Innovantage Podcast

Sales and recruiting rarely get discussed together, even though they shape each other constantly. This episode, Max sits with Edvin Vosylius, founder of European Sales Headhunting Agency, a Vilnius-based recruitment agency focused specifically on sales talent, to unpack how those two functions collide in practice.

Edvin brings 19 years of hands-on sales experience to the table, having worked as a rep, a head of sales, and a chief sales officer before building a business around placing salespeople for a living. That path, including a failed corporate venture and a startup collapse, shapes everything he now looks for when hiring or advising others in the field.

In this episode, hear about mid-market versus enterprise sales, the mechanics of building a profitable recruitment agency, the traits recruiters look for in top salespeople, and how AI is reshaping CVs and interviews.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:00 How Edvin founded a recruitment agency
3:56 Why mid-market deals beat enterprise sales
9:27 Is the agency business still relevant?
15:00 What companies get wrong about hiring salespeople
21:07 Different types of salespeople explained
24:41 How to identify a great salesperson?
29:31 Why great salespeople fail in new industries
33:16 Do you really need to start a business?
51:06 How recruitment agencies actually make money
56:11 Advice for salespeople and hiring managers
57:48 AI in sales
1:03:30 Where to find Edvin

Connect with our guest
Edvinas Vosylius – https://www.linkedin.com/in/edvinasv/  
HEMES – https://www.wearehemes.com/ 
Connect with Max 
Max Golikov –  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-golikov/  

🎧 Listen Now
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19M3HKc1pbeTkYcOeOkJc0?si=aab60a9ec2864ba2 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/innovantage-podcast/id1749330437 

Follow for More Insightful Episodes
Innovantage Podcast:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovantage-podcast/ 
Sigli:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigli/     
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sigli.gang 
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What does it take to build a defense tech startup, raise €1.1 million, and manufacture drone technology in Europe? In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, Elvinas Kukys, CEO and Co-Founder of Luna Robotics, shares how the Lithuanian hardware startup is building advanced vision systems for unmanned platforms without relying on Chinese supply chains or unnecessary AI.

Drawing on his military background and startup journey, Elvinas explains how Luna Robotics grew from an idea into one of Lithuania's emerging defense tech companies, developing dual-use technology designed for both military and civilian applications.
Learn what investors actually look for, how to become better at pitching, when bootstrapping becomes a mistake, and why building a hardware startup requires a different mindset than chasing the latest AI trend.

Introduction 0:00
Luna Robotics and Elvinas' journey  0:31
How AI hallucinates drone camera images  05:51
Why Luna Robotics is China free  07:34
Manufacturing hardware in the Baltics  09:52
How Luna Robotics raised €1.1 million  15:34
Mastering the art of startup pitching  21:41
Why you shouldn't bootstrap too much 27:13
Building a startup with dual use technology  33:33
Never build custom features for only one customer 38:15 
What metrics investors actually pay attention to 46:20
Lithuania's defense tech boom and AI's future  50:23
Advice to my 20 year old self   56:33
Where to find Elvinas 57:37

Connect with our guest
Elvinas Kukys – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekukys/ 
Luna Robotics – https://www.lunarobotics.eu/ 
Connect with Max 
Max Golikov –  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-golikov/  

🎧 Listen Now
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19M3HKc1pbeTkYcOeOkJc0?si=aab60a9ec2864ba2 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/innovantage-podcast/id1749330437 

Follow for More Insightful Episodes
Innovantage Podcast:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovantage-podcast/ 
Sigli:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigli/     
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sigli.gang 
Did something surprise you in this conversation? Drop a comment below — we read every single one.
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Why do 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail after closing? 
In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, integration strategist Sabine Janssens shares what separates successful M&A integration from value destruction, why the first 100 days are critical, and how companies can turn acquisitions into long-term growth.

Sabine Janssens has led more than 40 M&A integration projects over the past four years and developed a pragmatic 100-day integration model used in buy-and-build environments. Drawing on decades of strategic marketing and integration experience, she works with acquiring companies to align strategy, operations, technology, and people after the deal closes.

Rather than treating integration as an operational checklist, this episode explains how to preserve business value, avoid the mistakes that derail acquisitions, manage IT integration without disrupting customers, and keep founders, employees, and leadership aligned throughout the transition.

0:00 Introduction
0:29 Sabine's journey into 40+ M&A integrations
4:51 Which industries see the most M&A activity
6:37 Why only 30 percent of acquisitions succeed
12:46 Early warning signs an integration is failing
16:27 Why the first 100 days matter most
21:52 Common challenges when integrating IT
26:03 Biggest IT integration mistakes
31:28 What founders experience after selling
45:56 The hidden cost most companies underestimate
54:14 The biggest misconception about M&A
56:50 Where to find Sabine

Connect with our guest
Sabine Janssens – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinejanssens/ 
Connect with Max 
Max Golikov –  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-golikov/  

🎧 Listen Now
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19M3HKc1pbeTkYcOeOkJc0?si=aab60a9ec2864ba2 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/innovantage-podcast/id1749330437 

Follow for More Insightful Episodes
Innovantage Podcast:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovantage-podcast/ 
Sigli:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigli/     
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sigli.gang 
Did something surprise you in this conversation? Drop a comment below — we read every single one.
Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode of Innovantage Podcast.

Can AI actually fix your skin or just feed your insecurities? On this episode, the founder of System Akvile breaks down how a skincare app reached 900K+ users by letting data, not assumptions, drive the product.

Akvile Ignotaite is a PhD data scientist who moved from corporate finance and M&A into founding System Akvile, an AI-powered skin-health platform now used by more than 900,000 people across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Her path ran through economics in Lithuania, an MBA in Germany, and a forced detour into statistics and coding during her PhD, all of which now shape how she builds for a Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience.

Akvile gets specific about what worked and what failed: why the original medical-grade app flatlined on user acquisition, how launching a pimple character on TikTok before writing a single line of code validated demand, and why staying disciplined on data rather than chasing big-tech features keeps a lean startup alive.

0:00 Introduction
0:25 From corporate finance to founding a skincare startup
3:17 How TikTok taught us what our audience wants
6:00 Inside "System Akvile" - the app for skin health
10:58 How AI killed our endless calls and meetings
13:25 Why the Indian skincare market is booming now
17:54 The blind spots hiding inside skincare tech
21:13 What ayurveda actually means for skin health
24:42 How to adapt one app for every country
28:26 Finding the balance between trends and education
35:55 How a pimple became a skincare influencer
45:08 Can AI really predict your skin patterns
49:37 The one piece of advice every founder needs
58:05 Where to find Akvile

Connect with Our Guests
Akvile Ignotaite – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-akvile-ignotaite/ 
Connect with Max (Host)
Max Golikov –  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-golikov/  

🎧 Listen Now
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19M3HKc1pbeTkYcOeOkJc0?si=aab60a9ec2864ba2 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/innovantage-podcast/id1749330437 

Follow for More Insightful Episodes
Innovantage Podcast:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovantage-podcast/ 
Sigli:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigli/     
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sigli.gang 
TikTok: @innovantage / @sigliofficial

Did something surprise you in this conversation? Drop a comment below — we read every single one.
Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode of Innovantage Podcast.

Can AI transformation actually make a company faster, or is it just hype? In this episode of the Innovantage Podcast, we go inside Wix to find out what real AI transformation looks like when you're running engineering sites across Europe.

This is the latest episode in our ongoing series with BMI Executive Institute, spotlighting leaders who put business theory into practice.

Joining Max is Monika Laukaitė, a senior operations and site leadership executive at Wix and a current EMBA participant at BMI Executive Institute, who oversees R&D and engineering sites across Lithuania, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and Dublin while scaling teams and folding AI into daily operations.

A practical look at how to roll out AI without forcing tools teams don't understand, what genuinely breaks as a company scales across markets, and how to measure whether a transformation is actually working. 

Introduction 0:00
What does Monika actually do at Wix 0:48
AI transformation at Wix 04:12
Why do AI transformation? 06:56
How AI makes you more efficient 08:30
How do you measure a successful transformation? 10:58
Is AI just hype, or real? 14:40
AI transformation - where to start? 17:16
When business leaders force AI they don't understand 21:51
Monika's unusual career path to Wix 24:38
Why Lithuanian tech giants don't compete with each other 29:22
Scaling a company across cultures 32:47
The first thing that breaks when you scale 37:48
How leadership has to change when scaling 40:00
The career ladder is broken - what to do now 47:47
Max almost got scammed by a fake Zoom call 52:03
Why networking is a must 55:43
Does AI transformation ever actually end? 58:16
Where to find Monika 1:03:10

More about the episode partners: www.bmiinstitute.com  

Connect with Our Guests
Monika Laukaite – https://www.linkedin.com/in/monikalaukaite/ 
Connect with Max (Host)
Max Golikov – https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-golikov/  
🎧 Listen Now
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19M3HKc1pbeTkYcOeOkJc0?si=aab60a9ec2864ba2 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/innovantage-podcast/id1749330437 

Follow for More Insightful Episodes
Innovantage Podcast:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovantage-podcast/ 
Sigli:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigli/     
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sigli.gang 
TikTok: @innovantage / @sigliofficial

Did something surprise you in this conversation? Drop a comment below — we read every single one.
Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode of Innovantage Podcast.