Slush kickstarted its expansion at the beginning of this year by choosing six brilliant teams to organize Slush’D events for their local ecosystems. This means spreading the Slush magic to six countries on three continents. Slush’D is the Slush way of giving back to our community and making sure that all people interested in startups, no matter where in the world they are, can experience the Slush Magic, although perhaps not being able to join the main event.

Our goal is to one day have 100 active communities around the world organizing Slush’D events. Right now, it looks like the number of Slush’D communities will at least double for 2023 as we have just finished the process of choosing organizers for the first half of next year. At the beginning of the year, we were amazed not only by the number but also by the pure quality of the applications.

Thanks to the outstanding quality of applications, we were able to choose organizers who will answer their local ecosystem’s needs in very different ways, making the events extremely different from one another. The size of the events for the first half of 2023 will range everywhere from around a hundred to close to a thousand attendees. 

Although looking very different from each other, what all these events have in common is the fact that they will bring the people needed to solve the bottlenecks in the local ecosystems under the same roof. Whereas Slush aims to bring 12,000 ecosystem builders from around the world to Helsinki, the Slush’D events are tailored to cater to the needs of the local ecosystems.

Everyone most likely wants to know where the Slush’D magic is going to spread out to during the first half of next year so without further ado, let us present to you where these events are going to take place:

• Karachi, Pakistan
• Zürich, Switzerland
• Leuven, Belgium
• Busan, Korea
• Zagreb, Croatia
• Kigali, Rwanda

Although not a lot will be happening at the beginning of 2023 regarding our main event, the Slush’D year will kick off already in January, and there will be events taking place almost monthly until our main event. Also, there’s no way these events will look alike. This is ensured by the different event concepts the organizers have planned for their events – how about diving a bit deeper?

Karachi Slush’D, Pakistan

Organized in March, Karachi Slush’D aims to bring together around 500 of the most active players of the Pakistani startup ecosystem. The event is tailored for local startups who want to get connected, also aiming to expose students to the startup ecosystem. Slush’d Karachi is a founder-centric event, becoming home to all people who want to play a part in building and inventing the next big thing.How they would describe what the success of the event would look like, they say that it’s all about all people joining the event connecting with at least one person relevant to them. The event is organized by Katalyst Labs, the most relevant accelerator and startup hub in Pakistan.

Zürich Slush’D, Switzerland

Did you know that an individual planning to recruit a team can also be chosen as a Slush’D organizer? Well, this is the case with Zürich Slush’D, organized by a local founder, Céleste Urech, building the event around the fact that Switzerland is missing an event bringing the local startup ecosystem, meaning primarily founders and investors, together. In essence, the goal of the event is to connect new founders with experienced ones and make life, especially for early-stage founders a little easier. And in March, life will indeed get easier for around 150 early-stage founders and investors who will have the opportunity to participate.

Leuven Slush’D, Belgium

Slush’D would not be Slush’D without at least one student-driven organizing team. In April, almost 400 students, startups, and investors will gather in Leuven to take the ecosystem forward with the lead of Academics For Technology. Trying to expose young people to working in a startup or founding one is one of the key bottlenecks they’re trying to tackle. This bottleneck is quite familiar, as you could say that Slush has cracked this bottleneck, at least in Finland, where the majority of high school students are interested in becoming a founder or working at a startup one day. The bottleneck is quite ambitious to crack, but I see no reason why they couldn’t if we could.

Busan Slush’D, Korea

Although being the second-largest city in Korea, most founders from Busan leave for the capital after bigger opportunities. Josh Choi from Korea Startup Forum is on a mission to make Busan a booming startup ecosystem and something that would increase the opportunities for local startups to operate and expand around Asia from Busan. In May 2023, the city will become the center of the Korean Startup ecosystem for a day as close to 1000 investors, and startup operators will attend. 

Zagreb Slush’D, Croatia

In Croatia, as well as throughout the Balkans, the startup ecosystem is extremely scattered and the local venture builder, Bornfight is aiming to change this for good. In May, they are bringing together around 200 people from the local startup ecosystem to allow all founders to leave the event with tangible advice on building their startup. This is the chance for Croatia to get the eye of the European startup ecosystem on them!

Kigali Slush’D, Rwanda

In June, we are supporting Norrsken’s Kigali House in the mission of making Kigali the center of the African startup ecosystem. They are building their event around talent and thus answering, in a way, a similar bottleneck as they are in Leuven and aiming to expose more students to the startup ecosystem. The goal here would essentially be to get the brightest minds in Rwanda into the startup ecosystem. Let’s say it will not be one of the smallest events of the year as more than 700 attendees are expected to join. 

ON A MISSION TO EXPAND TO ALL CONTINENTS

Did you think that this was it for the Slush’D events of 2023? You’ve got it wrong – we are aiming to scale the concept and have many of the organizing teams from this year continuing to the next year. Oh, and, we will be starting to look for even more Slush’D organizers for 2023 in early January. Let’s see when Slush’D is on all continents! Pre-register now to be the first one to hear when we’ll be going live!