PRE-ACCELERATOR

Fuel for your start-up served here. Build up on your idea or MVP and move your early-stage start-up to a next level business with free mentoring, lectures, and workshops.
Spring batch 2023 is over.
See our Autumn program.
Check out our autumn program if you're interested!
Apply now

About the Program

Spring Pre-accelerator is 1,5-month program specifically designed to help idea and pre-seed stage start-ups with elementary needs and support to further develop and launch their ideas or start-up projects. The program provides free industry experts' mentoring, workshops and lectures on various business, finance, marketing or more topics from local and global speakers.

The pre-accelerator is suitable for those who are just starting out and are primarily seeking know-how, guidance and resources for their prototype or MVP (minimum viable product). The most promising start-ups can advance to the second autumn accelerator program and receive investment (not a requirement).

Approx. 10 to 15 start-ups will be selected for this program. Investment opportunity is not a prerequisite in the Spring
Pre-accelerator program.
Online/Hybrid
1,5 month
Idea, MVP, prototype

Benefits of the Program

Community

We engage in-house professionals, industry experts, entrepreneurs and people who purely want to help. By taking part in our program, you can meet other founders, strategic partners, or mentors.

Support

1:1 mentoring, lectures and workshops on various topics from fundraising to business development, advice, and know-how handover with zero costs for your team.

Idea validation

Master the art of making business and validate your business model. Pitch your business idea in front of an investor and get feedback that will move you forward.

Don't miss your chance

We are starting this program in spring 2024.
Please, leave us your email and we will notify you, when registration starts.

MENTORS AND SPEAKERS IN SPRING BATCH 2023

Peter Pašek

Peter Pašek

Managing Director & Partner
Accace Slovakia

Peter Pašek

Since 2013, Peter has managed Accace, one of the largest consulting companies on the Slovak market. Recognized as specialist in transaction and tax consulting, he participated in several sales of companies, set up the structure of the transaction and represented companies in negotiations with investors.
Slavo Tuleja

Slavo Tuleja

Managing Partner & Founder
Kiuub

Slavo Tuleja

Slavo is the founder of no-code agency Kiuub & managing partner at Chop Chop Ventures, sector focused pre-seed fund investing in B2B SaaS companies helping SMEs automate & accelerate digital transformation. Also a co-author of The Caffeine Capitalist newsletter.
Andrej Petrus

Andrej Petrus

Chief Investment Officer
ZAKA

Andrej Petrus

From working in AI venture builder and in consulting, Andrej is now leading ZAKA's investment committee. He holds a finance degree from Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Economics in Prague.
Pavlína Louženská

Pavlína Louženská

Founder of #HolkyzMarketingu
& Trendspotterky.com

Pavlína Louženská

Pavlína is a Lead Mentor in Google for Startups for Europe and Africa and various other accelerators. She founded #HolkyzMarketingu and Trendspotterky.com. She regularly sends a newsletter on society and technology pavlinaspeaks.com.
Marianna Szarková

Marianna Szarková

Techband Marketing Manager
& StartuPeak Project Lead

Marianna Szarková

Marianna works as a Marketing Manager at Techband. She co-founded a non-profit initiative StartuPeak with a vision to bring together Slovak startups and motivate talents towards entrepreneurship. Outside of business, the education of young people and the future of Slovakia is very important to her.
Ivana Halpert

Ivana Halpert

People, Planning & Strategy
Aj Ty v IT

Ivana Halpert

Ivana works for the biggest Slovak NGO focused on female education and empowerment Aj Ty v IT. The mission of her job is conceptual cooperation with companies that want to employ and support women in IT positions. She covers HR activities, recruitment, and retention.
Viktor Štefaňák

Viktor Štefaňák

Start-up evangelist

Viktor Štefaňák

Viktor has gained a knowledge and insights from first-time founders´ stories and interaction with CEOs. With an understanding of what it takes to build a successful business, Viktor is dedicated to share these learnings  and help others achieve their goals and build thriving communities.
Patrik Ruman

Patrik Ruman

CEO & Co-founder
Techband

Patrik Ruman

A business and tech enthusiast who likes to push himself and those around him forward. He worked for Exponea and Dateio. Later, he founded his own start-up Techband.io. In his spare time, he contributes to the organisation of the start-up competition CESAwards and building NGO - StartuPeak.
Dominik Illek

Dominik Illek

Chief Marketing Officer
DNA ERA

Dominik Illek

Dominik has extensive experience in marketing, branding, and PR. He served as the Head of Marketing at HubHub by HB Reavis, one of the largest co-working networks in Central Europe. Currently, he holds the position of CMO at a biotech company, DNA ERA.
Tony Dúbravec

Tony Dúbravec

Marketing Consultant & Partner
Wild Cards

Tony Dúbravec

Since 2012 has been working in the social media industry in advertising agencies and marketing departments for Tatra Banka, Heineken and many more brands. Tony founded communication house Wild Cards. He is a lecturer and mentor at Digitálna univerzita and Creative Academy.
Ľubomír Bandžuch

Ľubomír Bandžuch

Channel Sales Lead CZ&SK
Microsoft

Ľubomír Bandžuch

Ľubomír is Channel Sales Lead CZ&SK at Microsoft. He spent most of his career at Microsoft, where he primarily works with Slovak and Czech customers. He specializes in sales, marketing, development strategy and sustainability in CZ&SK from Microsoft perspective and partners solutions.
Jakub Hrušovský

Jakub Hrušovský

Co-founder & Managing partner
Birne

Jakub Hrušovský

Co-founder and managing partner of the Birne marketing studio. As a marketing consultant, he focuses on effective marketing strategies for conscious medium-sized businesses that want to stand out, increase revenue and resonate among their target audience.
Eva Peterková

Eva Peterková

Head of CZ/SK Community & Growth, Hedepy

Eva Peterková

Eva recently joined mental health-focused start-up Hedepy to help building the community and launch new growth projects such as online psychiatry. Previously she led the Business Development team in Biano and gained sales experience in Liftago.
Milan Novotný

Milan Novotný

Director of SEO & Content
CloudTalk

Milan Novotný

Milan’s work revolves around helping SaaS companies optimize their SEO. He helps CloudTalk scale its organic traffic and gain new customers across the globe. Milan works as an educator in the SEO space. He has mentored Techstars start-ups and provided guidance to Depo Ventures VC fund.
Samuel Hopko

Samuel Hopko

Platform Director
CloudTalk

Samuel Hopko

Samuel Hopko has over 8 years of experience working with cloud technologies across industries, from small to large enterprises. Samuel leads a team of three engineers, collaborating on the architecture and implementation of tools to deliver a world-class infrastructure layer for applications.

Meet your Demo day Jury

Peter Pašek

Peter Pašek

Managing Director & Partner
Accace Slovakia

Peter Pašek

Since 2013, Peter has managed Accace, one of the largest consulting companies on the Slovak market. Recognized as specialist in transaction and tax consulting, he participated in several sales of companies, set up the structure of the transaction and represented companies in negotiations with investors.
Slavo Tuleja

Slavo Tuleja

Managing Partner & Founder
Kiuub

Slavo Tuleja

Slavo is the founder of no-code agency Kiuub & managing partner at Chop Chop Ventures, sector focused pre-seed fund investing in B2B SaaS companies helping SMEs automate & accelerate digital transformation. Also a co-author of The Caffeine Capitalist newsletter.
Andrej Petrus

Andrej Petrus

Chief Investment Officer
ZAKA

Andrej Petrus

From working in AI venture builder and in consulting, Andrej is now leading ZAKA's investment committee. He holds a finance degree from Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Economics in Prague.

The Program

Build credibility and visibility with workshops and lectures that can directly impact the future of your start-up.

How does an investor look at a start-up?

Or is start-up valuation really just a myth? Is my business actually a start-up? Why do I have to grow so terribly fast?

Which business model is THE one that sells best to investors?

Or how to validate your idea even before the founder starts presenting it to investors and what KPIs to set for your start-up.

Convertible instrument as the first form of investment in a start-up

Or how not to burn yourself on the pre-money valuation in this investment round. CAP table and why I don't always see every investor there.

How to financially manage a start-up if the company does not have a CFO and the founders have no accounting basics?

What is traction and how is it determined at different stages of a start-up’s life.

Landmines in your future term sheet

Or how to understand it.

How to find your first customers?

How to present your new business idea to your network? How to make use of networking events in sales? How to prepare an elevator pitch of your value proposition?

Lean Startup x No Code

We will discuss popular methodologies such as Lean Startup & Design Thinking in conjunction with the upcoming trend of using No Code to launch your MVPs as oposed to doing custom code.

Trends in B2B / B2C and how they'll affect your business

What are your consumers currently worried or excited about? We'll cover how to adjust your product in order to win their heart. Also I'll introduce you to the essentials of forecasting, so you'll always know how to prepare for the future.

101 People and Culture for start-ups

How to recruit successfully with low budget? How to retain? How to scale up and how to scale down? How to not to get crazy from all that dealing with people?

How to stop chasing your tail in marketing strategy?

We will discuss the importance of a marketing strategy and the approach of how to build one without getting lost.

How to build a community in start-ups?

Let's talk about community management essentials: What is a community, the importance of building one early on in start-up and how to benefit from communities and boost your growth thanks to them.

Market-Channel Fit & SEO: Catapulting Your Startup's First 1K Users

Learn how to pinpoint effective channels, create high-converting landing pages, optimize SEO, and achieve your first 1000 users—all on a budget.

Coming soon

More workshops to be announced soon!

APPLY Today

Get your business off the ground. Join AceON pre-accelerator and get hands-on support from community of industry experts, entrepreneurs, and partners.
Apply now

FAQ

What is the difference between spring pre-accelerator and autumn accelerator?
My start-up is just an idea. Am I too early to apply to the spring pre-accelerator?
Where does the AceON program happen? Is it online, offline or hybrid?
Do you invest in the start-ups that go through the spring pre-accelerator?
What type of start-ups can apply?