Portfolio

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.

Get started today — schedule your free consultation

Who 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: 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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

ECONIC Accelerator

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

RedBrick Accelerator

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

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

Mirza Sadgati

RedBrick Accelerator · CEO

Sessions rated

9.4/10

Top 3 mentor of the day

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

Mirza Sadgati

RedBrick Accelerator · CEO

Sessions rated

10/10

Top 3 mentor of the day

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

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

Mirza Sadgati

RedBrick Accelerator · CEO

Sessions rated

9.5/10

Top 3 mentor of the day

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

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

Mirza Sadgati

RedBrick Accelerator · CEO

Sessions rated

9.5/10

Top 3 mentor of the day

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

Mirza Sadgati

RedBrick Accelerator · CEO

"It fried our brains, it was intensive but worth it." — Weivi (day after the meeting)

A few early-stage mentoring case studies

WiseDrive — Marketplace for car owners and workshops

WiseDrive — Marketplace for car owners and workshops

Concept. Younger drivers, independent women, foreigners — car maintenance experience sucks for them, and for workshops the sales process is expensive. The promise: make both ends happy.

Clarity
Crucial past mistakes; no vision, no plan, no killer pitch, no cash.
Vision
Built a vision to grow the business 500x and earn investors 4–6x ROI.
Action plan
Harsh questioning, financial analysis, precise positioning and execution plan.
Pitch
~8 weeks to build a pitch that attracted investors.
Skin in the game
Joined as co-founders after 6 months.
Result
Stepped away mid-fundraising due to a mismatch in ethics.
Avar — Ultra-realistic Virtual Reality for B2B

Avar — Ultra-realistic Virtual Reality for B2B

Concept. All-in-one VR and digital solutions for businesses where presenting spaces matters — immersive content that cuts sales time and enhances the experience of buying and renting real estate. Certified Google Street View and Matterport Service Partner.

Clarity
Nearly 4 hours to understand the challenge, followed by a brainstorm that unlocked a next-generation idea. The knowledge was in the founder's head — it takes a coach or two to grow your startup faster.
Bidrento — Marketplace for tenants and real-estate owners

Bidrento — Marketplace for tenants and real-estate owners

Concept. Brings together real-estate owners and tenants, plus a B2B platform for owners to manage flats, tenants, contracts and billing in one place. The dynamic subscription is a fraction of the cost of saved hours and replaced tools.

Clarity
Defining the value proposition for owners with just a few flats; UX feedback for the B2B tool.
Supervisory
Strategies, second opinions, better decisions.
Volunteer work
Mentoring in the Estonian startup program 'Ajujaht'.
Checkspot — Smart marketing, sales and kitchen AI for restaurants

Checkspot — Smart marketing, sales and kitchen AI for restaurants

Concept. Connects restaurants and customers, maximizing owner returns and offering more value off-peak. Tools to help kitchen efficiency and optimize marketing with real data on top of sales numbers.

Clarity
Pivoting was daily business as COVID-19 hit.
Action plan
Constant changes, processes and re-orderings.
Execution
Online marketing, processes, software development, matchmaking.
Supervisory
Strategies and going through challenges together.
Skin in the game
As investor, 'board member' and executor.
Swice.io — Organizing awesome dates

Swice.io — Organizing awesome dates

Concept. A marketplace that makes life better — dating ideas and ready-made plans for people short on inspiration. Target groups: new and old couples, single parents, friends, tourists. Pick a plan, pay, and off you go.

Clarity
Pivoting was daily business as COVID-19 hit.
Action plan
Constant changes, processes and re-orderings.
Execution
Idea creation, process development, matchmaking, funding.
Supervisory
Advisory, strategies, sparring, 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, the challenges more complex, or the struggle seems never to end — that's where we come in.

Get started today — schedule your free consultation