Briefs · Entrepreneurship
From Corner Office to Cold Start
Safety is a cage with comfortable furniture.
Rain Vääna spent more than 15 years as a top executive, including nine years as chief executive of Ragn-Sells in Estonia and Latvia. He left. He wanted to build something with European, even global, reach.
His first preference was a management buyout of the Estonian branch. It did not work out. The alternative was a startup. In that world, he could think and act internationally at once.
The culture shock was real. At the top of a large organisation, delegation is normal. Learned helplessness creeps in. In a startup, there is no team to delegate to. Sales, finance, marketing, strategy: everything is your job.
The pace changed too. Corporates move slowly, through layers and approvals. Startups move in days, not months. Mistakes land directly on you. There is no safety net.
KWOTA measured and monetised carbon savings from increased material reuse. It aimed to pay manufacturers for using more recycled material. Within a year, it partnered with nearly 50 international companies and reported more than 1 million tonnes of recycled materials reused. Then it closed.
The lesson was brutal and useful. Find a real paying customer quickly. Free trials prove nothing. Plans matter, but flexibility matters more.
Vääna started again with Gritnord. Same team spirit, sharper focus. No fundraising first. Paying customers and real revenue first. The goal is predictable B2B growth, and the world’s leading B2B meetings platform by 2030.
Failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of it. A good life, he says, rests on three words: faith, trust and balance.
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