Can you believe 2020 has really only been one single year?
With so much going on in the world and in the LIFT99 community, it feels more like a decade. As you are reading this, we can say that we all made it, we survived!
Now let’s go into 2021 stronger than ever before!
Let’s wrap this year up with reminding ourselves some wonderful events
and happenings to be thankful for.
RED
We started this year with a grand opening of LIFT99 RED office space for dedicated teams. That meant expanding to a whole other building in Telliskivi Creative City, Fotografiska building. This also meant double the work, double the people and of course double the fun! The need for it was clear - long lines to get table space to Telliskivi Hub and teams asking for more privacy, but still wanting to be a part of our community. We started with organizing a design competition, to create something that would unite, but at the same time be unique. KuupDisain won with a significant idea of using honeycomb and a mutual open space in the middle of the office. Today you can see the fine creation of LIFT99 RED at Telliskivi 60a/8, 4th floor.
ESTONIAN STARTUP AWARDS 2019
Almost at the same time, on the 22nd of January, festivities continued in the Fotografiska building. It was time for the first-ever Estonian Startup Awards gala, initiated and organized by LIFT99. Being the fastest growing branch in the Estonian economy, startups just had to be preached and deserved an awards gala. A magnificent jury of 144 Estonian founders was put together to find out who was the best from the best.
Here’s a recollection for you, in case you have forgotten.
UKRAINIAN STARTUP AWARDS 2019
We ended celebrating the best in Estonia and flew straight to Ukraine to do the same. This was also the first-ever Ukrainian Startup Awards event, organized by LIFT99, held in LIFT99 Kyiv Hub.
Here’s a recollection of the Ukrainian Startup Awards 2019.
LOCKDOWN
Not long after these celebrations, we had to shut our doors for the very first time in the history of LIFT99. The second we realized the situation was getting worse in Tallinn, we decided to close the Hubs for some time and moved online. We’d like to say thank you to so many of you who showed your support and appreciation. We came out of this a lot stronger and better prepared!
Here's a link to a quick overview of how we managed the #stayhome situation while remaining a co-growing space.
F*CK CORONA
One of the biggest wins for the community after the lockdown was the “F*ck Corona” Campaign — the program we launched in May with a goal to provide free memberships in our vibrant startup community space to the coolest guys and their mind-blowing ideas and with a promise of becoming their first investors on the condition of them having a launched MVP and revenue in 2 months.
Out of 27 teams applied, 14 accepted to LIFT99 Tallinn Hub for 2 months free membership.
Out of 20 teams applied, 5 accepted to LIFT99 Kyiv Hub for 2 months free membership.
SALTO CAMPS
At the beginning of March we realized physical events are on hold and the event space will change very soon. This was the very start of the global pandemic and we decided to hit back with Salto Camp: EMERGEncy - a global 100-hour growth Bootcamp run by top founders & investors. The idea was to find the best, most fascinating, out of the box ideas out there to fight the COVID-19 crisis and the consequences it brought along, to support those startups and bring them out to the public.
This was the first out of 4 online camps LIFT99 and Salto organized in 2020.
Throughout the year we had 4 incredible online Camps – each worth a separate story to tell – check them out at Salto’s webpage.
LIFT99 KYIV HUB 1ST BIRTHDAY
LIFT99 Kyiv Hub became 1 year old in April!
Seems like yesterday, when to think back at the grand opening. For the first birthday bash, Kyiv team organized a week full of startup-minded online events, including 2 office hours with top investors Marvin Liao and Mikko Silventola; two different pitch trainings with Elise Sass and Startup Estonia. One of the most popular events of the week was “How to scale product and save the world: exclusive fireside chat w Restream” but also “Why ukraine is a place to be: exclusive fireside chat w Very Good Security” was a big hit. The week ended with a bang - online rave with Kyiv's local techno DJ Nestor Barchuk.
Although they couldn't have a big birthday party this year, they still had some birthday-burgers and a delicious cake.
LIFT99 4TH BIRTHDAY
To be honest, time has gone by really fast. We have grown out of toddler shoes and are reaching the sweetest age, where we can really grow socially and emotionally. We of course celebrated it like any kids' birthday party - with cake and burgers! We shared stories about the start of LIFT99 in 2016 and got to know the story behind the name (which is, it was originally designed to have only 99 seats).
✨AWESOME COMMUNITY EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS ✨
💥 Office hours with experts, investors, mentors across the world
💥 Community speed-date
💥 Mingling Friday while playing billiard
💥 Movie evening “Chasing Unicorns” with lead actors at the Hub
💥 Pancake and waffles morning
💥 Awesome old-school videogames station in Tallinn Hub
💥 Gingerbread decorating station
💥 Pizza evenings
💥 Creative Mornings
💥 Hedman Legal Clinic
💥 The Platform Playbook Workshops with Josh Rogers
…and many more!
LET’S SUM IT UP
During Covid-19 startups working from LIFT99 Hubs raised all together €6,8M - including startups like 99math (450K), Montonio (500K), Eziil (1,2M), Outfunnel (1,1M), 3commas (2,5M), Alvin (575K) and Woola (450k)!
Glia had a whopping 538% growth from 2016-2019.
#Estonianmafia Wall of Fame is now perfectly symmetrical with Ampler Bikes, SkySelect, Multilogin, Klaus, RangeForce and Paxful joining in 2020.
thank you for all your time, patience, energy, and effort!
Keep on rocking - an unstoppable founder can build an unstoppable startup.
Wherever they are!
