Collaboration type: Long-term
Timeframe: 2021-2023
About Startup Wise Guys
Startup Wise Guys is one of the most active accelerator and follow-on investors in Europe. Also active in Africa and Latin America, it has made direct investments into more than 350 early-stage startups in B2B SaaS, Fintech, cybersecurity, XR, and sustainability. Committed to equipping technical founders with the business tools to succeed with startups, it has supported more than 800 founders from more than 70 nationalities, helping them take their startups to the next level. SWG has been recognised as one of Europe’s most impactful accelerators and early stage investors by the likes of Sifted, and was named Hottest Accelerator at the 2021 Europas Startup Awards.
Context and objectives
Startup Wise Guys was already a leading player in the acceleration and early-stage investment scene. In fact, at the time we began working together it was already the top investor in terms of number of deals in Europe, excluding the UK. Despite this, it was often confused as an incubator. Much of its impact across Europe and multiple verticals remained under the radar for the last years, and the brand was primarily associated with Estonia and SaaS, even though it had long expanded beyond both.
Beyond refining its positioning, we also set out to support its broader goals: attracting more founders to the accelerator (or directly into fundraising), strengthening relationships with investors, and paving the way for strategic partnerships.
A key focus was elevating the voices within the organisation with thought leadership. SWG counted with a number of talented but under-leveraged figures such as Global CEO Cristobal Alonso and General Partner Alexandra Balkova. Our goal? Positioning them and Startup Wise Guys as go-to sources for journalists covering early-stage investment, CEE, and other key regions and verticals where SWG had a distinct edge.
Timing was crucial. Our work needed to set the stage for upcoming milestones, including geographic expansion, new funds, a 10-year anniversary, a rebrand and other major initiatives, ensuring SWG’s presence matched its ambition.
Results overview
Startup Wise Guys’ PR quickly caught up, and we secured coverage in some of the most influential startup and VC publications, including Sifted, TechCrunch, Tech.eu, Business Insider, EU Startups, and more. The right messages in the right places.
Thanks to the SWG team’s generous input and strong collaboration, we achieved significant thought leadership wins, particularly with Cristobal and Alexandra, including interviews, podcasts, contributed content, and expert commentary.
We successfully supported major (and minor) milestones, from SWG’s activities in Ukraine, Spain, and Africa to their 10-year anniversary, new fund launch, and rebrand.
Regional and trade media were far from overlooked. On the contrary, leveraging the fact that SWG adds value across geographies and verticals, we ensured SWG’s presence in outlets like Emerging Europe, The Recursive, AIN, and Silicon Republic, as well as fintech and other industry-specific media.
Bringing Startup Wise Guys back to where it belongs
A big ‘pending item’ for Startup Wise Guys that we were able to achieve was their inclusion, involvement and consistent appearance on key publications for the industry. Over the course of our collaboration, we’ve been able to not only land them coverage in the likes of Sifted, TechCrunch, Business Insider, ZDNet, Tech.eu and others, but also in a consistent and impactful manner that hit their key messages and positioned them as the international, significant player they are.
At the end of 2022, Sifted wrote a piece on the top 5 accelerators in Europe, in which Startup Wise Guys was included. Sifted also included Startup Wise Guys in their predictions pieces for CEE in 2022 and 2023, and their prolific investments were recognised with an inclusion in a piece on the most active investors of 2022. Sifted had been an important goal for Startup Wise Guys, and besides these articles, SWG was featured many more times during our collaboration.
Notable placements:
Sifted: There are only two accelerators European VCs care about
Sifted: 11 predictions for eastern Europe tech in 2022
Sifted: Can CEE keep up the pace after a strong 2022? 9 predictions for the region
Sifted: The most active investors at seed stage in Europe in 2022
Sifted: Who are the few ‘real’ defence investors in Europe? Sifted asked the experts
Milestones
In addition, we helped Startup Wise Guys amplify their milestones, effectively building ‘the chronicles of Startup Wise Guys’, a growing narrative that future journalists, founders, and investors could follow to understand SWG’s activities and impact.
Their most significant milestone with us, like for many funds, was the closing of a fund for which they were widely covered, including in Sifted and Tech.eu.
For their 10 year anniversary we pursued placements in specific publications that we knew would care, and landed a great piece with 10 facts about SWG with Arctic Startup. We have not overlooked regional and trade media!
Smaller milestones like the partnership with FunderBeam and the Italy Cyber Accelerator launch got coverage in Tech.eu, among others. We also supported SWG to launch in Namibia as well as other African initiatives, and position themselves in Spain ahead of an expansion there (which later materialised).
Notable placements:
Sifted: Estonia’s Startup Wise Guys raises €25m to invest in ‘overlooked markets’
Tech.eu: Startup Wise Guys and Italy’s CDP Venture Capital launch €5 million cybersecurity accelerator
Arctic Startup: Celebrating 10 years of Startup Wise Guys
Tech.eu: Startup Wise Guys mark a decade of discovering rough diamonds
Thought Leadership
One of the reasons our partnership with SWG became so fruitful was their predisposition to get involved in thought leadership. Cristobal, Alexa and others made time to provide input, appear on podcasts and events and communicate with us regularly.
Cristobal Alonso
Cristobal Alonso is the Global CEO, in charge of formulating and carrying out SWG’s initiatives, expansion and execution. Behind all that there’s also the story of an energetic leader full of experience, a former startup founder, and a person that constantly observes and analyses the macro and micro pictures of the industry. To top it off, he wrote a couple of books on startups and founders.
Cristobal would be the main spokesperson and source for media, and we would see great successes with interview articles, commentary and podcasts. He has appeared not only on pan-European startup and tech publications, but also regional ones such as The Recursive (South-Eastern Europe) or Silicon Republic (Ireland). As a Spanish national, we also pursued Spanish media as well such as El Español and Emprendedores.
Notable placements:
Tech.eu podcast: The past, present, and future of Startup Wise Guys – with Cristobal Alonso
euvc podcast: #49 Cristobal Alonso, Startup Wiseguys
Silicon Republic: ‘Start-up founders are like scientists carrying out experiments in business’
The Recursive: What has changed in the CEE startup ecosystem in the last 10 years?
Emprendedores: Cristobal Alonso: el español que impulsa desde el Báltico la aceleradora de startups B2B líder en Europa
Alexandra Balkova
Alexandra Balkova was at the time Investment Principal and Head of Portfolio and was later promoted to General Partner. With Alexandra we secured a contributor series with EU Startups early on, but also placed contributed pieces for the likes of Tech.eu, AIN and had her featured on various publications including Business Insider and Forbes.
Notable placements:
Tech.eu: Startup Survival: Navigating the Challenges of War in Ukraine
EU Startups: 4 ways to ensure success when talking to investors
Business Insider: Women to watch who made partner in Europe’s male-dominated VC ecosystem
Forbes: How To Avoid Investors’ Pet Pitching Peeves
AIN: A post-war startup boom awaits Ukraine. Five areas that will be in demand
Tech.eu: Beyond Military Tech: Emerging trends in Ukraine’s early-stage startup scene for investors to look after
Others
Far from limiting ourselves, we sought to elevate the voices of different individuals as relevant according to the situation. Two examples included Zane Bojare, Head of Brand (and our partner in crime to elevate SWG’s PR), and Jone Vaituleviciute, the Lithuanian Partner. Zane got to represent the Baltic region as a whole with a piece on Silicon Canals on why the Baltics are becoming the hottest countries for startups.
Jone would rep Lithuania. Back in the early 2020s, TechCrunch was running a series on ecosystems, called the City Survey. Ran by Mike Butcher, it would shed light on known and less-known ecosystems, by surveying key players such as VCs, startup founders and other players. Understanding that the Vilnius ecosystem needed an extra push, we went out of our way to collect survey responses from the ecosystem, including Startup Wise Guys’ former Partner Jone Vaituleviciute. We ‘hacked’ the opportunity and provide Mike with all answers in one go, resulting in this TechCrunch piece on Vilnius.
Notable placements:
TechCrunch: Locals share why Vilnius, Lithuania is becoming an international startup hub
Silicon Canals: Why the Baltics are becoming the hottest startup region in Europe
Local and regional coverage: Africa, Spain, Ukraine and more
Our scope of work included African technology and startup media. Startup Wise Guys’ international strategy included a number of initiatives across the African continent, beginning with Namibia.
Spain was another important area for Startup Wise Guys. After expanding across the Baltics, the company took a bold bet to open significant operations in Italy, a bet that proved successful. As one of the next steps, Spain was a logical option, also given Cristobal Alonso being from there. IN anticipation of a possible Spain expansion (which later materialised).
Startup Wise Guys has an unfair advantage in the CEE region, and that includes Ukraine. SWG has made a lot of investments in Ukrainian founders, and with Alexandra being from there, has a special interest in the country. In 2022, with the russian invasion, we also had Alexandra share her views on the situation in terms of the startups.
Startup Wise Guys also reacted very quickly, putting together an initiative and resources to help Ukrainians.
Notable placements:
Business Insider Africa: African tech startups see unprecedented growth despite global slowdown
El Español: Uno de los inversores más activos de Europa situará decenas de sus ‘startups’ en Málaga
VentureBurn: First-ever Pan-African SaaS-focused accelerator for African startups launches applications
Disrupt Africa: European accelerator Startup Wise Guys expands to Africa, 1st programme in Namibia
Dev.ua: European accelerator Startup Wise Guys will provide Ukrainian Industry 4.0 startups with the opportunity to receive €100,000
Innovaspain: Cristóbal Alonso, el español que se ha convertido en el mejor ‘salvoconducto’ de las startups ucranianas
The Recursive: Startup Wise Guys enters Romania to accelerate regional fintech innovation
