What is MTSB?

Montenegrin Tech and Startup Bridge (MTSB) is a program supported by the US State Department that sends startups from the Western Balkans to the United States, where they present their ideas to potential investors, stakeholders, representatives of VC funds, and get to know the main actors of the American startup ecosystem such as universities, accelerators and other institutions. The focus of the program is to create connections between the growing Montenegrin and Balkan startup ecosystem and already established startup communities in four target areas in the USA - Phoenix, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Maine and New York, and soon in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.

One of the primary focuses is to showcase and provide new opportunities to top Montenegrin and regional tech and startup talent to venture capital firms, angel investors, enabling companies and institutions from the United States to hear their pitches and possibly invest and/or mentor these top technology innovators from the Western Balkans.

The wave of change, “Digital Den Connects”:

Digital Den organized a series of events under the name “Connects” which redefined the relationship between innovation and business, they made history by firstly connecting “Investments”, then “The Region” and finally “Continents”. This series of events has given Montenegro and the Balkans a historic opportunity to run with the world towards the future.

The first event called “Investments” aimed to bring together prominent Montenegrin businesses and their investment potential at the same place with innovative startup companies from Montenegro and the region. This initiative opened a discussion about the benefits that the “Law on Incentive Measures for the Development of Research and Innovation” has for businesses, economy and innovators. This session prepared the community for the implementation of the above mentioned Law, and at the same time removed doubts about investing into promising
startups.
The second one named “The Regions” fortified the position of Digital Den as the regional startup center and showcased and presented most important partnerships which laid grounds for the first regional group of innovation hubs, the Balkan Ecosystem Startup Tree - BEST.

The third event connected continents; it focused on the cooperation between DD-s counterparts in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and New York - who managed to open the doors to DDs startups by connecting them with prominent companies, VCs, angel investors and various business hubs in the USA. This event shared valuable experiences from some of the leaders in the innovation ecosystem in the USA, it has shown how the future might look on the Balkan peninsula.
These three events were just the beginning in the process of building unbreakable bonds between ecosystems, these were the first steps in the journey that is yet to take place.

BEST Network - The first regional initiative in the space of innovation with Montenegro as its central point:

Digital Den wrote history. Gathering the strongest regional organizations with the same agenda of establishing a regional startup ecosystem, has created the BEST-Balkan Entrepreneurial Startup Tree network. The goal of this initiative was to connect representatives of all regional associations, as well as to unite their knowledge, resources and capacities, ultimately creating a sustainable and strong system that will function as a driving force in the Balkans. Univerzum (Serbia), Vigan Group (Albania), Comeunity Business Incubator (Northern Macedonia),

Foundation 787 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and ICT Cortex (Montenegro) are the first signatories, alongside Digital Den as the initiator and connective tissue between all these organizations.