Dispatches

TARMO VIRKI: The one metric that makes a unicorn

Spending the weekend at Investeerimisfestival in Toosikannu always serves as an excellent reality check in the middle of the summer.

Sharing the stage with Matias Mäenpää provided some of the sharpest takeaways of the festival, heavily backed by the exhaustive research he and Anssi Kiviranta put into their EXIT book series. When you interview dozens of unicorn founders who have crossed the billion-dollar finish line, you expect to find a hidden blueprint, a specific pedigree, or an elite class background.

Instead, Matias noted, the successful founders came from entirely different worlds, socio-economic classes, and backgrounds.

But there was one unshakeable, universal common denominator: a meticulous, borderline obsessive focus on their clients and the user experience.

It turns out that raw curiosity is the initial spark that drives an entrepreneur into the wild, but an unrelenting obsession with solving the customer's problem is the only thing that keeps the fire burning hot enough to scale.

But keeping that fire alive requires a cultural framework that our region still struggles to fully adopt: the ability to fail fast, close down, and openly learn. In Finland, and frankly, here in Estonia too, failing is still often met with quiet social friction rather than a badge of honour.

During our chat, Matias reminded the audience of Ragnar Sass’s United Cats and Dogs era — the critical, messy stepping stone of failure that directly paved the way for Pipedrive. Let's be honest, we need more of that resilience.

Coincidentally, we saw a perfect example of it play out this very week: my old colleague Ott Ilves just raised a fresh pre-seed round to build anew, only a few short months after making the tough call to close down Esgrid. Huge kudos to Ott— that is exactly the kind of relentless, bounce-back founder DNA we need to celebrate.

To wrap up the festival insights, our own Fomo columnist Kärt Siilats also took the stage and dropped an absolute tactical gem for the current market conditions. Her advice to investors and entrepreneurs?

Go vibe-code now, use the golden window when venture capitalists are actively paying a part of your bill.