Financial management
Financials
A shared financial planning workspace where a startup budget, forecasts and investor-ready views stay connected to one controlled dataset.
View projectPortfolio
Business advisory, growth strategy, exit strategies — all delicate matters.
One of the first things I promise is being quiet about what you work on.
Therefore you'll see no flashy brand names or open case studies here. Only a fraction, at best.
Bigger the problem, harder the challenge — the more invisible we are.
Digital products built
Four products built around real operational bottlenecks.
These Challeng.ist projects make financial planning, appointment booking, B2B sales, and decisions about people and work clearer and easier to manage.
Appointment booking
Booking
A clear booking experience that guides visitors to a suitable time quickly and keeps scheduling simple and easy to understand.
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B2B sales
SDR
A human-controlled sales workspace that turns market intelligence into targeted conversations and keeps the sales process in one place.
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People and work
SparklyHR
A people intelligence product that connects actual work, roles, teams and the organisation into one clearer decision view.
View projectWho has trusted me already
1:1 Advisory clients are mostly at the growth stage, lacking expertise, experience, knowledge or innovation — all from a wide-base generalist founder's viewpoint. That's where I'm at my best.
I take cases where I can resolve the problem or bring rapid impact at scale. Often I deliver impact within 2 hours. 18 months is the longest engagement.
I believe in a startup approach with documentation like pitch deck and financials — these prepare us for take-off or for pivoting fast.
Exit strategy clients remain hidden due to the delicate nature of the work. The main focus is strategy, with full support available.
Mentoring at accelerators: 1991 Accelerator, IGNITER, Startup Reaktor (Romania), Econic (Hungary), Kiuas (Finland), Nordic Startup Ventures (Finland), Red Brick Accelerator (Finland), European Innovation Academy (Portugal), PowerHUB (Czechia), Beamline Fund (Estonia), Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Business Angel Association.
1:1 startups: most clients work with me inside an accelerator. Impact is rapid and significant — ratings vary from 9 to 9.7 out of 10.
A 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 1,000 innovative projects — custom web shops, customer care, ordering optimisations, CRM, RMA, ERP, analytics, email delivery to billions of recipients, and mobile solutions. We analysed, designed, consulted, developed, tested and delivered.
Since 2019 it's a new paragraph: founders' advisory only, executing knowledge and experience with my partners at specific domains.
Previously supported: Telia, Elisa, Tele2, Eesti Energia, Omniva, Estonian Health Insurance, Seesam Insurance, DAS Insurance, PZU Insurance, Äripäev, Best Marketing, Päevaleht, Solaris, Pärnu Keskus, Apollo, Rahva Raamat, Varrak, Assa Abloy, E-Lux, Home4You, Sony Center, Baltika, Piletilevi, Hortes, and many more.
Clarity
What is it that you do for client, employee, management member, owner, founder? What's the problem, solution, value proposition, why should anyone invest in you?
how to get it →Action Plan
How to reach your goals fast and cost-effectively? What to do in what order? What to learn, what to buy in? Timing, cost, results.
how to do this →Supervisory
What impact has your decision in 10 minutes, 10 days and 10 months? Have you considered other criteria and verified other arguments? Get a second opinion.
ask for second opinion →The Pitch
Nailing investors' attention and getting funded faster saves you huge amounts of time and money. But you have to present it yourself.
how to get it done →Being proud of
- 1
One of my first clients wanted to exit, yet didn't have much to sell. We worked on positioning — and in 1h10m he said: 'this is the smartest thing you've said so far.' We formed the growth strategy and he is finalising the work.
- 2
In a single mentoring session I helped a founding team widen the picture and believe in themselves. In ~8 hours we fixed the pitch and grew their ask from 300k to 500k. Investors got interested.
- 3
Another case took nearly 2 months of pitch and positioning work — we raised the ask 7x to 1M so the team could reach the next round with strong MRR.
- 4
I tested running as a paid growth coach with a corporate-background team. Combined, we grew the startup's income streams 5x by changing the positioning from one service to a market leader.
- 5
An accelerator mentee once asked how to crowdfund their way out of the business. I refused, then dug into the why. After 1h43m of mentorship we had an international growth concept — an unethical exit became a real growth strategy.
- 6
Lack of imagination kills the beauty. Too narrow a vision is the default cause of unhappy investors, founders, employees and clients. Bring me the challenges nobody else can crack.
10+ accelerators' trust
Ukraine / Europe
A two-season partnership in which 1991.vc has trusted Mikk Orglaan as a mentor supporting Ukrainian founders with growth, investment readiness and expansion across European markets. The programme's principal backer is the EBRD.
IGNITER
Tallinn, Estonia
I have participated in IGNITER as a mentor and trainer for several seasons. Every cohort has included exciting startups whose ideas, business models and pitches I have helped develop further.
ECONIC Accelerator
Budapest, Hungary
ECONIC accelerator offers company-building expertise and guidance through a 9-month long program. Three stages with capital and services along the way. My role was to support and challenge fantastic founders at various stages. High-quality selection of companies. One of the best-led events during my mentoring career.
Red Brick Accelerator
Tampere, Finland
Sessions rated 9.5/10. Helped most with clarity into the GTM next steps, challenging the approach, asking lots of questions and giving homework. Among the top 3 mentors for the day.
European Innovation Academy
Porto, Portugal
Over three weeks 50+ mentors supported 500+ students forming 100+ startups from scratch. As a Business and Tech mentor I worked with ~20 teams, transforming early ideas into solid concepts in just 24 hours.
KIUAS accelerator
Espoo, Finland
Finnish accelerator formed by Aalto University. By far the strongest pre-seed selection. Mentee: 'Mikk gave bold ideas that helped us see our product services differently and the potential of current features with AI.'
Nordic Startup Ventures
Tampere, Finland
Structured programs, intensive mentoring and funding. Their Head of Mentors shadows mentors at first meetings to measure and improve quality — unexpected, but converted into much better trust and growth. Proud to belong.
Enterprise Estonia
Tallinn, Estonia
Multiple acceleration programmes — first as mentee, later as mentor with SME scale-ups, startups and the local Shark Tank programme Ajujaht. EAS gave me the opportunity to master coaching, leading to an executive business coach certificate.
Power HUB accelerator
Prague, Czechia
Technology transfer organisation focused on innovation and research. They create sustainable ecosystems using innovative digital technologies — a hub where actors across industries work together to effect change.
BDA Consulting
Tallinn, Estonia
Together with BDA Consulting I mentored Estonian tourism-sector enterprises to improve their businesses following Business Canvas methodology. Interesting and at times challenging projects to grow and learn about myself.
Agentuur Velström Vallner Tohver
Tallinn, Estonia
VVT hired me to mentor a business unit in Estonian Aviation Network Service. This 6-month mentoring programme showed me how much I had learnt over 20 years as a business owner, board member, strategy designer and coach.
Startup Reaktor
Go-To-Market Accelerator, Romania
Startup Reaktor is a Go-To-Market accelerator in Romania creating sustainable ecosystems using innovative digital technologies — a hub where actors across various industries work together to effect change.
Session feedback from RedBrick Accelerator
Forwarded by Mirza Sadgati, CEO of RedBrick Accelerator (Tampere, Finland)
The mentoring/sparring day was rated 8.75/10 by startups
Sessions rated
8.5/10
Helped most with
Business unit economics and how critical it can be to make a scalable business; exploring business models for the case; value proposition to customer groups (landlords and tenants); ideas on selling and targeting different customer groups; feedback on the pitch and connections with potential partners.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
9/10
Helped most with
Feedback on how to take this to the market, challenging the value proposition and tips on what investors might be looking for when presenting the case.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
9.4/10
Helped most with
Investment-related questions and connections; de-risking the case and finding the right investor persona; good ideas on how to move forward and what to do next.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
10/10
Helped most with
Appreciated straight talk and honest feedback from Mikk. Most of the time was spent on business model validation and customer profiling.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
8.5/10
Helped most with
Direct and honest feedback; real insights into the train traffic industry — very valuable and a strong reality check on certain aspects of startup development; suggestions on what is business-critical focus to start expanding in the Finnish market.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
9.5/10
Helped most with
Good ideas on the business model and next steps; reality check and challenging — is the problem we're solving big and urgent enough? Good tips on how to identify the problem better.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
8/10
Helped most with
Challenging the business model; possibilities on increasing profits on the platform; important questions on ICPs; how to sell to investors and the importance of an exit strategy.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
Sessions rated
9.5/10
Helped most with
Clarity into the next steps of the GTM; challenging the approach and asking a lot of questions; giving homework to better prepare for the next meetings.
Mirza Sadgati
RedBrick Accelerator · CEO
"It fried our brains, it was intensive but worth it." — Weivi (day after the meeting)
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, the challenges more complex, or the struggle seems never to end — that's where we come in.
Get started today — schedule your free consultation