The City of Krakow together with Ad Ventures are launching a new, equity free pre-acceleration program for early stage startups – KRK Road to Success. The call for applications is open till 15th October.

It is going to be a first edition of intense, 3-day program with an open demo day event. The goal of KRK Road to Success is to prepare early-stage, pre-seed startups to go through customer validation, pitch, marketing, business modelling, product development and prototyping.

12 startups from the first batch will get all the knowledge and contacts necessary to increase their chances in becoming a successful, international company. In 1-on-1 sessions with mentors, meetings with investors and Krakow startup community, teams will get feedback and advice on their future products. The program will end with an open demo day event, where startups will pitch in front of investors and corporate partners.

While working for investment funds it became obvious to me that a lot of projects even if they have valuable idea fail because they cannot present it in interesting and convincing manner. This program aims to help them overcome this problem – says Greg Banas, CEO of Ad Ventures.

The program is totally free for startups and no equity is taken. Thanks to the City of Krakow, participants will not have to bother about accommodation cost, as it will be provided by organisers. KRK Road to Success is perfect for early-stage, pre-seed startups which haven’t launch their product yet. Teams from all over the CEE region are welcome to apply. However, there will be a special treat for Ukrainian teams.

As Krakow tends to attract Ukrainian talents, the City offered to cover travel costs for participants applying from Kiev and Lviv.

We believe that Ukrainian teams will get several benefits from participation in the program. Besides those obvious like getting feedback on their projects and learning how to sell the idea to investors, they will also get in touch with local community and learn more about Polish market and our business environment. This, we hope, will encourage them to set up their future company particularly in Krakow. – says Rafał Kulczycki, City Development Department Director, City of Krakow.

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The program will take place on 1-9th November in Krakow. The call for applications will be open till 15th October. For more information and applications, visit the official website wwwkrkroad.pl. For live updates join Facebook event HERE.