FOMO.02: Estonia.inc and Startup Day: Cakes, candles, a girl on fire
The week's highlight was Tartu's Startup Day, but check also Hedi Mardisoo's take on how Estonia could play a key role for EU-Inc.
The first of this year’s major Estonian startup events occurred this week in Tartu. Startup Day celebrated its 10th birthday with three days of talks, workshops, and cake.
With only a week under its belt, Fomo.Observer was debuting at its first conference, and I, along with founder Triin Hertmann, was in attendance, representing Estonia’s newest startup media.
The Estonian National Museum provided a modern, inspiring, and, thankfully, warm backdrop to the event, where past innovations could be seen on a wander through the Encounters exhibition. I saw a few 3.5-inch floppy disks knocking around, instantly taking me back to computer class in high school and the absolute fear of forgetting to do my typing homework! Amazing to think back to those times and then walk around the stands at Startup Day with Estonia’s brightest innovators’ solutions for today’s world.
Not surprisingly for a Tartu event, there were many scientists and researchers showing their wares. Often entertaining the passing crowd with games or quizzes to test your knowledge or perhaps educate you in that way, you don’t really notice you are getting taught. My conversations with them were the same…what’s their biggest sticking point? Bridging the gap between research and commercialisation, and more State support for research were the typical answers.
Interestingly, the Thinking in Billions side event on Day 0 may have provided a solution for the issue.
This was certainly welcome news to some, but others questioned whether that figure was really enough, given that the sector is trending upward, we want to develop Estonian innovation in Estonia, and there are more places fostering deeptech innovation than just the famous five.
Spreading the word about Fomo.Observer has given me a new appreciation for startups that are in a constant loop of telling their story over and over at conferences.
Talking about yourself or a product is exhausting! I’m much happier asking the questions, and so I did. Highlights include meeting YES (Young Early Starters), an investing app for kids teaching them how to be smart with their money (and yes I did ask, adults can learn from it too!), Avara who has developed a portable capillary therapy device, and Captain Corrosion who are planning on testing their anti corrosion coating in space soon, where they will also send a little yeast so they can make some real space beer on its return.
Oh, and I also saw a man set a woman’s arm on fire. A stunt, of course. As a person who has a small obsession with the stunt world, I am delighted to see that thanks to the Fireskin360 Naked Burn Gel, we have found a safer way to set people on fire!
Talks that grabbed the attention included Soo Min, an associate at Swedish investment firm node.vc, telling the audience that the best strategy for raising a round was to create some FOMO… but sure, we already knew that, right?! And Kaspar Tiri had us all hooked at ‘the messy middle’ as he regaled the tale of how four young lads from Estonia built an avatar company, Ready Player Me, and sold it to Netflix (after some pretty hard graft over many years!).
Not before we are Ready Player Me
TARTU— The synopsis sounds impressive: four Estonian kids raised $72 million, partnered with global titans, and ultimately sold their avatar platform, Ready Player Me, to Netflix in 2025.
On a panel discussing knowing when enough is enough, Marek Kesküll told us about how ‘you need the wins to keep you going’, and it was the lack of ‘emotional runway’ that ground down the founders of his recently closed sportstech startup Scorestars. After setting a deadline, they decided to return money to investors and sell their IP. Rather, the opposite of the flogging a dead horse mantra that many other founders choose before their startup's demise.
The closing show wrapped up with a full audience sing-along of Happy Birthday to Startup Day for its 10th birthday, complete with Marilyn Monroe, cakes, and candles. The icing on the cake, for some, was the post-pitch awards ceremony where LifeGlue and ImpactPCB took home much of the big money.
I asked LifeGlue’s founder, Laura Kuittinen, where to go next after receiving investment offers totalling up to 350,000 euros, and she replied, “Home.” Couldn’t have said it better myself as we all departed out into the freezing temperatures to catch buses, trains, planes, and some much-needed rest!
Elsewhere in the Estonian startup scene, Resilience Media reported that Frankenburg is about to unveil an up to $50 million round.
On FOMO, check out Hedi Mardisoo’s column on how Europe can stop brain drain. She suggests the e-Residency programme could be an ideal laboratory for EU-INC.
Before you go, two more reads to share.
Great Sunday and a wonderful February to you all!
KRISTEL KRUUSTÜK: The yearly Kruustük family winter escape is a lot like the early days of building a startup
Winters in Estonia are dark and cold. Seasonal depression shows up right on time. Our skin turns an impressive shade of blue. My Zoom video keeps looking bad, no matter how many beautifiers I turn on. Like nature, I feel an overwhelming urge to hibernate.
The Liquid Macro: Why ‘unsexy’ water infrastructure is the next great defensive asset
While some yield-hungry investors have a major FOMO doomscrolling defence tech, quietly asking themselves if they are late to the “high risk/ high return party”, then don’t - we got you - the awkward truth is that the truly underrated asset class is the one you only notice when it disappears.