The Pursuit of Scrappiness

Tom Crosshill is the Founder of Index Investors Europe - an online training course for aspiring investors as well as the Co-Founder and member of the supervisory board at Indexo - an asset management company to challenge legacy pension funds. With his background from Wall street and building Indexo, Tom is on a mission to increase stock market participation in Europe. Tom is also an accomplished c...

Vishen Lakhiani is the founder of Mindvalley, one of the world's leading education platforms, which he founded in 2003 and now it has grown to over 10 million students worldwide. He is also the author of New York Times and Amazon bestseller “The Code for the Extraordinary Mind”  In this episode we talk about: Mindvalley and how it can help you grow Transformation instead of learning Getting r...

Egija Gailuma and Juhan Kaarma are Co-Founders of OX Drive - a Tesla car sharing service in Riga or “the coolest thing in mobility since the horse”. Together with 2 more co-founders the team has set out to make mobility more sustainable and cool. In this episode we talk about: The rationale behind launching a car sharing business with Teslas The future of micro-mobility Experience of owning and dr...

​​David Zinsner is the Executive vice president and the CFO of Intel Corporation. Having participated in several transformations in such companies as Credo, Micron Technology and Affirmed Networks, David is now leading the charge of realising Intel's global ambitions. In this episode we talk about: David’s leadership principles Impact of the CFO role in the organisation How to succeed in a ne...

Aigars Lauzis is the Founder, CEO and Designer of BeTRITON - an amphibious camper-trike, namely a vehicle that lets you drive on the road and sleep on the water. Aigars has a landscape architecture and design background, having designed projects all around the world. The inspiration for creating BeTRITON came when Aigars decided to cycle 30 00 km from London to Shanghai. The topics covered in this...

Raimonds Kulbergs is the CEO & Founder of BADideas.fund, a recently launched angel investor syndicate combining startup founders and operators that are ready to invest their money and help with hands-on experience to CEE early stage startups. Raimonds has exited his startup (Funderful) and is also 500 Startups alumni.   In this episode we talk about The thesis and mechanics of BADideas.fund Wh...

Martins Benkitis is a Co-Founder at Gravity Team - a startup balancing the supply and demand across crypto markets worldwide. Martins and his team account for close to 1% of the global spot trading in crypto and have reached $100 billion cumulative trading volume. In this episode we talk about: Pros and cons of building a business in crypto What’s happening in the markets currently Crypto price cy...

Nick Lahoika is the CEO and Co-Founder of Vocal Image - a speech training and voice therapy app. After relocating to Estonia from Belarus with his family and team, Nick is building a world class product (300,000 + users) to solve an issue that is very pressing for many people - strong sounding voice and clear speech. You might have already heard about Nick and Vocal Image from multiple recent star...

Atis Hermanis and Reinholds Pīrāgs are the CEO and CCO of Hackmotion - wrist sensor for amateur sports precision improvement. They are on a mission to help amateur golfers to fix their game with a unique technology that is used by elite level PGA (golf) coaches worldwide. Their sensors are also on the radar of other North American professional sports leagues such as NBA and MLB (baseball). In this...

Mathias Eklöf is a serial entrepreneur and investor with multiple startup exits. He is currently running his own investment company Hype Ventures. With extensive entrepreneurship experience, especially in Russia and Ukraine, Mathias is one of the leading early stage investors actively focusing on Ukrainian startups despite the war. He also has a background from the Swedish military and enjoys givi...

Akim Arhipov and Tim Vaino introduces Fund Fellow Founders (fff.vc) - a fund/angel syndicate to bring more smart money to regional founders and increase investing activity among C-level executives from the tech industry. They also run a cool podcast (link below) In this episode we talk about How FFF works for investors and for startups How the fund is built and its community governance What founde...

Helery Pops is a co-founder at Honey Badger Capital - angel investor friends office out of Estonia. Helery brings 5+ years operating experience in product and sales in such companies as Pipedrive and Ampler Bikes. Together with her partners - three Pipedrive co-founders, Helery is looking for ambitious and relentless founders in the regions, Ukraine and beyond. In this episode we talk about The mi...

Jan Kastory is the Founding partner of astorya.vc - the first independent purely Insurtech focused VC in Europe focusing on early-stage startups. With hands-on operator experience from Euler Hermes, Jan and his team brings unique insights into the insurance market. In this episode we talk about: Astorya VC and the promise of InsurTech investments Insuring cyber threats The business models of Insur...

Robin Saluoks is CEO and Co-founder of eAgronom - a farming based carbon credits platform. Robin and his team are fighting climate change by providing financial incentives for farmers to sequester more carbon and investors to invest into sustainability. In this episode we talk about Fighting climate change with financial incentives in agriculture How to distinguish between real environment protect...

Anna Andersone is the Chief Empowerment Officer at Riga TechGirls - educating and inspiring girls & women about technology. Anna is a serial entrepreneur and currently running her own clothing company be-with. In this episode we talk about: Female representation in tech Education and reeducation for tech roles Discrimination in fundraising and decision-making   The topics covered in this episo...

Andreas Helbig is a Principal at Atomico - one of the most well-known European VC firms. Andreas is responsible for the Nordic&Baltic region and is currently overlooking investments in such Baltic companies as Pipedrive, Katana and Pactum.  In this episode we talk about: - Atomico’s strategy and view on the Baltics - Potential slowdown in VC markets - Ease of doing business in Baltics vs Weste...

Rytis Lauris is Co-founder and CEO of Omnisend - an ecommerce-tailored email & SMS marketing automation platform . Having established several companies before, Rytis and his team have bootstrapped Omnisend to a significant player in the highly competitive MarTech space and is considered one of Lithuania's unofficial unicorns or soonicorns. In this episode we talk about: - Omnisend, e-mail...

Janis Sarts is the Director at NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence. An outspoken military expert, previously also state secretary of Latvian Ministry of Defense, Janis brings a clear, articulated and convincing message about the regional security situation as of today. In this episode we talk: The paradox of increased Baltic security amid deteriorating global security The impact of...

Triin Hertmann is the Founder of Grünfin - Invest your money where your values are. Triin is also an alumnus of Skype and Wise and is very active in angel investments being one of the few female angel investors in the region.  In this episode we talk about: - Sustainable investing and the Grünfin product - Challenges in building a Fintech app - Impact of unicorn experience with Wise and Skype - Sp...

Stavros  Papadopoulos is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Lendis, a German startup that offers a  SaaS solution for companies such as BCG, Volkswagen, N26 to set up and manage their employees’ equipment and software in the hybrid working world. They have raised over $90M USD in debt and equity to date. In this episode we talk about the unique value Lendis offers to small and large companies...

Vadim Rogovskiy is the CEO & Co-founder of Ukrainian startup 3DLOOK. Upon the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vadim’s team has partially relocated to Western Ukraine, Poland and the US and continues to operate close to pre-war operational level. In this episode we talk: 3DLOOK & its business operations before the war Team response to crisis What happens to contracts during war Cr...

This episode is brought to you in cooperation with TechChill Join us in Riga on April 27-29, 2022 100+ speakers (including the guest of this episode) 200 top US and European investors 300 Startups Listen to the episode intro to find a special PROMO CODE for Pursuit of Scrappiness listeners and get 20% OFF  Get your pass NOW on https://techchill.co/   === Michael Haase is the Founder and CEO of Pla...

This episode is brought to you in cooperation with TechChill Join us in Riga on April 27-29, 2022 100+ speakers (including the guest of this episode) 200 top US and European investors 300 Startups Listen to the episode intro to find a special PROMO CODE for Pursuit of Scrappiness listeners and get 20% OFF  Get your pass NOW on https://techchill.co/   === Yoram Wijngaarde is the Founder and CEO of...

This episode is brought to you in cooperation with TechChill Join us in Riga on April 27-29, 2022 100+ speakers (including the guest of this episode) 200 top US and European investors 300 Startups Listen to the episode intro to find a special PROMO CODE for Pursuit of Scrappiness listeners and get 20% OFF  Get your pass NOW on https://techchill.co/   === Rytis Vitkauskas is a Partner at the global...

David Holahan is a former US Defense Attache to Latvia. He is also a retired US Marine Lt. Col. a 21-year veteran of the US Marine Corps. Having served in conflicts in Iraq and Somalia. David spent over 10 years living in Baltics which gives him a unique viewpoint on the defense and security matters of our region both from local as well as US policy maker and NATO perspective. This episode is firs...