You had a wedding a month ago. How has the first month of marriage been?

It’s not what people imagine. It’s something completely different – but also, it becomes what you make it. You can absolutely do it in a way that’s like: “Well, we signed the papers, done.” But you can also make it something else entirely.

For me personally, getting married has been the most incredible thing I’ve ever done. I never saw that coming. In my mind, I had perhaps compared it to graduating from university—I imagine it’s similar in the sense of permanence. Marriage is like that, too. From this day forward, I’m married. No matter what happens in the future, that part doesn’t disappear.

You’re currently leading the Estonian Disc Golf Association and were a co-founder of Cocoon - a personal development program for startup founders. But how would you introduce yourself – who are you, and what made you decide to become the next Program Manager of sTARTUp Day?

I’ve often tried to define myself through different roles, especially at startup conferences. There’s always this moment when someone asks, “So, who are you?” and I … yeah, who am I? It’s weirdly difficult to answer.

If I had to describe myself by character, I’d say I’m someone who’s greedy for experiences. That hunger—for feelings, visible things, invisible things, material, spiritual—has probably guided every decision I’ve made and every project I’ve been part of.

In one sentence: I’m a man who’s searching for ways to fully realize himself. And if, in the process, I can help someone else realize themselves just a little more—that makes my heart sing.

In your previous role as Chief of Sales at Cocoon, you spoke to many startup founders about their personal and leadership challenges. In your opinion, what’s the most common struggle that founders face today, especially the one they don’t talk about publicly, but admit in one-on-one conversations?

If I had to name just one thing, it would be the difficulty of wearing a mask.

Almost everyone in a leadership role develops an idea of how someone in that position is supposed to behave. And then they start adjusting themselves to fit that imagined image.

Let’s say you’re in a meeting, and someone says something that genuinely hurts you—not just irritates you, but stings emotionally. For many leaders, showing that pain isn’t acceptable. That’s part of the mask. You’re supposed to be composed, or you’re not allowed to say, “It hurt.”

At first glance, these seem like small things. But startups already operate under pressure—there’s always a lack of time and resources, and everything moves fast. Hiding your humanity takes energy. And that energy cost piles up. Over time, it becomes this invisible weight that many founders carry—that’s what they end up talking about in private.

How can someone recognize if they’re wearing that kind of mask? Or how do you remove it?

The cool thing is —if you’re the founder, you get to define what’s “normal” in your company. There is no perfect blueprint that guarantees success. But what increases your odds more than anything is building a company that feels true to who you are.

And that requires maturity—the kind that comes from deeply processing your own experiences. Not just living through them, but sitting with them and asking: “What did I feel? What did that do to me?” From that kind of reflection comes clarity and you start to see others simply as people. You stop splitting your world into ‘work’ and ‘life’—it’s just your life and you realize: you are responsible for making it good. That’s maturity.

You’ve spoken on the sTARTUp Day stage about fear. Why do you think fear is such a central issue in entrepreneurship, and how do you personally deal with it?

Fear is the strongest emotion a human can experience, as it influences behavior more than any other emotion. And that makes sense—fear is literally part of our biological programming to keep us alive. When something seems dangerous, fear kicks in and overrides almost every other feeling. So, of course, it’s powerful and it shows up everywhere—including in business.

However, fear also comes with a significant stigma. From a young age, we’re told that fear is something shameful. You learn to hide it—especially if you want to appear competent and confident. That’s why fear has this strange duality: it’s incredibly strong, but also hidden. And hiding it takes energy.

So what happens? People develop strategies – consciously or unconsciously—to protect their image instead of facing the fear directly. They lie, deflect, delay, rationalize. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are constantly making decisions in uncertainty. No matter how much data you have, you’re still guessing about the future. And when you’re faced with unfamiliar situations that require real-time responses, fear inevitably shows up.

Most of the fear we experience in daily life is actually an illusion.

Yes, our bodies might signal danger, but often there’s no real threat. We’re afraid of embarrassment, rejection, failure, and looking foolish. Those aren’t life-threatening. If they happen, you might feel bad for a moment, but you’ll survive. Yet fear makes them feel enormous.

In my case, stepping onto the sTARTUp Day stage was one of the scariest things I could imagine. Not quite like a life-or-death scenario, but emotionally close. That’s why I was the perfect person to talk about fear—because I was facing it in real time.

The only way through fear is to do the opposite of what it tells you. If fear says, “Don’t go on that stage,” you say, “Okay—I’m going.” You don’t try to eliminate the fear. You accept that it’ll be there.

Once you see what was behind the illusion, the reward is incredible. You grow and gain confidence. But most of all, you gain freedom to do something just because you decided to do it, not because fear lets you. And that return on investment—it’s huge.

You’re also about to launch a disc golf disc manufacturing company. How did that idea come about, and what are your plans with it?

The idea first came up a long time ago. I’ve been involved with disc golf for about 13 years now, and a friend had an empty old pig barn in Eastern Estonia. He joked that we should do something with it. I said half-jokingly, “We should start making discs there.” Years later, another friend came to me with a serious offer—he’d already made some moves and had a plan. I took about a day to think it over, and right away that old memory came back. It felt like the idea had been waiting for me all along. I had said it once—even jokingly—but something in me meant it. So now it’s time to actually do it.

The big vision is to eventually build a brand that’s much more than just a disc golf disc manufacturer. I want it to be a brand that inspires, first and foremost myself, and then everyone who comes into contact with it. The core message is about being 1% better at something every day.

Our first batch will be ready in July and will consist of approximately 12,000 discs, with a margin of error of around 10%. This is my first time building a physical product company. And just to give you a sense of the cost: the metal molds needed to produce a single disc design run anywhere between €7,500 and €10,000. Those are just the chunks of steel that shape the molten plastic.

What lessons are you bringing from your time at Cocoon and the Estonian Disc Golf Association into shaping the sTARTUp Day program?

One part is definitely about communication—having meaningful conversations with people from diverse backgrounds on various topics. With sTARTUp Day, I plan to speak personally with every speaker I possibly can. These calls are about helping each speaker find the story that’s most deeply personal. That doesn’t mean they can’t be technical, but there needs to be a layer of emotion or lived experience underneath it. Something that makes the talk theirs.

The second part is a bit dry, but absolutely essential—process management. I’m placing a lot of emphasis on ensuring speakers always feel in the loop—supported, informed, and able to give their best on stage.

The third part focuses on the depth of the topics themselves. Thanks to my work at Cocoon, I’ve had the privilege to speak with hundreds of founders, not just on the surface level, but in deeper, more vulnerable conversations. I’ve sat in on confidential meetings, founder retreats, late-night decision moments – situations where people take off their masks. That’s what I want to bring into the program: realness. Because the moment someone on stage speaks honestly, everyone else feels safer doing the same. And that’s when real growth happens. Faster, deeper, and together.

What are your ideas and hopes for the sTARTUp Day 2026 program?

One thing I can promise is that we’ll be bringing some unexpected voices to the stage. The startup ecosystem is way broader than it often appears. Even a single startup involves far more players, perspectives, and dynamics than what we usually see represented on stage. So I want to make space for people who usually stay behind the curtain. Maybe they’re not the typical founders or investors. But they still shape the story.

That said, you can’t do sTARTUp Day without deep tech. Tartu is a phenomenal university city with a population of 100,000 and 12 different higher education institutions. And when you look at the direction the region is heading, it’s clear that serious funding is flowing into high-level technology. Deep tech is currently leading the charge. But at the same time, the companies face huge growing pains. So those topics—scaling struggles, breakthroughs, strategy—will be on the agenda.

On the softer side, I want to continue exploring themes like motivation, meaning, and mental health—but perhaps move beyond the burnout conversation. It has been discussed extensively already. Instead, I’d rather focus on what comes before or after burnout. Questions like: How do you build a good life? What does a good life even mean to you? What does it take, practically, to create one?

Because when you’re living a good life, you’re in a much better place to build good companies. And that ripple effect is what sTARTUp Day should be about.

What has been your most memorable sTARTUp Day moment so far?

Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is finishing my keynote. Not just getting through it, but actually connecting with the audience was huge. The joy, the release, the sense of “this mattered”… that was unforgettable.

But there’s another moment that stands out, and it’s a bit funnier in hindsight. It was my very first time doing sales at sTARTUp Day. I had just joined Cocoon—not yet as a founder—and I was thrown into the deep end. I had some startup experience before, but I wasn’t fluent in the language of the ecosystem yet.

So I was walking into conversations trying to pick up on how people talk, how they behave, what words they use – and simultaneously trying to actually sell something. And if I remember correctly, I did manage to close something on day one. It still blows my mind a bit. I think it shows that people communicate on more levels than just words. If the belief is strong and the energy is real, people feel that.

Oh, and of course, there’s the fact that I met my future wife thanks to sTARTUp Day. At the time, I didn’t realize it was the moment. She came to the afterparty with some friends. I saw her walk in, and it was like a high school movie moment—slow motion, bright lights, the whole deal. I thought, “Wow… I want to be in that group.”
I didn’t even talk to her that night. Just went home. But the feeling was strong enough that I remembered it. And well—here we are. Life has a way of giving you what you really want, even if you don’t realize what that is at first.

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sTARTUp Day is turning 10, and now is the perfect time to grab your super early-bird ticket at the best price! Join us in Tartu on January 28–30, 2026, for an unforgettable anniversary edition filled with inspiring speakers, game-changing networking, and next-level opportunities. Get your ticket today and be part of the celebration!