🚀 Vilnius Founders 🍸 Q&A with Donatas Keras, Founding Partner at Practica Capital
What VCs Really Look for In Early Stage Startups? Learn from Donatas Keras who’s done 65+ Pre-Seed, Seed, and Serias A deals
This time at Vilnius Founders, we’re sitting down with Donatas Keras — Founding Partner at Practica Capital and one of the most experienced early-stage investors in the Baltic startup ecosystem.
Donatas has been investing in Lithuanian, Baltic, and Baltic diaspora startups since 2011, backing founders from the very first pitch all the way to global scale and exits. At Practica Capital, he has participated in 65+ venture deals, helped build multiple category leaders, and supported companies through seed, Series A, growth, and acquisition stages.
This Q&A is designed for early-stage founders who want a clear, honest view of how VCs actually think — beyond pitch decks, buzzwords, and demo days.
🎙️ What we’ll talk about
In this session, we’ll dig into practical questions founders care about, including:
What Practica Capital looks for at pre-seed, seed, and series A — and how that’s changed in the last few years
The most common mistakes founders make when raising their first institutional round
How to know if you’re ready to raise VC — or if you should wait and bootstrap longer
What traction really matters early on: revenue, users, pilots, or team
How to build relationships with VCs before you actually need money
What separates startups that raise once from those that raise multiple rounds successfully
Advice Donatas would give to founders building in Lithuania today but aiming global
Expect a direct, no-BS conversation focused on decisions that materially impact your startup’s chances.
About Donatas Keras
Donatas Keras is an investor and entrepreneur, and a Founding Partner at Practica Capital, a leading pan-Baltic early-stage VC managing €130M+ in assets. Over the past 12+ years, Donatas has been involved in 65+ VC investments, including companies such as TransferGo, CGTrader, Trafi, Interactio, Sonarworks, Ovoko, Biomatter, Atrandi Biosciences, Eneba, Sintra AI, and many others.
Beyond investing, Donatas is an active board member across multiple startups and ecosystem organizations, and a long-time supporter of entrepreneurship and education initiatives in Lithuania.
About 🚀 Vilnius Founders
Vilnius Founders is a casual, founder-driven meetup series bringing together startup builders, operators, and investors over drinks. No slides. No suits. Just honest conversations about what it really takes to build global companies from Lithuania.
Come for the investor perspective. Stay for the cocktails and the real talk. 🍸