AI
Products where the model is the product, or where it quietly makes an old job ten times easier.
- Agents and tooling
- Applied AI in a real industry
- Developer infrastructure
Bansko, Bulgaria · Pirin mountains
Three months in the mountains to build the thing you keep postponing.
Startup Bansko is an incubator for early-stage founders working in AI, sustainability, or art. Mentorship, working sessions, startup perks — and a whole town of people building something too.
Winter cohort · ski & spa
Summer cohort · hike & festivals
3 months, in person
~10 coworking spaces
In a mountain town. That ratio tells you who moved here.
Run by founders who have been through the incubator and accelerator machine themselves — and built:
What we incubate
AI, sustainability, art — and the overlaps.
Pick one or bring a project that sits between them. The applications that sit in the overlap tend to be the most interesting ones we get.
Sustainability
Impact that survives contact with a spreadsheet — measurable, and viable as a business.
- Climate and circularity
- Supply-chain transparency
- Measurement and reporting
Art
Creative practice with a business around it — tools for artists, or art that is itself the venture.
- Creative tools and platforms
- Digital and physical craft
- Culture as a product
The programme
Four things you get. The last one is the point.
Three months, in person, with a cohort small enough that everybody knows what everybody else is working on.
Mentorship
Founders and operators who have actually shipped. Some live here year-round; others come in for a week. Matched to your track, not assigned by rota.
Education
Working sessions on what early teams get wrong: first users, positioning, pricing, what a pre-seed deck really has to prove, shipping with AI daily.
Perks
Credits and discounts across cloud, AI, CRM and tooling — the usual accelerator stack, plus local perks you can’t get remotely.
Community
The real reason to come. You never feel alone here, and the people around you are building the next great thing right beside you.
3months, in person
2cohorts a year
~10coworking spaces in town
1mountain range: Pirin
Why Bansko
A ski town that quietly became a builder town.
Cheap enough to stay three months. Fast enough to work from. Beautiful enough that you don’t want to leave. Small enough that you know everyone by week two.
Fast, cheap, and set up for this
Excellent wifi, roughly ten coworking spaces, coliving as well as regular rentals, and accommodation affordable enough that three months of thinking isn’t three months of earning.
A community that already exists
A settled expat and remote-work scene lives here year-round — not a seasonal pop-up. Nomads return every summer for the nomad festival. Mentors live here.
The mountains do half the work
Pirin National Park starts at the edge of town. Deep focus during the day, and something genuinely worth walking into afterwards.
Two cohorts a year
Same programme. Very different three months.
Pick the season that matches how you work best — or tell us you’re happy with either.
Winter cohort
Short days, long evenings, and a town that turns inward. The best cohort if you want to disappear into the work and come out with a product. Ski before the first session or after the last one; recover in the thermal spas.
Summer cohort
Light until late and everybody outdoors. Hiking and biking in Pirin, Nomad Fest filling the town with builders, and the jazz festival in the old centre. The best cohort if you want to meet people while you build.
Perks
The unglamorous part that saves you real money.
Startup credit codes and discounts — the same stack incubators and accelerators hand out, so your runway goes further. Plumbing, not a reason to apply.
The usual accelerator stack
Cloud credits, AI credits, CRM, design and developer tooling — the services you’d be paying for anyway.
AWS
Google Cloud
DigitalOcean
HubSpot
Notion
Figma
Stripe
AI model credits
The ones you can only get here
Local perks are the genuinely differentiated half, and no remote programme can match them.
Coworking rates
Coliving rates
Ski passes
Spa access
Mentor time
Municipality support
Who runs it
Both of us have sat on your side of the table.
We’ve been through incubators and accelerators as founders — applications, demo days, the useful parts and the theatre. This programme is built out of what actually helped.
Toshi
Todor Lazov · Co-founder
Serial tech founder. Product Lead & CTO and co-founder of goodbag, rated 5/5 in the Verbraucherzentrale app test and featured in Forbes Bulgaria. Co-founded the first tablet-menu restaurant in the German-speaking world. Alumnus of i2C at TU Wien, IKEA Bootcamp, Maze-X and BMW Foundation Respond. Born Global Champion (Austrian Federal Economic Chamber). Lives in Bansko.
Kat
Kat Stam · Co-founder
Founder and programme builder, with a track record across some of Europe’s most selective startup programmes — including the European Space Agency’s startup ecosystem and Google for Startups. Brings the applicant’s-eye view of what a good programme owes its cohort.
FAQ
Questions we get asked.
Who is Startup Bansko for?
Early-stage founders — solo or small teams of up to about four — building in AI, sustainability, or art. You should have an idea you’re serious about and three months you can genuinely commit.
Do I need a finished product?
No. Idea stage is welcome. What we look for is a clear problem, a reason it’s you working on it, and evidence you can ship.
Do I need funding?
No. Unfunded and bootstrapped teams are the core audience. The application asks about funding so we can match mentors and expectations, not to filter you out.
How long is the programme, and when does it run?
Three months, in person, twice a year — one winter cohort and one summer cohort.
Winter or summer — which should I pick?
Winter is quieter and colder, with skiing and thermal spas; the best cohort for heads-down building. Summer has hiking, biking, Nomad Fest and the jazz festival; the best cohort for meeting people. Both do the same programme.
Do I have to be in Bansko the whole time?
Essentially, yes. The community is the point and it doesn’t work remotely. Trips away are fine; treating it as a remote programme isn’t.
What does the programme include?
Mentorship from founders who’ve shipped, working sessions on the things early-stage teams get wrong, startup perks and credits, and a town full of people building alongside you.
What about accommodation?
Bansko is genuinely affordable, and there are coliving spaces as well as regular rentals. We help you land somewhere — tell us what you need in the application.
Can I apply as a solo founder?
Yes. Bansko is unusually good for solo founders, precisely because you’re surrounded by other people doing the same thing.
What do I need to apply?
A pitch deck, plus a short description of your idea and your team. The form takes a few minutes.
What language is the programme in?
English.
Apply
Tell us what you’re building.
Applications are open on a rolling basis for the next winter and summer cohorts. A few minutes now; we read every one and reply either way.