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Mike Southon

Mike Southon is an entrepreneur, author, and mentor dedicated to helping startups grow from early ideas into world-leading companies, with a particular focus on the Estonian ecosystem. As Chief Editor of StartupMafia and co-author of The Beermat Entrepreneur, he has mentored over 1,000 founders, guiding them to simplify their thinking, find their first customers, and build balanced founding teams. His practical frameworks — including the “beermat test” and the concept of the entrepreneurial “foil” — are widely used to help founders achieve clarity, resilience, and repeatable growth. Mike’s work emphasises listening over pitching, honesty over hype, and long-term value over short-term wins, principles he has applied while advising startups, scale-ups, and global organisations across Europe and beyond. He has interviewed leading entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson and continues to champion ethical, founder-led growth; his philosophy was recently explored as a guest on the Winning Friends podcast, powered by e-Residency of Estonia.

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Alex Nigmatulin

Alex Nigmatulin is a marketing and communications expert with over a decade of experience at the intersection of tech, media, and sales. He helps startups build marketing strategies that drive growth, attract early customers, and gain visibility with investors. On StartupMafia.eu, Alex shares practical insights on scaling, brand positioning, media outreach, and turning ideas into strong, market-ready businesses. alexnigmatulin.com

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Gerald Miller

Gerald founded leading news publishing portal featuring nonpolitical news and elping various startups to get coverage done for them.

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Nikita Kotov

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