Skip to content
Lviv / June 4 — July 3 / 2026

The Kitchen
Where Founders
Cook Ideas
Into Companies.

A 4-week intensive hacker house in Lviv for founders building AI-first products for global markets.

10 Solos & Teams up to 34 Weeks1 Goal: First Paying Customers
What This Is

Not an Accelerator.
Not a Bootcamp.
A Kitchen.

Most programs teach you the theory of building. Startup Kitchen House gives you the kitchen — a place, a fire, and people who've cooked before. You bring the ingredients. We help you turn them into something people want to eat.

Ten founders. One room in Lviv. Four weeks. The goal isn't a polished deck — it's first paying customers, real conversations with real users, and a working product you can defend to anyone who asks.

We run lean and intense. AI-first tooling is the standard, not the exception. If you'd rather hand-code every function than ship a working prototype on day three, this isn't for you.

The Batch

Two Tracks.
One Kitchen.

— Invited Track

Invited Founders

3-5 solo founders, hand-picked by Sasha

Experienced builders with skin in the game. Some already have investment commitments. They join the batch as peers, bringing depth and pace that lifts everyone in the room.

ОМ
Oleh Mykhailovych
— description coming soon
ІК
Ivan Kohut
— description coming soon
НМ
Nazar Mykyta
USF Winner. Building a platform for gardening.
+
More TBA
Announcing soon
— Open Track

Open Applications

5-7 spots. Solo or teams up to 3.

Apply, get invited to a 1-day Selection Hack on May 16, prove you can build under pressure. We're looking for founders who ship, listen, and pivot fast — not for the perfect resume.

Apply Now
What You Get

Everything You Need.
Nothing You Don't.

01

A seat in LEM Station for 4 weeks

24/7 access to the most ambitious workspace in Lviv. You'll be in the room with people who are building, not talking about building.

02

100,000 UAH
prize

Top performer at Demo Day. Partner prizes announced before the program.

03

Mentorship

Weekly visits from practicing founders — not professional mentors.

04

Investor access

Demo Day in front of active VCs.

05

AI-first tooling

Claude Code, OpenAI credits, AWS perks. We move at the speed AI allows.

06

Lifetime community

Once you're in the kitchen, you're in. Alumni access to all future batches.

The Program

Four Weeks.
One Bias:
Ship, Don't Polish.

01
Validation
Sprint
  • 20+ customer interviews per team
  • Kill or confirm your hypothesis
  • Friday: "What did you learn?"
02
Build
Sprint
  • MVP with AI-first tooling
  • Landing page collecting leads
  • First cold outreach campaigns
03
Sales
Sprint
  • Outbound to potential customers
  • First paying users / pilots / LOIs
  • Friday: "Where's the money?"
04
Demo Day
Prep
  • Pitch decks, simulated Q&A
  • Final polish for July 3
  • Investor introductions begin

// Wednesdays = guest mentor sessions. Fridays = demo & feedback.

Who's in the Kitchen

Practitioners.
Not Professional Mentors.

Every Wednesday, a founder who's been there. No polished slides — just raw lessons from people building right now.

ML
Max Lysak
Co-founder, Mate Academy
NH
Nazar Hembara
Co-founder, BotsCrew (exit 2025)
SY
Sasha Yatsenko
SMOK Ventures, Techosystem
+ More mentors
announcing soon
— Plus: Workshops
Hands-on sessions by practitioners.
Topics span building, selling, fundraising, and the mechanics of working with AI tools. Schedule announced before the program starts.
Partners & Tools

The Stack
Behind the Kitchen.

— Venue
LEM Station
— Ecosystem
ReactorX
Tehosystem
Partner TBA
Partner TBA
— Tools & Credits
Anthropic
OpenAI
AWS
Partner TBA
Program Host & Managing Director
// Sasha Reminnyi photo

Sasha
Reminnyi

Investor, ecosystem builder, and the host of Startup Kitchen — a podcast and book on IT entrepreneurship that's become required listening for Ukrainian founders.

Ex-Startup Wise Guys. 3-year lecturer at Lviv Polytechnic National University. First angel check turned into a $1M MRR company still based in Ukraine.

Startup Kitchen House is what Sasha wishes had existed when he was starting out: a place that takes founders seriously, demands real work, and connects them to people who've actually done it.

Questions

Things You're Probably
Wondering.

Nothing. We don't take money or equity from open track participants to join the program. The 100,000 UAH prize and any partner prizes go directly to top performers at Demo Day.
No. Solo applications are welcome. Some teams form during the Selection Hack itself.
Yes. This is on-site, 9:00 to 18:00+, Monday through Friday. Remote participation is not possible. We've found that physical proximity to other founders is the single biggest accelerator.
Internal communication and mentor sessions are in Ukrainian. Pitching, customer interviews with global users, and Demo Day are in English. Your product should be built for a global audience.
A 1-day intensive on May 16, starting at 12:00 at LEM Station in Lviv. ~25 shortlisted candidates work on real problems for 8 hours and we observe how you think, ship, and collaborate. The final cohort is announced the same evening.
Not necessarily. We assess every person individually. There's a chance we invite some team members and not others. If that happens, we'll explain why directly — and you'll have the option to join solo, regroup, or pass.
Maybe. We pick people first, ideas second. Right founders matter more than right ideas — because ideas get validated, killed, or pivoted in the first two weeks anyway. If your hypothesis falls apart at week one, we'd rather you find a stronger problem worth solving than force a bad idea forward. Some founders stay with what they came with. Others rebuild during the program. Both are normal.
People who want a structured curriculum, who can't be on-site, who need stipend support to participate, or who want to build for the local Ukrainian market only.

Ready to Cook?
Apply by May 15.

// Selection Hack: May 16, 12:00 at LEM Station, Lviv. Programme starts June 4.

Open Application Form

~15 minutes to complete · Be honest · We don't read between the lines