Spotlight Finals
Welcome to the leading startup competition in Eastern Europe! Spotlight fuels early-stage tech startups with unique opportunities for matchmaking, collaborating and scaling. Join us for the Spotlight finals – where the best startups pitch and answer the questions of the jury.
Panel: What makes the best founding teams deliver
Apart from articulating a big vision, most successful startups are relentless execution machines. In this panel, we explore what are the ingredients of the best founding team that help them build amazing products, and have an amazing trajectory.
Fireside: What should you know about startups when you are acquiring one?
Romanian-born cybersecurity giant Bitdefender has been, in the last years, highly active in acquiring both cybersecurity companies (ex. Horangi) and distributors. In this candid conversation, we discuss with two of the company leaders about how acquisitions happen, and what other plans the company has in this space.
Panel: What matters when building B2B startups
B2B startups have their own universe – from the fly/mice/rabbit/deer/elephant denomination to the specific metrics you need to track in order to deeply understand your product. In this panel, joined by experienced B2B investors, we discuss what are the elements that help B2B startups stay on the right track from the early days.
Panel: Building deeptech products and startups from Eastern Europe
Breakthrough technologies aim to solve really meaningful problems, but don’t always turn into useful products. How should founders with a deep technological background build succesful products, and from where can they get the support they need?
Panel: Building your path for growth
For many startups, growth is a top priority from day one. In this panel, we’ll discuss the lessons learned from working with some of the most successful high-growth startups on go-to-market, vision, and audacity.
Panel: I’m building an amazing product – why can’t I raise money?
Raising venture money has always been one of the hardest things startups need to do, and it’s especially true today. Apart from building amazing products, venture money looks for amazing outcomes. Join us to discuss how the two are, or are not, connected.
Panel: How to build marketplaces that succeed
Marketplaces are messy – synchronizing supply with demand, and keeping the financials in balance, sometimes across multiple geographies, has proven to be a hard game to play for many startups, including Delivery hero or Wolt and Tier or Voi. Joined by experienced marketplace investors and operators, we discuss what makes the best marketplaces work in… Read more »
Panel: Hot or cold – how has the early stage investment market changed and what lies ahead?
Since 2020, the early-stage investment market has gone through a number of changes – from the highs of 2021 to the lows of 2022. How tough is it now for founders to raise capital, and what are the most often concerns investors raise when evaluating rounds, given the environment?