I started Budapest Letters back in May 2021. Main reason for the launch was a feeling I had for years that startup and small business stories from Central and Eastern Europe were overlooked by the, mostly, go-to Anglo Saxon publications.
Fortunately, times and attitudes have changed since. There are now great English-languge sites and newsletters from the region (e.g. The Recursive, Trending Topics, AIN.ua, ArcticStartups, Fintech Baltics, Tech Philomaths), not to mention local language sources, like CzechCrunch and My Company Polska. But besides these local voices, Western European media outlets (e.g. Sifted, TechCrunch, Tech.eu, EU Startups) also started focusing more on this part of Europe. Rightly so.
All these, along with personal reasons (i.e. work promotion, raising a little girl, managing my startup side hustle), made the original idea behind Budapest Letters almost fulfilled. Yes, almost. Because I still feel that regional coverage could be better, deeper and more widely distributed - in English, especially. So that local stories could inspire others outside of CEE / SEE as well, not just within.
But this will be the task of the above outlets, all well equiped to make this leap. And where does this leave Budapest Letters and me? In a good place. Mostly, because the questionnaire that you were kind enough to fill out on how this newsletter could be improved outlined a path that is clear and makes full sense.
Hence the name change to visegrad.now, which is just a minor change, but relevant for the crucial part, a mild re-focus of content creation from 8 January 2024.
I do not want to foretell all that will come but the gist is the following:
visegrad.now will focus exclusively on startup and small business stories from the Visegrad countries (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary), terminating Budapest Letter’s approach on covering CEE / SEE region as a whole. Limited scope will mean better and concentrated content on a geographical block that I have lived in basically all my life and one that I adore and know quite well.
Core content will remain as it were, so a general interest free newsletter that will shed light - on a bi-weekly basis - on what is hot and interesting in Visegrad startup / small business land. Later next year this might be complimented by additional content (e.g. company deep dives, founder interviews) but only after the core is steady and well received by you.
So let the new era of my newsletter begin, from now on as visegrad.now, hope you will stick with me and enjoy the re-fined approach and content. See you in 2024!