INTEL 🧠

_{The third onsite event moved to Done} ✅

We’ve just wrapped up the third onsite gathering of Founder Games Season 2 right here in Skopje. Alongside filming three brand new episodes, this round was all about finance and fundraising 🤑

To help our founders navigate these crucial topics, we brought in 9 incredible experts to break things down and share what really matters when raising funds or managing runway.

Big thanks to:

🎤 Ivan Gjurovski on Finance Essentials for Startups
🎤 Elena Ginali on Startup Monetization and Pricing Strategy
🎤 Bojan Stojkovski on Media Readiness for Tech Startups in SEE
🎤 Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz on How to Align Preferences with Willingness-to-Pay?
🎤 Vladislav Pavlov on GTM for Startups
🎤 Nino Karas on Fundraising for Early-stage Startups
🎤 Alex Nicoara & Igor Madjov on the Art of the Deal
🎤 Keo Sar on Partnerships that Pay
🎤 Ivana Henckel von Donnersmarck on Do You Want to be a VC Material?

It was real, useful, and loaded with insight.

We also hosted Startups 🤝 Suits, our signature networking event, where over 60 corporate professionals came to meet our founders. 

The goal? Spark conversations that lead to real opportunities.

And that’s exactly what happened. From drink chats to early-stage collabs, the room was full of potential.

Next up: Demo Day 🌋

The big stage. The last pitch. The winner reveal.

We’re in prep mode and if you’d like to support what we’re building, we’re open to partnerships and sponsorships.

Let’s team up and make the final event one to remember.

FRESH FROM THE ROLLERCOASTER 🎢

_{What’s going on BTS?}

• In the past week, Refine, the AI-powered enterprise SaaS platform for corporate language training and HR tool, has raised $120,000 in early funding and secured over $500,000 in strategic resources from Google, AWS, OVH, and OCHK to scale its HR-embedded solution. The team also received a $60,000 grant from the Smart Start program and became full members of the Science Technology Park Niš. Interested investors can explore the full campaign via Gateway Ventures, including pitch materials, product previews, and direct access to the team. Notice that Refine was founded only in January 2025 and with early client traction, strategic partnerships, and a validated prototype, this startup is gaining momentum fast.

• We and our startups are heading to Podim 2025 this May in Slovenia. If you’re going there, make sure to meet Sanja Mitrovska, Lexi, DDD Invoices and Refine among others.

• Luccid Software won the Startit Pitching Competition in Belgrade.

• BabyFM exhibited at the Global Health Week 2025 in Abu Dhabi. Follow their updates here.

• Paysolo is hiring a Marketing & Content Creator. Apply here.

STARTUP NEWS RADAR 📡

_{What’s happening these days?}

OpenAI has dropped GPT-4.1, the next-gen version of its multimodal GPT-4o model and it's sharper than ever. With a boosted context window, major gains in coding and instruction-following, and two leaner versions (GPT-4.1 Mini & Nano) now in the mix, developers have some fresh firepower to play with.

Figma has confidentially filed IPO paperwork, hinting at plans to go public soon, despite a shaky market that’s kept others like Klarna and StubHub on hold. The design giant was last valued at $12.5B, after Adobe’s $20B acquisition bid collapsed in 2023. Backed by Sequoia, Index, and a16z, the IPO could land in the next few weeks.

Notion just launched Notion Mail, an AI-powered email client that syncs with Gmail and your Notion workspace. It lets you organize emails, draft replies, schedule meetings, and search messages, all with a little AI help.

No products, no problem! Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati are leading separate ventures: SSI and Thinking Machines Lab, collectively valued at over $42 billion. Neither has launched a public product yet, but investors are betting big on top-tier AI talent and vision over output.

THE STARTUP VAULT 🗃️

_{Founders take note:}

• Streamline and optimize your prompts with PromptGround.

• Supercharge your job search with AI and Leo from OneProfile.

• Turn users’ words into actions with StepSailor.

• Deploy your ML model on serverless GPUs with Inferless.

• Decrease your screen time and Touch Grass.

*Working on something that fits this category? Reply to this email to be featured.

Hey ChatGPT 🤖

Now that you can remember everything I’ve ever typed here, point out my top five blind spots.

Visual of the week 🕵

BEST OF X 🐦