Innovantage Podcast
### Apple Podcasts Summary Welcome to the Innovantage Podcast, where technology, business, and innovation meet. Join host Max Golikov as he dives into the transformative power of artificial intelligence and digital advancements across a variety of industries. Each episode features in-depth conversations with industry leaders and provides practical insights on integrating technology into your business. Subscribe to stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape and discover how AI is driving change and inspiring new business strategies. Tune in to unlock your competitive edge in the world of technology!
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What really happens to IT when two insurers merge? | Innovantage Podcast #59
<p>How do two major insurers merge their IT, data, and teams without customers feeling a thing? In this episode of the Innovantage podcast, we go inside the ERGO and Gjensidige integration across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to see what insurance M&A really demands from technology and people.</p> <p>Kristaps Spundins is Information Technology and Operations Officer at ADB Gjensidige and Deputy CIO at ERGO Latvia, with more than 14 years in insurance after starting his career as a software engineer. He now works at the center of a cross-border transformation, bringing two established insurers’ organisations, processes, systems, products, an...
What makes VCs trust you? | Innovantage Podcast #58
<p>𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗩𝗖 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀? 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 #𝟱𝟴 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝗸𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗷𝗮 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗹.</p> <p>Viktorija Trimbel is a VC investor, strategic advisor, and Managing Director at Coinvest Capital, an evergreen sovereign venture capital fund investing alongside business angels and other VCs. With more than 30 years across corporate governance, M&A, investing, and fundraising, she brings both an investor’s view of risk and a long-term perspective on how startup ecosystems develop.</p> <p>Funding is rarely just about having the strongest idea or the best-looking pitch deck. The real edge comes from understanding how investors think, what builds trust, where risk actually sits, and how to build a company that can attract capital without losing sight of the business itself.</p> <p>Introduction 0:00<br> Lithuania’s startup tiger is finally awake 0:25<br> You have to be Viktorija to run Coinvest 01:58<br> Does Coinvest’s investment model actually work 10:03<br> Why Coinvest backs real defense startups 14:04<br> What investors really look for in founding teams 19:55<br> Maternity leave, military service and startup funding 22:00<br> What founders always underestimate when raising capital 29:20<br> When s...
What Actually Makes a Brand Memorable? | Innovantage Podcast #57
<p>𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲? 𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝗶𝗸𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗸𝗮𝗶𝘁ė 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀.</p> <p>Justina Saikauskaitė is a Fractional CMO and Brand Strategist helping startups and challenger brands turn chaotic marketing into brand-led strategy that supports revenue growth. Her experience spans positioning, go-to-market strategy, brand and product launches, and fractional marketing leadership across agency, in-house, and freelance roles.</p> <p>Strong branding is less about having the perfect creative idea and more about making deliberate choices, testing whether they work, and committing long enough to become recognizable. From sharper positioning to smarter use of AI, the practical takeaway is simple: more marketing activity means little when people cannot understand, remember, or trust the brand behind it.</p> <p>Introduction 0:00<br> What actually makes a brand noticeable and memorable 0:28<br> Why looking like your competitors kills your brand 4:57<br> Can you trust AI to analyze your competitors 7:02<br> Being boring became a brilliant brand strategy 8:57<br> When should startups actually start investing in brand 13:21 <br> The marketing mistakes that keep startups from growing 16:00<br> How to balance brand and performance marketing 18:29<br> Why B2B and B2C need different marketing strategies 20:36<br> How startups can find the right audience faster 23:14<br> AI is changing mar...
AI Is Blurring the Line Between Business and Tech | Innovantage Podcast #56
<p>How is AI changing the relationship between business and technology — and what happens when even great tech fails to deliver business value? On the Innovantage Podcast, Gediminas Zalys from Accenture UK & Ireland unpacks what digital transformation actually looks like inside large enterprises.</p> <p>Gediminas Zalys is an engineering leader focused on AI, machine learning, and business transformation. With experience spanning engineering, consulting, entrepreneurship, and enterprise technology at Accenture, he has seen both sides of the equation: ambitious technology built without the right business case, and business decisions transformed by what new technology suddenly makes possible.</p> <p>0:00 Introduction<br...
What Recruiters Actually Look for in Salespeople | Innovantage Podcast #55
<p>Sales and recruiting rarely get discussed together, even though they shape each other constantly. This episode, Max sits with Edvin Vosylius, founder of European Sales Headhunting Agency, a Vilnius-based recruitment agency focused specifically on sales talent, to unpack how those two functions collide in practice.</p> <p>Edvin brings 19 years of hands-on sales experience to the table, having worked as a rep, a head of sales, and a chief sales officer before building a business around placing salespeople for a living. That path, including a failed corporate venture and a startup collapse, shapes everything he now looks for when...
How to Build a Defense Tech Startup & Raise €1.1M | Innovantage Podcast #54
<p>What does it take to build a defense tech startup, raise €1.1 million, and manufacture drone technology in Europe? In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, Elvinas Kukys, CEO and Co-Founder of Luna Robotics, shares how the Lithuanian hardware startup is building advanced vision systems for unmanned platforms without relying on Chinese supply chains or unnecessary AI.</p> <p>Drawing on his military background and startup journey, Elvinas explains how Luna Robotics grew from an idea into one of Lithuania's emerging defense tech companies, developing dual-use technology designed for both military and civilian applications.<br> Learn what investors actually look fo...
Why 70% of Mergers & Acquisitions Fail (And How to Avoid It) | Innovantage Podcast #53
<p>Why do 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail after closing? <br> In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, integration strategist Sabine Janssens shares what separates successful M&A integration from value destruction, why the first 100 days are critical, and how companies can turn acquisitions into long-term growth.</p> <p>Sabine Janssens has led more than 40 M&A integration projects over the past four years and developed a pragmatic 100-day integration model used in buy-and-build environments. Drawing on decades of strategic marketing and integration experience, she works with acquiring companies to align strategy, operations, technology, and people after the deal closes.</p...
We Let a Pimple Go Viral and It Worked | Innovantage Podcast #52
<p>Can AI actually fix your skin or just feed your insecurities? On this episode, the founder of System Akvile breaks down how a skincare app reached 900K+ users by letting data, not assumptions, drive the product.</p> <p>Akvile Ignotaite is a PhD data scientist who moved from corporate finance and M&A into founding System Akvile, an AI-powered skin-health platform now used by more than 900,000 people across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Her path ran through economics in Lithuania, an MBA in Germany, and a forced detour into statistics and coding during her PhD, all of which now...
Nobody Climbs the Career Ladder Now | Innovantage Podcast #51 | Powered by BMI Executive Institute
<p>Can AI transformation actually make a company faster, or is it just hype? In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, we go inside Wix to find out what real AI transformation looks like when you're running engineering sites across Europe.</p> <p>This is the latest episode in our ongoing series with BMI Executive Institute, spotlighting leaders who put business theory into practice.</p> <p>Joining Max is Monika Laukaitė, a senior operations and site leadership executive at Wix and a current EMBA participant at BMI Executive Institute, who oversees R&D and engineering sites across Lithuania, Berlin, Amsterdam, L...
Can AI Replace CEOs? | Innovantage Podcast #50 | Powered by BMI Executive Institute
<p>What does real innovation look like in 2026 — inside a 160-year-old state railway and a modern AI-first startup? We continue our series with BMI Executive Institute, sitting down with two guests from two different worlds to explore how innovation, AI adoption, and the future of work actually play out on the ground.</p> <p>We cover the startup vs enterprise mindset, the project management triangle of speed, cost and quality, the EU AI Act, AI anxiety, and whether humans are still relevant when AI can do most of the work.</p> <p>Our guests are Jonas Valuta and Vidas Vasiliauskas. Jo...
