If you've been following our journey, you know we pour our hearts, free time, and absolute souls into Narratica. But if we are being completely honest, we are technical people. That means we like coding and creating. We do not like public speaking.
So, stepping onto the stage at Ynovate Fest 2026 to pitch to a room full of big-name investors? Absolute nervousness level: 1000%.
How We Even Got There
To understand how wild Ynovate Fest was, we have to go back a bit. We originally participated in a regional pitching day in Pardubice. Long story short: we didn't place. We didn't even have our app out yet, and the investors gave us a pretty tough time.
It honestly hurt a lot. When you're sacrificing your sleep and energy for a project, getting rejected feels deeply personal. We felt misunderstood. Why invite us just to tell us not to come back until the app is launched?
But we bit the bullet, radically cut down our initial scope, which is why the current version of the app is super minimal, and focused on figuring out legal stuff, company registration, and a virtual headquarters.
Then, just 10 days before Ynovate Fest, we got the call. Due to a turn of events, we were being bumped up to pitch.
Cue the panic.
The presentation deadline had already passed, we had almost zero time to practice, and we needed headshots for the event profile. Since we didn't have time for a photoshoot, we literally had to fish out photos from our university graduation ceremonies. Classy, right?
They literally generated Martin's body with AI. Nice vest, Martin.
Fast forward to May 13th. We arrived at the venue so early that they hadn't even set up the registration desks yet. We were just awkwardly standing by a table, trying to look cool, while our hearts were racing.
Because we were the first ones on the schedule, David and Martin were miked up immediately.
Imagine this challenge: you have exactly three minutes to pitch a complex AI application to non-technical investors who might not even understand the TRPG world, and explain why this matters.
Did we win? Nope.
But honestly? David and Martin absolutely crushed it given the pressure.
While we were sitting on the train back home, still putting together our automated onboarding emails on our laptops because we literally launched the app on the app stores early just so we could participate, we realized that Ynovate Fest was a beautiful experience. But it also taught us our biggest lesson yet:
We could spend hundreds of hours stressing over presentations, tweaking pitch decks, and trying to fit our story into the kind of timelines and metrics that don't always match the way we want to build. But that's exactly the kind of corporate pressure we ran away from when we decided to build our own product.
If Narratica takes on an investor, we want a partner. Someone who genuinely loves storytelling, understands gaming, and believes in the vision. Looking for that perfect fit in a massive sea of traditional investors feels like finding Nemo in the middle of the ocean.
So, we've made a choice: our development might be slower because we are balancing the startup with the jobs that actually pay our living, but we are doing it with love. We care about quality and our community, not just racing past competitors.
Thank You!
A massive, heartfelt thank you to the innovation centers for believing in us, nominating us, and forcing us to finally push that "publish" button on the app store in just 10 days.
Looking back, it was a wild, hilarious ride. Though if anyone had mentioned public speaking to David or Martin during those 10 days before the fest, they probably would have told me, to put it very politely, "no thanks."
Long live the chaotic startup life.
Thank you for being on this ride with us!
— KeyQlin