Cherry, an advanced Wi-Fi 6 module, and we are checking notes on revenue - 2x last year, at EUR 20m already. Teltonika launches TeltoHeart, a smart medical wristband, and continues to evolve its electronics stronghold.
• Marketplace. Audrius shares an unused deck for a startup, it combines three core competencies in LT - marketplaces, furniture, and strange brand names. It's a fine idea nonetheless - check Cocoli (DE), Mjuk (FI) and many others (including FB Marketplace!), not to forget Ofisas Prabangiai (talking brand names here..). If it works with sofa - why not bikes? - Karolis and Tomas built NextVelo marketplace. Also, for upcoming players in these domains, check Firstpick portfolio, Furnisystems (furniture SaaS) and Tractor Parts (marketplace).

• People. Dominykas is now head of a new business unit at Bored Panda - but what unit is that? Ieva Elvyra is leaving Revolut (there is always something happening at Revolut). Paulius Motiejunas has been unanimously voted as the new CEO of Euroleague Basketball.
• Fintech. What do Fintechs do, besides paying high salaries? Railsbank, for example, has been firing. DeepFin got spotlighted by Google Play. Montonio gains Lithuanian Payments License, expands offering in Poland. Hive5 has reached a milestone of EUR 10m in total investments. B2B payment solutions provider Hokodo announced payment operations hub in LT, after recently acquiring Vilnius-based payments startup H Pay & Go... which was started by Vytis Uogintas, CEO and co-founder Eneba (or same name!).
• Drones. We pulled together a list of drone startups in April, but clearly missed the drone gun - the Lithuanian EDM4S Skywiper system, from NT Service. Here is an article on drone wars in Ukraine mentioning it.

things planetary

• Heat pumps are a huge market expanding quickly, as noted by CTVC, Noah Smith, and recently having startups listed by Sunday CET. No surprise one more just got born - Aira. The interesting part is that it is "incubated" by Vargas Holding, which has emerged as a climate juggernaut in Europe, building+investing Northvolt, Polarium, H2 Green Steel - all three unicorns. Aira is starting with GPB 30m invested and 200 people onboard, including a factory in Poland.

(is that not the right way to do a startup? Clearly, new playbooks enter the scene, especially with capital-intensive plays. Now Sam Altman says "Honestly, I feel so bad about the advice I gave while running YC I’ve been thinking about deleting my entire blog”. Instead of quick MVP, raising little cash, etc - OpenAI raised a billion and spent 4 years building first...)

rounds and capital

• Ugly Duckling Ventures took the lead in investing EUR 1m round in Diplomasafe, a Danish startup and 70V portfolio company. Round was joined by 70V and KMD Venture A/S.
• Voima Ventures Fund III gets to the first closing, getting to EUR 90m to back Nordic & Baltic science-based startups from labs to global markets (deeptech).
• BOLDR (Techstars '22) have a round in motion with UK lead investor, raising $1m. Smart wedge into the market, and nice traction to hit targeted $3m in sales for year 1 (see the pitch here)
• Angel success: J.Adomavicius (Bunasta) claims 50% success rate from his investments, but we believe the definition of "iššauna" here might be different from any venture investor...

Y Combinator also has pretty good rates

An est. 4.5% of the startups that have gone through Y Combinator since 2010 have become billion-dollar companies. Between 2010 and 2015 [the rate] was even higher, at approximately 5.4% of all startups. 2/3 of total value has come from its unicorns.

roleplay

founder's guide

• Reasons to do (and not to do) a startup
• “Leadership needs us to do generative AI. What do we do?”
• Content FOMO boosts viewer’s attention up to +10.2%
• The unconventional Palantir principles that catalyzed a generation of startups - are very worth read, especially if you like Palantir.

2. Hire the best absolute greatest people who exist
Hiring this way is crucial for two reasons. First, the best are, well, better, at the specific work they’ve been asked to tackle. But the less-understood reason why this is so high-leverage is because the world opens doors for people at the very top of their respective fields. The best AI engineers in the world, for example, attract media attention, top VC attention, and top founder attention. As a result, they are better connected and have disproportionately more access to the other best people in the world. This accelerates their learning and dramatically improves their ability to make the impossible happen. The difference between the #1 and the #50 in the world in terms of skills is practically indistinguishable, but as a result of being #1, that individual likely has access to an order of magnitude more knowledge, opportunity, and talent.

further insight

• People in the U.S. are dying at higher rates than in other similar high-income countries, and that difference is only growing.
• Noise pollution. Growing research is finding that disruptive sounds increase the risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart attacks. Nice interactive explanations from NYT.
• Eric Tornberg launches Turpentine Media, a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more covering tech, business, and culture, from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. It seems like emulating Workweek model, and a learning experiment. Some good pod episodes loaded already.
  (Need more podcasts? Recommending First Round podcast, Conversations with Tyler, Lenny's podcast, The Pursuit of Scrappiness, Acquired, The European VC)
• Why medieval manuscripts are full of doodles of snail fights

ecosystem

• Nice work from Unicorns Lithuania and all partners - now you can click on a startup to see details on sector, employment, and taxes. Complete list is here

Thank you. Leave us feedback or anonymous tips here. Have a great week!