We needed this in our startup ecosystem, didn’t we?! The positive vibe during the first edition of the Startups Meetup and the feedback you gave us at the event prove it.

This makes us happy and gives us energy for the next ones – we’re already preparing for it, so no worries there! 😉

Because we want as many people as possible to benefit from this meetup, we have filmed everything, so even those who missed it can still be inspired. 🙂

First up were our panelists Dario, Ivan, and Mario accompanied by our moderator Michael. The topic: “Leaving Croatia without leaving Croatia”.

They’re obviously all still here, so they haven’t left Croatia, but they did share their know-how and the ups and downs they’ve experienced during their journey of “leaving Croatia”.

From funny stories to hair-tearing mistakes, and sometimes both, you could hear it all during this panel discussion!

After the panelists left the stage, it was time for Andreas to deliver his talk titled “From an Idea to Global Success”. He shared a little bit of his own journey – from his beginnings to Silicon Castles – as well as lessons learned along the way.

He was joined on stage by the VIABIRDS startup team representatives who offered a real-life example of a startup that went through acceleration aided by Silicon Castles.

Making this talk a great combination of theory and practice!

Content-wise, the evening came to a close in the company of Varyence, whose CTO Jason shared his know-how from years of working with startups.

Varyence helps non-technical startup founders launch SaaS businesses by investing from 50K to 250K euros into startups that they partner with.

Through their startup program, the Varyence team helps startups with business strategy, go-to-market strategy, prototyping, and MVP development, as well as provides all the technological leadership required to get the product successfully to market.

Bonus points: the team is local here in Split, so it would be a great loss to not make use this opportunity, too!

The only thing we haven’t filmed was the networking – some spirits can’t be bottled up! You’ll just have to attend the next edition of the Startups Meetup to experience that aspect of the meetup in its full glory. 😀

Big thanks to all our panelists – Dario Boras (Parklio), Mario Frančešević (SeekandHit), and Ivan Mrvoš (Include) – our speaker Andreas Spechtler (Silicon Castles) and the accompanying VIABIRDS startup team, as well as Jason (Varyence) for sharing his expertise and introducing the attendees to the Varyence program for startups.

Our home away from home for the evening was The Works Coworking, so a huge thanks goes to Tamara and her team for the hospitality. And finally, we’d also like to thank all of you who attended – you’re the reason we’re doing this.

As one of the startup founders said: “I’m leaving this meetup energized and ready for new challenges!”

That sums up the first Startups Meetup pretty well, we’d say. And what would you like to see during the next one? Let us know!!

Onwards and up! 😀
Your Student Business Incubator and Split Tech City teams

Photo by Ivan Gracin and video by Julio Juraga