Ivan Makukhin, MBA

🔥 Marketplace boom in CEE: Between Local Heroes and China Giants While Amazon is almost impossible to ignore in Western Europe, the picture looks very different in Central and Eastern Europe: here, others are in charge. In Poland, Allegro leads the field with billions in GMV. In Romania, eMAG is the synonym for online shopping. And in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Heureka Group has grown from a price comparison site into a true marketplace giant. 🌏 At the same time, Chinese platforms are pushing hard into the region: AliExpress is present in almost every Top 5 ranking, Temu is growing at double-digit rates, and SHEIN is securing steady shares in the fashion segment. ✨ The result is a marketplace ecosystem that is more colorful, dynamic, and fragmented than in many other parts of Europe. In Greece, Skroutz has taken a dominant role – far beyond electronics. And Trendyol from Turkey is expanding aggressively into Romania, the Czech Republic, and Greece, steadily gaining market share. 👉 In our new region briefing (supported by our partner Base.com | DACH), we show you the key players, their GMV figures, and where power balances are shifting – from Poland to Greece. If you want to learn more, join our webinar “Cracking the CEE Code: Marketplace Strategies for Central & Eastern Europe” on November 18 at 11 AM. Register here: https://lnkd.in/dJT-2e9K And if you’d like to dive in beforehand, read the full article with plenty of exciting details on Marketplace Universe! https://lnkd.in/dF7sffzv

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Startups often die from chasing big, slow problems instead of solving acute, fast ones. When advising early teams, a few lessons keep surfacing: • Go after pain points where you can deliver value in days or weeks, not months. Speed of learning is more important than polish. • Mid sized companies are often a better starting point than large enterprises. You’ll get quicker feedback, shorter sales cycles, and avoid endless procurement hurdles. • Don’t just add another layer of software on top of what already exists. The strongest opportunities are where you can replace expensive and repetitive human work with something faster, more accurate, and more scalable. If it feels like you’re saving an entire headcount, you’re on the right track. • Before you start charging, make sure there’s a clear path to repeatability. Don’t jump at the first shiny opportunity unless it’s a screaming pain. Once you see that path, always charge something. Even small amounts create real commitment. • Keep a tight loop with your first customers. Weekly check-ins are enough to prove progress and uncover what’s working. These lessons may sound simple, but they’re often the difference between building something indispensable versus something that gets polite interest but no real traction.

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Lithuania's top salespeople don't want to work for Lithuanian companies with a local market focus. I just spent 2 months learning this the hard way. A Lithuanian founder called me. Good company. Solid product. Decent budget. "Help us find a Sales Manager, Edvin. Should be easy - we're a known brand locally." 76 candidates contacted. 53 replied. 45 rejected us. I felt like a failure. These were my people. My network. And they all said no. 3 main reasons: "Lithuanian market only? I'm closing deals in 15 countries. Why would I go backwards?" "The product? Not exciting. I want to sell something that changes industries." "€2,000 net? I make €3,000 plus commissions selling for a Berlin startup. One candidate told me straight: "Why would I go from selling globally to selling in Vilnius only? That's career suicide." Local-market-only companies are smart and committed, but global competition has changed the hiring game. You're competing with the entire world of opportunity. My advice to hiring manager: 1.⁠ ⁠Add export/international element to the role 2.⁠ ⁠Pay premium for the limited local talent 3.⁠ ⁠Train juniors and maintain them so they won't leave for international roles. If you’re building a team in Lithuania and facing this challenge, let’s talk about how to make your opportunity irresistible even in a global market.

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Poland might not be Silicon Valley… but it's building its own version of one. We’ve got:    ✅ Over 650,000 IT professionals  ✅ A tech outsourcing market worth more than $3.8B  ✅ Microsoft investing $700M in AI and cloud infrastructure  ✅ Google building a $2B AI and cloud campus in Poland  ✅ SOCs, innovation centers, startup grants – it’s all happening here You’ve heard of ElevenLabs and Booksy    There’s also a huge number of startups I’ve been writing about over the past few months, because they’re doing great work. 🔹 Infermedica – supports doctors with AI-based triage and symptom checking, used by healthcare systems worldwide   🔹 CampusAI Polska – builds immersive learning environments powered by AI, used by thousands to upskill in digital topics   🔹 Labplus – brings AI to blood test interpretation, making lab diagnostics faster and easier to understand     and many more which you can find info about them on my profile.    What promotes growth? The cost of building is competitive, public innovation support is growing and founders who start here tend to stay. If you're considering starting up or investing, Poland might be a good place.  Feel free to tag a Polish startup worth watching.    #Poland #Startups #AI  

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Poland is showing the world how to execute a massive digital identity transition without disrupting users. 🇵🇱 While governments often struggle with tech upgrades, I learnt from a great article by Pavol Hrina that Poland is taking a brilliant dual-track approach: 1. They're maintaining their proven mObywatel 2.0 wallet (which has 10+ million users) 2. And at the same time, they're building and rolling out a new EUDI wallet-compliant mObywatel 3.0 version. This is huge for digital identity adoption because it combines innovation and stability. Here are some impressive stats: > Their digital ID mDowód gained legal equivalence with physical IDs in 2023.  > Today, mObywatel 2.0 sees over 1 million daily logins and 40+ active government services. They're now targeting full eIDAS 2.0 compliance by 2026 and have the ambitious goal of reaching 20 million people by 2031. Poland is also hosting the 2025 Warsaw Interop event and participating in EU-wide pilots! Talk about positioning yourself at the forefront of the EU digital identity space, huh! Hopefully, this parallel infrastructure model provides a proven blueprint for other countries to follow and implement the EUDI wallet smoothly in the coming years.

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Back to the 🇷🇴 Romanian Medical System 📉 A few uncomfortable truths from what we learned six months ago [1]: 1/ Only 35% of Romanians contribute to the healthcare system. 2/ These contributions cover just 43% of total healthcare spending, less than half (!) 3/ More than half of hospital budgets go to salaries, not to medical services. ⚠️ In the new study we presented today at the Academia de Studii Economice din București, we had an impressive audience to whom we demonstrated how to further reform the medical system.[2] 📌 The reform we propose is simple but bold: 1/ We stop financing inefficient infrastructure and pay only for actual medical services provided. 2/ Salary subsidies are eliminated and integrated into service tariffs. Public and private hospitals alike will be reimbursed based on output, not structure. 3/ Reimbursments to hospitals are made to support efficiency, not inefficiency This promotes fair competition and patient equity, regardless of hospital ownership. Bip up to Regina Maria, Reteaua de sanatate, for asking and supporting this study. Full studies can be found online: [1] https://lnkd.in/d7eZqxPp [2] https://lnkd.in/dQErhuNZ

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