IncludeMe wins the Amsterdam Startup Launch final: "Building a better world has to be at the core"

Date: 2026-06-29

We talked to Kirill Palenov, founder of Smart Inclusion, about winning the Final day of ASL with IncludeMe, a gamified micro-learning platform for inclusion skills.

Congratulations! You won the ASL final. How did it go?

Thank you! It still feels a little surreal. There were eight pitches in the final, and the level was genuinely high. We won the main prize: €1,000 and a coffee with one of the jury members, which, honestly, I'm just as excited about as the prize money. What struck me most about the outcome is the signal it sends: to win here, your idea has to be socially driven; it has to be about making the world a better place to live in. That's actually the core of how the VU approaches entrepreneurship, and seeing it reflected in the result was very meaningful.

For people who don't know it yet: what is IncludeMe?

IncludeMe is a gamified micro-learning platform for inclusion skills. Think "five minutes a day" to build real awareness and practical DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) competence, especially around disability. The current DEI landscape leans heavily on gender and ethnicity, while disability is too often framed through the medical model, and the everyday questions of social adaptation get left out. We want to change that, using AI to make the learning genuinely scalable and low-cost.

You came into ASL without a business background. What stood out most in the program?

For me, the biggest value was getting a solid, structured grounding in the basics of building a business, because I had no prior experience there. We went deep into the core business framework, legal questions, marketing and positioning, and of course, intensive pitch training. The hands-on input from the guest lecturers was just as valuable. What I really realised is how high-quality the content was: this is the kind of knowledge that would normally cost you a fortune in consulting hours. ASL gives you a space to walk in with nothing but an idea, and they make sure you leave with everything you need to actually start.

What do you hope winning will bring for IncludeMe?

The biggest perk of ASL is visibility and networking. The more we pitch, the more connections and potential customers we attract. DEI is a sensitive topic, particularly when it comes to people with disabilities, so gaining recognition within a network of proactive, courageous entrepreneurs really helps shape the conversation around our work: not as a niche cause, but as a solution for everyone, something people come out of genuine curiosity. IncludeMe sits at an unusual intersection: a founder who navigates disability himself, combining academic DEI research with a computer science background, using top-tier AI to build a product that can actually change how DEI policy gets put into practice. ASL helped us gain that visibility and step into the circle of Amsterdam startups.

And what's next?

We're now looking for pilot partners within DEI-committed organisations who are ready to put inclusion into daily practice rather than leave it on a policy page. A pilot means your team gets early access to IncludeMe's micro-learning and helps shape a product built around real workplaces, while we gather the evidence to prove it works. If your organisation takes inclusion seriously and wants to be part of building the next generation of DEI tools, we'd love to talk. Beyond that: keep pitching, keep building, and keep widening the circle of people who care about inclusion.

Would you like to be part of DLAB, just like IncludeMe?

IncludeMe is part of Demonstrator Lab VU, the University's incubator where academics become entrepreneurs.
Are you a researcher or student, and would you like to connect to an entrepreneurial community on campus, get in touch: https://www.demonstratorlab.nl

Want to learn more about teh ASL program at the DLAB? Find out more.