Discover the playbooks and behind-the-scenes strategies of some of the most successful consumer products born in our region.
You’ll learn from the teams behind Outfit7 (Talking Tom, 24+ billion downloads), Bird Buddy (the fastest-growing consumer electronics brand in Europe), Gentler Streak (a multiple Apple Award-winning fitness app), and Rolla (pioneers in corporate wellness tech with CEE’s largest seed round).
Whether you’re an early-stage founder or a corporate builder shaping your next B2C breakthrough, these talks will equip you with practical playbooks to scale smarter and faster.
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How to build products that truly resonate with global audiences
- How to validate your ideas early and often—before wasting time and resources
- Why pivoting is not failure, but a strategic move
- How user-centric design becomes a long-term growth engine
[Builder Stage B2C] Mastering Product Validation, Growth, and Strategic Pivots
Powered by: Silicon Gardens. Partner: Nlaw
From building products users love to validating demand and pivoting smartly, these talks deliver practical strategies for every stage of your journey. Learn how the teams behind Gentler Streak, Bird Buddy, Outfit7, and Rolla used user-centric design, market validation, and bold moves to build standout brands, drive millions in revenue, and succeed in competitive markets.
- Design-Driven Growth: How User-Centric Innovation Fuels Success – Jasna Krmelj, Co-founder, CTO & iOS Developer, Gentler Stories
Discover how Gentler Streak, a multiple Apple Award-winning fitness app, used user-centric innovation and design thinking to achieve global success in a highly competitive category. - How to Validate Your Product Before You Build It – Tom Vodopivec, COO, Bird Buddy
Learn how Bird Buddy validated demand before developing their product, leveraging crowdfunding and iterative customer feedback to generate €130M in revenue and create one of Europe’s fastest-growing consumer brands. - Product Validation in Different Stages: Between Science and Gut Feeling – Ante Odić, Senior VP of Product Development, Outfit7
Hear how Outfit7, the creator of Talking Tom, continuously validates product ideas at different stages, balancing scientific data with intuition to maintain global success with billions of downloads. - Pivoting from B2C to B2B – Igor Čarapina, COO, Rolla
Get an inside look at how Rolla successfully transitioned from a direct-to-consumer model to B2B, revolutionizing corporate wellness tech and securing the largest seed round in CEE’s fitness tech space.
[Builder Stage B2C] Scaling, Reinventing, and Powering B2C Growth
Powered by: Silicon Gardens. Partner: Vesna VC
Learn how to scale with an exit in mind, reinvent a business after setbacks, build products that reach millions, and engineer high-performance marketing machines. Top leaders from Photomath, Mimo, Nordeus, and Bible Chat will share real-world lessons on growth, resilience, and scaling consumer brands to global success.
- How to Scale Your Product with an Exit in Mind – Jennifer Lee, Partner at GSV Ventures, United States
Former Chief Growth Officer at Photomath (acquired by Google), Jennifer will reveal strategies for scaling a product with acquisition goals in mind, and share growth insights from the edtech world. - The Hard Lessons of Reinventing a Leaner, Stronger Business – Johannes Berger, Co-founder & CEO, Mimo
Hear the behind-the-scenes story of how Mimo, a leading coding education platform with 25M+ users, reinvented itself through major strategic pivots—and came out stronger than ever. - From 0 to 1: Building and Scaling a B2C Product – Andrej Kugonič, VP of Marketing, Nordeus
Drawing from his 9-year journey scaling Top Eleven to 300M users worldwide, Andrej shares practical lessons on product growth, building global communities, and sustaining success in competitive consumer markets. - How to Build a Growth Marketing Machine – Marius Iordache, Co-founder & CTO, Bible Chat
Discover how Bible Chat built a data-driven performance marketing engine that scaled from $0 to $700K monthly spend in just a year—driving them to 10M users, $15M ARR, and the App Store’s top 13 ranking.
🧭 Hosted by Tena Žganec
Project Manager at Innovation Centre Nikola Tesla (ICENT) and Nuqleus, a driving force behind Croatia’s deep-tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
🎟️ Special offer for builders
If you’re a startup or scaleup founder, operator, or team member eager to sharpen your go-to-market strategy and learn from those who’ve done it before, we’ve got something special for you.
Get your Startup Basic ticket for just 195 EUR and gain access to the full Builders Stage program, investor networking, and more.
⚡ Tickets are limited—secure yours now and join us in Maribor from May 12–14!
🧠 Come for the insights, leave with actionable strategies that will drive your next big success.
This session is part of the Builders Stage B2B program, powered by Silicon Gardens. The partner of this block is Nlaw & VESNA VC. It’s one of many deep-dive sessions across Builders Stage, where 20+ experienced founders and operators from the region’s top tech companies share strategies that actually work.
