Today we are excited to announce our 27th location - Zagreb, Croatia! The first ever Zagreb Founder Institute is just around the corner, as the 4-month program is slated to start on October 17th. The program is open to existing and prospective technology founders of all kinds - with or without an idea, young or old, and with a full-time job or unemployed.
If you or someone you know could benefit from expert training and feedback to launch a technology startup in Croatia, click here to apply. The Early Application Deadline is Sunday, August 26th.
There are many reasons why the Founder Institute is setting up shop in Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is a city with history of producing outstanding technical talent through its excellent university system and Croatia has seen in the past large and small technology businesses develop and flourish. It is also a place whose entrepreneurship community has a passion to succeed and achieve that success on an international scale. With initiatives underway in Zagreb to foster a startup ecosystem, like the opening of ZIP’s shared working space, this is a great time for the Founder Institute to make its contribution and for entrepreneurs to launch technology startups in Zagreb.
In addition, with an English-speaking workforce, a significantly lower cost of technical labor than in Silicon Valley and access to a substantial engineering talent pool make Zagreb an ideal place for launching a global startup.
If you would like to learn more, then join a free Startup Ideation Bootcamp Event on Thursday, August 16th.
The Zagreb chapter will be lead by Vladimir de Franceschi and Dino Bendekovic. Vladimir is a Stanford Law graduate and a Palo Alto attorney for many European startups entering Silicon Valley, as well as advisor to BoundBreaker, a Slovenian startup incubator, a former startup CEO and VP of business development and has family roots in Croatia. Dino is the former Managing Director of SEAF in Zagreb, the first venture capital fund established in Croatia, a US trained MBA, frequent speaker on startup entrepreneurship and venture capital, and currently an advisor to Southeast European companies seeking expansion capital.
Expected Mentors for the program include;
- Adeo Ressi, Founder the Funded and Founder Institute;
- Ivo Spigel, Founder and Chairman, Perpetuum;
- Ozzy Papic, Founder and CEO, Net Integration Technologies (acquired by IBM);
- Srdjan Loncar, Founder and CEO, CareSpeak Communications;
- Vibor Cipan, Founder and CEO, UX Passion;
- Berislav Lopac, Co-founder Croatian Business Angel Network;
- And many more to be announced.
