Race against time

work in progress

• AI + Policy. Estonian Pactum AI discussing with EVP of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager. Kamala Harris meets Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs to discuss AI policy. Meantime in Lithuania - busy searching for a regional politician who did not take extra euros by faking expenses.
• Life Sciences. Innovation Agency introduces LT deeptech for Sifted audience. One of them - digital therapeutics startup dHealthIQ is fundraising. Sentante has developed the first fully-robotic teleoperated system for endovascular interventions. Now to take some serious lead as Life Sciences ecosystem, it will take serious effort - places like Basel have major accumulated advantages.

• Product recognition - some teams which try harder. Turing College has became an EU Accredited college offering Data Science & Analytics Masters degree. LupaSearch team is being nominated for the Best Search Software Tool at the European Search Awards 2023. Euroleague Basketball will collaborate with the Lithuanian app #Walk15, organizing Final Four Walking Challenge.
• Climate+Energy+Transport. Swedish Pale Blue Dot announced a second fund - same strategy, team and size ($100m). Estonian Beamline Accelerator is live (apply before end of month), with EUR 60k+ tickets. In the meantime, Elinta Motors is wrapping up its team to ship to an event in Germany. Altas Auto boosts revenue by 55%, largely driven by electric bus orders. Solar ain't cooling down - Inion Software grows, aiming EUR 800k revenue and soon move to fancy offices that only PVcase today can afford.

calendar

• May 20 - AI Lithuania Hackathon
• May 17 - National IT exam

rounds and capital

• Not much to report, but you can find FIRSTPICK pre-accelerator teams here
• Angelist gathered data on seed/series A startups and time until next round happens (and valuation markup).

For series A startup, if you have not closed new after 18 months - you are 50% likely not increase valuation anymore. This could lead to slow growth, downsizing, or sometimes - acquisition. With slowdown we are seeing in the Baltics, which startups are likely to soon become acquisition targets?

(It is likely a combination of having valuable assets/technology/customers (acquihires are pretty much dead now). Also, could be not profitable yet or profitable, but hitting ceilings of growth. May already have strategic investment...)

We are keeping an eye on these below, and here is anonymous survey - submit your own thinking! Will share next week.

• Trafi
• CGTrader
• DappRadar
• Whatagraph

roleplay

founder's guide

• Generative AI: An Asteroid Impact Event on B2B Software

When an asteroid hits, only the species most responsive to change will survive. Generative AI is an asteroid impact event for B2B software, but unlike most on-premise software companies in the 2000s, the SaaS leaders of today aren’t doomed. It all depends on how fast they can adapt.

• The problem with Value Propositions is that they keep moving
• How Engineering Managers can understand their team better
• With AI, Swyx suggests you should be building a thing that builds all the things. Also because, these AI builders will take over soon anyways.

IMO the most important thing every developer could be doing right now on nights and weekends is building a general purpose personal junior dev agent they can control and trust, that they can scale to fleets.

further insight

• Baltic Ventures is a new, Liverpool-based tech accelerator that has nothing to do with the Baltic states . They are based in the central area called Baltic Triangle and there are several narratives why it is called that way.
• Patrick Collison in conversation Sam Altman
• When an event after all is just 'networking event'
• The early 40s—specifically 42—is when the average American starts noticing physical signs of aging, including achy joints and gray hair.

three questions, previosuly

• 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