FIRSTPICK

You weren’t supposed to 👀 see this. But now that you have… might as well apply. 😏 👉 AI Startup Accelerator launching in May 👈 💰? from €50K. Building something? Apply now. Know someone who is? Tag them. (Thank you) 🔗 Application link in the comments. #FIRSTPICK #vc #funding #investment #AI #accelerator

AI is evolving faster than you can say ChatGPT. 🤖💨 Andra Bagdonaite was featured in Vestbee's latest article alongside Adam Kocik (J&T Ventures) and Andrew Tymovskyi (Roosh Ventures) to talk about AI investments in 2025 — and the strategies VCs are using to navigate the industry’s latest 🎢 twists and turns. 🔗 Full article in the comments. #FIRSTPICK #vc #investments #ai

🇱🇹 Lithuania’s innovation ecosystem grew 39x in 10 years, here is how👇 Read the full Tech Funding News article by Sofia Chesnokova — 🔗 link in the comments. #FIRSTPICK #Lithuania #startups

London calling 🇬🇧📞 Baltic VCs are taking over London for a night, and if you’re a UK-based investor curious about what’s brewing in the Baltics, you won’t want to miss this. No speeches, no sales pitches—just great people, bold ideas, and top-tier networking over drinks. 🍸 Interested? Drop a comment or DM—we’d love to see you there! 🚀 P.S. Jone & Andra will be there too! 🙋♀️ We're happy to support this event, organised by the Embassy of Lithuania, Lithuanian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, UK in Lithuania - British Embassy Vilnius, and the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade 💜

meetFIRSTPICK ⭐️ Say hi to Tadas Gudauskas, our new FIRSTPICKER, Accelerator Program Manager, and unofficial FIRSTPICK Grandma (his words, not ours 😉). We asked Tadas to tell a bit about himself, here is what we learned 👇 HI, TADAS! HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ROLE AT FIRSTPICK TO YOUR 👵 GRANDMOTHER? It’s pure luck that I already tried to explain my role. I said that we have a bunch of new companies - energetic, ready to take over the world. My role is like that of a grandmother: I take care of and nurture these teams so they can become the best versions of themselves. In a way, I’m the loving, guiding grandma at FIRSTPICK. IF YOU HAD TO DESCRIBE YOUR PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY IN 3️⃣ THREE WORDS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE? Fast, fearless, evolving. IF YOU COULD 💸 INVEST IN YOUR DREAM STARTUP, WHAT PROBLEM WOULD IT BE SOLVING? I wish distance wireless charging would make a comeback, especially in the Baltics, so FIRSTPICK could invest. I’m the type of person who’s always running on below 20% battery, so having every room equipped with a charging station that powers up my phone through my pocket. That would be a dream. WHAT’S THE QUIRKIEST PRODUCTIVITY HACK OR HABIT THAT GETS YOU THROUGH THE DAY? 😎 When I’m faced with a day packed with new and varied tasks, I kick off with what I call ‘Task sampling.’ I start by dipping into every task, like taste-testing dishes, so I know what I’m up against. By midday, I know which tasks are the real beasts and set my priorities accordingly. Simple, efficient, and surprisingly fun. IF YOU COULD SHARE ONE THING ABOUT YOURSELF, ANYTHING AT ALL, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 🤩 Many people are surprised to learn that I wind down by either knitting or baking desserts, depending on my mood and how the day went. It’s my personal ritual for shifting from the high-energy pace of work to a more relaxed, creative state. It’s a little reminder that even in a fast-paced world, there’s always time to create something beautiful (and tasty)! Thanks for the chat & welcome to the team! 💜 Let’s give him a 🫂 warm welcome in the comments 👇 #FIRSTPICK #team #welcome #meettheteam

Baltic Female/Male Funding Ratio for 2024 👇 🟣 Female-led startups funded: 26 🟣 All startups funded in 2024: 127 🟣 Ratio: 20% Let’s see if 2025 will bring an increase 😙 we’re rooting for it! P.S. We also took a look at our own portfolio, and the 34% number popped up. 😍 These are the female-led startups we’re proud to back every day: 👸 Samphire Neuroscience – Emilė R. 👸 ama care - Vera Art 👸 Algori - Lina Beinortaite 👸 MBito - Ieva Vaičiūnė 👸 Psylink - Laura Martinkute Korsakova 👸 Tingit | You Live, We Fix. - Indrė Viltrakytė 👸👸 micapass -  Gintarė Košubienė & Tetiana Afonina 👸👸 Certific - Helena Volmer & Liis Narusk Ladies you rock! 🤘 #FIRSTPICK #startups #femalefounders #funding

#ourpicks ⭐️ Meet THEO Growth — seamless AI and business integration that gets your business. Turning scattered docs and webs into one structured 'cheat sheet' so your AI stops acting 😵💫 confused and starts acting like a 🤝 strategic partner. Check them out. 👇 WHAT INSPIRED ✨ YOU TO CREATE YOUR STARTUP? We are helping businesses explain themselves to AI, and we're doing it much better than they can do themselves. As we see AI adoption becoming the biggest bottleneck for SMEs, and knowing how much value AI can bring, we're enabling these businesses to smoothly and seamlessly adopt and maintain automations to get the full potential of AI. EXPLAIN YOUR STARTUP LIKE YOU WOULD TO A 5-YEAR-OLD 🧸 Imagine you have puzzle pieces scattered all over the ground. THEO is what puts all these pieces together - that's what we do for businesses. We take your scattered documents and business information and put them into one database available for your AI assistant. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE 💜 FIRSTPICK? We chose FIRSTPICK for three key reasons. First, it was very important that they understood what we do and why. Second, they're genuinely co-founder friendly and incredibly fast with decisions and follow-ups. Finally, their accelerator program is very well built - it's supportive and complementary without holding you back. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST UPCOMING 🪨 MILESTONE? This Q1, we're expanding our integration with workflow platforms like Zapier to enable seamless integration for your business contexts. This will allow smooth adaptation as your business grows, as our refinement system will update your knowledge base and automation platforms autonomously, always keeping your tools up to date. WHO IS BEHIND YOUR 🦸 STARTUP? 🙋♂️ Guntis Coders – a founder for 14 years who's led a bachelor program in startup management and a business incubator. I've mentored more than 300 different startups. 🙋♂️ Mārtiņš Ermanis – a digital agency founder who's been a business analyst for large projects at Accenture. 🙋♂️ Edgars is our tech expert, currently at Visma Labs as a technical architect, who's led more than 60 different AI enterprise enablement projects. WHAT 3 QUALITIES ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN YOUR TEAMMATES 🤜🤛? 🟣 Passion 🟣 Agility 🟣 Improvisation THANK YOU for the chat! 💜 Make sure to follow THEO Growth, and stay tuned for more picks from us! #FIRSTPICK #vc #portfolio #startup #investment

Marijus Andrijauskas got the 📲 call. ISM University of Management and Economics needed someone to talk startup 💲funding💲 at ISM Business Club, so naturally, he showed up. He shared insider tips with high school students on where to find funding, how to secure it, and, most importantly, how not to scare off investors. 😅 Great initiative, and we are all in on supporting clubs like this. 👏 #FIRSTPICK #vc #funding

For the ✌️ second year in a row, we teamed up with Inventure, Atomico, and Change Ventures to throw Founders & Funders Fiesta 💃🕺, where networking meets late-night genius ideas, spontaneous catch-ups, and a whole lot of L ❤️ V E for the startup ecosystem. If you were there, you know. If you weren’t… well, there’s always next year. 😏 A huge thank you to everyone who showed up and made it awesome. 💜 #FIRSTPICK #vc #networking #startup #TechChill

TechChill? More like TechThrill for the FIRSTPICK team. 💨 Here’s what went down: 🟣 Met with a ton of founders. Some had big ideas, some had wild ideas, and some…well, let’s just say we’ll be keeping in touch. 👀 🟣 Caught up with fellow VCs and made new connections. 🤝 🟣 Attended Balnord & Friends dinner in Riga — big thanks 🫶 to Gabrielė Poteliūnaitė and Jarek Pilarczyk for making it happen. 🟣 Made the rounds at side events. Stopped by The Warm-Up by Vendep Capital, Superhero Capital, & BADideas.fund and THE PLACE TO BE by Practica Capital, Outlast Fund, and Cherry Ventures. Special congrats to Outlast Fund & BADideas Fund on launching their new funds in Latvia! 👏 🟣 Gave away a €100K investment prize to THEO Growth at Fifty Founders Battle. Excited to back Guntis Coders, Mārtiņš Ermanis, and their team. Another TechChill in the books. 🤗 Thanks for the great conference, or as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say: 💬 "I'll be back.” #FIRSTPICK #TechChill #Latvia #conference