Plug and Play Tech Center's Main Impact: Mentors

I keep sharing behind-the-scenes processes from Plug and Play Central Asia and Caucasus, and once again I want to say this: the best part of joining an incubation program is the mentors. Every week, 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀…

𝗬𝗖 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗸

I think everyone has already seen the news that Y Combinator has partnered with more than 20 companies to offer free AI credits for students. This is great news! In addition to $20,000 in Cloud Credits (Amazon Web Services (AWS)…

Plug and Play Tech Center 𝗶𝗻 𝗨𝘇𝗯𝗲𝗸𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻 (𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝟰)

Accelerator program with Batch 6 is about to kick off in Uzbekistan very soon, and in the meantime I’m putting together a sectors map for Batch 4 (Batch 3 https://lnkd.in/dCYdXVXJ). And thanks to this time…

January 2026 isn’t even over yet, and there are already plenty of opportunities to start the year in a way that benefits your startup. Sharing three options:

EPIC - Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center Incubation Program | Spring 2026
Deadline:…

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲

Lately, a “reach-first” format has become popular: collecting dozens of pitch-deck slides in Figma and asking people in the comments to “rate them.” From what I’m seeing, it often turns into activity theater and gives founders very little…

𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗖 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

On Monday, I attended the EPIC - Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center Incubation Fall 2025 Demo Day. It was truly inspiring to hear the pitches from 6 startups that completed the 15-week flagship program supporting early…

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝘂𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆

What a productive week it’s been with the Plug and Play Central Asia and Caucasus mentors. As expected, the end of the program is coming, and it’s time to sharpen the story before the final battle. This week I worked on…

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 “𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲”?

It’s a surprisingly non-trivial question, LinkedIn doesn’t really offer advanced analytics for this kind of analysis. Personally, I export my stats day by day, which is quite tedious if you want to look deeper than the…

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝟭 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻!

This is already the third post in my series about an open database of Armenia-related startups. This post needs your support, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱. Fill out this short form to become part of the startup…

𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆?

Yes — but only if we first agree on what we actually mean by “nationality.” A startup doesn’t have a single passport. It usually has multiple “anchors,” and depending on the context, a different one becomes the primary.…

𝗣𝗻𝗣 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 (𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝟮)

Last week, the 2nd Cohort of the Plug and Play Tech Center Tirana Accelerator Program officially kicked off and for me it 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 to identify all 24 startups joining the cohort. The program will unfold through…

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗩𝗖𝘀?

In early March, the TAOS team will take part in Mobile World Capital Barcelona 2026, so the first week of March will be as productive as possible.

A quick intro: TAOS is a predictive risk-modeling platform for diabetes complications.…

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀: 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Today I’m making Valentine’s Day cards but for startups.
Not for “perfect couples,” but for those who’ve already pivoted three times, gone through down rounds, are running on coffee and hope, and are still building…

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁?

Continuing my #InsightsHunt series, I looked at the 2025 investment activity of AloqaVentures (source in the comments): 43 deals, $5,255,000 deployed.
Here’s the pattern that jumped out, investments of ≤$50k account for 56%…

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗮𝗺 𝗜?

For the past few years, I’ve been struggling with a simple question that comes up again and again: “So… who are you? What do you do?”

It’s difficult to answer because my work doesn’t fit neatly into one title.
𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬.…

𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹: 500 Eurasia 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝟭𝟬 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀

The startup application deadline was extended — but there are only hours left before submissions close. Alongside the investment ticket, the program offers a top-tier acceleration program (no participation…

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘅: 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻, 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁

Why do founders lose the CEO seat so fast? The data is pretty blunt.
Across multiple datasets, the share of startups where the founder is still CEO drops steadily as the company scales: from ~96–100% at founding to ~39–41%…

𝗣𝗹𝘂𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝟮 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗱

18 weeks behind us — a lot or a little? Dozens of sessions with Plug and Play Tech Center’s international mentors, hundreds of hypotheses around product, sales, and fundraising, and thousands of hours of…

𝟯𝟬𝟬+ 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗱/𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗩𝗖𝘀

Many of you already know that the TAOS team, led by Gera Avagyan, is heading to Spain for Mobile World Capital Barcelona 2026, and we want to meet as many Spanish VCs as possible. That’s why I’ve been building a detailed database…