Build a Unicorn closes the GEP cycle. Everything the cohort has built over the programme — the projects, the models, the pitches — is put in front of real expert-investors on a single day, and is valued in a live negotiation rather than in a classroom exercise.
You are invited to watch it happen. This is not a game you play. It is a room you sit in, where fundraising stops being a story people tell afterwards and becomes something you can see.
Fundraising is normally invisible and slow. Months of meetings behind closed doors, and outsiders only ever hear the outcome — the round that closed, the valuation that was agreed. Build a Unicorn compresses all of it into a single afternoon and puts it in the open.
Pitch, clarifying questions, feedback, a number, terms. You see the whole sequence, not the press release at the end of it.
The questions experts ask before they commit, and the reasoning behind a yes and a no — said out loud, to the founder's face.
Dozens of projects and negotiations in under four hours. What usually takes months of separate meetings happens in one room.
Real projects from the GEP cohort, real experts, real commitments. Capital, consulting time and contacts change hands on the spot.
Participants take turns presenting their products in the common space. Everyone in the room sees every project — including the experts, before any founder reaches their door.
Each expert-investor has their own breakout room, into which participants join in a specified order. Participants pitch their individual projects to attract resources. This is where the negotiating happens.
Experts buy shares in the companies. The price is not fixed by anyone — it is settled in negotiation with the founder, in front of you.
An expert who wants to keep working with a founder after the event commits their own hours as part of the deal.
Potential partners, clients and experts for the project — named in the room, not promised vaguely.
The founder presents the project and names the resources they are asking for.
Clarifying questions, then the expert’s read on the project — what holds, what does not.
Shares and price, or time and contacts. Terms are agreed in the room.
| 9:30–9:45 | Presentation hand-in. Briefing for the final event |
| 9:45–13:00 | GEP programme reflectionIn parallel: project pitch rehearsal |
| 13:00–14:00 | Pitfalls of running a business: regulators, legislative initiatives, counter-terrorism, taxationOlga Kotina |
| 14:00–14:45 | Lunch at the hotel restaurant |
| 14:45–15:00 | Preparation |
| 15:00–16:30 | Final event: Unicorn GameAct 1 — pitches in the common space |
| 16:30–16:50 | Break |
| 16:50–18:50 | Final event: Unicorn GameAct 2 — expert breakout rooms |
| 18:50–19:30 | Feedback: comments from partners and stakeholders on resource exchange and the signing of agreements |
| 19:30–20:30 | Closing ceremony. Results and opportunities for cooperation |
One afternoon, dozens of pitches, and every negotiation in the open. You will not be asked to invest anything — only to watch how it is actually done.
Reserve an observer seat Contact the organizer