Out of 45 applications, a total of 9 projects were selected to present their ideas and projects in a 3-minute pitch. 

The presentations were assessed by a panel of competent experts:

• Gulnara Eskendirova, an international consultant and investor, who was included in the rating "The best women of Kazakhstan" and was also the winner of the People Awards in the nomination of "Financial expert of the year";
• Marat Shaken, an IT observer and expert, as well as a PR consultant, who is the founder of the largest Telegram channel about IT and startups in Kazakhstan - The Tech; 
• Mukhtar Kuanyshbaiuly, the director of Connected Home Ltd., and a graduate of Purdue University, NU GSB.

Between pitches guests were entertained by pizza and discount giveaways for the educational courses in No Code School, also winners of the best Instagram stories received branded merchandise from Astana Hub. Organizers express gratitude to partners of the event: VK Cloud, Jusan Bank, and Dodo Pizza. 

As a result of the discussion, the Pizza Pitch’23 jury highlighted 2 projects: ZebraEye and FinMate. Startups received “Marusya” columns as a gift from the VK Cloud. One member of the jury, Gulnara Eskendirova offered financial help to the finalist of Pizza Pitch. 

“Thank you for the invitation. Great organization, and there was a really good selection of IT projects. In fact, all participants and projects are great. We gave feedback and comments to everyone. There should be an understanding that if they were told to “twist” something - it means that their project needs to be improved. The main goal of any startup is to upgrade into a big company. That’s why I wish you all good luck, to move forward and to achieve your goals. You will succeed. It is not easy to perform in front of an audience, especially in front of experts with vast experience. I think that everyone is capable of doing it. Thanks a lot to Astana Hub - it is a platform where there are a lot of opportunities to accomplish something”, - shared Gulnara Eskendirova. 

“My main criteria in evaluating projects is the immersion of the founders in the projects themselves. It’s great that projects come so well-developed that it looks like Astana Hub conducts preparatory work with them. From the first Pizza Pitch, I come and observe everything as a viewer or participant. It’s cool that the founders are developing and their pitches, manner of speeches, and impressive appearance are developing as well”, - said Marat Shaken.

At the end of the event, the jury gave advice to startups. 

“First advice - the error library should be filled as quickly and as much as possible. It means that you need to fail fast, launch projects faster, get the license, some lessons, and move on right away without any emotions, pauses, recovery, etc. The second one is determination and commitment. It’s not rare when after receiving grants or media attention, startups begin to relax. You shouldn’t do a startup for praise. Guys, be as persistent as possible in your development and direction. The third one is intention. You have to solve some problems. If you simply want to gain money - such kinds of startups mostly fail. The absolute goal with which you go into startups is to charge other guys, to do something useful for people. We stick to these principles ourselves and I hope that they will be useful for you too”, - outlined Mukhtar Kuanyshbaiuly. 

Information about the admission of applications is published on the accounts of Astana Hub in Social Media.