Ep 44: Martin Villig
on building a global mobility Unicorn, challenges of scaling, ability to do more with less & making social impact with kood/Jõhvi coding school
Martin Villig is a Co-Founder of Bolt, one of the most widely known Estonian unicorns valued at $4.75 Bn during the last investment round. Martin has been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years and is an integral part of the Estonian startup community. In recent years, he has been especially active in social impact projects with such initiatives as coding school kood/Johvi and the Good Deed Education Fund for solving acute problems in the education sector.
In this episode we talk about Martin’s entrepreneurship journey including its biggest highlight - Bolt - from origins to philosophy and culture to strategic decisions, scaling and attracting investments. We also discuss what role philanthropy and social impact plays in Martin’s life and why and when other people should engage in such activities. Finally we talk about the Estonian tight-knit startup founders community and how it propels the next unicorn formation.
CLICK one of the links below to listen to the episode
The topics covered in this episode (with Timestamps)
🔈 [01:15] - ON MARTIN’s BUSINESS JOURNEY BEFORE BOLT
Starting up in the nineties
The Skype touch
Testing co-founders for vision, work ethic and risk tolerance
🔈 [04:35] - ON THE ORIGINS OF BOLT
Starting a company with your brother
Launching in a space with big established players
Innovating in an age old industry
Retaining the team
🔈 [12:10] - ON DOING MORE WITH LESS & CULTURE OF FRUGALITY
Struggling for investments early on
Decision to expand in the Baltics before other countries abroad
The upside of not raising a lot initially - frugal culture
Frugal culture even post raising several hundred million
🔈 [18:15] - ON UNDERESTIMATED CHALLENGES OF SCALING
It’s a marathon not a sprint
On the quality of hiring and people
Remaining customer-centric
Keeping the product simple
🔈 [21:50] - ON THE DIDI INVESTMENT
The benefits of a strategic investor
Working with a Chinese investor
🔈 [25:00] - ON THE SUPER APP QUEST
Separating Bolt Food
Probability of Bolt becoming a super-app
🔈 [29:00] - ON SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS & KOOD/JOHVI
The right time to start
Projects Martin is involved in
On the mission of coding school kood/Johvi
How soon you can learn coding and make an impact
🔈 [40:40] - ON THE VALUE OF THE ESTONIAN STARTUP COMMUNITY
What went right initially
Impact of the Founders society
Hiring from abroad vs. poaching from other founders
🔈 [47:00] - ADVICE TO YOUNGER SELF
A few pieces of practical advice for young founders
Importance of bringing value to Baltics
Joining the Founders pledge
To reach out to Martin use:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waldec/
Website: https://martinvillig.com/
Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/
Support for this episode comes from Venetor > https://www.venetor.co/
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