Max Reach, Mini Budget: How ReaKtorX Drew 450 Applicants on Under $2000

When Luca Stirbat, CEO and Program Manager of ReaKtorX, launched their winter startup accelerator program in 2024, he had a clear mission: find five standout founders in less than two months from Central and Eastern Europe to fund and send to the U.S.

What he didn’t have was time—or a marketing budget.

“We’re a small team, and our audience is huge. Startups across half a continent. We couldn’t afford to run targeted ads across all these markets, and honestly, we didn’t want to sound like just another promotion.”

Instead, Luca made a strategic choice: use SoSha to mobilize people who already believed in his program. He decided to spend his $2,000 marketing budget on an omnichannel strategy that relied on SoSha toolkits and  digital ads.

With just weeks to work with, he uploaded a set of personalized posts to SoSha—tailored for mentors, alumni, and partners from other accelerator programs. Each post was ready-made but flexible, allowing people to add their own voice or message. 

He then shared the link with mentors and alumni, who could easily post to their own social media channels in just a few clicks. By tapping into their personal networks, SoSha helped Luca reach the right people—qualified candidates around the world who were more likely to see the opportunity and apply.

Example of personalized posts built for each mentor in the program. 

As a potential applicant, seeing posts encouraging people to apply from a personal account made all the difference. 

45% of total applications came directly from links shared via SoSha.

In just under two months, 450 startups applied for five coveted spots. The power of trusted sharing was undeniable: the 167 social media shares from Luca's toolkits—spread across Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, and beyond— generated approximately 200 applications.

“Navigating paid media was a maze, even for myself with 30+ hours of training and the return was 'meh' because the complexity of paid media means one mistake, one single dial turned the wrong way and the budget is completely wasted,” explained Luca. “Compare that to SoSha, where all I had to do was ask my friends to share and track that through the platform… It was a breeze. Just the ROI on my time and energy is massive, but SoSha also proved to increase our brand reputation significantly thanks to the network effect.”

The Insight:

Organic social sharing isn’t just about who sees your message. It’s about who shares it. Luca learned to think of his audience in two layers: the ones who could apply, and the ones who could inspire others to apply.

So he gave his community the tools to speak and trusted they would know who needed to hear it.

As he explained, “At the end of the day, even running your personal Linkedin is like a business and you have to think – what do people benefit from sharing?”

Once the toolkits were distributed, the real campaign wasn’t run by Reactor X. It was run for them—by the people who believed in the mission and wanted to tap into the momentum.

Written by Areti Livanos, Email Communications Lead.