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Mike Southon

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.

From the Editor

Customer Case Studies

How to get your clients to add credibility to your business I always explain to early-stage entrepreneurs that the first sale is the hardest....

3 days ago
How To Be A Local Hero How To Be A Local Hero

From the Editor

How To Be A Local Hero

Now is the time for everyone to develop that ‘side-hustle’: a home-based business While I spend much of my time helping entrepreneurs who aspire...

February 23, 2026
Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn, Estonia

From the Editor

Welcome to Estonia!

How the Estonians are fixing everything, including Global Warming “Estonia is the best country in the world for start-ups”. This is the bold claim...

November 22, 2025
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