Last week, Impact Hub Yerevan hosted a networking event for target groups of the Three4ResilientArmenia Pre-Acceleration Program. The goal was straightforward: to bring together the entrepreneurship communities from both Impact Hub Yerevan and IRIS Business Incubator to help them build professional connections and share resources.
The Three4ResilientArmenia project, funded by the European Union, focuses on sustainable economic integration. For many of the entrepreneurs in this program, particularly those working to rebuild their livelihoods after displacement, having a reliable professional network is a practical necessity for business survival and growth.
The event opened with remarks from Tatev Mantoian (Impact Hub Yerevan), Anasheh Haghverdian (Impact Hub Yerevan), and Natali Nasibyan (IRIS Business Incubator), who emphasized the importance of moving past business silos to find shared opportunities.
The core of the afternoon was a series of group discussions led by a panel of experienced mentors who have navigated the Armenian business landscape:
- Kristine Balayan (Founder, Tumanyants Art family house-restaurant): Shared her expertise in social entrepreneurship, crisis recovery, and supporting displaced entrepreneurs through community-based business models.
- Nelly Khachatryan (Co-founder, Indigami; Chair, Private Preschool Support Association): Discussed scaling educational initiatives, human resource management, and lobbying for sector-specific improvements.
- Ruzanna Danelyan (Co-founder, Bee Planet): Provided insights on creating value-added natural products from apiculture and building an eco-friendly brand.
- Artak Martirosyan (Founder, Hedgehog’s Garden): Focused on tourism, HoReCa, and customer relations, offering advice on sales strategies and business optimization.
- Levon Ayvazyan (Entrepreneur, Bee Products): Shared practical knowledge on branding agricultural products and the specific requirements for entering large supermarket chains.
- Artush Khachatryan (Founder, Sari Barik Social Enterprise): Explained how to integrate modern technology and high-value crops into sustainable agricultural businesses.
We were also joined by experts Ani Mkrtchyan, Lara Atoyan, Mihran Sahakyan, Lusine Ghulyan, and Viktor from Goshuka, who contributed their specialized perspectives to the discussions.
Rather than giving formal presentations, the mentors sat with participants to answer specific questions. The conversations focused on the day-to-day realities of running a business: securing supermarket contracts, pivoting services after being displaced, and balancing social missions with financial viability.
Following the discussions, the participants moved into an informal networking session. This was an opportunity for entrepreneurs from different sectors to meet, for example, agricultural producers talking with tourism specialists about local sourcing.
At Impact Hub Yerevan, we believe that these peer-to-peer interactions are essential. Entrepreneurship can be isolating, and having a group of peers to call on for advice or collaboration makes a business much more resilient to market shifts and challenges.
The Three4ResilientArmenia Pre-Acceleration program will continue to support these entrepreneurs as they develop their ventures. We want to thank the mentors for their time and the participants for their active engagement. By building these professional links now, we are helping create a more stable and interconnected economic future for Armenia.
The Three4ResilientArmenia Pre-Acceleration program is funded by the European Union in Armenia and implemented by Armenian Caritas Charitable NGO, IRIS Business Incubator Foundation, and Impact Hub Armenia Social Innovation Development Foundation.
