Momentum

work in progress

Been thinking about Olympics. Why some countries perform better than others? Researchers find the obvious variables fast: population, GDP, sports investment. But some interesting ones don't fit a spreadsheet, it's more about culture, politics, and momentum. How is your political system treating sports? Have you hosted the Games recently? Do you have prior success in Olympics? Prior winnings bring prestige, role models, and it keeps the best coaches home.

Momentum. Not talking about AI here — some ecosystems (SF, Stockholm) are heating at record levels. You can feel Swedish momentum reading another Lovable's playbook on X. Jude Law staring at you at Arlanda - and Copenhagen airport, too (Legora). Stockholm hosting first YC event in Europe.

Which is exactly why Northzone's Pär is raising the alarm. Destruction is not inevitable, but correction very likely. Two sides of momentum. Revenue-based is ideal, NRR even better.

Hundreds of millions. Kilo might have looked like slowing down… so they just smashed 2025 with $500M revenue and $50M profits (x2). What a machine! Who else? Burga closes books with €110M in revenue, 61% growth YOY, net profit 256% YOY. Lithuania's e-comm / DTC / consumer performance is outstanding, there is also the likes of Orbio, Adtractive, Furniture1, Netzet and more.

Founder x Researcher x Abroad x Lithuanian x Women
Set of truly impressive deeptech women founders who launched their ventures abroad, based on years of research.

Edtech. Turing College with Google Cloud launches AI leadership programme. Google Cloud is funding 200 scholarships for the Baltics; also launching the same programme as an apprenticeship unit in the UK.

Ekke , Elias, Karl, Oliver, and Andrius won President's Education Hackathon with an AI maths tests grading tool for teachers. Belen (ex-Vinted) built ConneQt: a transparent platform to help more students access higher education globally. 99math hiring Marketing Lead (7-person team, 4M kids use every month). For those considering moving to tech - Eldorado.gg launched their IT academy.

Reminder how AI (potentially) is changing the game: Founders School is a new high school where tuition is $150k a year, but if students don't hit $1M in gross profit by graduation, they get their tuition back.

Remember fintech? Still hot. Just look at Revolut's almost 50M tax contribution for the budget last year. VIALET not slowing down, team approaching 100 already. Walletto hits EUR 38M in revenue, 43% annual growth.

Mobility. Polestar just launched their EV Savings Calculator in partnership with Lectrium, cool to see. Stuart Energy signed a contract with the national railways operator. OBDeleven has proven consistent 25-30% growth, expecting to close this year with around EUR 25M revenue.

Calendar. One week to Latitude. May 29-31 - Invite-only hackathon at based collective.

rounds and capital

French Hucency acquired PassCamp - this arrives as surprise to the founders, Paulius shared a full story.

Tesonet joins $50M round for Frame Security - alongside Team8, Index Ventures, and Picture Capital and others.

sponsors

Proud to be backed by these very cool companies!

Cloudvisor [now offering stress-free migration from any cloud to AWS]
Hostinger [online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
Google For Startups [cloud credits up to $350K, faster growth]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Surfshark [Top 50 among fastest growing in EU, hiring]
Eldorado.gg [world’s largest in-game trading marketplace, hiring]
Saily [eSIM data for international travel, hiring]
InRento [Lower-risk investments in real estate projects with income, growth, and impact]

roleplay

three questions

Latest guests, another founder arriving next week

founder's guide

PR - How to build company's media monitoring & intelligence tool using Claude Code, GitHub, and Vercel

Fundraising - great video for first time founders on how to pitch and lead the process

brand + design

Monet AI. What happens when you post a real Monet and say it’s AI? Funniest art social experiment.

Attention to detail compounds. Into trust, retention, and brand gravity. This conversation explores what happens when builders obsess over the invisible details across software, furniture, food, and tools.

further insights

• VCs know, hype = you are already too late.

ecosystem

• If Lithuanian politicians want to address demographics with new disco, Latvia has it own challenges - planning to double the economy while ignoring the potential of tech and startups.
• European VCs Power Law ranking by Dealroom - based on how many amazing companies did they back.

• Two-Speed Europe, and let us quote:

While we have spent a decade complaining about Europe’s stagnation, a real positive convergence story has been unfolding at the eastern edge of the continent. Poland entered the millennium at 34% of US per capita GDP; by 2030, the IMF projects it will reach 67%. Romania rises from 27% to 60%. Lithuania moves from 29% to 69%. Bulgaria goes from 23% to 53%. These countries’ citizens are still significantly poorer than Americans. But they have closed a large part of the gap with the global frontier. Across Central and Eastern Europe, the EU has functioned as a powerful convergence machine for countries willing to use it.