Vavilon

Every unicorn founder I’ve met can answer these three questions without hesitation. Can you? WHAT DO YOU DO? We’re building AI powered devices that translate multiple languages simultaneously and in real time. They will be used by tour agencies and museums. We’ve raised $50K in grants and are now chasing traction with five confirmed customers waiting for our launch. Our plan? Expand across Europe and then go global. WHO ARE YOU? My name is Andrej Bantulić, I’m a 21 year old Co-founder and CEO of a young startup called Vavilon. I study at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, and I’m passionate about Machine Learning, AI, and most recently project management. WHY SHOULD I CARE? We come from a country without unicorns. Our region lacks innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset. Our goal? To become Serbia’s first unicorn in less than 5 years. So tell me, what are your answers? Comment bellow! #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Founders #AI #Innovation #StartupJourney #TechStartups #MachineLearning #Fundraising

So many people told us: “Start local, prove yourself, then go global.” Sounds safe. Logical. Also? Terrible advice — if you’re building SaaS. Software doesn’t ship in boxes. It ships in seconds. And if the problem exists everywhere, so should your product. But hardware? Different beast. Before you dream about international markets, make sure your neighbors even need what you’re building. Because if they don’t, neither will the rest of the world. At Vavilon, we'll be renting devices daily on a local level, but that is impossible to do on a global level, so we need a different strategy. There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook. Just strategy, timing, and execution. So, founders, where did you start? 🤔

“We’re going to be gazillionaires.” That was the very first thing my co-founder, Vladan Bašić heard after I told him we had several potential customers, before we even started building a product. Last year I was in Novi Sad and decided to stop by the Tourism Fair to see if any tour agencies had the problem we were trying to solve. Almost every conversation went the same way: I’d ask a few questions, they’d look confused… then I explained what we do, and the tone shifted instantly. Suddenly, they were saying they needed our product, right away. I was so hyped! But looking back, I ask myself: what was I thinking? I was talking to the wrong market segment (outgoing vs. incoming tourism), I hadn’t applied the Mom Test principles, and I was speaking with salespeople instead of decision-makers. Luckily, we had time to learn and grow before our first real market research at the Belgrade Tourism Fair.

Everyone says a startup has to begin by solving a problem. But… is that really the only way? Almost two years ago, the Heapcon team gave me a challenge: create subtitles in both English and Serbian for every video on their YouTube channel. Sounds simple, right? Well, at that time OpenAI had just released GPT-3, and most transcription/translation tools were still in their early days. After some research, I stumbled upon a brand-new open-source tool: Whisper AI. With its help, I managed to subtitle more than 20 videos in just three days. My first thought? “How else could these tools be used in real-world scenarios?” A year later, the call for the Smart Start program by the Fond za inovacionu delatnost appeared. That was the moment we shaped a problem worth solving with this tool. Backwards logic? Maybe. But it worked! Our application was successful, and soon our first users will be onboarded. It might not be the “classic” startup journey, but it’s ours. And it showed us something important: sometimes the desire to build cool things can be just as powerful a driver as solving a problem.

Pozivamo te da nam se pridružiš na interaktivnoj radionici koja ima za cilj da mlade ljude bliže upozna sa inovacionim preduzetništvom i pruži im osnovna znanja o razvoju startapa: 📌Naučićeš o osnovama Lean Startup metodologije - kako brzo testirati ideju i smanjiti rizik 📌Ovladati Business Model Canvas alatom - jednostavnom mapom za jasan pregled biznisa 📌Umrežiti se sa startap entuzijastima Ako si student, mladi startap entuzijasta ili imaš tim koji je u ranoj fazi razvoja - pridruži nam se! Link do prijavnog formulara je u prvom komentaru 👇

Dođite 4. juna na naše predavanje!

We’re thrilled to announce the official launch of our startup — Vavilon! 🎊🎉🥳 Our mission is to break language in tourism through real-time, AI-powered multilingual translation. Thanks to the support of the Fond za inovacionu delatnost, we are funded through the Smart Start program, and we’re excited to continue our journey from our new office at Science Technology Park Belgrade - Naučno-tehnološki park Beograd. Grateful for the opportunity and excited for what’s ahead! #startup #AI #translation #innovation #SmartStart #NTPBelgrade ---‐------------------------------------------------------- Sa velikim uzbuđenjem objavljujemo zvaničan početak rada našeg startapa — Vavilon! 🎊🎉🥳 Naša misija je da uklonimo jezičke barijere u turizmu pomoću simultanog prevođenja u realnom vremenu koristeći veštačku inteligenciju. Zahvaljujemo se Fondu za inovacionu delatnost Republike Srbije na finansiranju kroz program Pametni početak, kao i NTP Beograd na kancelarijskom prostoru i podršci. Zahvalni smo na prilici i radujemo se svemu što sledi! #startap #AI #prevod #inovacije #PametniPočetak #NTPBeograd