Welcome to the Pursuit of Scrappiness Tech Brief. A monthly discussion on topics we find relevant to highlight, discuss and share with you to help you become a scrappier and better version of yourself. On this episode we talk about:🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪 BALTICS• Wise founders on UK Rich List – Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus rank among UK’s wealthiest.• Lithuanian startup salaries – Average tech salary at €4.6k/month, possibly more favorable than Berlin after tax and cost-of-living adjustments.• Vinted launches VC arm – Vinted Ventures to invest €0.5–10M in re-commerce startups.• Trafi exit – Lithuanian mobility startup acquired by Enghouse Systems.• Latvian co-founder at Austria’s Emmi AI – Raised €15M, Austria’s largest-ever seed round.• Glasses finally disrupted? – Finnish startup IXI raises €36.5M to reinvent vision tech.• Bolt sounds alarm over Lyft buying Free Now – Bolt sees itself as the last European alternative in mobility.• XData Group SPAC deal – Estonian B2B tech company to go public in the US via a $180M SPAC.🇪🇺 EUROPE• VC/angel activity booming in CEE – Investment up 28%; Startup Wise Guys and Mikko Silventola among top performers.• Slush Startup Struggles survey – Top founder struggles: fundraising, revenue growth, and team building.• AIN Capital’s report – 26,000 active startups in CEE worth €213B; Poland leads in unicorns and enterprise value.• Klarna delays IPO – Valuation rebound to $15B, but postpones IPO due to Trump tariffs and market volatility.• AI reversal at Klarna – After replacing 700 staff, now rehiring humans due to poor AI service quality.• Crypto founder kidnappings in France – 3 shocking abduction cases in 2025, spotlighting the need for founder security.• DoorDash buys Deliveroo for £2.4B – Expands European dominance; previously acquired Wolt for $8.1B.• Salesforce acquires Convergence in <12 months – From seed round to acquisition in record speed.• Optics11 raises €17M – Dutch startup building fiber-optic infrastructure to defend Europe’s subsea cables.• Belarus jails Imaguru founders – Sentenced to 11 and 12 years for startup support and protest involvement.🇺🇸 USA & GLOBAL• AI education mandate in schools – Trump signs executive order for mandatory AI curriculum (K–12) starting 2025–2026.• OpenAI drama continues – Stays nonprofit but restructures as a public benefit corp; judge orders full retention of user logs.• Slack turns snitch in corporate spying case – Rippling traps a Deel spy via fake Slack channel; used in court.• Apple forced to allow external payments – Major US court ruling challenges 30% App Store commission model.• Microsoft layoffs & Skype shutdown – 3% workforce cut; focus shifts fully to AI development.• Nissan closes 7 factories – 20,000 layoffs amid EV transition and global tariff uncertainty.• VCs immune to AI? – Marc Andreessen claims VCs are irreplaceable in a bold podcast statement.==If you liked this episode or simply want to support the work we do, buy us a coffee or two, or a hundred, with just a few clicks at: https://buymeacoffee.com/pursuitofscrappinessFind all episodes on > https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTAConnect with us on Linkedin > Support the show

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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