It’s StartupWeekend time in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). After the last 54-hour startup event in Tuzla at the end of May, Startup Weekend Sarajevo is next up from 19-21 July.
For three days developers, designers, marketing professionals and product managers will get together to collaborate and develop new startups. After a pitching session on Friday, the most promising ideas will be chosen and multidisciplinary teams formed. Throughout Saturday and Sunday the teams can work together and get consulting from mentors and coaches. They will validate their idea, develop a minimum viable product (MVP), and ideally launch an amazing new startup.
The organisers expect around 100 participants and are proud to announce the attendance of Martin Omander, Programme Manager at Google HQ in California. He chose Sarajevo as his first Startup Weekend and will participate as experienced mentor, Selma Sehic, main organiser of the event, explained for inventures.eu. She also helped launch the startup accelerator Bizoo at Posao.ba, a strategic partner of Startup Weekend Sarajevo. (Watch out for our upcoming news on Bizoo’s Generation Innovation Startup competition!).
The first Startup WeekendSarajevo took place last November with over 80 participants and 17 mentors. The winners Printheos, a specialised e-commerce solution for printing businesses, won a trip to California and a one-week stay at Blackbox Mansion. They will fly to Silicon Valley this July, and get the chance to present to venture capitalists.
“The entrepreneurial scene in Sarajevo is still underdeveloped but this gives us an opportunity to create an entrepreneurial environment that is particular to Bosnia and South East Europe,” Sehic said. Since the first Startup Weekend Sarajevo, several entrepreneurship events such as OpenCoffee meetups and the first Barcamp have been organised. With youth unemployment at around 60%, a stagnating private sector, and limited job opportunities in the public sector, more and more young people turn towards entrepreneurship and develop their own ideas and businesses. And Startup Weekend Sarajevo might just be the place for them to go.
More on the topic:
The 54-hour Experiment
