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“The reason why I quit school was to pursue my dreams and build companies,” says Mr. Burgaila.
As if the difficulties related to not finishing school were not enough, Tadas’ 18th birthday was overshadowed by a huge debt and bailiffs knocking on his door. Over the next 15 years, however, he managed to partake in building over 150 businesses, and is today competing with top players in the health-tech market.
– Financial Times has recently fingered Kilo Health as the second fastest-growing company in Europe. Could you give a quick rundown of your products for the uninitiated?
– We started with digital wellness, including nutrition plans and exercise routines. Our brands became well-known and garnered millions of users. We didn’t stop there, however, and continued to build increasingly complex products. Eventually, we found our way to the digital health sector. The better part of our time and other resources are currently dedicated to creating value and generating innovations for the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health disorders.
This, most recent, transition – now 2 years in – has been organic, although I can’t honestly say we have managed to avoid internal turbulence completely. Our thinking and our processes alike needed some adjustment. Take, say, an exercise routine or a diet – the value of these products is short-term. They both require users to exercise willpower, but become irrelevant as soon as they’ve reached their goal. Cardiovascular disease, on the other hand, is the number two leading cause of death globally, making it an area that could benefit massively from our efforts. For instance, we’re now developing a smart medicine bottle that sends a warning to the user’s caregiver or physician in case the user fails to take the prescribed daily dose. Around 500,000 people are admitted to the hospital every year for exactly this reason in the U.S. alone. Our quick and easy solution could save countless human lives.
Over 50% of our clients are in the U.S., followed by other major English-speaking countries – the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – and some of the world’s biggest economies, such as France, Italy, and Spain. We’re presently aiming to increase our European footprint, and scouting Asian countries that we think hold massive future potential.
– The Kilo Health office we’re in right now perfectly encapsulates your work culture. Give us a quick snapshot of what it means to you personally.
– Our main concern during the company’s founding was people. In Lithuania, many still believe that employees should be grateful to their employers. Our aim is to subvert this idea – employers should appreciate the time and knowledge given them by their employees.
– How did you manage to create and, most importantly, to maintain it even as your team grew to over 600 people? With numbers like that even many startups begin to look more like corporations – not Kilo Health, though!
– We managed it by not lying. Perhaps my view of the future is naive and subjective at times, but we really have no secrets. We simply developed a transparent core with clear values, which, in turn, passed the main principles of our internal culture downstream. It’s a kind of collective pact – we’ve agreed to foster honest dialogue and to treat each other the way we’d like ourselves to be treated.
– And it seems to be working, doesn’t it? I know that you received 61,500 job applications last year alone. How did you manage that?
– Especially considering that nowadays all we hear is that there’s a massive lack of talent in IT. Frankly, it’s a bit of a paradox because we made no conscious effort in this area, and had no real PR strategy – no tooting our own horn, no hanging posters around town, and no commissioned articles. Many of our employees came to us on recommendation of their friends and relatives already working here. We’re a small city in a small country, so our target audience is appropriately small, too. Word of mouth is the best advertising, especially in bars – that’s why there are so many stories about us floating around. Also, when someone recommends their friend or relative, they take responsibility for that person – a kind of endorsement.
– Most of your employees are very young – truth or myth?
– We’re a young company, on average. Two years ago, I would’ve said, “A very young company with lots of young managers”. That was a necessary condition for growth. Youthful maximalism and energy, however mindless sometimes, and a chaotic, but massively enthusiastic vibe – this combination helped us make a big leap very quickly.
Times have changed, though. Now we’re more focused on experience, thinking things through, strategising, and taking it slow, even. We’ve recently been hiring lots of seasoned managers from Sweden, Germany, Portugal, France, and elsewhere because we couldn’t find managers with international experience in IT locally. So we’re buying those competencies over there and integrating them over here.
Lithuanians are inquisitive, energetic, and hard-working, but still too humble, in some cases. Personally, though, I think it’s an attractive trait with a long history that makes the country unique. Having such people work alongside managers from Western countries who are the product of several generations that’ve witnessed all the permutations of the online world makes for a potent combination. The key thing, however, was believing in our ability to go global. If you have belief in yourself, others will too – eventually.
– Isn’t that a huge burden to carry, though?
– This was my dream all along, so I can’t complain. When you’re in a place that you wanted to be, life finds a way to grant you strength, opportunities, and options. I’m a perfectionist, although, within reason. I have a keen reality filter that allows me to see situations from a variety of angles. We’re currently in a very good spot. Whereas before, it would take me around 5 min. to introduce Kilo Health abroad, now all I have to do is mention that we’re the second fastest-growing company in Europe, as per the Financial Times. This makes for quite a different reception, and opens many additional doors.
– How do you create a business of this level and culture? What did your first steps in business look like?
– At first, we managed to build an international TOP 3 screensaver website, quite by accident. I was 16 at the time. Making that money then allowed me to start living on my own. My parents weren’t too happy about it, but I was able to focus on business, which I did quite well at.
I had a dream of creating my own social media platform and managing large-scale projects. We hired programmers from India and had a team of 20 to 30 people on the payroll. Unfortunately, my experience and financial literacy weren’t quite up to the task, which is unsurprising, however, given my youth. Eventually, I realised that I no longer had enough money to keep paying those wages. All I heard after that from the people around me was, “I told you so”. My 18th birthday was overshadowed by a huge debt and bailiffs knocking on the door to my home. It took me several years to sort it all out. I guess you could say it was more educational than going to uni.
After that, I built several online businesses, finally realising that it was time for something major. Lucky for me, I managed to find some crazy people who believed in my vision for Kilo Health – a company in control of a number of others, and a global player with a presence in the U.S. It wasn’t easy, but we pulled through.
– Did you have any doubts about staying in business during this entire journey?
– I disagree with people who say that you don’t need school or university, even if you don’t have a backup plan. My reason for going into business was clear – I already had an income, and was doing exactly what I wanted to do. I don’t have any explanation as to why success came at the age of 16 or why I didn’t fall apart in the face of massive debt. I really don’t. Despite being only 18, however, I would just get up in the morning and know that I needed to keep moving, to keep living.
– Would it be fair to assume that you don’t have an account of how to build a successful business either?
– I never wanted to be the kind of person who tells others what to do, and how. I don’t even like people who profess to know – I’m convinced they’re all lying, as I’ve seen more failed businesses than profitable ones. And if reading books on success were enough, it’d all be too easy. The way I see it is – you get up in the morning and either achieve your goal or not. As for nice words – they’re fine. The end result, though, comes down to circumstances, people, and sheer luck.
– When did you realise that Kilo Health has become a success story?
– I don’t think it has. I mean, yes, it’s great that, being in Vilnius, we’re able to compete with San Francisco or Tokyo, and that our employees are valued globally and offered top-tier wages. This allows us to directly contribute to the growth of the Lithuanian economy, and to help people to pursue their dreams. Whether Kilo Health is successful or not, however, will become a question later, probably when I’m no longer the CEO. That judgment can only be made retrospectively, not when the company is still on the path towards success.
– What happens then?
– Well, since I’ve always been keen on art no less than business, I’d like to prove that Lithuanians are talented enough to make a film that would be screened in the U.S. and distributed by Netflix. Whenever I mention this to people in the film industry, they look at me like I’m crazy. But that was true of Kilo Health, as well. And now look at how far tech businesses have advanced! This inspires me to attempt change in other domains too. I can’t say very much at this point, but we’ve actually started working in this direction.
