New York Tech Week: how the TuuTap founders landed in Manhattan
From a small idea on a screen to the bright lights of New York Tech Week. And we didn't get there alone — huge thanks to ICKK (Innovation Centre of the Košice Region), whose support turned "maybe one day" into packed bags, a New York itinerary, and our team right in the middle of it all in Manhattan.
Monday
The first session of an intense SOSA bootcamp, where we met the Czech startup cohort (long live the Czecho-Slovak brotherhood). These teams had serious ideas, and a few already had backing reaching into eight digits. Then came the first pitch session. I'd give myself 3 out of 10 — catastrophic, but the upside was obvious: huge room for improvement. A long day defined by jet lag and an unhealthy amount of coffee ended with a happy hour in a nearby bar — but it was far from over, because we still had serious work to do on our pitch.
Tuesday
The morning started at JP Morgan, in their impressive premises filled with world-class art. We quickly learned that if we ever want to bank with them, we need to level up quite a bit. From there, back to SOSA and straight into pitching. Progress — this time a 4 out of 10. Still not good, but that's startup life: lots of imperfection and plenty of mistakes. Your job is to learn instantly, improve relentlessly, and never look back. For us, that meant pivoting our entire pitching narrative to a new angle. We only closed our laptops at midnight.
Wednesday
Big day. The bootcamp culminated in its final session, with an afternoon pitching block as our last rehearsal. Our mentors Anna, Bianca and Ariel gave us a real boost. We left for the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York and a wonderfully chilled atmosphere — so much so that any anxiety about Pitch Night simply vanished. Five Slovak startups presented to an audience and three jurors. TuuTap showed how VAS services keep losing revenue — and how we fix that. I won't rate this one; I'll just say I was finally happy with it, and for the first time felt truly at ease on stage. That's what a great product and a strong story do.
Thursday & Friday
A visit to Amazon in their Lord & Taylor building, a visually tempting place to work. Friday was free: we walked Manhattan — the High Line, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Financial District, 5th Avenue and Central Park — fuelled by New York-style pizza and bagels. In the evening we boarded an overnight flight home, hoping that after last year's San Francisco trip and this year's New York adventure, US visits become a regular thing for the TuuTap founders. Fingers crossed.