Emporia’s Post

Holding on to your startup for many years or giving up quickly and switching to something else? While working with multiple founders and reviewing hundreds of pitches, I often see two extremes. The first extreme is when founders stick to something that clearly not only doesn’t scale but is also on the wrong track (either too early or too late for a particular market, or solving a non-existent problem on a non-existent market), is not investable, and is not yet sustainable without their day-to-day involvement. This is much more common among founders born in Eastern Europe. Based on my observations, it's mostly related to ego and the fear of “failure in public,” which is often very exaggerated in their minds. The second extreme is when founders abandon their company as soon as the first real difficulties emerge—such as failing to raise seed funding on the first attempt, or when the first pilot customer or a co-founder leaves. I see this very often among founders in the Bay Area, as they more often prioritize opportunity cost in their decision-making. The main downside of the first mindset is that founders become too emotionally attached to their startups and irrationally prioritize ego over opportunity cost. “Failure in public” is often not even a real concern because, in fact, no one really cares besides your friends and family. In the second case, the main downside is that these founders might not endure long enough to seize the right opportunity when it comes. Sometimes, outsized successes come after ten years of struggle - I’ve seen many of these stories. By giving up too early, you might miss the best shot of your life. The truth is that it's not as simple and straightforward and often is more art than science. What do you think?

The Things We Don’t Talk About An increasing number of founders are choosing to share their stories on LinkedIn. This phenomenon sees European founders taking to social media to lay bare their startup failures, listing their mistakes, regrets, and the valuable lessons they’re carrying forward. Many see this as a sign that European founders are becoming more open about discussing failure. The reality is stark: most startups fail. The reasons are varied—failing to find customers, running out of cash, or founders stepping down for personal reasons. In the past two years, economic uncertainty has only compounded these challenges. According to data from the European Commission, declarations of bankruptcies in Europe have surged since the first quarter of 2022, peaking in Q4 of 2023. However, there’s a glimmer of hope with bankruptcies decreasing by 0.8% between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024. As the founder of Lagertha with five startups behind me, the high rate of European startup failures was a driving force behind the creation of Lagertha. The extensive research and development of our startup support program Longevity, part of Lagerthas several programs, courses and events, were daunting as the many complexed problems unfolded. It was a long and arduous journey to where Lagertha stands today—a vibrant ecosystem designed to foster a new cultural digital community. By combining startup innovation with industry resources, we accelerate growth, share risks, enhance credibility, foster competitiveness, adapt to new technologies, and drive economic growth through communication, knowledge sharing, market validation, and cultural exchange. Our focus includes: * Matchmaking Due Diligence processes between industries and startups. * Integrating women and diverse talents from different cultures into industries to accelerate innovation and social impact. * Understanding the full concept of ESGs by merging Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. * Supporting new technology and overcoming resistance to it. Let’s Collaborate. I Dare You.  You just have to follow this link here https://lagertha.mn.co Keeping a cool head is crucial. Part of being an entrepreneur is believing in your vision until the very last moment, even if no one else does. Let’s champion this new trend and talk about it. Startups need to ask themselves the tough questions: “Do I have the right mindset? Do I have a solid Co-partner team? Is there enough market potential? Do I have the market knowledge to understand my customers and attract investor money? Do I have a good product, a compelling value proposition ?” I ask myself questions all the time. It takes a brave founder to share the story of their failed business publicly—but those who do rarely regret it. Let’s Push the Boundaries and Break the Silence. #Lagertha #JoinForcesCommunnity #BoldLead #Longevitystartupprogram#BreakTheSilence  #LetsCollaborate #letsleadtogether #ESGgoals #DEI#letsshareknowledge 

Recently, a VC fund introduced me to the founder of a Seed-stage startup generating revenue but stuck with a top-of-funnel GTM challenge they can’t resolve. During the intro call, the founder described the issue as a mix of product, competition, and other factors - challenges my team and I have solved before. However, a red flag emerged when I asked who was leading GTM initiatives. The founder revealed it was a GTM expert - a friend of a friend with a background in selling online courses. Appearantly he tried everything, but the bottlenecks remain unresolved. While I can’t assess the employee’s expertise without speaking to them, I can already see 2 key issues: 1. Selling courses and B2B SaaS products are vastly different. - Sales cycles differ significantly - Decision-making processes are more complex in SaaS - Revenue models and pricing strategies require a different approach - SaaS demands a focus on customer retention and success 2. If whoever leads the GTM initiatives doesn't have B2B SaaS experience they are most likely learning on the job and unwillingly wasting your runway. But the real problem? Execution. The team has rescheduled follow-up call for months due to other priorities, including attending events, wasting nearly two months on top of their initial time they have struggled to resolve this. For startups, even if they are well funded, time is a luxury they can’t afford. This highlights a hard truth: many startups fail not because of market conditions or other aspects but due to poor execution. The cost of doing nothing can destroy even the best products. The golden rule of thumb is: if you have tried everything and have been stagnating for 2–3 months, it's time to reach out to professionals who have a proven track record of successfully solving bottlenecks at the same stage. Ready to scale your startup? Let’s chat about building a solid foundation for your business success. Book a FREE Bedrokk call here bit.ly/3BkXBLS #startups #founders #investors #gotomarketstrategy #venturecapital ___________________________________ Did you like this post? Connect or Follow Evaldas Girskus Want to see all my posts? Ring that 🔔 and Follow #thestartupguy

Startups can be lonely Maybe its you and less than a handful of others Each doing their own thing, of course, for the sake of the same thing Even worse if you are REMOTE I met my partner face to face ONCE and we've been working together for 2 years (we talk twice a day though) We have had some people come and go, that's normal, but When you spend time to onboard and get to know them, dare I say become Friendly, then have to see them go, its hard When there are wins, we keep moving, have to remember to offer MYSELF the accolades and celebrate When there are losses, we feel it we learn from it ______ I have worked for 100 million dollar, even 25 billion dollar companies, there is always someone to share the wins and losses with others you know are walking the walk, talking the talk, that you are, Everyday There is comfort in that _______ We support each other We push each other WE celebrate each other ________ But sometimes its just lonely..... Anyone else in the startup world resonate with this??????? #conversationconverters #coldcaller4L #outcomes #activations

🗣️I am thrilled to be a member of the advisory board for The StartUp Marketer with some AMAZING folks. This is a great program linking together some of the best minds in marketing - providing pertinent resources, tools, and assistance for startup marketers. #startups #marketing #startupmarketer

Truth about Solopreneurs vs. Founding Teams (Day 92). Yesterday, something hit me. I met a founder who started a VC-backed startup in Europe straight out of college. 5 years later, it's worth >$200M. As a bootstrapped solopreneur, it was interesting to hear how the founder trio divided their roles: > COO and CTO use CEO's feedback from customers to improve product. > CTO is coding > COO is handling pitch decks, analytics, and the admin plumbing and internal firefighting > CEO is facing anyone external: Customers, investors, hires In other words: The classic founder trio. But the a-ha moment was realizing the significance of this. Having been a solopreneur, everything falls back to you. In essence, that means: > It's easy to miss the forest for the trees and over-index the product strategy on your last user/customer call. > It's easy to get distracted by the pitch decks and analytics, instead of facing enough potential customers that day. > It's easy to get demotivated by the admin plumbing and having to resolve everyone's issues > It's hard to convey the picture-perfect storyline when you're also having to deal with your backlog of all the bugs and problems Knowing that resilience and mindset is the #1 most important thing in startups, the founder trio makes it a LOT easier for the founding team to compartmentalize. Here's a few other insights: > CTO and CEO had worked together. > COO had previous MBB/Banking experience, making him a great operator and analyst for the technical tasks > CEO was straight from college, meaning he had the extroverted and youthful spirit to win hearts and minds > CTO just loved cranking away on the code If you're swamped with work, it's dangerous for the fire in your eyes to dim. Again: There's a reason for the playbook, which is the VC-backed founder trio. But it doesn't mean it's impossible otherwise. What kills B2B solopreneurs is going into the basement and working in isolation (i.e., handling COO and CTO type tasks). Being CEO first, and everything second is important but challenging. Perhaps that's why most successful tech solopreneurs were in B2C, which makes sense if you consider the above dynamics. Food for thought. What are your thoughts on this? // For 100 days, I'm challenging myself to daily #RealTalk.

Meet StartUp Marketer's Advisory Board! 🌟 We’ve assembled an incredible team of advisors to support and guide us here at SUM. From Directors to Professors, Fractional to Founder, our board represents a diverse array of marketing roles and backgrounds. They've honed their skills and insights at leading companies like AOL, Diageo, Edelman, Facebook, Google, hims & hers, Microsoft, Millennial Media, Scholastic, Skype, The MarketHer, WeWork, and Workhuman, along with a slew of impressive startups. 💡 With such a powerhouse lineup, we're tapping into a vast pool of expertise to ensure we're serving up the most relevant and impactful resources and tools for startup marketers! Adrienne A. Wallace AJ Driscoll Alex Stonehouse Forj Allie Mills Barbara Pamplin Brian O'Shaughnessy David Berkowitz Serial Marketers David Cardiel Heidi Keele 🦁 The Lioness Collective James O'Brien Jesse Calvert Jessica Foster Brandt (She/Her) Joanna McElnea Jules McGinlay MCIM Karen Germ The Kay Prince Kiana Pirouz Lia Zneimer Lynne d Johnson Dr. Michael Becker Silvia Gorra Stephen Jenkins Walton Smith #startupmarketer #startups #startuplife #marketing

In five years, Charlie Bullock has scaled one of Europe’s fastest growing healthcare platforms—Scan.com. When we sat down with him for this month’s Startup Bulletin, here’s what we learned 👇 💡 ‘Sunk cost’ is a fallacy—don’t think about the time/investment already put in to certain projects, think about whether it’s worth continuing to expend energy on it 💡Be wary of relying solely on consumers—consider, can you create a business model that, if you shut off any consumer marketing spend, is still viable? That’s true defensibility 💡Clearly outline employee traits you value—this makes hiring and scaling much easier, and will help you navigate various uncertainties 💡Love the problem, not the solution—even if your product is established in one market, don’t assume it will be in another. Revisiting the problem was key to Scan.com’s successful launch in the US 📩 Read our latest Startup Bulletin here (feat. Charlie’s insights): https://lnkd.in/eCe3_bqb Also in this month’s newsletter: ➡️ Portfolio news from DRIFT Energy Ltd, Endolith, and 54 Collective VC (formerly known as Founders Factory Africa) ➡️Our reading list (ft. The New Yorker, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and more) ➡️Other opportunities in tech (jobs, events, etc) #fintech #startups #healthtech #founders

Charlie Bullock and the team at Scan.com, one of our portfolio companies, are building one of Europe’s fastest-growing healthcare platforms! In a conversation with co-investors Founders Factory, Charlie shared some invaluable insights from their journey for other startup founders: 💡 Avoid the ‘sunk cost’ fallacy—focus on what drives value moving forward. 💡 Build a business model that’s sustainable even without consumer marketing spend. 💡 Clearly define the traits you value in employees to streamline hiring and scale effectively. 💡 Love the problem, not just the solution—adaptability is key when expanding into new markets. #BackingFounders #StartupSuccess #HealthcareInnovation #ScalingUp #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #PortfolioCompany #HealthTech #StartupInsights #LeadershipTips #ScalingStrategies #FounderAdvice #TechInnovation #SustainableGrowth

Most startups don’t fail because they lack funding, they fail because they don’t know how to deploy it. A fresh funding round feels like a green light to scale fast: • Hire more people. • Invest in marketing. • Build new features. But when growth isn’t intentional, it’s just chaos disguised as success. The startups that thrive do something different. They ask themselves: • What’s the real bottleneck holding us back? • Where will €1 today turn into €5 tomorrow? • How do we scale without burning out our resources or our team? The answer often isn’t flashy, it’s not hiring 10 people overnight or dumping cash into paid ads. It’s getting laser-focused on strategy. I’d love to hear from you: What’s the most unconventional move you’ve seen a startup make to unlock growth? _____________________________________ 👩💻 Sharing insights from my journey as a startup operator and business geek. 🏆 Helping startups get one step closer to their vision. 👉 Want to chat? Book a time with me here: https://lnkd.in/ed-SWfqe