The Pursuit of Scrappiness

Anastasija is the CEO of one of the most recognized tech companies in Latvia - Twino. Having started out in investment banking and M&A advisory, she now manages one of the largest P2P lenders in continental Europe with a team of 400+ people in 6 countries. Having led the company through the pandemic as a shock to investor confidence across asset classes worldwide, Anastasija now builds Twino into a licensed broker and a lifelong financial partner to their clients. By listening to this episode you will learn:How to take over company management from a Founder CEOAbout the EU-wide initiative to launch a public fund to support R&D/Capex heavy companiesTo hope for the best and prepare for the worst as a crisis response strategyAbout different strategies that P2P lending companies used to handle the pandemicTo prioritize profitability over growth in times of crisesThat more regulation is coming to the business model in Europe to protect investorsThat the efficient market hypothesis in Finance is getting further and further from the realityHow to make remote less depressing and more bearable for your teamAdvice on dealing with mental health issues in your teamA model for coming back to the office in a semi-flexible mannerThe 60/40 approach for culture, having 60% general company culture and leaving 40% for the separate culture of different offices or even teamsThat people in the Baltics are universal soldiers and are hard to be replaced with hires abroadThe main challenges of growing as a managerPractical advice on managing work/life balanceFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Rolands is a grade-A hustler who realized early on in his career that he must build companies and products to fulfill his dreams as well as overcome some grudges. Hustling several business ideas, Rolands found himself in the fintech space crunching credit risk numbers from bank statements and now has evolved the business model into providing free open banking and building a crucial piece of financial infrastructure for the successful development of the fintech industry. We also discuss Dr Dre, Netflix and Michael Jordan By listening to this episode you will learn:Hustling all kinds of ambitious ideas to find the one that sticksYou don’t have to be completely insane to build a great company, although it definitely helps to build a legendary onePivoting is hard. The larger you are, the harder it getsOpen banking data is free (at least with Nordigen) and can be used to build a world of fintech applicationsTo pivot  fast when you sense stagnation in your current business modelDon’t look for 100% fit for an open position. Hire for overall talentOnce you find great talent, don’t waste time and  go all-in to hire them immediatelyIf you can avoid hiring, don’t hire. The more people you have, the more nodes of communication you have to manageFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Petr is an ex-banker turned serial entrepreneur with several startups under his belt prior to founding Lokalise, including Odnoklassniki, Megogo, and Roamer app. The latter turned out to be the source of the product for Lokalise. With a no-BS mentality, Petr and the Lokalise team have achieved fantastic product-market fit with many top Tech names (e.g. Revolut, Bitpanda, Notion) as their loyal customers, which helped them bootstrap up until a 6mUSD VC round last year, becoming one of the most successful startups in Latvia.By listening to this episode you will learn:How to turn a fix for an internal business headache into a successful B2B SaaS productThat finding product-market fit in B2B SaaS is relatively easier as the customers “vote with their money” early onHow to prioritize which product improvements to implementHow to critically listen to your customer’s feature requestsAbout pros and cons of permanent full remote job organization and the reasoning behind Lokalise decision to go fully remoteHow hiring globally works in practiceThe difference between the mindset of US vs. European employees - in the US, people see their work as an investment and that’s how they approach itHow to bootstrap successfully and the reasoning why to raise VC money even if you have solid growth being bootstrappedThat most companies still use spreadsheets for localisation and also for managing many other business processesAI and the future of localizationFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

David is a retired US Marine Lt. Col. with real combat experience in Somalia and Iraq, where he commanded a unit of 1 200 soldiers. He then served as the Defence Attache to Latvia in Riga. Since retiring from the military David has been applying the lessons he shares in this episode to both secure millions of USD in contracts for the businesses he worked for as well as to teach leadership both in Europe and the US. It turns out there are more parallels in business and military than you may think. In this engaging episode, David shares the learnings from his military career that will help you in your day-to-day combat with deadlines, KPIs, and competitors.By listening to this episode you will learn:To get enough sleep, otherwise, you’ll make bad decisionsThat stress for a person in a business can be as high or even higher than for a soldier, so needs to be addressed and managed to ensure performanceTo make a plan based on carefully considered assumptions, execute the plan, measure performance metrics and reiterate the planTo be serious about being good at your job - prepare, make notes and use them as cheat sheets in real business situationsDavid’s 6 leadership principlesThe importance of clarity in communication. Especially in remote work times if needed, make the other person repeat what you said to ensure no miscommunicationTo set expectations on performance from the start and regularly articulate those expectations to achieve better performance from your teamTo never tolerate liesTo invest your time and effort in creating a team identityCentralized planning and decentralized execution. Make sure your team knows what exactly needs to be done, and empower them to take care of how to do it To reward initiative and accept failure instead of celebrating failureFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from NexPay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Liudas, a fintech heavyweight, got into RegTech and ID verification as he saw an industry with an exponential rise in relevance for global commerce. Having led a team of 1000+ people before (ex-CEO of Paysera), he is now scaling the Ondato team with rocket speed having grown 6x times in the last 12 months. Liudas shares his management secrets to keep his team aligned on one visionBy listening to this episode you will learn:Importance of having a co-founder as it is almost impossible to achieve success aloneThe realities of startup Founder/CEO lifestyle. Hint - it is a 24/7 job and it does not include a LamborghiniHow to tackle the key challenges in scaling Not to shy away from starting your business in a crowded spaceHow to rally your team behind a visionHow to grow as a CEO from managing 5 to 1000+ peopleTips on how to ensure high-quality feedback from your teamThe future of the office, meetings, and human interactionsThat, not all VCs are relevant to your startupAnd why setting up your company in London makes senseFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from NexPay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Raising $400 M in the first year of existence? This is the story of 4 companies in 2020 who grabbed a piece of $2.6 Bn investment pie. With 2 million third-party sellers on Amazon responsible for ⅔ of sales on its platform, the market is ripe for consolidation. The “John D. Rockefellers” of the Amazon black gold mean business and are buying and building Amazon sellers left, right, and center.We also discuss the timeless quest to live longer from alchemy to  ‘ammortality’ with the industry poised to grow to $0.5 Tn. Wise is giving away stock to their most loyal users pre  IPO, robots are driving around Estonian countryside roads (presumably to bring you food from ghost kitchens, hint see Ep 02) and Apple finally decides to go into paid original  podcastingThings you will learn from listening to this episode:What is a “rollup company”?How buying up sellers on Amazon works?Who are the biggest/ most visible players in the industry?What value do aggregator companies bring to the Amazon sellers?What kind of investors are funding the industry?Why are investors backing these companies?Is this business model scalable?What are the benefits for consumers?What are the inherent risks in the business model?Some extreme scenarios of how this industry might be upendedCan you (as a private investor) participate?What is “ammortality” and the emerging industry of life longevity enhancement?Wise giving away shares - good PR or long-term trend in tech?Highlights of the weekEstonian AI&robotics startup Cleveron is cleared to use their fully autonomous delivery robots on all public roads in Estonia - the first company in Europe to get such nation-wide public streets green lightApple will introduce a subscription fee on the Apple podcasts app opening up questions on the balance of power in the podcast media industryFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from NexPay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Elviss, a prodigy entrepreneur started Airboard at the age of 16 and takes us through his amazing story of following his dream of putting a man on a drone. Having raised initial funds in Latvia, Elviss shares his experience in the Silicon Valley over two accelerator programs, being mentored by Tim Draper and raising funds from angels from different parts of the world. He also shares his pivot from civil transport to agriculture, making first sales and getting outrun by huge US competitors. A story of ultimate scrappiness awaits!By listening to this episode you will learn:How to build a business when the technology for your business doesn’t existHow to transition from the only engineer/product person to a CEOThe value of going to Silicon Valley and the US acceleratorsAdvice Elviss received from Tim Draper - always go for the market with the most moneyHow to set up shop in the US and stick aroundHow to transition from fundraising to sales mentalityThat being a CEO means eating last every dayFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from NexPay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Global Education and Training is estimated to be a 7tn$ industry by 2025, but only 4% of it is digital. S^&t is about to go down. We also list ways to get financing for your startup without getting diluted, give a quick tip on how you can become a VC by buying shares in a Baltic Nasdaq listed investment fund, and try real hard to recall a successful Kickstarter campaign that has since grown into a major company.Should you go for a 4-year degree from Google in 6 months now available at $39 per month?  Does it make sense to do equity crowdfunding for a B2B SaaS company? Find out in the latest episode!Things you will learn from listening to this episode:Remote education:There are not many ways for Big Tech to add hundreds of billions in revenue in order to keep growing their share price. Meanwhile, global Education and Training is estimated to be a 7tn$ industry by 2025 (and only 4% of it is digital)...VC Investment in EdTEch doubles during the pandemic to reach 16.1 bn$ in 2020Existing universities to provide an increasing number of remote and hybrid programsCoursera IPOs at 7bn last week offering a platform to get fully remote degrees & certificates from accredited brands. Google offers it at $39 per month, but you can also get an online degree from HEC Paris - full price, sorry, no shortcuts there. Yet.Alternatives to VC funding:In the earliest stages, nothing beats a good bootstrapCompetition among investors for Baltic startups has intensified with the emergence of strong angel syndicates as well as a growing number of active foreign investorsCrowdfunded companies historically have struggled to grow into global businessesEquity crowdfunding is a good funding mechanism for consumer products, especially if the consumers have investable assetsAngel syndicates are competing with VCs for Seed and Series A deal flow in the BalticsThere are new completely non-dilutive fundraising methods like revenue-based lending and selling of SAAS/subscription contractsHighlights of the weekNew early-stage investor - Baltic Tech Ventures - is listed on Nasdaq Baltic meaning that you can now become an investor in a VC fund3 Nordic startups in Top 6 of Europe-wide rankings of the most well-funded startups in each country (and 2 Baltic unicorns in Top 11) by CB InsightsFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support for this episode comes from NexPay > https://paynexpay.com/Support the show

Vytautas, a serial entrepreneur, and investor caught the crypto bug in 2015. After realizing that, like most things, his P2P lending business should not be put on a blockchain, he went and established a completely different business in crypto. After spending the last 3 months working from Bali and learning to surf, Vytautas has had revelations that fundamentally changed the way he looks at the office as we know it and what it means to have a work/life balance.By listening to this episode you will learn:5:50 - The process of pivoting your product 12:30 - Starting to buy crypto in 201517:10 - Why they didn't go for an ICO with a working product that potentially could raise millions on 201724:30 - Remote work culture and managing team from Bali and is remote work culture scalable when growing the company31:05 - Maintaining work-life balance. DO what you want to do and be happy39:35 - Balancing 24/7 access to markets and freedom of investing with consumer protection (mostly from themselves)49:10 - Losing money while margin trading50:00 - What are NFTs, what problems are they solving and why they could become a killer application for blockchain1:06:10 - The future of P2P lending business model in the Baltics and in generalFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support the show

We dig deeper into two fintech verticals - stock investing apps and the business model of Robinhood as well as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and the reasons why Klarna is Europe’s most valuable private fintech company.Should you start a new stock investing fintech and will we stop paying full price for goods immediately as the new norm in shopping? Find out in the latest episode!Things you will learn from listening to this episode:Stock investing apps:Why does it matter and what are the reasons behind its scorching growth?What is payment for order flow and what does it have to do with Bernie Madoff?What are the incentives and conflicts of interest in the Robinhood business model?What demographic factors shape this market in the US and in Europe?Who are the main emerging players?Does it make sense to start a new company in this space in Europe?How can you as a consumer get to trading stocks?BNPL:What is the business model of Klarna, the pioneer of this industry?What’s in it for consumers and retailers?Why has this business model not taken off in the Baltics yet?Who are the likely entrants in this space in Baltics and which major companies can be expected to diversify into this business line?Highlights of the weekOur first guest Toms Niparts and Jeff App raises 1mUSD Estonian co-founded InsureTech Zego hits unicorn numbers with 1.1bnUSD valuation in the latest roundFind out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ Support the show