Portfolio
Business advisory, growth strategy, exit strategies, all delicate matters...
One of the 1-st things that I promise is being quiet about what You work on.
Therefore you see no flashy brand names or open case studies. Only, maybe fraction of it, at best.
Bigger the problem, harder the challenge, more invisible we are.
Who have trusted me already
- 1:1 Advisory clients are mostly at growth stage, lacking expertise, experience, knowledge, innovation, and that all from a wide base generalist – founder’s viewpoint. There I am the best.
I accept cases where I am able to resolve the case or bring impact rapidly at large scale. Quite often I can deliver my impact within 2 hours. 18 months is the longest, by then my work is done.
I believe in startup’s approach with documentation like pitch deck and financials – these documents prepare us for the take off shortly or to pivot fast. - Exit strategy clients remain hidden due to its delicate matter. Our main focus is strategy, but we can offer full support also.
- Mentoring at Accelerators: Startup Reaktor (Romania), Econic (Hungary), Kiuas (Finland), Nordic Startup Ventures (Finalnd), Red Brick Accelerator (Finland), European Innovation Academy (Portugal), PowerHUB (Czechia), Beamline Fund (Estonia), Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Business Angel Association.
- 1:1 Startups: Most of clients have sessions with me in frames of some accelerator. The impact is rapid and significant based on ratings varying from 9-9,7 from 10 points.
Few earlier cases: Swice, Bidrento, Avar, WiseDrive, Aufort, RunProperty, ForkNAV, Task Messenger, Embrace, Harbour AR, EANS, Trashify, AudioCat, Cube Plus, Kiki’s Home Box.
- Digitalization: Over the years I’ve been engaged with nearly a 1000 innovative projects. I have developed various marketing tools, such as custom web shops, customer care solutions, ordering processes optimizations, CRM solutions, RMA solutions, ERP solutions, analytical tools, email delivery to billions of recipients, even some mobile solutions. We analysed, we created, we designed, we consulted, we developed, we tested, we delivered.
Hereby I humbly thank them for trusting me.
- Since 2019 it’s totally a new paragraph.
Now it’s only Founders’ advisory, I am executing my new and old knowledge and experiences combined with my partners at a specific domain to help founders and entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
We generate more value in shorter time than we ever did in my old job, as we bring the impact rapidly – in limited hours. - Previously supported: Telia, Elisa, Tele2, Eesti Energia, Eesti Post aka Omniva, Estonian Health Insurance, Seesam Insurance, DAS Insurance, PZU Insurance, business newspaper Äripäev, Best Marketing, Päevaleht, Solaris, Pärnu Keskus, Apollo, Rahva Raamat, Varrak, Assa Abloy, E-Lux, Home4You, Sony Center, Baltika, Piletilevi, Hortes, and many many more.
Being proud of
1) One of my first clients approached me with rather unique problem. He wanted to exit, yet he didn’t have much to sell. We agreed to give it a try and see if I could help him to see the light in the end.
In most cases the problem lies in positioning. Something that they teach you in marketing class as a basics. Yet I’ve found it’s the basis of my own mistakes, in numerous cases in numerous businesses. Too little of thinking, analysing and designing, too much of running with enormous speed.
In 1:10h he suddenly said: “this is the smartest thing you’ve said so far“. We formed the growth strategy and gone he is, finalising his work. 🙂
Heh, yes. I know myself that it takes up to 2h to figure out if there is anything I can help with or I can’t. So lucky you are if 15min or even 30min will do for you. Guess there’s not much business either.
And as some say, if it’s not a challenge, it’s not a business either!
ESTBAN is a superb organisation with great management. I’ve learnt so much from regular courses and trainings. Am sincerely thankful.
2) During one mentoring session I again realised how different is the game investors and startups play. I managed to grow startups ambition, widen the picture, rely on their achievements more, make them believe in themselves more. So, nothing special, just regular stuff, right?
It took us about 8 hours to fix the pitch, as these guys were just awesome. I grew their ask from 300k to 500k, improved structural design and made the case clear for investors. Investors are interested now.
3) Another case took me nearly 2 months to fix the pitch and wrongdoings, we raised ask 7x to 1M so that they could reach to next round with big enough MRR.
And they blew it. There were red flags and I decided to ignore them. My fault. My learnings. Luckily no small investors got hurt. Key message is the same – lack of imagination kills your relationships and therefore business.
4) Once offering my help as paid growth coach I was intrigued to have a test-run with me and them. Little did I know at the time that high rank people with corporate backround might lack of something I have gained throughout my life of bootstrapping and constant inventing how to stay alive.
Yet combined, it might result a much bigger outcome and we managed to grow startup’s income streams 5x. All really doable with few phonecalls and few months of coding, changing the positioning from 1 service to a market leader. Honestly, I was amazed. Could not foresee that.
5) In one accelerator program I was once asked a slightly unethical question – “How to crowdfund enough to get out of the business?” At first I said “No, I will not help you” as it goes against my beliefs and is unethical. But my curiosity won and as a fan of systems I started to ask why my mentee had such ideas.
The result though after 1:43h mentorship was a growth concept that was international and had specifics in place. And my key to that was a pitching session few years back when I learnt how to gain in rental business. Combining new context with known concept we had a winner. Unethical exit strategy was converted into growth strategy!
6) Some say – lack of imagination kills all the beauty. Yet we face it everywhere. As a certified coach I tend to use coaching techniques everywhere and finding a killer strategy brings me self fulfillment. Especially if again I was able to develop better strategies than “famous VC strategists and mentors”.
Having too narrow vision is the default cause for unhappy investors, founders, employees, clients, consumers.
So keep on bringing me challenges you think no-one can solve. These unsolved cases, these keep me awake at nights, till I find a solution for these. Some take days, some weeks, some months or years. Bring it on!
Few of my early stage mentoring case studies:
Marketplace for car owners and workshops - WiseDrive
Concept
Challenge
Clarity – guys had made some crucial mistakes in the past and didn’t take off in time. No vision, no plan, no killer pitch, no cash.
Vision – There was a problem and 1/2 of MVP. We started from building a vision that would grow the business 500x and would be attractive to investors allowing to earn 4-6x ROI.
Action plan – Analysing financials we discovered real challenges. In weeks of harsh questioning and research we sorted out how to overcome these. Our network and research led us to precise positioning and execution plan.
Pitch – it took us ~8 weeks to fix the pitch that attracted investors.
Skin in the game – We joined forces as co-founders after 6 months.
The result – we decided to cancel our involvement in the middle of fundraising due to mismatch of ethics’ level.
B2B, Ultra realistic Virtual Reality solutions - Avar
Concept
All-in-one Virtual Reality and digital solutions made for businesses where presenting spaces is important. We create immersive content that cuts sales time, reduces insecurity and enhances the experience of buying and renting real estate.
We make Real Estate projects real before they are real – using Virtual Reality.
AVAR is a Certified Google Street View and Matterport Service Partner.
Challenge
Marketplace for tenants and real-estate owners - Bidrento
Concept
Bidrento brings together real-estate owners and tenants. Ontop of that they offer B2B solution for owners to manage their flats, tenants, contracts billing, etc all on one environment. The dynamic monthly subscrition cost is just a fraction compared to the cost saved hours and paid subscriptions users can avoid now.
Challenge
Clarity – Defining the value proposition for real-estate owners who have just few flats. Feedback of B2B solution UX. Online marketing idea creation and feedback.
Supervisory – Strategies, second opinions, better decisions.
Volunteer work – in Estonian startup program “Ajujaht”.
B2B, Smart marketing, sales, kitchen ai solutions for restaurants - Checkspot
Concept
Checkspot brings together restaurants and customers maximizing owners returns in time and bringing more value for money for customers when visiting restaurants not at peak times. In addition there are lots of cool tools designed to help kitchen efficiency and optimize marketing having solid data and feedback ontop of sales numbers.
Challenge
Clarity – Pivoting is the daily business especially due to COVID19 hitting in.
Action plan – Constant changes, processes, re-orderings.
Execution – Online marketing, processes, software developent, matchmaking.
Supervisory – Strategies, going through challenges.
Skin in the game as investor, “board member”, executor.
The result – COVID19 showed the importance of a solid management and leading skills. Business, no more.
B2C, Organizing awesome dates - Swice.io
Concept
Martketplace that makes women’s lives better! 🙂 It gives dating ideas and provides ready-made plans for people lacking of information or imagination. Biggest target groups are new/old couples, single fathers, friends, tourists. just pick a plan, pay and off you go to nice walk, events, cinema or restaurant. AI helps optimize offerings in future.
Challenge
Clarity – Pivoting is the daily business especially due to COVID19 hitting in.
Action plan – Constant changes, processes, re-orderings.
Execution – Idea creations, process development, matchmaking, funding.
Supervisory – Advisory, strategies, opposing, going through challenges.
Your Business, Your Vision—My Expertise to Help You Move On Easier
You’ve Built Something Great. Now Let’s Take It Further.
When the decisions get bigger, and the challenges more complex, or struggle seems never to end - that’s where we come in.