Timi is an entrepreneur with experience building and growing businesses and organizations across Europe. Before co-founding GrowEurope, he joined HandyHostel as a co-founder and helped expand it across European markets, and coordinated AED’s growth into Slovenia’s largest NGO by tax-income donations. He previously worked at Google and today focuses on European internationalisation, strategic partnerships, and market access, helping companies navigate local ecosystems and build relationships across Europe.

Are you focused on the right market and segment to scale in Europe? We’ll guide participants through a practical process to diagnose what may be constraining growth, compare opportunities across European markets based on both attractiveness and their right to win, and define how to win through positioning and the right go-to-market approach.

Tilen is a marketing and growth professional with over five years of experience helping companies expand across European markets. He has served as CMO of two compliance-focused SaaS companies, leading marketing, positioning, demand generation, and growth across the EU. He has also founded and led his own marketing agency, working with companies across Europe on go-to-market strategy, customer acquisition, and market expansion.

A key part of this will be market access: how local ecosystems, partnerships, and networks can become a competitive advantage in European expansion. We’ll then show how to test these choices through targeted market experiments before committing significant resources, with participants applying the framework to their own growth opportunities in the Miro exercise

Fernando Jardim is a seasoned ecosystem builder with 16 years of experience in innovation and tech. He has founded three startups, worked with global ecosystems, and supported accelerators, incubators, and governments in attracting startups, investors, and tech hubs. He also founded the 351 Portuguese Startup Association, now Portugal’s largest and most active startup community, with 2.300+ members, 80+ volunteers, and 20+ national projects. In 2024 alone, Fernando has led 160+ initiatives, impacting 31,000+ people and 4,000 startups. One of his projects, Portugal Tech Week, won the European Enterprise Promotion Award for fostering entrepreneurship -an initiative of the European Commission that distinguishes the best business promotion projects and initiatives in the 27 Member States of the European Union. He also advises policymakers globally, participating in OECD and Startup Genome events.

The traditional start-up playbook no longer applies in the era of AI-native start-ups. What once required an entire team to reach key milestones can now be achieved by a single founder working with a team of AI agents. In Silicon Valley, organisations such as YC, Techstars and the Founders Institute are already teaching this new playbook from day one.

Nuno Fernandes is co-founder and CEO of DIG-IN, a data intelligence scale-up for the HoReCa sector, with clients including some of the leading FMCG brands and restaurant groups. He joined Zomato Portugal in 2014, where he worked in sales, product and partnerships. In 2021, together with other members of the local team, he helped carry out the management buy-out (MBO) that led to the creation of DIG-IN. He has a degree in Linguistics and an Executive Master’s from INDEG-ISCTE. He loves running and eating (some say he only does the former so he can keep doing the latter).

Drawing inspiration from the models of Zomato and DIG-IN, I will provide context and information on growth strategy, alternatives, focus and persistence. The aim will be an initial presentation, followed by an overview of DIG-IN’s journey at key milestones related to the topic. This will be followed by practical exercises tailored to each start-up’s stage of development, with insights drawn from real-world market experience.

Constanze Bolsch is a business and marketing strategy advisor, founder and business angel with more than ten years of leadership experience and five years of advisory work across industries. As Managing Director of GLOSSYBOX DACH, she held P&L responsibility for an €18 million business; she has also founded the sustainable brand Coneli and advised growth companies including JACKS beauty line. Through core&beyond, Constanze helps leaders and founders use AI with clarity and confidence—translating technology into practical systems that strengthen decision-making, reduce unnecessary complexity and create space for meaningful growth.

Sales becomes more predictable when founders make clear choices about who they serve, why those customers buy, and what must happen at each step from first conversation to close. In this practical workshop, participants will use a simple Sales Operating System Canvas to sharpen their priority customer segment, value proposition and proof points; define a focused lead-to-close process; and identify one commercial experiment to run next. Constanze will also show where AI can usefully support research, preparation, drafting and CRM workflow—without replacing founder judgement, relationships or commercial thinking.

Pedro is a tech executive and founder with two decades of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, and global leadership roles at firms like Devoteam, Capgemini, and ESW Capital. He has become an expert in scaling businesses and leading distributed teams across borders. In 2020, he founded BRIDGE IN, a company that simplifies payroll, accounting, and compliance for international businesses, freeing them to focus on their best work.

Growing a business abroad successfully requires a global mindset, delivered locally. Every geography is different, and you must plan accordingly. Using international partners or local salespeople might feel comfortable when dealing with the unknown, but it can also be the most costly way to learn a market. There is much you can do from your home office. Outbound sales are overrated for international expansion.

Mariana works on the Startups Team at Web Summit, where she curates and selects the most promising startups for Web Summit events globally. With a background in the Portuguese innovation ecosystem, including her previous role at Unicorn Factory Lisboa, she is dedicated to driving ecosystem growth by connecting high-potential startups, investors, and strategic partners.

Anshul Punhani is a global marketing & growth leader with 28+ years of experience across large corporations and early-stage ventures. He has led the business, go-to-market, brand, and growth initiatives at companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Monster, and multiple B2B SaaS startups. He currently serves as a fractional CMO & Strategy Lead for startups across Europe, the UK, and the Middle East in the domain of Tech, Agritech, Creative Economy - Art, AI, Edutech, B2B & B2C SaaS. Currently he is actively involved in three different startups - capability & growth consultancy, an AI GTM engineering platform and a Market-Driven AI Capability & Scale-Up platform. Anshul teaches Strategic Innovation Management and Cross-cultural studies, at the bachelor's & master's level in universities in Lisbon. His work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, AI, storytelling, and execution. In addition he is also the lead for FuckUp Nights here in Portugal.

Most founders in an accelerator are already decent at building slides. What loses them the room is the telling - no hook, no context, features instead of stakes, and repeating the same script to an investor, a customer and a partner as if all three wanted the same thing. So the session is about the narrative, not the design. I call it Pitch-elling: truth, wrapped in context, told with emotion. An hour of content in four blocks - why pitches fail and the killers I see most; the narrative spine from hook to ask, built around Imagine a world where…; how the same story shifts across investors, customers and partners; and how to pick the two or three numbers that actually make it believable. Then they rebuild their own on Miro, I work the boards, and 2–3 pitch live and get it torn apart constructively in front of the group.