#56 Rytis Vitkauskas (Lightspeed) on how the global VCs evaluate deals, how to find a category winner and is Harvard education worth it (for founders)

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Rytis Vitkauskas is a Partner at the global VC powerhouse Lightspeed Ventures. Holding an MBA from Harvard Business School, Rytis has also founded and exited startups as well as made tech investments for more than 10 years.

In this episode we talk about Rytis’s journey to become a VC with Lightspeed, and getting an MBA from Harvard. We also discuss the strategy of Lightspeed and category defining companies. Finally, we compare how Baltic startups match up on the European level and talk about the role of the local VC.

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[02:40] - INTRODUCTION AND RYTIS’S JOURNEY TO VC AND LIGHTSPEED

[06:00] - ON BALTIC ECOSYSTEM NOW AND 10-15 YEARS AGO

[11:15] - ON THE HBS EXPERIENCE AND ROI FROM TOP EDUCATION

[20:00] - ON LIGHTSPEED STRATEGY IN EUROPE AND THE BALTICS

[23:50] - ON CATEGORY DEFINING COMPANIES

[36:00] - HOW BALTIC COMPANIES MATCH UP WITH WESTERN EUROPEANS

[44:30] - ON EXPECTATIONS FROM LOCAL BALTIC VCs

To reach out to Rytis use email: [email protected] 

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ 

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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