Bolt: Markus Villig skipped university at 19 to take on Uber and become the youngest unicorn founder in Europe

May 3, 2021

Markus Villig, founder of Bolt and Europe's youngest unicorn at 25, swapped university for entrepreneurship at 19. He tackled the taxi woes in Tallinn and aimed to revolutionize transportation. Markus delves into competition with Uber and the importance of tech in making a positive impact. He shares missteps in early hires and how frugality shaped Bolt's growth. The discussion also covers Bolt's strategic expansion into Africa, emphasizing local challenges and insights on leadership as the company attracts millions of customers.

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ANECDOTE

Humble Beginnings In Tallinn

Markus spent four months signing up taxi drivers in Tallinn one by one to validate his idea.
He financed the first prototype with €5,000 from family after failing to find a technical co-founder quickly.

INSIGHT

Why Transport Was The Right Bet

Transportation was attractive because it's a huge consumer spend with poor outcomes and ripe for rapid technological change.
Shared electric micro-mobility and vehicle fleets create a rare, large industry shift to exploit.

ANECDOTE

The Revolver Meeting That Changed Strategy

Markus initially partnered with legacy taxi companies and built dispatch software to solve supply problems.
A meeting in Belgrade with a taxi firm that had a revolver on the table convinced him to stop working with corrupt taxi companies.

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Markus Villig was 19 when he decided to spend the $5,000 his parents had saved up for university on starting a business instead. His initial goal for Bolt, then called Taxify, was to solve Tallinn’s (Estonia) taxi problem. By 25 he was the youngest unicorn founder in Europe and had shown that Uber wasn’t going to win everywhere.

“Today, Bolt is the fastest growing mobility company in the world. We have more than 50 million customers on the platform. We operate in more than 40 countries. And we’ve raised more than $600 million of funding with a team of about 2000 people.”

Markus knew from an early age he wanted to start a company and build a product.

“The only things that were really, really clear for me were that it needed to be in technology, I really wanted it to be a consumer product. And it needed in some ways to make the world a better place. But other than that, I was pretty agnostic of which space to get into.”

He chose transportation, not only because he can’t drive, but because hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on transportation globally by consumers each year, and what they get in return isn’t good.

From the problems caused by private cars, to taking on Uber, their unusual funding routes, making big mistakes in his early hires, and why his strategy to focus on Africa paid off.

“The last straw for me was when I was in Serbia, in Belgrade, meeting one of the local taxi companies. And halfway through the meeting, I realised that these guys are essentially mafia, the guy had a revolver on the table and a big safe in the corner of his office.”

This is a tale of tenacity and grit, and a CEO’s unwavering belief in his vision. Don’t miss it. It’s a good one.

We chat about:

Building his first company at 17
Taking on Uber
The hardest challenges he faced as CEO
Scaling and fundraising when no VC will touch you
Not diluting the company’s focus too much

Links:

Eat Sleep Work Repeat - Perspectives on the work to come

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