sTARTUp Day, one of Estonia’s leading and prominent startup and tech festivals, brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators for three talks, hands-on workshops, and networking in Tartu, Estonia. The annual event focuses on growth, adaptability, and action while showcasing cutting-edge industry innovations (sTARTUp Day, 2025).
This year’s sTARTUp Day featured urgent discussions on defence technologies, highlighting how warfare is evolving at an unprecedented pace and requires rapid innovation and execution. For example, Ragnar Sass (2025), defence-tech investor and entrepreneur, spoke about how Ukraine’s war efforts have reshaped military innovation, shifting from slow, bureaucratic development cycles to startup-driven rapid prototyping and deployment.
Innovations and operational models developed for defence sector are not limited to military use. After Sass, Veiko-Vello Palm, a retired Major General of the Estonian Military and now the COO of Frankenburg Technologies, took the stage to share how military strategy and startup growth share fundamental principles.
The Power of Purpose
Palm (2025) emphasized the importance of a clear mission. In the military, a mission isn’t just a slogan; it’s a task with a purpose. Startups often create vague mission statements without fully understanding their real strategic direction. Palm’s approach, based on the military’s 5W rule (Who, What, When, Where, Why), highlights that the most crucial element is Why. Without a clear purpose, execution becomes scattered, teams lose focus, and customers struggle to see a product’s value. For Frankenburg, the “why” shows on their website: “Tech to win the war” (Frankenburg Technologies OÜ, 2025).
Execution, Leadership, and Discipline
According to Palm (2025), startups should first sell their idea and secure commitments from potential clients. This validation can take the form of letters of intent or pilot agreements, indicating whether a real market demand exists. This “Sell-Demo-Build” approach rethinks the startup model of spending years perfecting a service or a product before launching.
Once interest is established, the next phase is to create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) for demonstration. This allows early adopters to provide feedback, helping refine essential features and validate assumptions about user needs. Finally, only after confirming market demand should startups move to full-scale development. This strategy minimizes financial risk and ensures resources are allocated efficiently to develop a well-informed product.
Additionally, Palm highlights the importance of leadership and discipline in startups. Founders should provide direction while empowering their teams, focusing on hiring candidates who align with the company’s mission and values. This mission-driven culture enhances focus, decision-making, and scalability.
Applications for startup growth
Veiko-Vello Palm’s journey from military strategy to startup execution proves that structured thinking, purpose-driven missions, and disciplined action are just as critical in business as they are on the battlefield. Whether you’rebuilding AI-driven defense technology or launching a new digital service such as a virtual reality adventure game, the same principles apply: define your mission, validate early, and lead clearly.
Palms’ thoughts relate to previous research that has found that entrepreneurial leadership and structured execution are essential for both growth and innovation (Koryak et al. 2015). Palm’s insights also align closely with the mission of CDG Booster, a project in LAB University of Applied Sciences. This Interreg Central Baltic-funded initiative (link to CDG-Booster project website) supports SMEs and startups in leveraging creativity, digitalization, and strategic design for growth. CDG Booster fosters collaboration between creative industries, technology, and business expertise, promoting digital, design-driven growth. A key aspect of the project is to make local companies and startups cross the threshold of ideation and execution, in which Palm’s 5W provides valuable aide-memoire.
Author
Ari Hautaniemi works as an RDI Specialist at the LAB University of Applied Sciences Institute of Design and Fine Arts and is a project manager of the CDG-Booster project promoting growth of digitally-oriented creative businesses.
References
Frankenburg Technologies OÜ. 2025. Frankenburg Technologies. Cited 6 Feb 2025. Available at https://frankenburg.tech/
Koryak, O., Mole, K., Lockett, A., Hayton, J., Ucbasaran, D., & Hodgkinson, G. 2015. Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm growth. International Small Business Journal, 33, 105 – 89. Cited 6 Feb 2025. Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242614558315.
Palm, V.V. 2025. From Major General to Tech Innovator: Lessons from the Battlefield and the Startup World. Presentation in sTARTUp Day conference. 30 Jan 2025. Tarto, 30 January 2025.
Sass, R. 2025. The State of Defence Tech. Presentation in sTARTUp Day conference. Tarto, 30 January 2025.
sTARTUp Day. 2025. Schedule. Cited 6 Feb 2025. Available at https://www.startupday.ee/program/schedule
Links
CDG-Booster. 2025. Creative Digital Growth Booster. Cited 6 Feb 2025. Available at https://www.cdgbooster.com/
