Initially, we hesitated to apply. Being at the very early stage of our product and business development, feeling extremely overloaded and dealing with “million” things, we worried that this program would be overwhelming, although Ajujaht is a beloved Estonian national program that has accelerated such companies like Bolt (a unicorn) and FoodDocs, for example. Jumping ahead, our initial reservations proved to be wrong 🙂
Our perspective changed when we found out the program would be conducted in English, the language spoken by our multinational team. It might sound amusing, but this captures the essence of Estonia. Although a small country geographically, Estonia has an expansive heart. It welcomes talents and bright minds from around the world, attracting entrepreneurial-minded people with comfortable business environment, and e-residency, that grants an opportunity to start a company fully online supported by secure online authentication with a digital signing system.
We began Ajujaht program in May. By then, we had just completed our Proof of Concept (PoC) of an AWS cloud compute cost reduction feature and were developing the cloud querying custom model, to provide immediate answers (reports, analyses, forecasts, etc.) on companies’ infrastructures upon user’s request. Preparing to kickstart our investment round, diving into the Startup funding “winter”.
Throughout the program, from May to September, we were engaged in workshops, seminars, founder tales, investors meetups and most importantly regular mentoring sessions with our assigned Ajujaht mentor.
Now, being in October 26th, we can state that Ajujaht played an important role in where we are now and what we achieved:
- polished up our business model and value proposition (yes, you cannot imagine, how many layers of complexity we removed from our proposition!!)
- got a deep dive into business topics with superstar (no exaggeration whatsoever) coaches:
- how works the VC world with Yrjö Ojasaar
- value offer and business model with Markko Karu,
- building and leading a high-growth organisation with Patrick Flesner
- high-octane sales with Katrin Kiviselg
- pivot as a game changer with Timmu Tõkke
- growth hacking with Howard Kingston
- startup finances with Riina Einberg
- pitch training with Heidi Kakko
- got the first intros to angel investors and venture capital funds network
- successfully launched our product 🚀
- currently closing the investment round of €400K (pre-seed)
The most valuable feature, that Ajujaht provided were weekly mentorship sessions with a dedicated mentor. Every single week of the program Raul Liive, the Head of Product at Veriff was there for us to support our journey. Raul provided us with knowledge and guidance business-wise, from a product development perspective up to investment and HR topics. His unwavering support culminated in him becoming our angel investor. Even as the Ajujaht program concluded, we’re fortunate that our mentorship journey with Raul continues.
We must conclude that Ajujaht program provided us with in-depth, multidisciplinary knowledge comparable with a micro-degree in business and connected us with a valuable network of investors. It’s precisely what a startup, eager to launch high, needs.
