After having a blast in Sofia together with the amazing Bulgarian community, and a LOT of international friends , we continue the BkVF tour in exciting Tirana. A lot of already funded companies took the chance to pitch, and many others who pitched are now funded. In Tirana we are expecting big differences but also great similarities with the Sofia edition of BkVF. Click the image below to experience some of the VIBE in Sofia:

The difference in Tirana is the much earlier stage of the local community. It is a starry eyed community, so eager to harness as much as possible from the BkVF energy and set of a startup wave locally. We all know it is the right time and the right place to do it in Tirana, and we will have maximum impact. To do this, we are focusing on developing the local community leaders to be able to gain the traction with the international and local community, and sustain activities after the BkVF.

Part of that is meeting and coordinating all local startup and entrepreneurship organizations, into a support group of the BkVF but also to local entrepreneurs. The other part is educating entrepreneurs and coaching them to prepare for success at the BkVF Pitching competition. For this purpose we already did one Venture Academy, a full two-day coaching program, and another half-day information and coaching session. Big thanks to Maxim Gurvitz, Michael Gold, Darko Arsov, Nik Grezda and the local support of PROTIK, AIDA and USAID Ritje for these coaching sessions.

We are continuing the Venture Academy coaching with a half day session the day before the BkVF Tirana, for all companies that are selected to pitch at the event. So it is on the 13th of November, starting at 1pm and going into the early evening. Startups will do mock pitches to get feedback and advice from investors and mentors, and prepare best for the competition the next day.

We have a strong panel of international and regional heavyweight investors that will evaluate the business proposals by the startups:

• Baybars Altuntas – President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey and board member of the EBAN;
• Maciej Zak – Investment director for CEE at Intel Capital;
• Jure Mikuz – Managing director as RSG Capital;
• Dilyan Dimitrov – Partner at Eleven;
• Vivjan Myrto – Partner at Boston Global Ventures;
• Rumen Iliev – Partner at LAUCHub;
• Stanislav Sirakov – Partner at LAUNCHub;
• Maxim Gurvits – Partner at Teres Capital;
• Tatjana Zabasu – Partner at RSG Capital;
• Patrick Bosteels – Founder of Stage-Co;
• Riccardo Aimerito – Partner at ERA Kapital, business angel and post-doctoral lecturer on private equity;
• Marius Ghenea – Business angel, board member of VentureConnect;
• Michael Schuster – Business Development at Speedinvest;

Applying for the Pitching Competition is an amazing opportunity for coaching at the Venture Academy on the 13th of November, getting an investment and expanding your business capacity. 8 of the best companies according to the jury will be invited to pitch at the European Venture Summit in Dusseldorf on 9-10 December. It is a top European gathering of startups and investors where 130 best startups pitch to about 100+ investors. The quality level is amazing both for the companies and the investors.

The time is short until the 23rd of October, so hurry up and apply for the Pitching Competition at BkVF Tirana!