Our Services
For Ecosystem Builders
Running an innovation program is harder than it looks. Designing it well is only the start. You still need rigorous selection, and mentors who give teams what they actually need, not what they asked for.
We have been inside that problem from every angle: designing and directing programs for national innovation funds and EU-funded initiatives, serving as external evaluators and selection committee members across accelerators and funding bodies, and mentoring cohorts through eight active national and regional programs.
Our engagements in program design and delivery have been commissioned by EBRD, UNDP, the World Bank Group, GIZ, SECO and OECD/SIGMA — across Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and beyond. Our founders sit as appointed advisors to the Innovation Fund of Serbia and the Science Fund of Serbia, and on the external expert and evaluator lists of programs funded by EBRD and Swiss SECO.
We are three founders and a standing network of consultants, trainers, domain experts and technical specialists we have delivered with across the region — so we scope the team to the program rather than to whoever happens to be free.
If you need a program built from scratch, an existing one independently evaluated, or experienced practitioners to strengthen your mentoring bench, we plug in where you need us, with the same rigor we bring to every team we work with. CVs, reference letters and statements of capacity are available on request; tell us what your procurement process needs.
Where we come in
Problems we solve
We have more applications than we can defensibly score
We serve as external evaluators, running structured grid scoring with calibration anchors and red-flag analysis that catches what checkbox scoring misses.
Our teams all need different help and we can't match expertise to stage
We assess each team individually and recommend the specific support they need at that exact moment, instead of giving a whole cohort the same thing.
We need to take teams from an idea to a working MVP
We design the program structure and deliver the workshops: problem definition, experimentation, MVP building, pitching, sequenced so teams actually move.
Our portfolio needs hands-on help, not another lecture
We mentor teams on the real work: pricing, demo playbooks, partner channels, fundraising narrative. Founders leave with materials they run themselves.
We need to know our grant money bought evidence, not guesswork
We guide funded teams through experiments and business model definition so the money produces market input, including the decision to stop when that is the honest answer.
Something else, or I'm not sure which of these it is
Tell us what your program needs and we'll work out whether we're the right fit for it.
Selected work
What that looked like
Accelerators, incubators, science and technology parks, national innovation funds and development programs across the Western Balkans and CEE.
Science Technology Park Belgrade · Raising Starts
Selecting an accelerator's next generation
Challenge: The Swiss SECO-funded accelerator needed rigorous, defensible scoring of dozens of applications for its fifth generation. What we did: Served as external evaluators — structured grid scoring complemented by calibration anchors and red-flag analysis that catches what checkbox scoring misses. Outcome: A jointly calibrated final ranking, delivered on time and accepted in full.
NALED · StarTech
Mentoring across accelerator cycles
Challenge: High-potential startups in Serbia's flagship digitalization program needed working sales, pricing and go-to-market help, not lectures. What we did: Mentored teams across two cycles on value-based pricing, demo playbooks, partner-channel strategy and fundraising narratives, plus cohort workshops on product-market fit and go-to-market. Outcome: Mentees left with playbooks they run themselves; the mentoring drew top marks in final program reviews.
ERSTE Foundation · MARC
Scaling social ventures across CEE
Challenge: An international impact program needed both credible selection and hands-on scaling support for social ventures across six countries. What we did: Two Zavisi founders ran the Serbian selection (16 applicants to 12) and mentored four ventures — from brand architecture and pricing to B2B go-to-market — through to the final pitching event. Outcome: Four ventures presented sharper models and market strategies at the closing re:MARC event.
X2.0 · deep tech growth program
Matching deep tech teams to the right support
Challenge: Deep tech startups each needed a different kind of support at a different moment. The hard part was matching the right expertise to the right team at the right time, not offering support in general. What we did: Assessed every startup in the program individually and recommended the specific expertise needed at that exact stage. Outcome: 50 teams supported — everything from lab access and R&D facilities through to sales and marketing help.
Smart Start · Innovation Fund of Serbia
Making sure a €45K grant buys evidence, not guesswork
Challenge: Get teams to a validated idea and market-ready inside six months, while making sure they got the full value out of their €45K grant instead of burning it on guesswork. What we did: Guided several teams each cycle through experiments, business model definition and launch prep. Outcome: Teams left with concrete market input: pivoting, growing, or making the call to close, all on evidence instead of gut feeling.
Tehnopolis Montenegro · ProblemFirst, ProtoBIT, IdeaLab
Programs covering every stage from idea to MVP
Challenge: Build a set of programs covering every stage of early startup development — problem-solution fit, a low-fidelity prototype, and finally a real MVP. What we did: Advised on program structure and composition, then delivered the workshops covering problem definition, experimentation, MVP building and pitching. Outcome: 60% of teams finished the full program with a working MVP — roughly double the completion rate typical of idea-stage programs, and without the fees or equity those programs use to hold attendance.
Natal Academy · Natal Startup Studio
The region's first program for AI-native founders
Challenge: The first startup studio in the Western Balkans focused on AI-native companies needed a rigorous founder program for a highly selective cohort of eight. The challenge was not teaching AI, but teaching AI-native founders to identify problems worth solving and validate the riskiest assumptions before building — in a context where the speed of AI-assisted building makes undisciplined founders more dangerous, not less. What we did: Served as both lecturer and mentor. Delivered two core sessions — The Problem Worth Your Time, on prioritizing genuine market problems over technically interesting but commercially weak ones, and The Riskiest Assumption, on isolating and testing the single assumption that could kill a business before any other. Ran individual mentoring on customer discovery, validation design and go-to-market, and helped develop the studio model itself through introductions to corporate partners. Outcome: Eight founders completed the program with validated ideas, executed customer discovery, and pivot decisions grounded in evidence rather than intuition. All produced investor-ready decks. Natal Academy established itself as the region's first structured environment for AI-native company building.
Track record
