Unlock the potential of your startup with the CHESS AI-Powered Strategic Program, delivered by RMIT Europe, EIT Urban Mobility and Green Brother. This innovative program is designed to give your startup a competitive edge by integrating advanced AI tools with essential human skills.
CHESS (City Hub Evolution Strategic Series) is an AI-powered program designed for future-ready founders in Europe.
Part of Barcelona’s City Hub Evolution – from Smart City to Startup City mission, this program supports a new generation of founders, empowering them to create smarter, more resilient urban solutions.
Through six masterclasses, participants will explore how to integrate cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools and essential human skills into their business strategies.
Whether founders are refining their products, scaling operations, or pivoting their business models, CHESS provides the practical knowledge and tools they need to harness the power of AI for startup success.
The program is completely free.
Key learning outcomes:
The CHESS program is built on a simple yet powerful principle: each session is designed to pair cutting-edge AI tools with essential human decision-making skills. This combination ensures startups not only understand AI but also apply it meaningfully to real business challenges.
- Business model and pricing: Founders apply AI simulations alongside critical human evaluation to identify weaknesses, optimise pricing strategies, and refine value propositions for real-world impact.
- Financial model: Participants develop investor-ready financial narratives using AI-assisted stress testing to validate core assumptions and ensure financial viability.
- Market growth strategies: The program guides startups in leveraging AI to enhance visibility in large language model (LLM)-driven environments and build resilience against fast-moving competitors.
- Overcoming roadblocks: Founders use AI-driven pre-mortems to anticipate potential failure points and redesign workflows with AI as a central operational tool.
- Impact and regeneration: CHESS encourages the integration of regenerative business principles, ensuring that AI adoption aligns with sustainable and ethical innovation goals.
- Product and scaling: Startups learn to align product roadmaps and set scaling priorities using AI, ensuring decisions are validated and future-ready.
Eligibility
We look forward to welcome applicants who are entrepreneurs, startup founders, or team members based in one of the EU Member States classified as Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, or Slovakia.
Results from past cohorts:
96% overall satisfaction
9/10 would recommend
4.8/5 for AI tool impact
4.7/5 for practical application
The program showed how AI can highlight fragile points in financials, uncover potential risks in business models and improve pitch strategies. It was valuable to see how venture capitalists might use AI to analyse startups—and how prompting and analysing AI feedback can help founders refine their ideas.
The AI prompts helped tackle core business pain points and offered new insights into our services. It was valuable to explore how others use AI tools, assess risks and apply AI models critically - especially in areas like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) analysis, competitor strategy and pricing.
Timeline for the Fall 2025 cohort
Participants can attend the entire series or select sessions relevant to their roles and interests.
Option 1
- Dates: September 16, 18, 23, 25, 30 & October 2
- Time: 9–11am or optionally 10am–12pm (CET)
Option 2
- Dates: October 7, 9, 14, 16, 21 & 23
- Time: 2–4pm or optionally 3–5pm (CET)
Register for the Fall 2025 cohort
