Month: April 2026

Trip Status:

7/15 and 8/15 Cities ✅

(Track live where I am: here)

Eight countries in, and the talent keeps showing up in ways that surpass all expectations.

Not because of the ideas, the ideas are rarely revolutionary at this stage.

It’s the profiles. It’s how they think.

It’s the fact that a room of 15 people can feel like 50 because every single person in it has something to prove and the track record to back it up.

Zagreb and Budapest were two of the strongest rooms on the tour so far.

Between two cities, this is what was sitting in those chairs.

Up close, these are the 2 GOLDMINES:

ZAGREB, Croatia: The room that caught me lying

I mixed real, validated problems with some I made up for the exercise.

With no real data behind them and no evidence anyone had actually experienced the problem.

Just well-framed questions that sounded plausible.

Zagreb caught them.

They pushed back, questioned the assumptions, asked where the data came from.

That alone put them in a different category.

Then one of them found out I’m the one who makes the selection decisions, and he tried to..BRIBE me:)

Not literally, but when he found out I’m the one who makes the selection decisions, he switched into founder mode: who is this person, what does he like, how do I build a relationship with him, what do I need to do to get into ReaktorX?

What impressed me most was how they worked together.

Individually, each of them had a strong competitive spirit.

But THE MOMENT they started working in groups, that competitiveness turned into pure collaboration.

One of them was building a connection app, and we ended up talking after the event and worked out together that Zagreb is never a big enough market for what he’s building.

There are five million people. If you narrow the target, statistically, you’re looking at a business worth tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of millions.

He got it immediately, and that’s the kind of thinking that scales.

I stayed way longer than planned.

Missed my bus to Budapest.

But..completely worth it.

BUDAPEST, Hungary: I needed to be in this room more than they needed me.

I showed up running on empty. No sleep, no food, missed my bus out of Zagreb.

There were 4 high schoolers in the corner building a Sidequest Platform, where you find activities to do with friends.

Great concept, great positioning, and…2,000 users on a waitlist.

Then I noticed one participant with a notebook, writing everything down.

One. Across. Eight. Countries.

He didn’t miss a single thing.

Turns out he is an olympic medalist. Very analytical, tactical, attentive to every detail.

Then there was a gold medalist (STEM Olympiad) working on algorithms and superclassifications.

Incredible profile, but what made him stand out wasn’t the CV.

He asked the right questions, stayed curious and also knew how to joke around.

At the end of the evening, someone asked where they ranked against the other countries. Not to fish for a compliment, but to understand where they stand. That’s healthy competitiveness.

That’s the kind of question a founder asks.

None of it would have happened without Adam Domokos, who pushed for the event without anyone asking him to. When someone cares that much about making something happen before they even have a reason to, that tells you everything about how they’ll run a company.

Shoutout to our Zagreb and Budapest partners: Farseer, SQ Capital, KUT, Startup Hungary, Portfolion, Interactive Venture Partners and STRT Holding for making these events happen!

Eight countries down. Seven to go.

The talent was always here. Most people just weren’t looking hard enough.

The Debrief after each stop lands right here.

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If you’re a builder ready to take the next step or an LP looking for early access to ReaktorX, DM me on LinkedIn.

Time to clock the breakthroughs.

Trip Status: 1/3 of CEE ground covered ✅

(Track live where I am here)

One pattern keeps showing up…and it has nothing to do with talent.

Thirty years ago, the parents of this generation were told: if you stand out, you make yourself a target, so stay in your lane.

That was the survival protocol.

Today, if you don’t stand out, you don’t exist.

This tour keeps showing me that many of them are done with walking in the same footprints…

BELGRADE: Showing up is the first act of defiance

People showed up on the second day of Easter.

That alone tells you a lot about their focus and willingness to go the extra mile.

No wonder Eastern Europeans are known for their work ethic and resilience:)

What I loved about these builders:

That level of depth, in a brainstorming session, was impressive.

Combine that with deep industry knowledge and you get the standout of the evening.

Two girls in cybersecurity.

Pragmatic. Deeply knowledgeable. Aware of who the right people are and where to find them.

SARAJEVO: Where the ceiling started rising

The room was at full capacity. People showed up well-dressed and with their serious attitude on.

I got asked about mistakes I made, what I’m building, what happened to our portfolio companies.

Good thing I had Milan Samardžić and Igor Golub from ExPi there to cover the last part 🙂

A lot of “well… when you put it that way” moments in that room.

Here’s what actually shifted:

• From “I need a certificate” to “I just need to start”

A girl asked where she could learn robotics and bio-engineering.

Wanted a place that gives out a certificate.

But..entrepreneurship doesn’t ask what credentials you have. The internet is free.

• From “let someone else handle it” to “take the hardest task”

A student told me his team of four had one person doing all the work on a procedural generation project in Godot. The others were just watching.

I told him: split the work in four and take the hardest task. The procedural height map generation. It was the opposite of what he’d planned.

• From “I can’t get go to Harvard” to “is it even worth it anymore?”

I asked the room how many had applied to Ivy League Schools. Nobody did, so I asked why.

One student said “finances”.

Another one “I don’t think I’m good enough”.

Then a guy in the front row said “It’s not relevant anymore.”

He’s right. Here is why:

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So, if you’re a builder ready to take the next step, or an LP looking to get early access to ReaktorX, DM me on LinkedIn.

Tour status: 5/15 countries ✅

We’re reporting back from Bulgaria and Skopje, and for a good reason.

The advice has been the same for ages: find your co-founder early, align on vision, lock in equity, and move together.

It made sense when your options were limited to the people in your environment.

It makes less sense when you’re about to fly to SF for a month alongside 15 teams.

Here’s exactly why:

Bulgaria: the analytical room

There were 35+ builders set on solving problems using their analytical thinking and reasoning.

Here’s what they actually did, so you understand what an investor is observing when they evaluate you:

Reached for frameworks

One of them dropped “design thinking” mid-conversation. He didn’t use it correctly, but that’s not the point.

These are students with no formal startup training. Knowing the framework exists and reaching for it anyway already puts you ahead of most people in the room.

Questioned the question

A group was working on how to help athletes train for longer. One of them, an athlete himself, stopped everyone and said: the problem isn’t about training longer, it’s about recovering faster.

And he wasn’t the only one. Most of them were looking at the questions on the table and said: this doesn’t sound right, I think the actual problem is somewhere else.

That capability, to question the question, is one of the clearest signals of developed critical thinking. Most people accept the frame they’re given.

Landed on conclusions on their own

At the debrief, one of them pointed out that working in a large group was a mistake. He should have joined a smaller one, because they moved faster and talked more bluntly.

I asked him: so why did you stay in the large group?

“Comfort”

Correct. And what’s the lesson? Leave comfort behind.

In the large groups everyone is looking for consensus. As an early stage founder, you want a small group of exceptional people who will tell each other the truth.

But…

Skopje: the room that turned a jacuzzi into a gaming spot. Literally.

It was the most unique room I’ve stepped into on this tour. These builders were high in EQ and creativity, and it showed in the way they solved problems and interacted:

The idea that redefined how we travel

One guy came up with the concept of an app where you plan a trip, save it as a template, and whenever someone else copies your trip, you earn a commission and they receive discounts.

The concept would be a unique travel experience based on real trips from real people, not influencers or travel guides.

How a small gesture will get you remembered

At the end of the evening, one of the participants found me and said: “I saved you two of the chocolate rolls, I noticed you liked them and didn’t get to eat many”.

She noticed a small thing that cost her nothing to act on, and that got her remembered.

That ability to notice what people need before they say it is the same ability you use to find product-market fit.

Yet…

Two extremes complete each other 🤝

Bulgaria thinks in solutions. North Macedonia thinks in possibilities. Neither is complete without the other.

And yet if I had asked everyone in both rooms to find a co-founder before applying, most of them would have paired up with the person sitting next to them.

Blagica said it better than I would have:

Don’t tie yourself to someone from your city when you might find the perfect co-founder in SF, or in the batch.

That’s why I actually prefer that you apply solo.

The tools available to a solo founder in 2026 make it possible to build, validate, and get to first revenue without needing a second person to split the work.

Find the right person once you know what you’re building and what you actually need from them.

If you’re a builder ready to take the next step or an LP looking for early access to ReaktorX, DM me on LinkedIn.

The debrief lands here after each event. Make sure you subscribe to stay in the loop:)

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Tour Status: 2/15 Cities ✅

Chișinău was a blast. 40+ students asked question after question, dove deeper at every turn, and pushed back on ideas without hesitation.

No wonder so many top companies were founded by people from the CEE region.

Now imagine recruiting them early, cultivating that raw talent, and flying them to SF where the environment works in their favor.

Oh wait, we’re doing exactly that 🙂

They knew nothing about the exercise going in.

I gave them 40 minutes: 10 to think individually and write down their ideas, 30 to work in groups.

They asked a few questions upfront to understand the rules, and then they got to work.

With no hesitation, they adapted to the scenario, the ideas, and the situation as we went on.

Here are the traits I look for:

The key to building the right solution is being genuinely interested in the problem you’re solving and the people experiencing it.

One group was working on a problem involving athletes and didn’t think to ask if anyone in the room was actually an athlete. I pointed that out and walked away. Under three minutes later, I heard one of the girls from that same group ask: “Has anyone here personally experienced this problem?”

She didn’t wait to be taught twice.

It shows up as the ability to think deeply and connect the dots between everything happening around you.

There was a guy in the room and every time he spoke, people turned to listen. He didn’t just share a conclusion, but walked everyone through the entire thinking process that got him there.

That tells me I can spend two weeks with you and by the end of it, you’ve learned everything you need to start building.

Thinking for yourself, learning things nobody told you to learn, and always finding a way forward.

One girl disagreed with something I said and wanted to approach the problem differently. Perfect 🙂

Another wanted to go from being introverted to extroverted. I told her to take acting classes. That shows willingness to get over your fears for the greater good:)

Then there was a team building a democracy tracker, built on blockchain. They want to make voting transparent and easy to verify.

Who can say young people are not interested in politics now?;)

Another team was building AI video detection for journalists to cross-verify news before publishing. They already had 3,000 users.

That’s high agency. You don’t wait for permission to take action.

I personally came to SF one year ago with no brand, no network, just my experience and the figure-it-out gene.

Now I get to travel to 15 countries, recruit the top 1% talent, fund them, and fly them to SF to build global companies from day one.

📍Next stop? Already in Sofia, Bulgaria

( but you can track me live here )

The Debrief after each event lands right here, so might as well subscribe.

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If you’re a builder ready to take the next step, a partner who wants to plug in, or an LP looking for early access to ReaktorX, DM me on LinkedIn.

P.S. Huge thanks to Artcor Creative Center for hosting us!

TRIP STATUS 1/15 Cities ✅

(Track live where I am: reaktorx.com/cee-friends)

We’re throwing Brainstorming Parties across 15 CEE countries to recruit next batch for ReaktorX, the only SF-based fund betting exclusively on builders U25 who show real promise and have the drive to build something global.

There are three things I’m watching:

1. How you think when you’re faced with a problem you don’t have an answer to.

2. Whether you can engage with complexity instead of avoiding it.

3. If you naturally step up and lead when the room needs direction.

📍First stop: Builders House, Bucharest.

30+ builders showed up with curiosity, and in under two hours, they went from asking themselves if they were good enough to apply, to getting into problems they’d never touched before.

The spotlight of the evening:

THE PLUMBATHON

One participant decided to answer the question:

How might we help young people get into the trades industry?

The solution he came up with:

Competitions for young tradespeople, structured like hackathons, where they show up, demonstrate their skills and rank against their peers, to show they’re ready to have independent projects.

How he got here:

• The specific problem: To gain trust and prove their expertise, young tradespeople spend months, sometimes years, working under a senior before landing independent projects. The process of gaining legitimacy is too slow.

• Market opportunity: demand in the trades industry is rising, so the actual problem is getting more people prepared to meet that demand, faster.

• The reasoning: if the tech industry has hackathons to compress the time in which young people can prove their worth, create visibility and build trust, why not create something similar for the trades industry?

Now, let me tell you how an investor who bets on young people sees this way of thinking:

The tech industry and the trades industry couldn’t be further apart.

This participant took a concept native to one world and adapted it to fit into a completely opposite industry.

That showed me they have cross-industry thinking, which plays a great deal in building a global company.

But when it comes to other solutions found that evening, there’s only one thing to say:

THE RISKIEST THING YOU CAN DO IS PLAY IT SAFE

The biggest mistake I saw that evening was people playing not to lose.

They went for familiar problems, the kind they knew they could handle, thinking that was going to secure them a spot.

The goal is the opposite. I put hard questions on that table not for you to come back with a fully formed concept, but to see how you think.

So you need to shift from:

“I’m going to get into problems I know I can solve” →

“This problem requires deep expertise, I can’t fully assess it right now, but here’s where I would start, here’s what I’d validate, and here’s how long it would actually take.”

In short: the move that feels the safest can actually cost you the big win.

INSIDE THE PROGRAM: WHAT THE WEBSITE DOESN’T TELL YOU

Here’s exactly what’s going to happen between now and San Francisco.

The Call

At the end of May, we’re selecting 40 people from all applications for a 15-minute call, when we’ll ask why you should be selected, what makes you different, what your plan looks like when you land in the US.

The Follow up

From those 40, between 15 and 20 people may join a second call, longer, with me and the investment partners I work with.

The Selection

By June 20, the 15 teams joining the program will be announced.

Two Weeks in Europe

Mid July, the whole batch spends two weeks in Europe, where you find or adapt your idea and go from concept to traction through intensive workshops.

The Goal is to leave for San Francisco with a working prototype and client meetings already booked.

San Francisco

On August 1st, you fly in.

What’s actually going to happen when you land there?

That’s for the next newsletter.

Whether you’re a founder who wants to apply, an LP who wants early access or a potential partner

DM me here