What does it take to build — and back — the next generation of startups? We spoke with Philip Adler, founder and CEO of Freshmango, about his unconventional path into entrepreneurship, what he’s learned from working with hundreds of early-stage founders, and why execution beats hype every time. From LEGO bricks to AI-native accelerators, Philip shares a candid look at building, fundraising, and staying relentlessly focused on what actually works.
1. Hey Philip! Could you tell us a bit about yourself, and where you’re based?
I'm Philip Adler, founder and CEO of Freshmango––a remote, equity-free, AI-Native startup accelerator. I'm based in Vilnius, Lithuania, though the work is fully remote and the founders we work with are scattered across Europe, Canada, and Africa.
On any given day I'm juggling 40+ enrolled startups, building out our platform, co-founding Raisepill on the side, and drinking more coffee than any doctor would recommend.
2. You started young as an entrepreneur. Where did this spirit all begin?
I bought LEGO sets as a child, but with a different intention. I'd open the box, fish out the one specific brick I needed for something I was already building in my head, and leave the rest. The instructions were irrelevant. The set as designed was someone else's idea. That habit of seeing components where others see finished products never really left me.
My first businesses came early, not out of ambition but rather from restlessness. I couldn't sit still inside other people's structures. Every job or project I encountered I'd find myself mentally redesigning it within a week, from the pricing model, the process, the pitch. At some point it becomes easier to just build your own thing than to keep redecorating someone else's.
3. Can you tell us about your intro into mentoring, fundraising and accelerators?
Before Freshmango, my co-founder Claudia (who is also my sister, which makes disagreements interesting) ran a consultancy that helped companies win EU grants and raise capital. Together we helped companies access over €38M, including roughly €12M in non-dilutive EU funding. We knew what a well-run fundraising process looked like from the inside.
What we kept seeing was the same problem on repeat: talented founders losing to worse founders because they didn't know how to play the fundraising game. And the programs that existed to help them were either elite gatekeepers rejecting 90% of applicants, or taking equity before the founder had proven anything.
Freshmango was the answer we kept wishing existed. Equity free, execution focused, and no ‘BS’. We accept the founders others pass on and hold them accountable to results, not decks.
4. You were on the Forbes 30 Under 30, is that right?
In 2026 I was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance Europe list. I didn't see it coming, and I didn't have a speech prepared.
Finance felt like a category I'd arrived at sideways, coming from the operator and fundraising world rather than banking or investment. But that's exactly what made it feel significant. It was recognition that moving capital into the hands of early-stage founders is legitimate, serious, financial work.
I paused for about a day, then got back to building. That's probably the most accurate summary of how I process milestones.
5. Does working with so many hopeful startups give you something extra?
There's a specific kind of energy in a founder who is six months in, running out of runway, and still completely convinced they're going to make it. Most people would call that delusional. I find it contagious. Working with founders at that stage keeps me sharp in a way that no other environment does.
Professionally, it's the best pattern recognition training available. I've now seen hundreds of early-stage companies up close –– the ones that survive and the ones that don't –– and the differentiator is almost never the idea. It's the founder's ability to adapt without losing the thread of what they're building. Learning to spot that quality, and being wrong often enough to stay humble, has made me a better CEO of my own company.
6. So what’s next for you and the Freshmango adventure?
I'll never stop––that's just not negotiable. What changes is the scale and the speed.
AI has genuinely compressed the idea-to-validation cycle in ways that still surprise me. You can test assumptions in days that used to take months. At Freshmango, we're building that directly into how we operate by helping founders validate faster and then connecting them with the capital to execute.
On a personal level, I'm also doing the harder work of becoming a real CEO rather than just a founder who does everything. Building teams, delegating without micromanaging, trusting my gut even when the data isn't clean yet––that's the muscle I'm developing right now. It's more uncomfortable than any product build I've done.
7. How has Xolo played a part in your journey?
Running an Estonian company as a Polish entrepreneur based in Lithuania could be a full-time compliance headache. Xolo removed that entire problem.
Invoicing, back-office, the administrative layer that nobody talks about but that quietly crushes founders who underestimate it: All handled.
The best thing I can say about the partnership is that I rarely have to think about it, and when I do, it's because I need something rather than because something went wrong. For any founder building across borders in Europe, that kind of reliability is worth even more than it sounds.
8. What’s your best tip for aspiring Forbes 30 under 30 nominees?
Stop trying to get on the list and go build something that would be embarrassing not to recognize.
The founders I know who've been named weren't optimizing for the nomination. They were too busy solving a real problem to think about it. The list finds the work, not the other way around. If you're spending meaningful time crafting your narrative for a judging panel, that time is probably better spent talking to customers, fixing your retention, or making one more hire you've been delaying.
Do the work first. Recognition is a byproduct, not a goal.
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