The Program
ABLE Activator offers an exclusive 6-weekend entrepreneurship program that provides 30 ambitious self-starters with the knowledge, mentorship and network necessary to propel an idea to fruition.
Adopt the entrepreneurial way of thinking and strengthen your leadership qualities.
Learn how to develop and launch breakthrough ideas.
Master pitching and presentation skills for different audiences.
Gain key competences to bring meaningful impact in every project you pursue.
Receive tailored advice from successful entrepreneurs and industry experts.
Gain the skill-set and key competences to bring meaningful impact in every project you pursue.
Explore the opportunity to join ABLE and develop meaningful connections with the other members of the community and its wider network of partners and contacts.
Connect with successful founders and investors. Access assignments, presentations, additional readings, and expert contacts.
Win the invitation to join the ABLE community, meet like-minded achievers, find friends and business partners for life.
ARE YOU READY TO ACTIVATE?
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Apart from the weekend and Friday evening activities, we will hold additional Wednesday events during the program, some of which are exclusive to participants of ABLE Activator. These events are designed to familiarize you with the stories behind the successful companies from the Bulgarian startup ecosystem, expand your network of contacts, and supplement your knowledge and understanding of different topics about leadership and entrepreneurship.
Each Wednesday, we will host a different guest and give you a chance to get to know their stories better in a dedicated Q&A session.
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The Demo Day is the culmination of ABLE Activator. This is when the teams deliver their final pitches in front of a specially selected jury of industry leaders and representatives of the Bulgarian start-up ecosystem with a proven success track record.
Each team will have 5 minutes to showcase their product or service, after which we’ll dive into a 5-minute Q&A session aimed to clear any further questions that the members of the Jury may have. Each project’s potential, progress, and impact will be measured and the Best-performing team for the current edition will be announced.
The day is a celebration of everything that the teams accomplish throughout the program: self-exploration, team formation,n and the hard work necessary to fuel progress; the achievement of first milestones such as an MVP, first customers, or revenue. It’s about the pure grit, drive, and determination that the team goes through to create something new and innovative, and, hopefully, something with the right product-market fit to deliver a positive impact.
Wednesday sessions
Apart from the weekend and Friday evening activities, during the course of the program we will hold additional Wednesday events, some of which exclusive only for participants of ABLE Activator. These events are designed to familiarize you with the stories behind the successful companies from the Bulgarian startup ecosystem, expand your network of contacts, and supplement your knowledge and understanding on different topics with regard to leadership and entrepreneurship.
Each Wednesday, we will host a different guest and give you the chance to get to know their stories better in a dedicated Q&A session. Some of our guest speakers have been Daniel Lorer (Маnaging Partner at BrightCap Ventures), Genoveva Christova (Co-founder of Ligna Group), Ned Dervenkov (Vice Chairman of the board of BESCO – The Bulgarian Start-up Association), Todor Gigilev (Founder of DreamX), Nikola Yanev (Marketing Manager at Eleven venture) and others.
Scholarships
ABLE Activator is dedicated to fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and the adoption of early leadership skills among university students and young professionals from diverse backgrounds and fields.
We believe in supporting passionate students and young professionals by providing them with the tools to create meaningful and impactful projects early in their careers.
For this reason, we offer scholarships to select candidates—both students and young professionals—who would benefit from financial support to participate in the program. Financial need is a requirement for scholarship eligibility; however, rather than detailing financial limitations, we ask candidates to share how receiving a scholarship would empower them to make the most of this opportunity. To ensure commitment to the program, each scholarship recipient is expected to contribute a portion of the participation fee.
If you wish to be considered for a scholarship, please indicate this in the relevant field on the application form.
Participation fee
The participation fee is 590 BGN for students and 1,190 BGN for young professionals.
This fee primarily covers accommodation and catering for the modules held outside of Sofia.
However, additional expenses are involved in providing the program, which we cover through fundraising and partnerships. These include, but are not limited to:
Our lecturers, mentors, and organizational team generously volunteer their time, experience, and expertise to deliver a high-quality program.
In return, we ask for your strong commitment and dedication.
We also offer a staggered payment option, allowing you to pay the participation fee in two installments:
You may also apply for a full or partial scholarship by explaining why you need financial assistance or are unable to pay the full fee.
The Ideal Candidates
We want to enable top achievers develop their full potential, chase after their dreams and turn their ideas into working projects.
The program is open to university students
and young professionals
above 20 and under 35 years of age.
Proactive solution-hunters on the lookout for new and creative ways to resolve an issue.
Embrace difficulties with an open mindset and aim to bring value through creativity and innovation.
Those who aspire to be entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, and bring impactful ideas to life.
ARE YOU READY TO ACTIVATE?
We plan to conduct the program in an entirely offline environment.
The core training of the program takes place outside the standard working hours. With the exception of Module 1 and 3 which are 3-day long (including full days on Fridays), Modules 2, 4, 5 and 6 each start with a session on Friday evening (7-9 pm) and continue throughout the weekend.
In addition to these sessions, we host additional events each Wednesday, following a weekend with a Module, which are designed to familiarize you with the stories behind the successful companies from the Bulgarian startup ecosystem, expand your network of contacts, and supplement your knowledge and understanding on different topics regarding leadership and entrepreneurship. The Wednesday sessions aren’t mandatory, but we strongly advise you to attend, as they are packed with practical content and exercises which you can greatly benefit from.
Your presence at the core trainings of ABLE Activator is required as the program is very intense and missing any of the Friday or weekend sessions will greatly impact your progress. Any applicant unable to attend more than 1 module is advised to postpone their participation for a following edition of the program. If you have any other specific questions regarding attendance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us through the contact form on the website.
Not necessarily!
The aim of ABLE Activator is to develop each participant’s entrepreneurial mindset, enhance their leadership potential, and teach the methodology behind developing a successful venture.
At the end of Module 2, all the participants will group into teams of 3 to 6 people, based on which start-up idea they choose to pursue.
Those ideas will be generated by you, the participants in the program, during the course of the program and are not preselected by us.
Our experience shows that working on someone else’s idea better supports learning and skill development, as the emotional distance from a non-personal project allows you to focus more on building the skills, knowledge, and mindset we provide.
In a special session during module 3 all the teams will pitch their ideas to each mentor after which, based on the project specifics and the experience and expertise of the mentors, the best team-mentor fit will be decided. All the mentors that we work with are successful professionals with a solid entrepreneurial background and will help you with insights and advice, and guide you along the way of developing your idea.
In addition, we offer access to a ‘mentor pool’ of around 40 experts and professionals across various fields. You may reach out to these mentors for specific expertise and support. Responses from mentors will depend on their current availability and workload.
Demo Day is the culmination of ABLE Activator. It is the final event where you and your team will pitch the project you’ve been working on over the past 2 months in front of our partners, distinguished guests and, of course, a handpicked jury of representatives from the start-up ecosystem. Each project will be evaluated by specific criteria and at the end of the event the best-performing team will be announced.
If you’re a student or a professional under 35 years of age, you can apply by filling in the application form here.
Please note: You do not need to have your own startup idea to apply or participate in the program!
The application process consists of two parts: a written application (for details, please refer to the section above) and a face-to-face interview with representatives of our team.
We will send you further instructions for each step of the application process via email. We work with an independent team for the evaluation of your written applications and only the top 50 candidates will be invited for a face-to-face interview.
The participation fee is 590 BGN for students and 1,190 BGN for young professionals.
For more details, including information on scholarships and staggered payment options, please refer to the “Participation Fee” section on the Program page.
We offer full and partial scholarships for the top-performing students and young professionals with limited incomes. We’ve included a section on scholarships in the application form.
There is also a staggered payment option which allows for the participation fee to be paid in 2 separate installments.
We encourage all applicants to reapply for the program, if they don’t get selected for the current edition of ABLE Activator. It wouldn’t be a precedent for a candidate to not pass the selection process the first time, but be chosen as an Activator for a following edition of the program.
We offer a flexible payment option that allows you to pay the participation fee in two parts: