Detecting Icebergs

work in progress

• Enterprise Wars. While we were discussing how AI replaces sales jobs, OpenAI, Anthropic, Clay, LangChain, ElevenLabs are all hiring SDRs or SDR leaders right now. The playbooks will be different, but you can't automate yourself into winning 100-500K+ contracts at very large orgs. Biggest demand is enterprise AEs who can check three boxes: 7+ years of experience, self-sourcing skills, tech chops. Locally, these are hot, emerging startups to watch (or get hired by): Ace Waves, nexos.ai, Chaseit, isLucid. Wonderful AI also landed and office in LT. Vote for your favourite here. Btw, our supporters Oxylabs have built huge company nailing enterprise GTM – new video on their culture).

• The latest Dealroom report is out. Numbers are up, it's great! LT stands well in CEE compared in emerging Europe. We think we need to keep explaining the world the amazing performance this community delivers, show our scale-ups, all of them. In this slide some logos are displaced, some are missing. Given not everything is reflected in VC rounds (profitable companies skip those), here are some prompts that might help us all (Gemini and Claude seem to understand best)
  • "Based on latest public Hostinger revenues and 3yr growth rate, estimate 2025 revenue and the current valuation"
  • "Give a rough estimate on valuation multiples, comparing B2B marketplaces, D2C / e-commerce businesses, and B2B SaaS (all above 50M revenue)."
• "Analyze revenue trajectory for Ovoko (42M in 2024), Oxylabs (80M 2024), Mediatech (80M 2024), Eneba (44M 2024), Burga ($100M+ in 2025), assume their 2025 revenue and suggest their possible valuations now" + add links to rekvizitai lt financials.
• Orchestration. Seeing the hype of automation/orchestration platforms like Clawdbot now, just as n8n recently. Several directions of upside for Baltic tech. VPS and hosting is one, so another lift for Hostinger. Local apps and personal devices is other – think what Fieldy is doing, or DesktopCommander, too. Agents now can also call APIs as a tool – looks like SearchAPI that Zilvinas started is already getting a lift.
• New builders. Adrijonas with Quokkio. Tautvilas sets up Raspberry Pi 400 for his son as a single-purpose computer (to save parents from endless controlling / limiting apps).
• Personal AI. Veriff co-founder launched Roleo – AI-agent that scans thousands jobs in tech companies based on your LinkedIn, sends you relevant roles. Whitebridge AI is growing, strong, ramping up for Series A – belongs to this list.
• Defence and dual. Under the radar, but progressing impressively well – Ripplc. New, strong team, moved to Ukraine to build: Valkyrie Dynamics. Frankenburg has raised up to $50M at a $400M valuation, sources report. RSI Europe is a large company by now – 120 employees already, Laura joins as CPO, hiring more. Vosker acquires 100% of Defendec (AI-powered, autonomous surveillance solutions) in Estonia. Monopulse in Denmark receives the Minister of Industry visiting.

• Europe is hot? As rest of the world tackles dictators or populism, Europe rises to shine. Momentum for critical / defece tech is now further accelerated as US politics become much less predictable. We are seeing spike in traffic in places like European Alternatives, EU or privacy-focused software, regulation (France bans officials to us Teams, Zoom etc), and governments posting videos with penguins. (Funny – Qvant on X promotes EU alternatives and suggests moving away from NordVPN and WeTransfer – gets hundreds of comments that these actually ARE European already, oops)
  • If selling to larger companies, anything government related in Europe – put that blue flag, talk about your values, server locations and security certifications.

rounds and capital

• In 2023, Tumas Rackaitis co-founded Rogo based in NY. This week, Sequoia Capital led Rogo Series C funding, at $750 million valuation!
• Vosker acquires 100% of Defendec (AI-powered, autonomous surveillance solutions) in Estonia.
• Checkout.com acquires Blue EMI, a licensed issuer of euro stablecoins, and establishes Lithuania Technology Centre.

roleplay

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
Google For Startups [cloud credits up to $350K, expert support & faster growth]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Ace Waves [Enterprise ready AI agents for CS, hiring]
Surfshark [Top 50 among fastest growing in EU, hiring]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]

brand + design

w/ rokas from achoo

• Gatekeeping is back. Substack isn’t cool. Open platforms didn’t lead to more original or higher-quality work. Without standards, openness commodifies creativity.
• A call for new aesthetics. Stripe founder Patrick Collison and economist Tyler Cowen are giving $5k - $250k grants to define what’s new and beautiful. Meanwhile, creative entrepreneur Ramdane Touhami asks why every cafe, boutique, and Airbnb in the world looks the same - and calls for “esthetic deglobalization.”
• What's Baltic aesthetics? At Tallinn’s Design Museum, industrial designer Jay Osgerby saw how scarcity of supply and shared meaning shaped Baltic design objects. Constraints force good design**.** Those same forces make startups lean and design sharp.

founder's guide

• What to build? Local apps have a momentum, esp for indie hackers.
• There are three types of networking (one can be online).

further insights

• Another run of Pump and Dump? Tautvilas writes how new worrying amalgamation of crypto scams and vibe coding emerges from the bowels of the internet in 2026.
• How TBPN created "luxury media" for Silicon Valley
• Not sure if Western world will wake up to this somehow. How China pulled Great Tech reversal:
  
  We are witnessing a great reversal in global technology flows. For decades, China lagged behind the west. American and European companies sold products to Chinese consumers and set up factories in the country, lured by its vast market and low labour costs. Apple and Tesla built mega-factories in cities like Zhengzhou and Shanghai. GM and Volkswagen established lucrative joint ventures with Chinese automakers.
  
  But the diffusion of technology between China and the west is increasingly a two-way street. Across a growing array of products — electric vehicles, batteries, drones, rare earth magnets — it is now China that stands at the global frontier.

ecosystem

• Svietimas Nr1 initiative has assembled key data about education, schools, students and finances in Lithuania. Hugely important to move conversation forward – and troublesome that this comes from an NGO instead of policymakers or government think tanks.