The Pursuit of Scrappiness

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/   ===== Hannes Sapiens Sjoblad is the managing di...

Adam Niewinski is the Co-founder and General partner at OTB Ventures - a leading venture capital firm operating in CEE out of Warsaw. Adam is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur and with OTB has invested in several Baltic companies already, including Kevin, Ondato and Fractory. In this episode we talk about the evolution of the Polish VC/startup ecosystem, investing in the Baltics and sharing lesso...

Madara Kalniņa-Kalnmale is the CEO of Lightspace - optical reality headset manufacturer for high-end medical operations. They've raised $14M USD in total funding to date. An electrical engineer by training, Madara is now leading the company to bring a revolutionary augmented reality (AR)  product to the market after several years of R&D.  In this episode we talk about the Lightspace and u...

Kood/Jõhvi is a coding school in northeast Estonia which was established by several Estonian startup founders, including Martin Villig and Taavet Hinrikus. Today we are joined by it’s Co-director Karin Künnapas as well as two students - Gunta Klava and Georgi Suikanen. In this episode we talk about the history and reasons behind the establishment of the school, the practicalities of getting admitt...

Martin Vares is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fractory - a smart marketplace for metal fabrication. Martin is a mechanical engineer by training and has turned his passion for engineering and saving time on admin tasks into a thriving business. In this episode we talk about Fractory and how hard it is to enter such an old and complicated industry as manufacturing. We also talk about relentless fundrais...

Rain Sepp is the Founder and CEO of askRobin - a financial education and inclusion platform operating in Mexico and other LatAm countries. Rain is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned consumer finance expert. After building a customer base of more than 2 million users for askRobin and raising more than 1.5mEUR, Rain recently announced the winding down of the company. In this episode we talk about...

Timmu Tõke is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ready Player Me - the cross-game avatar platform for the metaverse. Timmu has been working on 3D design, virtual reality and the metaverse for more than 8 years becoming a true pioneer in avatars for the metaverse, a space that exploded in 2021. In this episode we talk all things metaverse, the unique positioning of Ready Player Me in it. We also talk about...

Ignas Survila is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tyler. Health - a health tracking app that allows you to manage your nutrition the most accurate way. An endurance sports athlete and  serial entrepreneur also having worked with Kilo. Health, Ignas is a proponent of user-centric design for building products. In this episode we talk about the challenges of healthcare and health monitoring industries and h...

Andres Sampka is the CEO and Co-Founder of Parcelsea, an Estonian last-mile delivery startup  developing smart mailboxes that accept and deliver your packages in a secure and contact-free way, without you even being home. In this episode we unpack what goes into starting a hardware intensive business (in a garage), the subscription pricing model for hardware tech, building an MVP, adding innovativ...

Aiste Juknaite is the Director of Growth at Gorillas - Europe’s fastest unicorn and an instant grocery delivery giant out of Berlin. Before Gorillas, Aiste held several growth and customer service related roles at Uber. In this episode we talk about Aiste's journey working for global unicorn companies, with a focus on scaling global teams, building trust, implementing values and rituals. Fina...

Martin Villig is a Co-Founder of Bolt, one of the most widely known Estonian unicorns valued at $4.75 Bn during the last investment round. Martin has been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years and is an integral part of the Estonian startup community. In recent years, he has been especially active in social impact projects with such initiatives as coding school kood/Johvi and the Good Deed Educat...

Welcome to the 2nd  part of the Pursuit of Scrappiness 2 episode Christmas Special. Janis and Uldis are joined by previous star guests Toms Niparts from Jeff app (full interview in Episode #1), Eerik Oja from Planet42 (Episode #3) and Jone Vaituleviciute from Startup Wise Guys (Episode #20) to discuss the events in 2021 and make predictions about 2022. In this episode we talk about the relationshi...

Welcome to the 1st  part of the Pursuit of Scrappiness 2 episode Christmas Special. Janis and Uldis are joined by previous star guests Toms Niparts from Jeff app (full interview in Episode #1), Eerik Oja from Planet42 (Episode #3) and Jone Vaituleviciute from Startup Wise Guys (Episode #20) to discuss the events in 2021 and make predictions about 2022. In this episode we talk about the Baltic fund...

Martin Henk is the CTO and Co-Founder of Eventornado, a software solution for organising online hackathons and challenges. Martin is also a partner and angel investor at Honey Badger Capital, however most people will recognise him as one of the Co-Founders of an Estonian Unicorn, Pipedrive. In this episode we do a deep-dive into product management, covering everything from best practices and build...

Mikko Silventola is a Finnish angel investor currently based in Zug, Switzerland who has invested in more than 50 companies globally with gems such as Bolt & Hugo among his most successful investments. He is also a venture partner at Superangel and Frontier Nordic. On this episode we discuss all things angel investing, including starting up, basic skills, investing principles, best pitching pr...

Dmitrijus Borisenka is the Co-Founder and CEO of Coingate - your gateway to all things crypto. Dmitrijus is a serial entrepreneur, a crypto enthusiast and also an endurance sports athlete.  In this episode we discuss the current crypto bull market, global crypto adoption as well as getting people and businesses into crypto. We also talk about the risks and opportunities in crypto, NFTs and coins t...

Kair Käsper and Martin Kõiva are co-founders of the Klaus app - a conversation review and QA platform for support teams used by globally known names such as Wolt, SoundCloud, Epic Games. They have known each other for more than 20 years, have run several business ventures together as well as both have the ex-Pipedrive tag on their resumes. In our first-ever 2-on-2 episode we discuss the challenges...

Marek Unt is one of the most seasoned tech PR professionals in the Baltics who has worked for 4 of Estonia’s Unicorns. He served in senior PR & Communications roles at Wise and Bolt having tenured at Skype and Playtech prior to that as well. Currently, Marek is CMO of Grünfin, a sustainable investment platform. In this episode, we discuss the role of PR for tech companies as well as the impact...

James Berdigans is the CEO and Co-founder of Printify - a print-on-demand platform that helps you create and sell custom products. An alumnus of 500 startups and one of the leaders of the Latvian startup community, Printify just raised a whopping 45mUSD series A round to build on their growth in the US and expand in other markets. In this episode, we talk about the origins of Printify and the rise...

Andres Anijalg is the co-founder and COO of Roofit. Solar, producer of solar roofs that look like a regular roof. The Estonia-based company recently raised a 6.4mEUR series A to fund the transformation in roof building from a cost to an investment. In this episode, we discuss the revolutionary product of Roofit.solar and its various applications. We dig deeper into the aspects of running a hardwar...

Gerri Kodres is a founding partner at United Angels VC and has been a tech investor for more than 10 years with investments in such companies as Bolt, Veriff, Comodule, Monese, Starship, and many others. Alongside that, he spent almost 10 years with Fortumo as a chief business officer and advisor signing clients such as Google, Netflix, and Spotify. In this episode, we take a deep dive into tech i...

Henrikas Urbonas is the CEO and Co-founder of Interactio - your ultimate multilingual meetings solution. Interactio announced a record-setting 30mUSD series A round on the back of explosive growth during the pandemic and being the interpretation platform for such global organizations as the UN, the EU, Microsoft, Google, and many many other global governments and corporate brands. In this episode,...

Martin Tajur is an angel investor, partner at Honey Badger Capital as well as a co-founder and ex-CTO of one of the most successful sales CRM companies globally - Pipedrive.  In our first interview with a unicorn founder, we talk about the origins of Pipedrive,  growing it into a billion-dollar company, and the evolution of the role of the founder as the company grows. We also dig deeper into the...

Eimantas Bekeza is the CEO & Co-founder of Memby, an after-school learning platform that provides top-tier tutoring at a fraction of the cost of private tutors. Eimantas is also a “superstar tutor” himself having tutored since 8th grade and has turned his passion for teaching into an exciting startup. In this episode, we talk about the origins of Memby and building an EdTech business as well a...

Martins Sulte is the co-founder and CEO of Mintos marketplace. Mintos is the leading loan investment platform in continental Europe with more than 7bn EUR of loans funded. Recently Mintos ran a successful crowdfunding campaign, netting around 7mEUR from its community. On top of that, they have just announced receiving an investment broker license from Latvian finance watchdog FKTK. In this episode...