Ragnar Sass

Ragnar Sass is an Estonian startup founder and ecosystem builder. Garage48 lists him as a founder of Garage48, and LIFT99 says Garage48 was founded in 2010 as Estonia’s first startup co-working hub and a hackathon series reaching Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Garage48’s own history says it was initiated in April 2010 by six Estonian entrepreneurs behind startups including Pipedrive, Fortumo, Weekdone, Mooncascade, and Taxify.

Sass is best known operationally as a co-founder of Pipedrive, the Estonian-born sales CRM company founded in 2010. Pipedrive later became a global CRM company and, according to Pipedrive’s own about page, grew into a global unicorn backed by Vista Equity Partners.

He later founded LIFT99, a founder-focused startup community and co-working hub in Tallinn and Kyiv. LIFT99 describes its mission as strengthening the global startup community and helping startups succeed by bringing founders together physically and digitally. Garage48’s mentor directory also identifies Sass as “Founder and CEO at Salto Network, Co-founder at Pipedrive, Founder at Lift99.”

• Invests at the earliest stages when he can combine angel capital with hands-on help, investor introductions, and community access. LIFT99’s Dashbird story says Sass helped the company with investor intros and an “initial stage angel investment.”
• Strong bias toward founders who show diligence, execution, and community involvement. LIFT99 says Dashbird joined the LIFT99 community in March 2018 and that the team’s “diligence and dedication” stood out to Sass.
• Founder-first and ecosystem-led approach: LIFT99 positions itself around access to founders, investors, mentors, events, and startup-specific knowledge sharing.
• Values rapid execution and practical validation. Garage48’s stated philosophy is “less talk, more action,” with hackathons designed to simulate resource-scarce startup environments where teams build prototypes quickly.
• Recent LIFT99 writing co-authored by Sass highlights AI, defence tech, deep tech, SaaS, fintech, and healthtech as major areas of momentum in Estonia’s startup ecosystem.