Join Pedro Santos Vieira, Partner at 500 Global, as he shares key insights and tools that every founder needs to know around scaling quickly and fundraising effectively. In this session, expect takeaways on best practices for founders; from accelerating product-market fit and go-to-market, to securing investor meetings and fundraising in a bear market.

Pedro also leads the 500 Global Accelerator Program in Eurasia that takes place twice a year and will gladly share a tip or two on how to ace your investor interview. Join us for an afternoon of conversations around early-stage startup growth and get a glimpse of what it means to be #500Strong.

In a post-LLM world, the most sought-after founders are often coming from research groups (e.g. OpenAI, DeepMind, FAIR) or directly from Academia. This presents both exciting opportunities and challenges. We want to explore the journey that research-first founders have faced – how they’ve been able to turn their technology into a competitive differentiator while bridging the business-skills gap and building expertise in product, GTM, and team building.

Speakers:

• Tara Stokes, AI Partner, Point72 Ventures
• Adam Liska, CEO and Co-Founder of Glyphic
• Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and Co-Founder of PolyAI

We will have a 30 min panel, followed by a networking breakfast.

Please join us for a must-attend event with five LocalGlobe partners. Our discussion will focus on the journey from seed funding to raising a Series A round. We’re creating an interactive format to allow founders to have deep and useful discussions with our experienced investors. We want founders to take home valuable insights they can apply to their businesses and meet people who will genuinely be useful to them. We want to hear the questions you’ve always wanted to ask of investors. Nothing too big or too small. We’ve seen a lot in our time and we’re creating a safe place to share our insights with our Slush friends. Following the audience Q&A, we’ll break out into smaller groups for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session. Join us for this exclusive event to learn more about the fundraising landscape right now and strategies for successful growth.

Join us for a raw and honest session, “No BS War Stories”, where our partners and friends of the fund share their real-life experiences as entrepreneurs and operators before becoming VCs. This is your chance to get an inside look into the operational challenges and successes we’ve faced along the way, and hear about the mistakes we would have avoided knowing what we know now. Through lightning talks, our team will cover topics like:

After the lightning talks, we’ll break into smaller groups for interactive Q&A sessions and coaching. It’s a unique opportunity to get actionable advice and insights from those who’ve been in the trenches. No fluff, just straight-to-the-point learnings that you can apply to your own entrepreneurial journey. Plus, we’ll have sugary snacks and coffee to keep the energy going!

This panel will explore how Emerging Europe produces global startup success stories by highlighting key examples of companies over generations. We’ll dive into the region’s growing global footprint, emphasizing the technical talent and innovation fueling its rise as a tech powerhouse. By examining the ecosystems in countries like Poland, Romania, the Baltics, and Türkiye, we’ll discuss how local founders leverage these strengths to compete on the world stage. The panel will also address the opportunities and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and investors working to shape Emerging Europe’s place in the global tech landscape.