“We don’t care that we’re from a small country. We’ve always had the view that if we work harder and [make] smarter decisions, we can beat [any] company in the world, regardless of how big they are.”
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In 2013, on an Estonian island of just 10,000 residents, a teenager borrowed €5,000 from his parents and decided to take on Uber. Twelve years later, Markus Villig leads Bolt, a company operating in 50+ countries, generating nearly €3 billion in revenue, and standing as one of the only European tech companies competing at true global scale. Rather than going head-to-head with incumbents in their strongest markets, Bolt expanded through underserved cities, emerging economies, and overlooked segments of urban transport. When COVID erased 85% of its revenue in weeks, the company didn’t retreat; it staged a kind of corporate “eucatastrophe,” pivoting into food delivery across nearly 20 countries in what became a company-wide sprint. That same bias toward action now shapes Markus’s broader agenda: investing in defense tech for Estonia and Ukraine, pushing for capital markets reform, and advancing a contrarian thesis on autonomous vehicles.
In this conversation, we discuss:
How growing up in Soviet-occupied Estonia shaped Markus’s ambition and moral clarity
How Bolt’s European ethos and long-term focus on driver retention became a structural advantage
The marketplace models and capital discipline that allowed Bolt to outmaneuver better-funded rivals
Why Bolt found breakout success in African markets after failing in 12 Western countries
The 85% revenue collapse during COVID and the rapid food delivery pivot that reshaped the company
Bolt’s partnerships with Stellantis and Pony.ai and its long-term bet on autonomous vehicles
Why Ukrainian and Eastern European startups are often outperforming their Western peers
Markus’s blueprint for closing Europe’s tech deficit and building globally competitive companies
Thank you to the partners who make this possible
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Explore the episode
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(03:32) How The Lord of the Rings shaped Markus’s worldview
(05:52) Bolt’s underdog story and its existential turning point
(10:22) Estonia’s startup DNA and its imprint on Bolt
(13:38) Europe’s ambition problem
(17:23) Europe’s defense tech gap
(23:09) The need for capital market reform in Europe
(25:13) Bolt’s origin story
(36:35) Frugality as strategy
(38:24) What running Bolt actually demands
(41:27) The hidden costs of being too lean
(42:50) Bolt’s shift to experimentation
(44:10) Bolt’s micromobility strategy
(45:50) How Bolt found the right markets
(50:44) The Serbian mob story
(54:00) Markus on venture capital and lessons from Klarna’s board
(55:40) Why Bolt never sold
(57:08) Bolt’s autonomous vehicle (AV) strategy and key partnerships
(1:05:50) The concept of culture-market fit
(1:07:48) How Bolt operates: writing, hiring, reading, and more
(1:13:15) Markus’s personal strengths
(1:14:15) What people get wrong about business
(1:16:27) Final meditations
Follow Markus Villig
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusvillig
Resources and episode mentions
Books
The Lord of the Rings: https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544003411
High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity: https://www.amazon.com/Precipice-Existential-Risk-Future-Humanity-ebook/dp/B07V9GHKYP
People
Martin Villig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waldec
Oliver Leisalu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-leisalu-9874ba44
Jeff Bezos on X: https://x.com/JeffBezos
Jensen Huang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenhsunhuang
Andy Grove: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove
Other resources
Bolt: https://bolt.eu/en/
Palmer Luckey’s post on X about Lord of the Rings: https://x.com/PalmerLuckey/status/2012992282560233728
Markus’s post on X about Europe lagging in tech: https://x.com/villigm/status/1974102445648384395
Revolut: https://www.revolut.com
Wise: https://wise.com
Klarna: https://www.klarna.com
Sequoia: https://sequoiacap.com
Stellantis: https://www.stellantis.com
Pony AI: https://www.pony.ai
Waymo: https://waymo.com
TSMC: https://www.tsmc.com
Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity: Lessons from AI, Pandemics, and Nuclear Threats (Toby Ord, Author of “The Precipice”): https://www.generalist.com/p/existential-risk-and-the-future-of-humanity-toby-ord
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