Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where ⁠Dan Bowyer⁠,⁠ Mads Jensen⁠ of ⁠SuperSeed⁠, ⁠Lomax Ward⁠ of ⁠Outsized Ventures⁠⁠, and this week’s guest Jone Vaituleviciute, Managing Partner at ⁠Firstpick⁠ VC, unpack the forces shaping venture across Europe and the Baltics.

This week’s conversation bridges Lithuania’s booming early-stage scene and Europe’s macro tensions — from defense investments and bootstrapping culture to Matt Clifford’s call for “permissionless growth,” the rise of quant capital, and how Europe’s AI reality is evolving fast.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered

• 00:31 From Startup Wise Guys to Firstpick: why Jone spun out to back Baltic founders even earlier.

• 04:22 “It will never get cheaper than pre-seed”: on starting at the first line of code.

• 05:47 The Baltic edge: distribution over product perfection and why bootstrapping still wins.

• 11:22 €300 M defense deal: Rheinmetall’s Lithuanian factory and why incentives trump fear.

• 16:23 Matt Clifford’s speech: 17 years of UK stagnation and a call for permissionless growth.

• 25:04 The politics of productivity — shock therapy vs. bureaucracy fatigue.

• 33:18 Quant trading boom: XTX’s 25 k GPUs vs. Germany’s 10 k, and where talent flows.

• 40:19 AI corner: Calm model, Nebius cloud, and Europe’s token factory moment.

• 52:36 Circular financing or just capital cycles? The debate behind AI mega deals.

• 55:45 Deals of the week: Nexus AI’s $8 M raise and Poolside’s $2 B round.