Introduction PolkaBiz plays a key role in the Polkadot ecosystem, providing mentorship and business expertise to founders, builders, and programs such as PBA, PBA-X, Web3 Foundation, and Scytale Digital. To continue delivering high-value mentorship and guidance, this proposal seeks funding to support the PolkaBiz team for their work in 2025, ensuring Polkadot remains an attractive hub for Web3 entrepreneurship.

PolkaBiz actively identifies and mentors high-potential startups, already screening 100+ startups in 2025. We believe that entrepreneurial minds and ambitious builders deserve a platform to be heard and supported. Our mentorship program not only accelerates startups but also provides a valuable educational experience for students in PBA X and PBA Campus.

Why a Pitch & Mentor program? Many Web3 founders lack business strategy and go-to-market expertise. This leads them to make wrong and sometimes detrimental decisions. PolkaBiz fills this gap. By helping founders succeed, we help create an environment where entrepreneurial, ambitious people feel welcomed.

Feedback from partners

• “Mario and Christian put by far the most teams for the founders grants program in touch with us and supported us by preselecting the teams. They significantly contributed to the success of this first invite-only test run.” David Hawig - Director of Ecosystem Development, Web3 Foundation.

• “Mario and Christian formed an alliance following their time at PBA in Hong Kong as students on the Founders track we ran at that time. Since then the original Polkabiz idea has become a great tool, proven to identify and nurture entrepreneurs who have places in PBA Campus or PBA-X into the ecosystem. The next step is to use Polkabiz as a means of attracting entrepreneurs to PBA via marketing of the benefits Polkabiz provides, thus creating a new funnel of projects into the ecosystem.Mario and Christian are great at what they do and are tireless in their efforts. We’re really keen to keep working with them to help.“ - Tim Dobie - Director of Blockchain Academy.

• “I had the opportunity to work with Polkabiz at PBA Singapore and PBAX Wave 1, where I mentored teams that went through their initial screening and mentoring process. I can vouch for the quality of effort and time Polkabiz invests in mentoring these teams 1:1, which is evident from the qualitative and quantitative feedback received from the participants” - Dr. Radha Dasari, Technical Education Lead, Web3 Foundation.

See here the details of the full proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EdAWrKn2JW3amysB3aFlDmb6uAAQIV9LcC36OZ0VAtc/edit?usp=sharing