GSAI sprint 3 summary: Growth essentials in Tallinn

Growth and Scaling through AI (GSAI) is a nine-month international scale-up programme helping startups from Estonia, Finland, and Sweden grow beyond their home markets and reach scale-up status. Led by Movexum (Gävleborg, Sweden), Yrityssalo (Salo, Finland), AI Sweden, and Tehnopol (Tallinn, Estonia), the initiative focuses on integrating artificial intelligence as a core enabler of growth and competitiveness.

Through a series of four international sprints, founders develop the capabilities needed to scale responsibly and sustainably — from evaluating market readiness to applying AI strategically, strengthening growth systems, and preparing for investor engagement.

The third sprint, Growth Essentials, took place in Tallinn on 22–23 October 2025 and focused on the human and operational side of scaling. While earlier sprints explored AI implementation and product development, Sprint 3 concentrated on how teams can translate capability into real commercial and organisational growth.

Mariliis Uibomäe, growth marketing strategist, opened the sprint with a workshop on AI-powered growth marketing. She demonstrated how AI can address common bottlenecks in marketing — particularly those related to data access, segmentation, and personalisation across markets. Mariliis emphasized the importance of treating AI as an amplifier of team capacity, noting that: “AI isn’t here to replace people — it replaces the shortage of time, talent, and hands. Real growth begins when those former blockers become your leverage.”
Her session gave teams practical workflows for integrating AI into campaigns, experimentation, and market validation.

Kalev Kaarna, startup coach and former investor, then led a deep dive into scaling B2B sales. He guided founders in identifying sharp, urgent customer problems and positioning themselves as category leaders rather than simply competitors. Kalev highlighted that in B2B settings, founders are “selling change”, and the strongest barrier to adoption is often FOMU — the Fear of Messing Up. His frameworks focused on building clarity, credibility, and consistency in the sales process — and on using AI to understand customer intent more precisely rather than simply accelerating outreach volume.

Stoyan Yankov, team performance consultant, closed the sprint with a full-day session on building high-performing, aligned teams. He introduced the PERFORM framework, emphasizing shared values, planning discipline, and focus as the foundation of any scaling strategy. Stoyan reflected:

“The founder of Miro, Andrey Khusid, once told me: ‘Day one is the right time to start deciding on values and crafting the culture you want your company to have.’ Too often, startups neglect alignment around these topics until it’s too late. During our full-day session in Tallinn, each team worked on building its own team operating system. GSAI may be an AI program, but a strong human foundation remains at the core of every scaling success.”

Reflecting on the sprint, Kristiina Libe, Project Manager of GSAI, said:

“The teams in Tallinn were highly engaged and eager to learn. It was encouraging to see how openly they shared experiences and challenged each other to think bigger. This kind of collaboration and curiosity is what drives the programme forward.”

Across the discussions, one message was clear: scaling with AI is ultimately a people strategy. AI enhances execution — but teams, alignment, and clarity determine the pace and sustainability of growth.

What’s next

Sprint 4 – Growth Convergence will take place in Salo, Finland, on February 3–4, 2026.
The final sprint will include a review of AI development, refinement of each team’s scale-up strategy, and preparation for investor pitching.

Applications for the program will open again in spring 2026. If you want to be among the first to get notified, leave your contact details here: register interest.

GSAI – Growth and Scaling through AI is a joint initiative by Movexum (Gävle, Sweden), Yrityssalo (Salo, Finland), AI Sweden (Stockholm, Sweden), and Tehnopol (Tallinn, Estonia). The programme runs from 2025 to 2028, supporting 45 startups from the Central Baltic region in scaling their business through the strategic application of AI. The aim is to help startups expand or improve their value proposition or business model to enter their first or next EU market. Funded by: Interreg Central Baltic Programme