eddy.lt

Neighbors in Kaliningrad and Minsk Are Inviting us Over for a Hackaton!

2013-02-19T11:01:00.001+02:00

Kaliningrad, HackDay #24 on 22nd - 24th of February:

Don't just listen to me, see what StartupHighway acclerator and StartupLithuania..com has to say about this event.

Minsk, Garage48 Minsk on 1st -3rd of March:

Minsk is just like San Francisco, just with lots of potatoes and more authoritarianism.

Now this is cool. Garage48 is bringing geeks from Estonia and Latvia to Minsk with a bus road-trip, which as they say "you don't want to miss!". You probably don't, especially if you're coming from Riga or Tallinn - it's a long and boring ride by yourself. From Vilnius its a short trip (and quite comfortable, besides being checked a lot on the border I hear) by the train.

See you in Minsk folks!

Eddy

LT Startup News That I Missed in The Last Update

2013-02-19T01:32:00.000+02:00

Hey folks, thanks a lot for reading and sharing last Lithuanian startup update, which in 24 hours became the most popular blog post I have written in eddy.lt! Consequently, some news that I missed have been brought to my attention.

Sir Richard, who's planing a trip to Lithuania this summer, is sad due to my pour blogging and research performance.

Sorry Sir Richard, I'll try harder. Here are the things I missed:

Lithuania's Economic Conference 2013 took place on 14th of February in Vilnius and included LT startup community. As far as I heard (I did not attend) - there was nothing special about it, besides that whole section dedicated to Lithuanian startups, which was opened by the Minister of Economy. LT startup community reps gave speeches and had the whole separate panel discussion, you can find who participated and what they talked about in here. Update: Enterprise Lithuania covered the event here.

LT startup community reps in panel discussion. From left : Mindaugas Krisciunas, CEO of XtGem, Tomas Martunas, CEO of App Camp and others I can't recognize.

Dragdis launched their private beta!

dragdis.com

Go and check it out now, it's worth it:

New Dragdis interface.

StartupHighway 3rd call for applications is out!

StartupHighway startups keep making the news - this time in TechCrucnh again. Meanwhile, in Lithuania:

Rokas Tamosiunas, CEO of StartupHighway, being interviewed by national television of Lithuania.

LT startup StarterPad launched a new version:

StarterPad.com

Jonas Gavelis, entrepreneur. Has a nice smile.

Finally, if you can read Lithuanian, check out the blog of Jonas Gavelis. The guy is legit Lithuanian startuper, who started a bunch of cool projects and he covers really interesting stuff like this interview with Yplan - cool mobile startup from London with Lithuanian founders.

Check out upcoming Lithuanian startup events:

And follow tweets under #LTstartups hashtag. And/or join LT Startup's Community FB group

That is all folks, not that much I missed the last time. :)

Eddy

Full Speed Ahead - Lithuanian Startup Scene Update

2013-02-17T18:03:00.000+02:00

Sir Richard Branson in his private island.

Sir Richard Branson is coming to Lithuania (video)! Not exactly directly startup related, but very good news. At least for me, I am a fan :) Read more about it here. Big thanks for making this happen goes to Vladas Lasas!

In the photo sir Richard is showing off his t-shirt, which Lithuanian Olympic basketball team wore in the '92 Olympics in Barcelona - the 1 st Olympics where Lithuania participated just after breaking out of Soviet Union.

@TCBaltics

Tech Chill Baltics conference (a followup for last year's TechCrunch Baltics) took place on February 12th in Riga Latvia. Movers and shakers of Baltic startup community gathered from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia etc. with keynote speakers from all over the place. There was also startup pitching competition, where Lithuanian startup Bliu Bliu (from Startup Weekend Lithuania) took the 1st place and got mentioned in TechCrunch!

Cudos to organizers TechHub Riga, they did a great job. Follow #TCBaltics @TCBaltics for photos, videos and presentations from the event.

Among all the cool folks who came down to TCBaltics was Yevgeniy Brikman, software developer @ LinkedIn - thanks to Enterprise Lithuania who made it possible for him to visit HUB Vilnius in Lithuania and TCBaltics in Latvia. Yevgeniy (or Jim) describes himself as "Hacker, writer, designer, code monkey, architect." in his LinkedIn profile, but he is also a great talker and presenter, check out one of his presentations above or in his Slideshare.

cgtrader.com

Lithuanian startup CGTrade r - a marketplace for 3D artists and engineers, where one can sell, buy or download free 3D models for projects and 3D print is going to be 2 years old next months! To celebrate CGTrader is announcing a 3D model competition for designers:

CGTrader 3D model competition

TransferGo.com

Lithuanian startup TransferGo announced that Greg Kidd (initial Twitter investor, strategic advisor to Square and Promontory Financial Group) has officially joined their advisory board. Recently TransferGo raised funding from Practica Capital and got quite some media coverage.

This is great news to whole Lithuanian startup scene, not only TransferGo. When investors like Greg Kidd get involved in local companies on equity level, it also adds visibility and credibility to our community.

lemonlabs.lt

Lithuanian app developers Lemon Labs app Check got mentioned in TechCrunch and appFigures blog! Quote from TC:

"Lemon Lab’s new app, “Check for appFigures”, solves the problem of having to browse the appFigures desktop-sied website using an iPhone, by bringing key statistics to a downloadable iOS application. The app offers a clear and simple overview of importnat metrics like app downloads, updates, and sales."

One of the reaction from Lemon Labs team members in Facebook:

"On the other news, Lemon Labs on TechCrunch again. Once again an awesome Monday."

lol.

impresspages.com

Lithuanian startup ImpressPages launched their first premium ImpressPages CMS themes! Check them out:

Impress Pages CMS premium theme Freshr

Lithuanian weather app Orai on Windows Phones.

I should have covered this in the previous update from Lithuania startup community, but better later, than never - weather app Orai developed in the last App Camp reached phenomenal success in Lithuania on all 3 main platforms - Windows, Android and iPhone.

Cupo.co

Lithuanian startup Cupo.co - smart e-mail marketing tool for e-commerce - announced a launch of closed beta and testing with first customers. Good luck Cupo.co!

Sorry if I missed anyone - drop me a line in Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and I'll write about you next time! ;)

Eddy

eddy.lt was added to Hacker News European tech blog source!

2013-02-16T15:25:00.000+02:00

Thanks Hacker News! :)

Eddy

Piping hot Lithuanian startup scene - 1st Vilnius Launch48 weekend, cool new startups, accelerators and more!

2013-02-04T00:21:00.001+02:00

Vilnius is one cold, but good looking and safe city.

2013 just began (I actually wrote 2012 initially lol) - long, wet, cold and annoying winter still shackles Lithuania. But boy, is our local startup scene getting hot:

Launch48

First ever Vilnius Launch48 Weekend just ended (~5 hours ago) in HUB Vilnius co-working center in Vilnius, Lithuania. During 48 hours event ~40 participants pitched around two dozen ideas during opening, from which 5 ideas were selected to the next phase. All 5 ideas gathered great teams around them, made lots of progress during weekend, worked according to Launch48 program and presented pitched on Sunday evening:

1st to pitch @ Vilnius #Launch48 were MyEvent startup - free web app for easily presenting your small or medium size events (I bet this would be useful for big events too) - check out MyEvent blog and Facebook page.
2nd pitch was from DiGi Done 3D startup. @digido_3d is a 3D prototyping solution for architects and designers. BTW - hey you designers, architects and other 3D modeling professionals and help themselves and DiGi by filling out this survey.
3rd on the scene were UNHOOK Facebook startup with iPhone app (and funny url unface.it) - well guess what, it helps you fight your Facebook addiction, duh. Oh, here is their Facebook page :) Team members are veterans of #LTstartups community and this was not their first event, thus no wonder they also won the 1st prize (from British Council Lithuania, if I am not mistaken, which could easily be, cause I was tweeting and not paying attention:).
4th presentation @ Vilnius #Launch48: ManoKaimynai.lt @ManoKaimynai - a social network to meet and get to know you'r neighbors. This team got lots of help from legionier from Estonia Martin @martinsookael and new partnership was formed between our countries :)
5th pitch Vilnius #Launch48: TOPchoicer @topchoicer interesting idea for web app / plugin for e-commerce sites with social recommendations for their shoppers and advice from experts about the products. These guys also landed a prize.

Previously this week 2 accelerators - rockstart.accelerator (FB) from Amsterdam and Oxygen Accelerator (FB) from London presented their programs in Vilnius, Lithuania. Both on the same day and almost on the same time, but in different venues lol. Great to see new faces and accelerators in Lithuania - I am sure this will be very beneficial to our startup ecosystem, more choices is always good. Whats cool is that they both tried new formats (not boring receptions etc) - rockstart.accelerator did their own Rockstart Answers "the smart peer-2-peer Q&A game where 5 startups and 25 experts come together to share knowledge" and Oxygen co-organized 2nd Hub Social, with local guest speakers plus BarCamp style open stage and networking.

Apply to StartupHighway now!

Talking about accelerators - StartupHighway, @StartupHighway - our kick-ass accelerator based right here in Vilnius, just recently announced 3rd call for applications to the third class.

"You can start sending your startup ideas today (3rd January) till the 31st of March. The program kicks off on the 1st of May 2013. Apply early so we have more time to get to know you. Once you submit, your answers are no longer editable but for now you can provide details about the change by sending an e-mail to info@startuphighway.com".

Me presenting Start Karma project in Hub Camp #11

Just a bit more than a week ago, inspiring Hub Camp #11 conference took place for the first time this year. Hub Camps are awesome events organized by HUB Vilnius, which collects fresh Lithuanian creative / startup initiatives and showcases them to the community. New one is coming up this month also - Hub Camp #12 - be sure to RSVP and attend! ;)

It just so happened that during Hub Camp #11 I for the first time ever I presented my new project - Start Karma. It was just a sneak-peak into the pre-accelerator startup founder's educational program that we are building. More info coming soon, be sure to follow us in Facebook, especially if you're a individual who wants to start a startup for the 1st time ;)

Also last week - Global Game Jam was rocking gaming communities worldwide. Two Jam's were happening in Lithuania - LT Game Jam Vilnius 2013 in HUB Vilnius co-working (check out pictures from day 1 and day 2) and Game Jam Kaunas.

Practica Capital

Practica Capital continues their investment streak, this time in Gifty.

Practica Capital is a venture capital firm in Lithuania established in 2011 by a team of entrepreneurs who exited their businesses and financial professionals. The firm manages EUR 6 mln. Practica Seed Capital Fund (Seed Fund) and EUR 15.7 mln. Practica Venture Capital Fund (VC Fund) established under JEREMIE initiative administered by European Investment Fund (EIF). The funds provide early- and later-stage financing to Lithuanian SMEs

YPlan

YPlan (Lithuanian startup based in London, which raised $1.7 mil seed round in a month) continues to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Check out their awesome iPhone app (android coming soon) and Facebook page. YPlan - For The Spontaneous! (yes, I'm a fan:)

Am I getting tired of listing all of this... And I haven't even mentioned all the startup and programmer meetups, seminars, conferences, Mobile Mondays... Well you get the idea. Help me out, check out upcoming Lithuanian startup events by yourself:

And follow tweets under #LTstartups hashtag. And/or join LT Startup's Community FB group.

Good night and good luck,

Eddy

Pitch Club

2012-12-07T14:11:00.001+02:00

This happens way too often...

Need to improve your presentation / pitch? You're based in Vilnius? If yes - you are in the right place, scroll down for more info! ;)

App Camp - OK Event, Cool Apps & Really Shitty Pitches (well, most of them)

2012-11-14T10:20:00.001+02:00

RoboCop - one of the apps developed in App Camp 2012

App Camp'12 - the biggest mobile apps hackathon in Baltics finished on Sunday evening (11th of November, 2012) Folks who are really into apps have gathered from whole Lithuania and neighbor countries to work on 58 new mobile applications (probably even more, but that's how many teams registered to pitch their app).

- Photos from the event - App Camp Facebook event - #AppCamp tweets - Video coming soon.

The title basically sums up my impressions* about the event: it went well enough and had an amazing outcome - bunch of cools apps - because of awesome participants, especially hackers. And then lots and lots of really bad pitches / presentations. With few exceptions among the presentations of course, and those mostly from seasoned startup event participants.

Hacking away in App Camp 2012

So there is definitely a room for improvement for next years App Camp, even having such a great outcome. Organizers got an amazing venue in the perfect location for the event - Merchant's club. However, it appeared be double edged sword - participants constantly experienced problems with internet. Also air conditioning was certainly not the best one, especially in the conference room (was pretty bad during the opening evening). Some teams were also not happy that one night for coding was lost on Friday and teams were fully formed and started working only on Saturday. Oh and it probably would be a good idea to have food for participants available in the venue during the actual hackathon - it doesn't make sense to gather the best hackers we have for less than 30-something hours of coding and then loose precious time for looking where to eat and walking there. Anyways, but enough of feedback for App Camp team and Lithuanian style ranting - event was a success, good job App Camp team! :)

This App Camp also had the youngest participants ever.
The future of Lithuanian Startups as Jaro @chomponim put it :)

App Camp managed to attract amazing technical talent (from both participant and mentor sides) and those folks really delivered. ...But what happened when they finally got on the stage... Seriously, guys - MAJORITY of you were mumbling something with really low voice while looking ALL the time at that SINGLE slide of your app. Those must be the worst pitches I have seen in... ever. Of course there were some really good exceptions and no wonder that almost all of them (good or at least better than average pitch on Sunday) won something. Guys did have very little time to prepare, but you only needed content for 90s! And still, most of you went over time and had to be stopped by moderator (I actually took notes, if you drop me a team #, I can tell you individual feedback;). And finally the overwhelming boringness... We need to do something about this. In HUB Vilnius we have been talking for a while about pitch training and after what I saw on Sunday I am certain that we need it. Lots of it actually and on constant basis. Thus, I am start HUB Vilnius Pitching Club - 1st training coming up in few weeks. If you're interested register HERE.

The best mobile @ App Camp 2012 - KeyApp

Winners of App Camp 2012:

The best mobile application developed at App Camp is interactive unlock system - KeyApp. The team was awarded with App Camp big prize - 3.000 EUR for the further app development and Omnitel 4G mobile internet packets.
Trustribe, SMASH LT and Whemsy won an opportunity to pitch their ideas at Silicon Valley Comes to the Baltics on 15-16 of November, 2012.
Triangularis team won a prize for the most innovative S-Pen oriented Android application. They created an app which distorts images in triangular manner. The team was awarded with Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
The best Android application prize went to Tropic Mind team, who created fun and engaging game for kids called ARGH! The team was awarded with Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
The best Windows 8 store game prize went to EyLean who created rally game which allows to take advantage of any track visible in bing Maps. The team was awarded with Samsung ATIV - SmartPC and 250.000 ad impressions on AdDuplex network.
The best Windows Phone app prize went to Cereal Killers, they created weather forecast application. The team was awarded with Xbox 360 with Kinect.

The best pitches - Trustribe, Smash LT and Whemsy. They will also pitch in #SVC2Baltics

Barclays special prizes was awarded to:

£1500 prize was awarded to team Kung fu coders for their banking application with reimangined view of mobile banking.
£1000 prize was awarded to team Grey Cardinals with social app, that helps collect money for Health Associations.
£500 prize was awarded to team The Hive. They created mobile Air Pocket banking application.

Addvisors SEO and AdWords workshops was awarded to teams Tag of Joy, The Hive, Jukebot, Robocop, Take On and Whemy.
AdDuplex prize - 250.000 ad impressions was awarded to Contactimo@77Agency who created an app which allows to share your contact info and go beyond limits.

What event without epic fails? :) See how MacBook Air flies from App Camp to SVC2Baltics conference:

* Disclaimer - I actually didn't join any team nor participated full time in the event. Had to work over the weekend, thus dropped by only in the evenings. However I was in the opening evening, talked with participants, followed Twitter/Facebook feed and watched the whole closing ceremony live. If you think that something I wrote here is incorrect, please leave a comment bellow.

HUB Vilnius House Warming Party & HUB Social Startup Fair [Photos]

2012-11-11T12:12:00.003+02:00

Mr. T pities the fools who missed
HUB Vilnius house warming party.

Good morning, what a party we had last night - new HUB Vilnius venue (Šermukšnių g. 6A, Vilnius) was warmed up with the blast! :)

Over 150 people gathered to check out the new co-working space in the center of Vilnius (stalkers - see who came in Facebook event). After some drinks and opening speeches HUB Social Startup Fair was started, 12 startups participated: Wapdream, Whemsy, StarterPad, BlogamOre, Pombai, Crafts World, PayPerClick, withEvent.com, Dragdis, Trustribe, GooGPS, Steadee.

Along with investors: S2 Partners, StartupHighway and Seed Fund 'Bright Ideas'. Evening was spiced up by D6 games and new, but not your average advertising agency Seriuosly Inc. presenting cool Prestigio products. Total geek party.

Big thanks to Agne, Comunication Geek @ StartupHighway for tweeting and these awesome photos:

@StartupHighway: #Startup venue is buzzing - music, free beer and great people around - well done @hubvilnius!

@StartupHighway: our #startup @dragdisimg new office at @hubvilnius
Time for Speed Networking at @hubvilnius opening, woohoo!

@StartupHighway: @SVC2Baltics captured in the house, @hubvilnius :-)

Some other moments captured during the night (for more photos go to HUB Vilnius Facebook page):

Getting ready for networking!

Opening speech by Mindaugas Danys. Photo courtesy of Justas Jaskonis.

S2 Partners

Discussions, discussions...

Pombai team won "Crowd's Favorite" award

Don't forget You are the Best Part of HUB Vilnius ★

See you in HUB Vilnius Šermukšnių g. 6A!

Eddy

3 Piping Hot Startup Events in Vilnius

2012-11-09T17:21:00.001+02:00

Piping Hot Startup Events in Vilnius!

App Camp, Vilnius 2012

App Camp

Starts today from today, 5pm (9th) and ends 11th of November, 2012! Register here!

App Camp is the biggest mobile application development event in Nordics and Baltics. It will be 3 days long event, where participants will develop mobile applications for smartphones with major operating systems: iOS, Android, WP, Symbian, Bada, BlackBerry and others.

Follow App Camp in Facebook and Twitter!

Silicon Valley Comes
to the Baltics, Vilnius 2012

Silicon Valley Comes to the Baltics

November 15th - 16th, 2012 - Register now!

Silicon Valley Comes to the Baltics brings members of the Silicon Valley “think tank” to Vilnius to work with our community on the challenges and opportunities facing high-growth technology companies. Attending this programme will offer you insight into the personal and professional aspects of the ‘startup’ journey.

Get the latest new about SVC2Baltics in Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn!

Startup Weekend Vilnius, 2012

Startup Weekend Lithuania

November 16 - 18th, 2012 Registration!

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups!

Check out Startup Weekend Lithuania in Facebook!

See you soon in Vilnius startups events! :)

Eddy

Elections in Lithuania!

2012-10-14T07:22:00.001+03:00

Most of the time politicians are just real bad pussy
(that's because election period is too short,
maybe lets make elections longer?).

Hi folks,

as US is gearing up for the 2012 Presidential Elections it is already election time in Lithuania! Right now it is 7 am in Lithuania - soon my fellow Lithuanians will wake up and go to vote with their ballots on 2 important decisions:

who will govern for next 4 years in Lithuania via Parliament elections,
and whether we are going to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania via nation wide Referendum.

I usually don't publicly endorse political parties or campaigns, but then I do it is because I want to express my opinion as a startuper. So:

In Parliament elections I support candidates from parties of current Government in Lithuania for 2 main reason:

they did decent job during economic crisis,
they probably are as entrepreneurial as Lithuanian politics can be at this current point of time.

Don't just take my word for it Google it, or check these links out:
- "Lithuania's final sprint" by Economist,

- Report from The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania,

- Prime Minister of Lithuania A. Kubilius visited startup event Startup Monthly Vilnius and met up with Lithuanian startup community leaders (original photo from StartupHighway Facebook page):

Yeah, that good looking guy on the right is me.

I could continue, but I think you should get the point - parties in present government are OK and alternatives is not very attractive - populism aka 'Fantasy' promises.

2. Nuclear power plant - Lithuania needs it. Power consumption is only growing in Lithuania and the world, plus the more autonomous and independent you are - the better. The official website of the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant Project covers all the details very well (there is also this very nicely done presentation, sadly only in Lithuania right now).

That's all from me. Whether your going to vote or not, please make an informed, idealogical and logical decision :)

Good luck and good night,

Eddy

eddy.lt Homecoming aka Blogcoming

2012-10-14T05:34:00.000+03:00

Come, hit me with this
newspaper for being
to lazy to blog.

Those of you who blog on your free time, will know how I feel right now. You have been real busy lately (or just plain lazy. Or both?) and did not fully commit to your resolution to blog as much as you intended initially. But now your back to your blog with slight shame and this annoying question in your head - is it really worth my time? I have things I want to share, but do people want to read about it? Maybe I am just wasting my time e.g. I could be having the time of my life outside right now (today is a really lovely day in San Francisco). For me this reminds a little homecoming, or more precisely blogcoming. lolz

So what you do is look for motivation - positive feedback from outside. I have been geting some reminders / questions from my friends when is my next blog post coming, but I always think their are interested in my life abroad and thoguhts because we are friends (and many of them are stoker liek nosy like me). So I went into Google Analytics (your best friend for more or less whatever you want to do and online). Also visited my blog's stats page and hit "All time" (at least in Blogger. And yes, I am a Google fan boy). What I saw really surprised me in a very nice way:

With 38 blog post I wrote this year so far my blog got visited > 5k times by 3k unique visitors from 81 countries. This means I only spent 3 months (from 10) blogging [my lesser than average wannabe blogger content], but people came and read. Almost 40% of them more than once.
Those 3k visitors on average spent almost 3 min reading stuff I wrote and only 1/4 bounced (pretty low from my experience). Most of my blog posts are quite short, thus this means people found them interesting.
And finally, what really hit the spot spot for me, was that in eddy.lt the most read (and with longest average time) post are:

my take on why 500 startups with their project "Geeks On Plane" should come to Lithuania,
a short overview of Russian Internet market I put together after spending 3,5 months on project aimed at Russian online clothes market which didn't even came close to launching (how about this for fun way to fail a startup),
and my opinions about ACTA,

So the conclusion of my research is that people come to my blog (I haven't advertised it in any way besides dropping a link to a new post in my personal Facebook page once in a while), read stuff and mostly original content put together by myself (compare to sharing cool stuff and event reviews). Do track your statistics / progress in blogging? I would really appreciate you sharing your way to do it.

Anyway, these conclusions call to action and there will be a blog post around every 3rd day from now on. With 1st one coming out tomorrow (Sunday) about my the time I have spent and things I learned in Silicon Valley.

Oh, and since on the topic of getting things done - check out my new free time project #OSILF - “A very simple service for sharing what your startup is looking for!”

Shameless self promotion - me introducing #OSILF in Lithuanian startup event :)

Thanks for reading,

Eddy

Startup life in Silicon Valley - Chronicles of GigBasket

2012-07-29T06:01:00.001+03:00

Cap'n Eddy ready to swag in down town Palo Alto!

Ahoy there dear eddy.lt visitor!

you may have already noticed that I haven't been posting anything in eddy.lt lately. Hopefully, you read my previuos blog post and know that after winning 3rd place in Startup Monthly Vilnius together with Eugene & CO we took GigBasket startup to Silicon Valley [BIG thanks to mateys in Enterprise Lithuania for funding out trip!].

Shiver me timbers!

Past 2 months we have been working in StartupMonthly accelerator in San Francisco / Palo Alto. Avast Ye, please read about it in Chronicles of GigBasket a new pirate journal / blog which I started to keep track of our adventures.

You should start from 3 Tips For Fellow Startupers After 1st Month Spent in Silicon Valley. Next week will have our mighty landlubber / intern from Norway - Chris Medina Sanchez write about what he thinks about Silicon valley and working with us on GigBasket. Chris is known for not holding anything back and telling the truth as it is, so it something to anticipate for.

Dance the Hempen Jig,

Captain Eddy

The Most Interesting Man In The World on StartupHighway

2012-04-30T17:43:00.000+03:00

Hi folks,

I know it has been a while since my last post - I have been extremely busy and since I have cleared some stuff out of the way I will soon write about latest developments in Lithuanian startup scene. And my work in StartupHighway accelerator and new startup that I joined just few weeks ago - GigBasket. And how we at GigBasket won a trip to Silicon valley in Startup Monthly Vilnius 2012 conference. I even got mentioned in GoalEurope blog by Natasha Starkel!

However, right now I just wanted to remind you that today is actually the last day to apply with your startup to StartupHighway's 2012 program.

Subscribe, follow and connect to get latest info about LT startups from me.

Sincerely yours,

Eddy

Top 5 Reason For Geeks On Plane To Visit Vilnius

2012-04-20T16:48:00.001+03:00

We wait now.

Hello Geeks!

Lithuanian startup community invites you to Vilnius during your trip in Eastern Europe. We have came up with list of exciting tech facts about Lithuania which should convince you to stop in our wonderful country, have awesome event and some beer. Read on and make the right decision. Official invitation from Enterprise Lithuania (Lithuanian government institution which supports startups) should follow ours.

1. Bloomberg says - Lithuania is among top 5 countries by most entrepreneurs applying for Angel funding: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/89247913/ 1. USA, 2. Canada, 3. France, 4. LITHUANIA, and 5. China…

2. In 2010 of all pan-European accelerators winners - 15% were from Lithuania (LT contributes 0.35% of total population in Europe).
3. Startup accelerator form Silicon valley Startup Monthly had a conference in Vilnius, 3 startups were selected for the 2 month program. http://vilnius.startupmonthly.org/
4. We are leading the world by quality of internet and mobile services:

o fastest Internet speed worldwide.

o 2nd fastest Internet upload speed worldwide.

o World’s 6th and Europe’s No. 1 fiber to the home (FTTH) optic communication penetration (23%).

o Europe’s greatest fiber broadband penetration, Europe’s highest fiber optic density, Europe’s densest network of public Internet access points (875).

o Global leadership in mobile e-signature 2nd best Internet upload speed worldwide

5. Success stories from Lithuania:

o GetJar, being the world’s 1st multi-platform mobile application download provider from 2005 was founded in Lithuania.

o Pixelmator currently ranks as the 4th best-selling mobile application on the Mac App Store, trailing only Apple’s own applications. Founded and developed in Lithuania.

o Mokipay has implemented mobile payments solution as the official payment system of European Men’s Basketball Championship 2011 (September) putting London Olympics 2012 “big surprise” to rest. Founded and developed in Lithuania.

o ActiveSec developed mobile-first social network Eskimi, which just in 9 months grew to 3 million registered members, having a unique focus on mobile only customers and emerging countries. Founded and developed in Lithuania.

Signed by:

The Baltic Startupsphere

Enterprise Lithuania

Startup Monthly Vilnius

StartupHighway

Startup Weekend Lithuania

KTU StartupSpace
Knowledge Economy Forum

HUB Vilnius co-oworking space

Starters.lt

Baltic Nordic Venture Partners
The Startup Kitchen

Eddy's Special Easter Update on Lithuanian Startup Community

2012-04-08T17:44:00.002+03:00

Easter fun for some, a tragedy for others...

Here goes another post after a short break :)

BTW, if your looking information about startups and startup community in Lithuania in Lithuanian - check out my writings in eVersus.lt section Start Up ;) I will be making weekly appearances there with fresh news from StartupHighway life and LT startup ecosystem.

It's StartupHighway and rocket is like a highway in the sky, got it?

Personal update - 3,5 months working on e-commerce project for Russian market with Turkish company went to nothing. But there apparently there is nothing bad that doesn't turn out to good earlier or sooner - I joined StartupHighway team as Shameless promoter :) The most fun I have had in work EVER! So if you have any comments about SH - write me: eddy@startuphighway.com

1. Zero 0=> 2. Silicon Valley Hero

From Total Zero To Silicon Valley Hero!

Next week on Wednesday at 6pm come to open lecture in Vilnius, ISM University of Management and Economics and learn How To Create A Startup And Get Into Silicon Valley.

RSVP now!

LT startup com. & government reps

On 30th of March, 2012 Lithuania startup community representatives met with with Lithuania's Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, Minister of Economics and other government representatives. No acts of violence were reported, only productive exchange of ideas and suggestions. For details go here.

Startup Weekend Lithuania 2012 took place in Kaunas. Despite lack of organizational skill (e.g. worst registration for event I've ever had) and way too much alcohol the event was a success - organizing team, mentors and startups compensated with their energy and enthusiasm. From ~40 idea presentations, 17 were voted in for the Weekend (among them mine - 28min30s in the video above), 14 made to the final pitching event (check out my and other participant tweets in #SWL2012).

It's going to be EPIC.

Finally - Startup Monthly Vilnius 2012 is on in 4 days! By tickets here or be square. Forever.

I am actually tired of writing about them, so just trust me that it is going to be awesome or read about #SMVilnius 2012 in my other posts - click here to get 3 of them.

Subscribe, follow and connect to get latest info about LT startups from me.

Sincerely yours,

Eddy

Launch a startup in 54 hours!

2012-03-26T11:45:00.002+03:00

Startup Weekend Lithuania 2012

Do you have an idea for business or social initiative? Maybe you want to join a cool startup as marketeer or developer? There is a free event coming up exactly for you - the third Startup Weekend Lithuania, a 54 hour startup event!

The Global Network:

"No talk, all action. Launch a startup in 54 hours."
Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

A chain of world-wide events:

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups.

- ATTENTION - currently you have only 3 days left till 29th of March to register for Startup Weekend Lithuania.

Startup Weekend Lithuania plan:

1. Friday evening - present your idea [best ideas will win prizes!]
2. Intensive weekend - development of selected ideas;
3. Sunday evening - awards.

1,000 EUR prize for the best thematic ideas:

- Mobile technologies;
- Green Solutions;
- Social initiatives.

7 reason to join now:

- Test your idea and try yourself;
- Meet like-minded people, partners, build a team;
- Have a fun weekend in interesting workshops;
- Get support from business experts;
- 1000 € prize for the best teams to further development their ideas;
- free invitations to Startup Monthly Vilnius conference for winners;
- Buzz for your project - show how much can be achieved in a weekend!

Place and time of the event:

- on 30th of March in Kaunas University of Technology III, Chamber of Commerce (Laisvės alėja 13),

- on 31st March to 1st April in Communications History Museum (Rotušės aikštė 19 (Town Hall Square) 19). The event is organized by Kaunas University of Technology Business Development Division Young StartupSpace.

- ATTENTION - currently you have only 3 days left till 29th of March to register for Startup Weekend Lithuania.

If you have any questions, visit Startup Weekend Lithuania website and read the frequently asked questions or contact startupweekendlietuva@gmail.com

KTU Startup Space

Startup Weekend Lithuania event is organized by KTU Startup Space.

Good luck,

Eddy

HUB Camp #4

2012-03-23T16:18:00.000+02:00

I am tweeting live from HUB Camp #4 - follow me https://twitter.com/#!/edmundas4 @edmundas4 & https://twitter.com/#!/StartupHighway @StartupHighway

Eddy

Everything You Need to Know About StartupHighway

2012-03-18T15:35:00.000+02:00

So you have been asking yourself lately, what the heck is StartupHighway and why is it doing the things it is doing? Well your sleepless nights are over, Eddy is here to help.

The short version (for those who are absolutely sure what kind of animals startups and startup accelerators are) - StartupHighway is a European startup accelerator based in Vilnius, Lithuania, which recently launched its second call for applications for startups from Central Eastern Europe and elsewhere. No need to waste your time more, follow them in Facebook / Twitter and come to opening event on Monday at 6.30 pm in "La Boheme" in Vilnus and get on with your life.

But before the long version lets gets some things sorted out. A startup company or simply startup, is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Thus:

SMEs - regular grocery shops, barbers, photographers, or any other traditional small business for that matter, family own or not - are not startups.
Startups are risky, because they employ innovative business models and bring untested products and services to the market.
They are often born-global, are highly specialized and/or technical, require flexibility and speed with investment.

Startups working in StartupHighway venue, 2011.

For all these and many other reasons startups are very different from what people are used to think about business. Well, if "people" think about business at all. My main point here is - startups are still misunderstood phenomenon, at least in Eastern Europe. Thus wee need educate our selves how to plan and operate in this new environment. For example, startups are not suitable for bank loans, or more likely banks are not suitable financing source for startups - banker would simply kill the entrepreneurship in a startup. Besides special funding sources, startups need special mentoring - regular training approaches don't fit, and are too rigid.

Thus, to help startups (and maybe make some money in the process) venture capitalists, angel investors, special incubators and seed (startup) accelerators exist. What differentiates startup accelerators from other startup funding organizations:
1) they begin with a cohort intake process and pick a set number per round.
2) they make an equity investment in the startups.
3) the primary value to the entrepreneur is derived from the mentoring and connections.

StartupHighway venue 2011.

This finally brings us back to our discussion topic, startup accelerator - StartupHighway. In their 1st round in 2011 they received more than 200 applications, from which they selected four. Up to 14 k EUR was invested into each of them for 10% of equity. And they provide great mentoring with more than 80 experts. Besides numbers, they describe pretty well themselves:

"StartupHighway is a European start-up accelerator based in Vilnius, Lithuania working in the wider CEE region. It is designed for those with the best business startup ideas to provide them with the tools, network and knowledge necessary to get in shape for angel or venture capital funding. The support comes as pre-seed funding, office space and a network of experienced mentors to help your business idea become a successful business, or to prepare your young business for the next round of funding."

Looking at results of StartupHighway's work, those four startups from StartupHighway 2011 round seem rather successful so far. Meaning that none of them have went bankrupt yet:

Latvian startup Relead (allows to convert website visitors into sales leads) has more than 700 clients, for whom they have generated over 1 million leads.
Estonian startup Utilimon (helps large companies get smaller energy bills with a software solution) is in Baltimore, NFMT 2012 conference (said to be #1 trade show for facilities professionals).
Llamas valley is a Lithuanian online magazine. The first issue was read by more 20 thousand readers. They have just released the 2nd issue in English and trying to conquer foreign markets.
Startup from Latvia Sellfy (tool to sell and promote your digital goods), has attracted 1800 merchants with 1550 products.

StartupHighway co-founder Rokas Tamosiunas claims lots of new improvements this year. They have attracted Amazon to partners (with more talks going on with other Internet giants, looking forward to hear about them) new people in mentor pool and advisory board. Finally changes in the program to put more emphasis on sales and other soft skills.

To sum up, startups are good and misunderstood little business creatures, that need special care. And I think it is fair to say that StartupHighway is adding its share of value to the startup community in Eastern Europe. Thus, I strongly support this initiative and recommend everyone to apply to StartupHighway's "13 weeks acceleration program that will take your business to the next level by working hard with our mentors, taking you through our program, fast-pace work, and up to 14 000 EUR investment". Application deadline is April 30th.

Good luck,

Eddy

Tweeting from Startup Sauna Warmup in Kaunas

2012-03-08T09:54:00.000+02:00

Today I am tweeting live from Startup Sauna Warmup @Kaunas, KTU Starup Space.

Follow me - https://twitter.com/#!/edmundas4 ;)

Eddy

Successful Mobile Apps Conference in Vilnius

2012-03-07T15:24:00.000+02:00

I am tweeting live from Eksportuojančioji Lietuva (Enterprise Lithuania) event "Successful Mobile Apps" http://www.verslilietuva.lt/lt/renginiaisekmingos-mobiliosios-aplikacijos/

Follow me - https://twitter.com/#!/edmundas4 ;)

Eddy

Lithuanian Startups

2012-03-01T15:49:00.000+02:00

Lithuanian Startup Community in the last monthly meeting decided to create a List of Lithuanian Startups. So here we go, bellow you can find the form (or go here) to enter your startup and for the full list visit 'List of Lithuanian Startups'.

Follow Lithuanian Startups in Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

You can also send more info for promotion about your startup to lithuanianstartups@gmail.com, which may end up in: http://eddy.lt, http://starters.lt, http://eugene.lt/baltics/ etc.

More coming soon ;)

Eddy

Lithuanian Augmented Reality Action Game Wins Best App Award!

2012-02-28T14:11:00.002+02:00

Lithuanian games and visual apps developers Tag of Joy with their game Bear Care won "AppCircus Best App Award" in the Mobile Premier Awards 2012!

Bear Care was selected from the best 20 global apps of AppCircus World Tour and took the stage yesterday at the 6th Annual Mobile Premier Awards in Barcelona. Bear Care won Best App of the Year, created by a team of four app developers, led by student developer Šarūnas who said moments after clutching the award, ”I’m overwhelmed and in awe – it feels so unexpected and totally great!”.

Best App of the Year award received by Tag of Joy

The game - Bear Care - is an augmented reality action game, in which you have to protect your beloved helpless Teddy Bear. You can also cuddle your bear to keep him happy. The fun part is that it takes place in a real environment, which is blended with lively and playful 3D bears.

The company - Tag of Joy (@TagOfJoy), created by two borthers Šarūnas Ledas (@Domino_One) and Žilvinas Ledas (@zledas) provides a professional game development for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, OS X, Windows and other platforms. Interactive visualizations, graphical applications, augmented reality solutions and mobile apps for various purposes. Brothers work from Hub Vilnius co-working center and recently organized LT Game Jam 2012 (part Global Game Jam) which also took place in Hub Vilnius:

The event was the most successful and the biggest LT Game Jam so far, with more than 40 participant, from whom youngest was only 12 y/o (check out his game The Run).
14 games were created, including: one board game, one MMO: SphereMoo and games like Lucifis. See photos of the creation process from the event here.

Congrats and good luck to Tag of Joy in their further work!

Eddy

Hub Camp #3 - Building A Community Of Positive People

2012-02-16T23:49:00.002+02:00

Hub Vilnius announced Hub Camp #3. Previous ones have been received particularly well, and it is time already for a new meeting and lots of aspiring presentations! :)

Read more about Hub Vilnius and previous Hub Camp #2.

From organizers: "The initial idea for event was to allow members of Hub Vilnius to present their ideas, initiatives, projects and get feedback from their peers. Soon we realized that there are many exciting people who have something to say too. Thus now Hub Camp is an open event, with which we want to encourage the exchange of ideas and build a community of positive people."

In Vilnius, Lithuania. On 24th (Friday) of February, 2012. RSVP in Facebook event.

Hub Camp #3 presentations:

Vaidotas Valantiejus, LOGIN: "Socrates was talking a lot, he was poisoned by his students," Why do we community need to change the hierarchical culture of learning to network and why the XX century did us bad.
Marius Kuitniauskas, Hub'er and blogger: "How to make money from blogging"
Donatas Žvirblis, NiekoNaujo.lt - photo and video story from abandoned places.
Edvinas Mačiulaitis, Utopia Apps: duration, cost, quality and creativity (in) compatibility of the square"
Sergejus Muravjovas, Transparency.lt: Transparency-democracy Workshop 2.0
Agnė Adomėnė, organizer of movie festivals, short film program "Vilnius love movies"
Linas Matulis, HUB'er, blogger @ supergentis.lt: "60 days of Blogging: 3 Essential Lessons And 7 Reasons Why It Is Absolutely Worth Starting Your Own Blog Right Now"
Zbigniew Gieczys from Indigo Kids, "Quality, money, motivation"
Victoria Trubačiūtė, UX Specialist, Designer, "Taxes for freelancers in pictures"
Kęstas Mačiulaitis, programmer: "I have a passion for chewing gum"
Augustas Didžgalvis, Hub'er - freelance photographer: "Rules of life for Freelancer"

Gediminas from starters.lt will record all presentations, which will later on appear in Hub Vilnius website.

Hub Camp is supported by AB Swedbank and Enterprise Lithuania.

Don't forget to bring your friends :)

Eddy

Get Skype and call me for free.

Supercharge your business at Startup Highway

2012-02-16T21:31:00.001+02:00

[Startup Highway. Like them in Facebook.]

Firstly - congratulations with Independence day fellow Lithuanians! :)

Now, down to business. Lately more and more good news have been coming to startup community from Lithuania and Baltic region. And it looks like this stream will continue for a while. For example, just recently a little bird has told me that Startup Highway, (the first Lithuanian and one of the most successful startup accelerators in Central Eastern Europe) will announce another call for startup applications in beginning of March, 2012. You can already contact Startup Highway to find out more about application process.

[Working in Startup Highway, 2011]

For those who don't know what I am talking about: "Startup Highway is a European start-up accelerator, aspiring to be the best of its kind in the wider CEE region. It is designed for those with the best business startup ideas to provide them with the tools, network and knowledge necessary to get in shape for angel or venture capital funding. The support comes as pre-seed funding, office space and a network of experienced mentors to help your business idea become a successful business, or to prepare your young business for the next round of funding." To find out more about the organization and team behind it go here.

In a nut shell, StartupHighway is a 13 week acceleration program that combines €14K in funding, business advice from our international network of mentors and access to essential resources for starting up. read more about the program here.

Statistics and facts from StartupHighway 2011:

[Venue of Startup Highway, 2011]

1 amazing location in downtown Vilnius (photo on the right, see what I mean?:)
Team: 4 professionals and 5 advisers
Mentors: 76 experts from (really) wide range of fields and industries.
4 "graduate" startups from 3 different countries: from Latvia - relead.me and sellfy.com; from Estonia - utilimon.com; from Lithuania - llamasvalley.com

Word cloud of Startup Highway mentors’ opinions, impressions and suggestions:

Finally, to really get the full picture about Startup Highway read its FAQ, follow their news, Facebook and Twitter.

Eddy

Get Skype and call me for free.

Startup Monthly Vilnius 2012 Tickets On Sale

2012-02-14T20:56:00.001+02:00

STARTUP MONTHLY VILNIUS 2012 - an international conference for tech startups - has started to sell tickets! Organizers want you to know that cheaper early bird ticket supply is limited! ;)

I have written about Startup Monthly previously, after its managing director Daumantas Dvilinskas (a.k.a. co-founder of pinevio.com) announced about the upcoming conference in Vilnius during presentation in Hub Camp #2. Organizers of Startup Monthly Vilnius have came a long way in a very short period since then -

they grew their team and expanded board of advisers with experienced professionals;
build great landing page;
made series of important partnerships:

Enterprise Lithuania, Hub Vilnius, TEDxVilnius, Login, TechCrunch Baltics;

spread the word in number of events like TechCrunch Baltics;
opened registration;
confirmed mentors;
and got 1st key note speakers - David Weekly and Greg Kidd!

Find Startup Monthly Vilnius in Facebook and Twitter.

==================================================
Startup Monthly is an organization based in Silicon Valley which is devoted to helping entrepreneurship communities around the world create, quickly innovate, and grow startups in a wide area of technical fields.

"Startup Monthly processes are based on Lean startup methodology widely applied by most of successful startups in Silicon Valley."

Startup Monthly is run by a team of inspiring investors which brings together a community of like-minded, passionate entrepreneurs through HANDS ON workshops and practice sessions, educational talks, socials, and demo events that help teams to be LEAN and efficient in creating their new ventures. Learn more here.

Now in Vilnius, Startup Monthly invites aspiring and veteran entrepreneurs of all kind to participate in the Startups Conference which will serve as the preliminary round for the multinational Startup Year event in Silicon Valley in the summer 2012.

Startup Monthly will run Ice Breaker (April 13,2012) workshop to form teams that will validate ideas quickly. Startups will practice their pitch in our Pitch Accelerator (April 14, 2012) and Present their results together with pre-seed investment startups during Demo day.

In short - Startup Monthly - a 3 day conference for participants from Baltics and Scandinavia, with speaker form Silicon Valley - will take place in Vilnius, on April 13 - 15, 2012. Be there or be square.

Eddy

Get Skype and call me for free.