WSA Lithuania 2026 final: three lessons from global founders
On 29 September 2026, Odeta Isevičiūtė opened Poveikio kodas: Skaitmeninis knygnešys / WSA Lietuva 2026 m. finalas, Lithuania's national selection for the World Summit Awards, organised by the State Digital Solutions Agency (VSSA) in Vilnius. Her keynote: "From Digital Innovation to Real Impact: What Global WSA Experience Teaches Lithuania".
The event
Skaitmeninis knygnešys ("Digital Book Smuggler") is the Lithuanian selection for the World Summit Awards (WSA), a global programme that, since 2003, has looked for digital solutions to real problems. The 2026 final took place at Solo Society City House. This year the competition received 49 entries, 22 reached the final, and 8 go on to WSA.
The programme included stories from Lithuanian WSA winners, an open discussion, finalist pitches across eight categories, mentoring with WSA alumni and the awards. ChangeAI is a friend of the competition, and Odeta represents the Lithuanian WSA alumni network.
What we did there
Odeta gave the opening keynote in Lithuanian. She started with a show of hands: who among the day's presenters knew what WSA was? Eleven years ago she entered the same Lithuanian selection herself without knowing what WSA was or what it would do for her life.
The talk was built on founders she interviewed for her podcast "Edge of Impact", where she spoke with WSA winners so their stories would travel further. Each lesson came through real stories, because, as she told the finalists, every one of these people once stood where they were standing.
Three takeaways from the talk
1. Every impact business has to answer "who pays?"
Impact that does not last disappears with the last grant. Odeta showed three different answers. Be My Eyes is free for blind users; companies pay a subscription so their blind customers can get help through it. Its founder's rule: "Everyone wins only when no one loses." SankalpTaru (Plant a Tree) sells trust: every tree is photographed and given coordinates, and that transparency became its advantage. Colab gave its platform to cities for free, and by its founder's account things got worse every day until cities started paying. A paying customer proves the impact has value. What matters is that your business has its own answer.
2. Every constraint is a task for creativity
None of these founders had money, a ready market or partners. When distributors refused small orders, Wasoko's founder built delivery himself, with couriers carrying goods in backpacks. When every motorcycle maker said no, SWAP Energy built its own motorcycle brand and sold battery swaps in small packages, like phone top-ups. Its founder put it plainly: "I can't sell the climate." Aloi issued loans as digital tokens over SMS that can only be spent with approved suppliers, so the money goes only where it creates value.
Lithuania's constraints look different: a small market, little venture capital and a habit of waiting for EU funding. Odeta's ask to the finalists: the next time you hear "no", ask yourself what Wasoko's founder would do with his backpacks.
3. Purpose keeps founders going when everything else runs out
What keeps people going when the money ends, investors stop answering and the team is tired? At naPorta, which delivers parcels in Brazil's favelas, the team's motto was born on the day they came close to giving up: "The process hurts, the purpose heals." César of Clean Something For Nothing started by picking up litter near his home and kept building an app for clean-up groups after his son was born and the income still could not cover two salaries. He told Odeta he has "a blind purpose inside", and she said the conversation helped her make her own decisions about where to spend her time.
She closed with words from Eric in Australia, who helps Aboriginal communities keep their languages alive: "Technology cannot create change. Only people can." And with one question for every finalist in the room: how far will you take your impact?
Sources and notes
- World Summit Awards, the global programme behind the Lithuanian selection.
- Valstybės skaitmeninių sprendimų agentūra (VSSA), organiser of Skaitmeninis knygnešys.
- Entry, finalist and nominee numbers: Odeta's LinkedIn post after the final.