Most overrated thing about building a startup? Most underrated?

Perhaps this doesn't sound sincere coming from me at this point in time, but I think the most overrated thing is the exit. If the main goal is the exit, you'll probably suffer unnecessarily, even if you get to an exit because things almost always take longer and are harder than you think.

By the same token, enjoying the journey is underrated. Or if not enjoying, then seriously appreciating the challenges, learnings, relationships and mini-wins it offers.

Founder's survival kit - 3-5 items. No limit on size or budget.

The main thing is taking care of your mental health. Starts with sleep, exercise and food. Continues with good habits around mindfulness and getting to know self and one's limits. Ends I'm not sure where, I'm still somewhere in the middle.

Having a sparring partner in the form of a committed investor or advisor or a hired professional coach can be magical.

And having a cofounder or several is a must in my book. Wouldn't want to deal with all that mucky matter by myself. (Shoutout to my cofounder Markus here)

Why do Estonians start companies instead of taking a normal job?

Statistically, more Estonians take normal jobs, and that's a perfectly normal thing. I've spent most of my professional career as a salaryman. While I was thinking and dreaming of starting a business, my fear was bigger than my ambition. Luckily, over time, ambitions grew and fear subsidized.

I can't speak for the remaining 3000 or so Estonian startup founders. Maybe they just couldn't get a decent job?

Three people outside the company who made the biggest difference. What did they actually do?

Pernille Hippe Brun came to mind first. There was a time when both the company and I were stuck. We had managed to get Outfunnel to cashflow neutral but with a tiny team. Our product experiments had been mostly unsuccessful and I personally had to do many tasks which I'd "grown out of". I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning and was close to burning out. Then luckily our investors at byFounders hooked me up with Pernille who shared that tedious boring things shouldn't make up more than 40% of your working time. Beyond this threshold, work can only happen at the expense of mental health. So I have myself the permission to not do these things that I borderline hated.

After a while of slacking off, the energy started flowing back. I even started doing the thing that I hated again -- with the difference that I chose to do them instead of having to do them.

Speaking of byFounders, Eric and Tommy there are phenomenally good with advice and support and just generally being on your side, no matter what.

Finally, your fellow Lithuanian Omnisend founder and one of our angels Rytis Lauris was useful in many ways, among other things keeping me accountable for not getting too comfortable running a small profitable software business.

Weirdest part of walking back into a building where you used to be Head of Marketing

By today, Pipedrive has a new building. But what was weird in a good way is that many familiar faces are still here. God bless persistent people.

Tougher room: a comedy club or a board meeting?

I'd normally say a comedy club but I've also had some very tough board meetings after very tough quarters. So, as always, it depends.

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