Lights On

Thank you all for the messages, as we search for someone to build TP faster, larger, better, more impactful. Responding to all. Estonian friends launched Fomo.Observer to cover local scene more closely – see intro letter here (and translate to ENG). (there is a lot of space since "business news" are getting largely replaced by "tech and startup" coverage; for example, Breakit.se are already at 3-4m EUR revenue on media business alone).

Smth new & exciting – Rokas from Achoo is helping write a new segment called brand + design. We both believe all tech companies have to become WAY more strategic regarding this in the AI era. Creativity, taste, judgement, angle – everything else can be automated, today.

work in progress

• AI scaleups. Pactum AI acquires accounting company in the US, this will be fun to watch (just as advocated by Slow, if your solution changes hugely shifts economics of services firms, just do a growth buyout). Unicorn Cast AI co-founder Laurent Gil on LT roots: “Our early and ongoing choices reflect a local engineering culture from Lithuania built on pragmatism, accountability, and real problem-solving. That culture comes from a strong talent pipeline shaped by global-scale challenges and an appetite for innovation that’s visible across the Lithuanian tech ecosystem”.
• Building and not building anymore. David in stealth mode in SF, working across agentic commerce and AI (adding to the list of US-based LT founders). Kingdom Technologies entered liquidation – thanks, Joan for all the efforts.
• Edtech. Milda Mitkute introduces latest project – AHA Stories. Gooliver is an exciting venture studio at this point, and likely Edit AI is a big chunk of that 2.5M revenue last year. Parta.io is largely overlooked, but has proven PMF with their eLearning creation platform, growing revenues.
• Marketplaces. Vinted goes NYC! (WSJ calls it thrift app, oh dear Americans; co-CEO of Adyen joins the Board). Trind Ventures were asking for marketplace startups, so we thought about new and emerging: Traxlo, Chessodoro, KUPONEX, Nannow, Alfa Klasė, Corepetitus – adding that the likes of Ovoko (Dakar winning team with a coolest car), Eneba, eany.io, Saltz.app have taken off already (btw Market One Capital seem to be picking really well in LT). Also, Eldorado (but runs bootstrapped and well profitable), and CGtrader is back on a sound path.

• Climate and carbon. eAgronom will be among the first in Europe to enable farmers in Baltics and Poland to generate verified carbon credits. How GridRaven builds as small but mighty team. Sapone guys are spending 50k from Shark Tank on getting some premises for scaling. InSoil hiring modelling expert.
• People. Argyle co-founder and CTO Audrius Zujus leaves to start smth new: engineering the foundational layer for the agentic era of defense (best defence VCs DMed within 24 hours, I am guessing). Justinas joins Aktyvus Photonics. Rudolfs left Montonio and joined Evergrowth. Justinas is now Head of Engineering at CoinGate. Donatas joins Chargemont as CTO. Augustinas steps up as VP of Engineering at Argyle. Krisjanis, Director of Ops at FYUL/Printful, leaves the company. Vavea joins Vinted Go as Program Manager. Jonas joins Coinvest Capital as an Analyst, Vasare is new Analyst at Contrarian Ventures (ESG and Impact). Evaldas brings AI agent Leandra to the Board of Legal Balance. Sherington joins Atomico as investor, focused on Nordics + Baltics. Siim Teller joins Norrsken Evolve as venture partner, Merit for platform and ops.

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]

rounds and capital

• Wix Ventures is expanding search to LT, looking for early-stage founders. Need solutions for SMBs enhancing their online, tools for eCommerce, marketing, social, fintech, shipping, analytics, customer service, sales growth, and AI infrastructure (yes that's a long list, many early stage founds will be in touch, here)
• _basedspace is running a program – but deadline is this Sunday. It's called nsfw: your 9-5 exit strategy. ​3 weeks. ​every thursday you show up. real progress. what shipped, what's stuck, what you need. people help to push through. Third week you should be getting revenue. Videooo
• Inovo VC–backed Preply is unicorn, Siena Secondary takes part at their Series D.
• ROIX raised 500k loan for PMC group (PMC Training part, other companies in the group include edON and Protozauras).
• BaltCap Latvia Venture Capital Fund has sold its controlling stake in Pure Chocolate.

roleplay

three questions

Find the last interviews here

brand + design

w/ rokas from achoo

• Still stuck in the lipstick-on-a-pig era?
  These days if you nail product, design and marketing, you might get a chance. But in the European tech scene, design still feels like an afterthought. Dylan Field (Figma CEO) makes the case that this is backwards. Design isn't decoration. It's a moat. Worth 90 minutes if you've ever wondered why some products just feel better.
• Even the US government gets it now. An executive order for a National Design Studio and Chief Design Officer to fix federal digital experiences. If bureaucracies are waking up, what's the excuse for everyone else?
• We're in the MS-DOS phase of AI. Kept thinking whether chat will be the main way to use tools in the future. Airbnb founder Chesky says we're still very early. The future is much more visual.
• Tech took Picasso too literally
  Good artists copy. Great artists steal. From elsewhere.
  Tech copies from tech.
  Successful brands steal from places their competitors don’t even look. TBPN studied F1, 80s cinema, Succession. Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral campaign borrowed from bodega signage and lottery tickets.
  
  The best references are invisible to your competition. If you're pulling from the same SaaS landing pages and YC decks as everyone else, you're already behind.

founder's guide

• How to master FOMO when fundraising
• Finding a technical co-founder
• Beehiiv founder shares early simple playbook how to get first customers and build momentum. They launched in competitive space and plan to be at 50M ARR this year.
• Semrush says AI-search visitors convert 4.4x better
• Bootstrapping 2.0 | Mathematics of Freedom?

further insights

• Italian Bending Spoons is famous not only for huge acquisitions – but also their playbook. Like how Yoni writes about that:

• Trump goes TACO on Greenland, and Noah Smith finds signals of capital flight from the US. So stocks may rebound, but harm will stay.
• Reminder from the VC industry – people are typically not great in all areas of life, and sometimes can be completely lost.

• This is very interesting, looks like AI is supercharging executives, while workers get much less of an impact? WSJ reports.

others

• Art exhibition we need to visit